CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1) BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Today electricity is a major concern worldwide and most of the power generation stations are
based on conventional fuels like coal but we have limited sources of these non-renewable
fuels. So as to minimize the dependence on these sources, we have to move on to new and
renewable sources like solar and wind, etc. However proper usage of electricity could also be
one of the effective tools for saving the conventional fuels. Street lights are one of the most
crucial parts for public lighting systems which consume a major part of the generated
electricity. The conventional or manual controlled street lighting system has demerits like
high power consumption, high cost and absence of effective monitoring system.
Street lights can be used to promote security in urban areas, street lights also improve safety
for drivers, riders, and pedestrians. Driving outside of daylight is more dangerous, only a
quarter of all movement by car drivers is between the hours of 8am and 7pm, yet this period
accounts for over 40% of fatal and serious injuries to the same group also, pedestrians and
vulnerable road users suffer from decreased visibility in the dark. The idea of designing a
new system for the streetlight that does not consume huge amount of electricity and
illuminate large areas with the highest intensity of light is concerning each engineer working
in this field. Providing street lighting is one of the most important and expensive
responsibilities of a city. Lighting can account for 1038% of the total energy bill in typical
cities worldwide. Street lighting in particular is a critical concern for public authorities in
developing countries because of its strategic importance for economic and social stability.
Inefficient lighting wastes significant financial resources every year, and poor lighting creates
unsafe conditions. Energy efficient technologies and design mechanism can reduce cost of the
street lighting drastically.
Manual control is prone to errors and leads to energy wastages and manually dimming during
mid night is impracticable. Also, dynamically tracking the light level is manually
impracticable. The current trend is the introduction of automatic management solutions to
control street lighting.
There are various numbers of control strategy and systems in controlling the street light
system such as design and fabrication of automatic street light control system, automatic
street light intensity control and road safety module using embedded system, Intelligent
Street Lighting System Using Gsm, Energy consumption saving solutions based on intelligent
street lighting control system and Design of an Automatic Lighting Control System for a
Wireless Sensor Network with Increased Sensor Lifetime and Reduced Sensor Numbers.
1.2) STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Existing methods like switching on/off the light manually is time consuming & requires man
power. The new method automatic ON/OFF without human intervention is easier when
compared to the existing system.
1.3) AIM AND OBJECTIVES
Aims of this project are:
a) Automatic Switching / Dimming of Street lights.
b) Intensity Control of LEDs on Detection of vehicle or human movement/Dimming of
street lights.
c) Reduction of light pollution and CO2-emission.
d) Increases security.
The objectives of this project are:
a) To design a smart lighting system which targets energy saving and the autonomous
operation on an economical level for the streets.
b) Build an energy saving, smart lighting system with integrated sensors and controllers.
c) Design a smart lighting system with modular approach design, which makes the system
adaptable, expandable and compatible with other commercial product and automation
systems, which might include more than lighting systems. Moreover, errors which occur
due to manual operation can also be eliminated as all Street Lights can be switched
ON/OFF automatically and no labour is required for switching. Doing all these in turn
increases the performance and life of the lamps.
