Herisau - Interact City customer since the very beginning and pioneer with the new multisensor in use
How the municipality of Herisau in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden uses lighting control to save a lot of electricity in a targeted way
In the middle of the hilly landscape of Appenzell with a view of the Säntis, we meet Thomas Schmid in Herisau. "Sönd willkomm," greets us Thomas, the "Liechtmensch" of the community, who lives up to his nickname. For years, Herisau has played a pioneering role in public lighting throughout Switzerland. For example, the municipality was already using Interact City when the lighting management system was first launched under the name CityTouch - nine years ago. Today, the Appenzell municipality is the first ever to use the new multisensor. To save even more electricity, and to reduce light pollution to a minimum.
Herisau combines the advantages of tradition and modernity - in every respect. Faithfully associated with the Luma luminaire family for years, the streets of the municipality are lined with the popular luminaire type. The Luma gen2s installed in recent years are all equipped with Interact City lighting controllers (OLC) and are controlled by one of 14 different dimming profiles, depending on the location. Thomas tells us in the interview that since using the CityTouch (now Interact City) lighting control system around twelve years ago, they have been able to reduce electricity costs by a further 20% or so - in addition to the savings from switching to LEDs. But that's not all: with the use of the multisensor, Herisau is going one step further, and would like to illuminate the many side streets that have no through traffic only when necessary.
Interview with Thomas Schmid
Thomas Schmid has been taking care of the refurbishment and digitization of public lighting in Herisau for nine years. With a lot of passion, which becomes palpable when he talks about the possibilities in the field of public lighting. "Our goal is to save electricity through the refurbishment, and of course to reduce light pollution." And that's what Thomas is committed to every day.
Herisau is the first municipality in Switzerland to use multisensors. How did this come about?
Herisau is the first municipality in Switzerland to use multisensors. How did this come about?
Twelve years ago, we installed Eagle Eye as our first motion-dependent lighting control system. The system convinced us immediately. Then came the first Luma luminaires with interfaces and the OLC for control with CityTouch, now Interact City. I think we were among the first municipalities in Switzerland to introduce the light management system about nine years ago. Honestly, we were just waiting for the multisensor.
*Note: today Interact City
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Why?
Herisau has many outer neighborhoods, with little to no through traffic. For example, Waldeggstrasse, which we have equipped the multisensors. So we only have light here when we need it. In addition, the houses are not built too close to the road. So it doesn't bother the residents when the light goes up and down. We dim down to 25% here and up to 80% when there is traffic.
How many multisensors are in use so far?
We have equipped one road section, Waldeggstrasse, with multisensors so far. It's a good system that just works. What I like is that we can also equip other streets with the multisensor without a lot of effort.
Without much effort - so the installation was easy?
The system is really well made - "It is würkli putzeifach". We were able to attach the multisensors directly to the luminaire. That's exactly how it's supposed to be - user-friendly. And if any questions arise, Manuela Thoma* from ELEKTRON is always at my disposal.
*Note: Product Manager Lighting Control ELEKTRON
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How are the other street lights controlled?
The rest of the lights are controlled with Interact City with dimming profiles. We have fourteen different dimming calendars in use, for example for footpaths, pedestrian crossings, "pre" pedestrian crossings, busy intersections, main roads with/without bus traffic, secondary roads, neighborhood roads, as well as for special events, such as the summer night festival, where we dim down for the fireworks. In addition, we naturally differentiate between weekdays and weekends. We dim down just enough so that we still meet the standards. At pedestrian crossings or intersections, the lighting always remains at 100% to ensure safety at all times.
Dimming profiles for each type of road and additional sensor technology: What moved Herisau to control the lighting in such a targeted manner, and still further to optimize it?
Saving electricity and keeping light emissions low: We invested the time to reduce energy costs, especially in street lighting, which is visible to the public.
We are also doing well on light pollution. Especially with secondary and neighborhood streets, there is no reason to leave the lights on 70% all night. That's why we dim down to 25% from half past twelve until five in the morning everywhere that doesn't have motion control installed.
On the subject of light pollution, is there no feedback from residents:inside that switching the multisensors on and off is disturbing?
(Smiles) They haven't even noticed that the control is different, we haven't received any feedback, which is always a good sign. You really have to pay attention to it. And even then, you only see it when you're on foot.
Multisensor - the name suggests it: A sensor with multiple functions...
I'm already waiting for that (Laughs). That's clearly the future. Lights that additionally serve as small weather stations to see if it's frozen. So I could muster the winter service directly to go "salting". Also exciting, of course, would be a WLAN function for in the center, so that we can offer a local WLAN.
You've been refurbishing to LED since 2007 - can you "start from scratch" again soon?
Yes you are right. We are actually already in the process of replacing the first LED luminaires such as Iridium or Modalux, which are already 14-15 years old. So that we don't have to throw them away, we are mounting these non-networked LED luminaires on streets that will not be equipped with the smart system for quite some time. So that we can already reduce electricity costs there by about 50% as well. We have had very good experience with this, otherwise we would have to dispose of the lights.
Project images
Project data
Application
Municipality of Herisau, main, secondary, and neighborhood streets
1849 light points - about 48% already refurbished to LED
Luminaires
Luma luminaire family in various designs
Control
Interact City (area-wide)
Multisensors
Eagle Eye
