LED lighting facilitates measurement with sensors
Lund Municipality is working on replacing the lighting in existing buildings with LED lamps. The new LED luminaires can be digitally controlled remotely and optimized as needed. Not only does this save energy and the environment, but safety can also be increased by allowing the LED light to reach further and illuminate better. At the moment, the replacement of more than 1300 luminaires in Veberöd is underway. The new lampposts will be able to be controlled separately, unlike the old ones where they were switched on and off centrally. This allows the lighting system to have fixed voltage around the clock, which also means that it will now be possible to connect sensors to the lampposts. The sensors could measure, for example, ground temperature, traffic flows and air quality, which could be useful in the municipality's work on road maintenance and priorities in the traffic environment.
On this occasion, Stefan Jönsson and Isak Skåre at the Technical Administration in Lund Municipality presented their work to the participants in LOSC and FLOW-the projects, which concern, among other things, flow measurements through different types of sensors. This was done at Smart Villages in Veberöd, a project partner who works with testing sensors and contexts where sensors can create benefits in a society. In the area, Kraftringen has fiber that could be used to connect the sensors.
- Street lighting is an infrastructure that already exists, so it is good to be able to use it, says Stefan Jönsson at Lund Municipality. What we should do now, among other things, is to think about where sensors are needed.
All participants present (from AXIS Communications, Sensative, Smart Villages, Meltspot, The power ring, Mobile Heights, California, MiThings, Lund Municipality and Future by Lund) declared themselves interested in participating and exploring the possibilities together. Here, for example, you need to look at what different entities pose challenges to the system, what new business models the Technical Administration can use to ensure its costs are covered, what safety aspects need to be taken into account and how to think about liability issues.
- We at the Technical Administration are starting to look at a business model, says Isak Skåre. We have no profit interest but want the business to go round. The model needs to be able to cover consumption, the cost of setting up and taking down equipment and perhaps have different price groups for different energy consumption. We also need to consider a regulatory framework and, for example, determine whether the sensors have to sit at a particular height.
One possible way for the project to go is to create a new test site using the lampposts. In order to get quick action with the goal of getting a test bed around the lighting infrastructure in Veberöd connected to IoT by the beginning of autumn, it was decided that Smart Villages identify a number of locations in Veberöd where it is interesting to take measurements. These will then be matched against Kraftringen fiber and new poles from Lund Municipality.