China has been actively promoting of smart industry development in response as the country rolls out smart city projects. China’s smart building industry market has already reached RMB 100 billion (US $16 billion) with at least 3,000 different companies. LED lighting fixtures make up around 20 to 30 percent of the smart building market. With increasing LED luminous efficacy, LED lighting fixture market share will most certainly continue to rise. This rising in smart building infrastructure trend will fuel future LED lighting industry growth. 

The smart lighting industry made its way to China in the 1990’s. Affected by low consumer awareness, market environment, product prices, and weak promotions, the industry grew sluggishly. However, IT and Internet technology over the past few years has launched the industry’s retrofitting trends. Especially with real estate industries aggressive entry into the smart lighting market, and improved LED efficiency that has led to gradual maturation of smart control technology. The smart lighting market is ballooning in the Chinese market, with various smart lighting products being launched on the market. Industry experts estimate that the smart lighting market in China will reach US $200 billion within the next 5 years.  

Currently, smart lighting systems in smart buildings use lighting buses as an interconnection method. Smart lighting systems generally combine high voltage AC power with low voltage controls and sensor networks to form a comprehensive smart lighting system. “Ethernet development has connected many systems into an Internet platform,” said Wu Jian, National Technical Manager, China for CommScope. “Smart lighting will also follow suit and be integrated under a single Internet platform.” 

Conventional smart lighting technology has many different technology camps, and has complicated design and installation. Mainly because three systems (ac power station, controller, and seniors) could not be integrated. Energy consumption will also be higher if conventional luminaires are used in the system, and will present energy conservation challenges. 

People have become aware of the main benefits of LEDs over the years. Conventional smart lighting systems, however, have been unable to take full advantages of LED lighting fixture functions. This includes accurate  dimming, constant driver voltage, simple deployment and others. LED light fixtures need a more energy efficient low voltage DC power supply, unified smart management tools and energy efficient strategies.  

”Low voltage LED lighting fixtures do not need 3C qualification, which saves verification fees, reduces product life cycle, and lowers product development costs,” said Wu. “Therefore, it can become the mainstream lighting product in the future smart home market.”