KR101494227B1 - Lighting apparatus having the function of energy saving and lighting method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a luminaire having an energy saving function capable of effectively consuming electric energy for lighting by configuring the luminaire to automatically implement illumination of various illuminance based on a different power rate pattern for each time slot .
A lamp having an energy saving function according to the present invention includes a light source for illumination; A real time clock unit for displaying RTC information including time; A memory for storing various brightness information of the light source; And a control unit for controlling the brightness of the light source, wherein the control unit recognizes RTC information from the real time clock unit, and determines, from the brightness information stored in the memory, based on the detected RTC information, And illuminates different illuminance for each predetermined time period.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a luminaire having an energy saving function,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a lighting method for a luminaire and a luminaire, and more particularly, to an illuminating method for a luminaire and a luminaire which are capable of automatically adjusting the brightness of the luminaire according to a predetermined condition, A luminaire and a lighting method thereof.

Luminaires are electrical appliances for lighting, in particular lighting equipment used for indoor or outdoor lighting or traffic safety or aesthetics. In recent years, LEDs have attracted attention as a light source for various lighting apparatuses because of their advantages such as long lifetime, excellent power consumption efficiency, and high brightness.

In general, a lighting apparatus includes a case, a light source disposed inside the case, and a cover for transmitting light emitted from the light source, and the on / off of the illumination is collectively controlled by a controller or a monitoring server The form is common. In other words, a conventional luminaire is configured such that the luminaire is simply turned on or off through a controller or a monitoring server without considering the large and small implementation of the illuminance.

Further, in particular, in the case of a streetlight installed at a distance, an illuminance sensor (see Patent Document 1) is further provided for effective use of electric power, so that it is automatically turned on at night and automatically turned off during the daytime.

However, such conventional luminaires have limitations in that they can not effectively cope with consumption of electric energy for illumination when different electricity tariff systems are operated by time, month or season.

Patent Document 1: Korean Patent Publication No. 20120121701 (November 6, 2012)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a lighting system in which a lighting apparatus is configured to automatically implement lighting of various illuminance based on a different power rate pattern for each time period, The present invention relates to a luminaire having an energy saving function and its lighting method.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a luminaire having an energy saving function including: a light source for illumination; A real time clock unit for displaying RTC information including time; A memory for storing various brightness information of the light source; And a control unit for controlling the brightness of the light source, wherein the control unit recognizes RTC information from the real time clock unit, and determines, from the brightness information stored in the memory, based on the detected RTC information, And illuminates different illuminance for each predetermined time period.

The above object can also be accomplished by a method comprising: storing various brightness information of a light source in a memory; The real time clock unit displaying RTC information including the current time; The control unit recognizing the RTC information from the real time clock unit; Determining a brightness of the light source corresponding to a current time zone from the brightness information stored in the memory based on the detected RTC information; And adjusting the brightness of the light source according to the brightness of the determined light source.

According to the lighting apparatus having the energy saving function and the lighting method thereof according to the present invention, when different electric power rate schemes are operated by time, month or season, the lighting apparatus can flexibly control the lighting operation by positively reflecting it There is an excellent effect of minimizing electric power charges consumed in a luminaire used in schools, buildings, homes, factories and streets.

1 is a block diagram of a luminaire having an energy saving function according to the present invention;
2 is a flowchart showing a lighting method of a luminaire having an energy saving function of the present invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In this specification, the terms "comprises" or "having" and the like refer to the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

In the following, preferred embodiments, advantages and features of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a lighting fixture having an energy saving function according to the present invention. 1, a lamp having an energy saving function according to the present invention includes a light source 10, a real time clock unit 30, a power source unit 60, a control unit 20, and a memory 40, The communication module 50 includes a communication module 50,

The light source (10) of the present invention comprises a light emitting element, which is provided inside a housing having a predetermined shape and which is a component for illuminating light to the outside.

According to a preferred embodiment, the light source 10 is composed of LED elements that emit LED light when a predetermined voltage is applied, and a plurality of such LED elements may be provided on a printed circuit board. The printed circuit board may include a metal (e.g., aluminum) PCB (Printed Circuit Board) having a connection circuit pattern for electrically connecting a plurality of LED elements.

It is needless to say that the LED device may be configured to mount various lenses (for example, a polarizing lens, a dispersive lens, etc.) so that the light emitted can be widely spread or focused to a specific range.

The housing may include a light source 10 in a housing and a heat sink for dissipating heat on at least one side of the housing. The housing may include a heat sink, The opening of the housing is formed so that the light of the light source 10 is emitted to the outside to perform an illumination function. The open window of the housing is made of transparent or translucent plastic or glass material so as to transmit light, And can be combined in various forms.

The real-time clock unit 30 of the present invention may be provided in the form of a kind of microchip operated by a battery or a power supply unit, for displaying RTC (Real Time Clock) information including date and time.

The real-time clock unit 30 is basically configured to check the current time including the hour, minute, and second in real time. Preferably, the real-time clock unit 30 includes a date, a month, ), And more preferably, it can be configured to be able to grasp even the season, weekday / night, and weekday / holiday.

Hereinafter, information on the time, day, month, season, day / night, or weekday / holiday shown by the real time clock unit 30 will be referred to as RTC information.

The RTC information displayed by the real time clock unit 30 is transmitted to the control unit 20 and the control unit 20 performs a process of automatically adjusting the brightness of the light source 10 in different time zones based on the RTC information .

Meanwhile, the RTC information by the real-time clock unit 30 may be transmitted to the control unit 20 at regular intervals, or may be configured to be transmitted in real time when the RTC information request signal is transmitted from the control unit 20, And the clock unit 30 may transmit the RTC information to the control unit 20.

The power supply unit 60 of the present invention supplies power for light emission of the light source 10 and illumination by the light source 10, and both an AC power source and a DC power source are possible. The power supplied to the power supply unit may be an external power supplied from the outside, such as a streetlight installed outside the lamp, or may be supplied from a battery included therein.

Further, the power supply unit 60 may further include a current conversion device. The current converting apparatus is a constituent unit for converting an electric power (for example, an AC 220V household power source) inputted from an external power source into a voltage suitable for driving the light source 10 and supplying the converted voltage to rectify the voltage, An SMPS (Switched-Mode Power Supply) or an inverter may be employed.

The controller 20 of the present invention refers to the dimming control function for controlling the brightness of the light source 10 in detail and the brightness degree of the light source 10 by referring to the brightness information stored in the memory 40 and the power rate information for each time period And performs an arithmetic operation function of determining the arithmetic operation function.

More specifically, before the light source 10 is turned on or the light source 10 is being turned on, the control unit 20 uses the RTC information transmitted from the real-time clock unit 30, (Or the amount of light) from the brightness information stored in the memory 40 and the electricity rate information by the time slot, the brightness of the light source 10 is controlled according to the illuminance (or the amount of light) .

As described above, the controller 20 controls the brightness of the light source 10 according to the illuminance (or the amount of light) determined by combining the RTC information, the brightness information, May be a dimming control scheme, and this dimming control scheme may be used in LED dimming control schemes and switching schemes currently widely known and used particularly in LED lighting fixtures.

The memory 40 of the present invention stores the brightness information of the light source 10 and the electric charge information of each time slot. The memory 40 may be a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, an electrically erasable programmable ROM) can be used. Since various information including brightness information is stored in the memory 40, it is preferable to use an inactive memory device whose contents are not erased even if power is not supplied.

The brightness information to be recorded or stored in the memory 40 is configured in the form of an illuminance or light amount information table divided into N brightness levels. Each of the brightness levels of the brightness information is composed of different illuminances (or amounts of light), and more specifically, the n-th brightness level consists of information of illumination (or amount of light) smaller than the (n-1) -th brightness level.

For example, if the brightness information stored in the memory 40 is an illuminance table divided into ten brightness levels, the tenth brightness step records information indicating an illuminance (or amount of light) smaller than the ninth brightness step, Information indicating an illuminance (or light quantity) smaller than that of the eighth brightness stage is recorded.

The electric power charge information by time slot stored in the memory 40 is information on the electric charge difference by time slot. Here, the difference in electric power charges by time means a charge of the elective system that makes a difference in electric power charges at specific time periods, such as a discount of a night charge and a charge of a weekly charge.

The power charge information by time of the present invention is divided into N sections according to different power tariffs in each time period, and any one of the sections is classified into one brightness stage of the brightness information stored in the memory 40 And is configured to be matched.

For reference, the N sections divided according to the power rate band can be configured so that the controller 20 divides the power rate information into N sections after the power rate information for each time slot is stored in the memory, It is needless to say that it is also possible to configure such that the control unit can recognize and use the partitioned information after the power charge information for each time slot is divided into N sections by the outside.

The power rate information by time zone may be electricity rate information by a one-month time unit, electricity rate information by a time unit of one season, or electric power rate information by one-year time unit.

For example, if the electricity price information by time is composed of electricity price information for each one-hour unit time, the unilateral (for example, X axis) of the electric charge information for each time slot starts from "0:00" Quot; 24 o'clock "and the other axis (for example, the Y axis) is composed of a power rate axis, more specifically, a rate axis for each section divided into a predetermined number of sections according to the magnitude of the electric power charge .

As another embodiment, if the time-based power charge information is composed of one-year time-based power charge information, the unilateral (for example, X axis) of the power charge information for each time slot starts from "0:00" on January 1 And the other axis (for example, the Y axis) is composed of a power rate axis, and more specifically, a time axis that is divided into a predetermined number of intervals according to the magnitude of the electric power charge It can be done by the fare rate per section.

As described above, according to the present invention, the time-based power charge information is divided into N sections according to the power charge band, and one of the sections is matched to one of the brightness stages of the brightness information, The N periods of the power charge information by time are configured so that the size of the charge of each section is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the illuminance (or light quantity) of each brightness stage of the brightness information.

For example, the power charge information by time zone is divided into 10 sections, the section where the price is the lowest is the first section, the section where the price is the highest is composed of the tenth section, the brightness information is divided into 10 brightness levels, (Or light amount) and the first brightness step represents the greatest illuminance (or the light amount), the tenth zone where the charge is highest is the tenth brightness step in which the illuminance (or the light amount) is the smallest .

As described above, the control unit 20 of the present invention determines the RTC information from the real-time clock unit 30, and based on the RTC information, the controller 20 refers to the brightness information recorded in the memory 40 and the electric- The brightness of the light source 10 is determined.

More specifically, the control unit 20 determines which section of the Nth section of the time-based power charge information belongs to the time zone of the RTC information detected through the real-time clock unit 30, The brightness of the light source corresponding to the current time zone can be determined by deriving from the brightness information stored in the memory any brightness step in which any one of the intervals is matched.

Then, according to the determined brightness information, the illuminance or the light amount of the light source is automatically adjusted to realize illumination of different illuminance for each predetermined time period.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to operate the luminaire with a relatively small illumination (e.g., minimum illumination) at a time of a high price and a relatively large illumination (e.g., a maximum illumination) It is possible to efficiently consume electric energy and thus to significantly reduce the electricity bill.

In addition, the user can select the most expensive time zone and the most inexpensive time zone based on the monthly standard, the seasonal standard, or the one-year standard, depending on the user's convenience. .

For example, when a user of a luminaire desires a monthly standard, the electric power charge information for each time period, which starts from "0 o'clock" on January 1 and is "24 o'clock" on the last day of the corresponding month, If you want to use one year, you can input the electricity charge information by time zone in the luminaire from the time "0:00" on January 1 to "8784 hours on December 31" .

In the meantime, the brightness information of the present invention is constituted by tables divided into N brightness stages, and corresponding to the power rate information by time zone is divided into N sections, wherein the brightness information and the time- The N numbers can be configured to be adjustable in number from the outside.

In particular, when using the monthly electricity tariff information, the width between the maximum charge rate and the minimum charge rate of the electricity charge information by the time of spring / fall is the width between the maximum charge rate and the minimum charge rate of the electricity charge information by the time / If the power charge information is divided into 10 sections by the time of the summer / winter, for example, the power charge information by the time of spring / fall is divided into 7 sections which are less than this, can do. In this case, the brightness information of summer / winter may be adjusted to ten brightness levels and the brightness information of spring / autumn may be adjusted to seven brightness levels in correspondence with the number of the electric power charge intervals divided by the season.

In other words, when using the electricity price information by the time of the year, all the four seasons are reflected in the information, and the effective brightness can be implemented by the seasonal time zone without adjusting the number of the interval or the brightness level. However, It is possible to realize efficient brightness according to the season by reflecting the difference in the width between the maximum charge and the minimum charge in the spring / autumn and the summer / winter by varying the number of the interval or the brightness level.

The communication module 50 of the present invention is a component for transmitting and receiving data to and from an external device in a wired or wireless manner. The external device connected through the communication module 50 is a separate electric An electronic device (e.g., a computer, a smart phone, a tablet PC, etc.). Therefore, the communication module 50 may be configured as either a wired communication module or a wireless communication module.

The luminaire of the present invention is configured to be able to change brightness information or power rate information stored in the memory 40 or update the version by communicating with an external device through the communication module 50, To control the operation of the luminaire.

Therefore, in order to efficiently use the illumination power, for example, when the power rate is changed by the time zone proposed by the government, it is necessary to reconfigure the illuminance of the light source 10 to match the changed rate pattern. The electric power charge information of each time slot in which the pattern is reflected is stored in the external device, and the electric power charge information is transmitted to the lamp through the communication module 50 to be recorded in the memory 40. As a result, And can be replaced.

The lighting method and operation principle of the lighting apparatus according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention having the above-described structure will be described as follows.

2 is a flowchart showing an illumination method of a lighting apparatus having an energy saving function according to the present invention. 2, the lighting method according to the present invention is basically a lighting method using a light source, a real time clock unit, a memory, and a luminaire having a control unit for controlling the brightness of the light source, The memory, and the control unit are the same as those described in Fig.

In the above configuration, it is necessary to first store the brightness information of the light source and the electricity rate information by time in the memory 40 (S10). In the step S10, brightness information divided into N brightness levels and N power level information classified by time period are recorded and stored when the memory 40 is installed in the luminaire for the first time, or the memory 40 is stored in the luminaire 1, it is possible to access the external device through the communication module 50 and transmit the information recorded in the external device to the memory 40 to record and store the information. Here, the specific contents of the brightness information and the electricity rate information stored in the memory 40 are as described in FIG.

Next, the real time clock unit 30 proceeds to step S10 in which the RTC information including the current date and time is displayed. At this time, the RTC information displayed by the real-time clock unit 30 basically includes the current time including the hour, minute, and second, and preferably includes the day, month, (Year), and more preferably, it may include a season, a day / night, and a weekday / holiday.

Next, the control unit 20 proceeds to step S30 of grasping the RTC information from the real-time clock unit 30 (S30). The RTC information displayed by the real time clock unit 30 is transmitted to the control unit 20. At this time, the RTC information may be transmitted to the control unit 20 at regular intervals, or may be configured to request RTC information from the control unit 20 The real time clock unit 30 may transmit the RTC information to the control unit 20 in response to the request signal.

Next, in step S40, the brightness of the light source 10 is determined by combining the RTC information collected through the steps S10 to S30, the brightness information stored in the memory 40, and the power charge information for each time period. That is, the controller 20 compares the RTC information obtained in step S30 with the brightness information stored in the memory 40 in step S10, and determines the brightness of the light source 10 corresponding to the current time zone .

That is, the control unit 20 determines which of the N intervals of the time-based power charge information belongs to the time zone of the RTC information detected through the real-time clock unit 30, The brightness of the light source corresponding to the current time zone is determined by deriving from the brightness information stored in the memory.

When the brightness of the appropriate light source 10 is determined at step S40, the light amount of the light source 10 is adjusted so that the light source 10 can illuminate the light source in accordance with the determined light source brightness. The amount of light or light intensity may be controlled by, for example, a method of selectively controlling the supply voltage of the light source 10.

Accordingly, if the brightness information stored in the memory 40 is information in which the brightness level of the light source 10 is set in inverse proportion to the time-based power rate pattern, the control unit 20 controls the light source 10 ) Is operated so as to operate with the minimum illumination, and the light source 10 is operated so as to operate with the maximum illumination when the current time is a time zone in which the charge is assumed.

Thereafter, the control unit 20 periodically grasps (or receives) the RTC information by the real-time clock unit 30 according to the set period, and outputs the RTC information corresponding to the detected (or received) RTC information By repeating the steps of determining brightness, the illuminance corresponding to the current time zone is automatically adjusted in real time.

As a result, according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the brightness of the luminaire can be automatically adjusted according to a predetermined condition (for example, a difference in the electric bill), so that the electric energy for lighting can be efficiently consumed.

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated above using specific terms, such terms are used only for the purpose of clarifying the invention, and it is to be understood that the embodiment It will be obvious that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Such modified embodiments should not be understood individually from the spirit and scope of the present invention, but should be regarded as being within the scope of the claims of the present invention.

10: light source 20:
30: real time clock unit 40: memory
50: communication module 60:

Claims (9)

delete A light source for illumination;
A real time clock unit for displaying RTC information including time;
A memory for storing various brightness information of the light source; And
And a control unit for controlling the brightness of the light source,
Wherein,
The brightness of the light source corresponding to the current time zone is determined and automatically adjusted based on the brightness information stored in the memory based on the detected RTC information after the RTC information is obtained from the real time clock unit, ≪ / RTI >
The memory further stores time-specific power charge information,
The brightness information stored in the memory is divided into N brightness levels, and the n-th brightness level is composed of information of illumination (or amount of light) smaller than the n-1 brightness level,
The power charge information for each time slot is divided into N sections according to the power charge band so that one of the sections is matched to one of the brightness stages of the brightness information,
Wherein,
Determining whether a time zone of the identified RTC information belongs to which section among N sections of the time slot power charge information and deriving from the brightness information stored in the memory a specific brightness level at which the determined specific section matches, The brightness of the light source corresponding to the current time zone is determined.
3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the N pieces of the power charge information by time are configured such that the size of the charge of each section and the magnitude of the illuminance (or light quantity) of each brightness stage of the brightness information are matched in inverse proportion to each other One luminaire.
3. The method of claim 2,
Further comprising a communication module for communicating with an external device,
Wherein the brightness information stored in the memory or the electricity rate information of each time slot is configured to be changed or updated through the external device connected to the communication module.
3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the N pieces of the brightness information and the power rate information of each time slot are configured to be variable in number from the outside.
3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the light source comprises an LED element.
delete A lighting method for a luminaire having a light source, a real time clock unit, a memory, and a control unit for controlling the brightness of the light source,
Storing various brightness information of the light source in the memory;
The real time clock unit displaying RTC information including the current time;
The control unit recognizing the RTC information from the real time clock unit;
Determining a brightness of the light source corresponding to a current time zone from the brightness information stored in the memory based on the detected RTC information; And
Adjusting the brightness of the light source according to the brightness of the determined light source;
Further comprising the step of storing the time zone power bill information in the memory prior to the step of the real time clock unit displaying the RTC information,
The brightness information stored in the memory is divided into N brightness levels, and the n-th brightness level is composed of information of illumination (or amount of light) smaller than the (n-1) -th brightness level,
The power charge information for each time slot is divided into N sections according to the power charge band, and one of the sections is matched to one of the brightness levels of the brightness information,
Wherein the step of determining the brightness of the light source corresponding to the current time zone comprises:
Determining whether the time zone of the identified RTC information belongs to which of the N sections of the time-based power charge information, and then deriving from the brightness information stored in the memory a specific brightness level at which the determined specific section is matched Wherein the lighting device has an energy saving function.
9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the N pieces of the electricity price information by the time slot are configured such that the brightness levels of the brightness information are matched in inverse proportion to the sizes of the charges of the respective sections.

Images