For many factories or warehouses, the scene is repeated daily, the earliest employee to arrive switches on all the lights and the last employee to leave switches them off. Typically, lighting controls for entire factories are centralized at circuit breaker boxes that are accessible only by authorized employees. Lighting is often the largest consumer of electricity accounting for 10% to 15% of total electricity used; hence facilities managers seek cost effective and easy to install methods to curtail energy consumption.

Providing simple zone control with a basic switch enables unneeded lights to be turned off. However, for many industrial facilities the cost & intrusion to install a switch is prohibitive. Estimates of $10/ft. for hard conduit combined with ceiling mounted high-bay lights drive the cost of a single switch to $300 to $500. The switch must be secured to an available wall or pillar, rather than where it is most conveniently accessible.

The introduction of robust wireless switches offers a solution that significantly cuts installation time, cost, and inconvenience. The wireless lighting control system is comprised of an EnOcean wireless/battery-free switch and an Echoflex receiver. These Decorator Style switches look identical to standard wired switches but can be installed into junction boxes, plaster rings or “flush mounted” to any surface with screws, tape, or adhesive.

EnOcean battery-free switches operate like normal light switches except they transmit wireless signals to control lights. The switches are powered by energy harvesting technology utilizing a coil & magnet inside the switch that generates energy from the force used to press the switch. EnOcean-enabled switches are an excellent alternative to the traditional wired switch as they are designed to last equally long but require no wiring and are maintenance free for over 20 years.

The system utilizes an Echoflex receiver mounted beside a line voltage junction box so as to intercept the branch circuit to which ever lights are to be controlled. Programming takes about 10 seconds and can be done with a push of a button. Each receiver stores the unique ID of up to 30 switches and is re-programmable simplifying the addition of switches in the future. In addition to this, each switch can be paired with an unlimited amount of receivers.

“We selected the EnOcean wireless system because its wireless performance has been proven through the installation of over 200,000 units in commercial and industrial buildings,” said Shawn Pedersen VP of Sales & Marketing at EchoFlex Solutions, a manufacturer of lighting control solutions. The wireless automation and control system operates on a different frequency and therefore does not interfere with other wireless devices such as WLAN networks. Multiple switches and receivers can be networked together with the simple press of a LEARN button on the receiver.

"By our estimation, EnOcean wireless switches eliminate 50% of the cost to install conduit & wire within our factory. Additionally, the switches will be easy to relocate when we desire to re-layout our production floor. Since it’s not practical to monitor batteries in several hundred switches distributed throughout a huge facility, the switches had to be self powered,” said a project manager for a major automobile manufacturer. Integrating the EnOcean and Echoflex wireless lighting control system is an ideal solution for manufacturing facilities because it performs all the functions of a hard wired switch but features benefits that were previously unavailable.