Sustainable Lighting: Vantage Lighting Control
Project Details:
Application Type: Luxury Hospitality
Location: Racine, Wisconsin
Project Scope: New construction and retrofit
Integrator: Shireesh Reddy, Digital Living
Profile:
Hotel Verdant, a distinctive five-story boutique hotel, redefines sustainability in the luxury hospitality market. As the hotel strives for LEED Gold certification, every aspect of the property was meticulously examined, with lighting being a pivotal component. To fulfill the stringent standards set forth by LEED and realize its vision for luxury sustainability, AV Integrator Digital Living selected Legrand’s Vantage lighting controls. This flexible system integrates the hotel’s many lighting fixtures, motion detectors, and daylight sensors to achieve lighting that automatically adjusts based on the time of day, the amount of sunlight, and occupancy. Hotel Verdant showcases how Vantage lighting control can help to harmonize beautiful lighting and efficiency with an unparalleled guest experience.
The Challenge:
Energy consumption is the second largest cost for hotels, right behind labor. According to energy supplier National Grid, large hotels spend an annual average of $1.05 per square foot on electricity. Lighting, space heating, and water heating representing close to 60% of total electricity use, and energy costs typically range from 4% and 6% percent of hotel costs, but for historic and luxury properties such as Hotel Verdant, the number can climb to 10% or more. Recognizing lighting control as a key avenue for efficiency, Hotel Verdant sought ways to reduce waste while showcasing sustainability to guests.
“The hotel industry is all about creature comforts, which can create a lot of unintentional waste,” said Michael Godfrey, CFO of Hotel Verdant. “For example, the hallways that lead to guest rooms traditionally stay at full brightness 24/7, whether or not there are occupants. That adds up to a significant amount in a hotel’s daily total energy consumption. We wanted to explore how our lighting could be deployed in such a way that it would not only conserve energy but also show guests what sustainability looks like as part of their experience.”
Working with Digital Living and a lighting designer , Hotel Verdant’s goal was to create a much greener lighting design. The hotel wanted its lobby, banquet hall, gym, bar, cafe, hallways, administration offices, as well as housekeeping to offer intelligent lighting. A significant challenge was ensuring the lighting design complemented the architecture and décor while reflecting the hotel's unique modern style inspired by the town's river, Lake Michigan setting, and Danish heritage.
Solution:
Vantage lighting control was selected based on its flexibility and optimal control.
“I’ve used Vantage for over a decade,” said Shireesh Reddy, president of Digital Living. “What sets Vantage apart is that it’s mindful not only of the control and integration experience but also design. It offers the freedom of design, scalability, and intelligence that modern lighting design projects need. I especially love Vantage’s greater power density. I can program all sorts of sequences to fit any desired experience, and it fits a much greater load — 48 — in one enclosure compared to other controllers that only do 36, which was a must for Hotel Verdant.”
What makes Vantage especially distinct is that it promises freedom of design. Choosing Legrand’s Vantage Controls provided the hotel’s lighting designer the freedom to incorporate fixtures from the biggest name brands in the lighting industry. Vantage also partners with leading fixture manufacturers as part of its Fixture Alliance, including Tech Lighting — one of the 20 fixture manufacturers used in Hotel Verdant. This partnership ensures interoperability and takes the guesswork out of control because Vantage tests every fixture to build preconfigured profiles for its growing profile library. These profiles are available to the integrator within Vantage’s Design Center software and help to speed up programming. In addition to automated control, Vantage offers a wide selection of keypads in a range of designs and finishes and its system is compatible with many third-party keypads as part of its Keypad Alliance. For Hotel Verdant, Vantage EasyTouch Glass keypads and third-party touchscreens were selected.
Results:
By leveraging Vantage’s freedom of design and lighting control intelligence, Hotel Verdant achieved a luxurious lighting experience that seamlessly blends sustainability with style. The Vantage system, integrating more than 100 motion and daylight sensors, features over 20 programming sequences. Reddy leveraged Vantage’s ease of programming for each lighting sequence, which factor in the amount of daylight, occupancy, and the time of day to adjust the lighting smoothly. In the hallways, administrative offices, and other work areas, the motion sensors detect when someone is present and raise the lighting level; when no one is detected, they automatically dim, cutting down on the energy use. The hotel’s bar, Eave, takes advantage of Vantage’s astronomical clock, which is programmed to automate the bar’s lighting as the bar is opening and closing. Ten minutes before closing time, the system flashes the lights to notify occupants that the lighting will be powering down. In the hotel’s lobby, which is surrounded by windows, uses daylight sensors that are integrated with Vantage to automatically detect when there is greater amount of sunlight in the room and adjust the lighting accordingly. In this way, Vantage provides both a more energy-efficient and human-centric lighting control experience. In addition to automated lighting control, the system can be controlled manually from Vantage EasyTouch Glass keypads.
With Vantage’s unmatched freedom of design, Reddy brought to life Hotel Verdant’s vision for a beautiful lighting design capable of driving a more energy-efficient operation.
“Most people are used to walking into overly lit rooms and hallways,” said Reddy. “Vantage helps to craft lighting that looks and feels different. This is a very unique way to operate a hotel that is part of the Hotel Verdant experience.”
“Sustainable solutions such as Vantage add immense value,” said Godfrey. “It’s part of our vision, saves money and energy, and showcases to guests what’s possible in their own homes.”
Vantage Lighting Control Benefits:
Freedom of design: Vantage is compatible with the broadest range of tunable fixtures on the market
Compatible with third-party keypads
Easy to program and integrate
Affordable price point for luxury lighting control
Can be programmed for energy-efficient automation
