Amano Korea (CEO Myungjin Jeon, www.amano.co.kr) has entered the LED business. Amano Korea participated in the 'International LED Expo 2011' held at KINTEX in Ilsan, Korea from the 21st to the 24th of last month and introduced LED lights made of ceramic materials and intelligent lighting control solutions.

The body part of the LED light is made of ceramic material, which is specialized in heat dissipation and can be molded into various shapes during production. In addition, by combining mud and pigments, the LED lights can display a variety of colors to create atmospheric and emotional lighting, and can replace conventional incandescent bulbs and tri-wavelength lamps.

Amano Korea is directly developing and producing LED lighting products for intelligent lighting control systems, and has developed a dimming function that can freely adjust color temperature and illuminance according to the environment, contributing to energy savings.

The system was developed with the goal of saving energy and realizing an eco-friendly lighting environment, and can monitor and control the efficiency and power usage of LED lighting fixtures in addition to replacing them with high-efficiency LED lighting fixtures. In addition, it provides the function of creating an optimal atmosphere through lighting in various spaces by setting the color temperature and brightness by situation, and is applied as a control system through individual control, group control, floor control, and scenario control according to the characteristics of each space, automatically controlled by situation, and manually organized if necessary to optimize electricity consumption by using lighting according to the environment.

In addition, various LED lights such as tube lights, downlights, and flat-panel lights are automatically turned on and off in conjunction with systems such as illumination sensors and detection sensors, and each light can be dimmed through the control system.

Amano Korea has been operating the LED lighting control solution in the parking lot on the 6th floor of the ECC building at Ewha Womans University since May.

As part of an eco-friendly green project to reduce power consumption, the underground parking lot, which is always lit 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, was replaced with 18W underground parking lot LED lights compared to the existing 36W fluorescent lights. For each of the 42 sections, an electricity meter was installed to accumulate the electricity consumption of the LED lights compared to the existing fluorescent lights, and the actual savings were compared and analyzed through the cumulative electricity meter by period to determine the effectiveness of the entire project.

As of two months after the pilot installation, the energy consumption of the existing fluorescent lamps was 1,831.3 kW, while that of the sections equipped with Amano Korea's intelligent lighting control system was 455.5 kW, representing an energy savings rate of about 76%. After six months of implementation, the company plans to expand the installation after consultation with the university.

The intelligent lighting control system installed at Ewha Womans University consists of a controller, dimmer, motion detection sensor, and LED parking lot lights. The controller controls the on/off function, dimmer, and sense function, and can manage up to 48 units with manual dimming of 100%, 70%, 50%, and 30%. The dimmers wirelessly communicate with the controller to control LED parking lot lights one-to-one, and can manage up to 8 LED parking lot lights in total, meaning that one controller can manage 384 parking lot lights.

The controller and dimmers can only be connected wirelessly within 50 meters, but the dimmers act as repeaters, so they can be used in larger spaces. Motion sensors detect cars entering and parking, as well as people moving in the elevator, and adjust the brightness of the lights accordingly.

The LED lights, which normally stay at 9W, dims to 18W when the sensor detects movement. The 18W brightness is sustained for the first 5 minutes of motion detection, with a cumulative delay for motion re-detection.

As a result, the light stays at almost 18W during the day when movement is frequent, and automatically dims down 50% to 9W during the night when movement is not frequent, which can have a significant effect on power savings.

Amano Korea has been continuously investing in R&D since four years ago to enter the lighting system field. The lighting control solution system, which was piloted at Ewha Womans University, will be expanded to schools and general buildings in the future.

Mr. Kim Joong-geun, Director of Amano Korea, said, "Currently, there are about 10 lighting control system companies in Korea that can dim. However, in the early days, some LED companies did not know what dimming was. The controllers with dimming functions are imported and expensive," said Kim. "Our company's dimming products are developed in-house and are 1/5 to 1/10 cheaper than equipment imported from other countries, and we plan to reverse-export them to Japan."

"We do not intend to sell parts or equipment in the LED business, but rather lighting control solutions," he said, adding, "We want to enter the building management system (IBS) with LED lighting control solutions and incorporate them into the initial design of future buildings."

Meanwhile, Amano Korea is conducting the ESCO (Energy Service Company) business as an energy-saving specialist, and is continuing to expand the scope of its business by qualifying as an electrical construction business and information and communication construction business to promote more effective business.