Lighting system and a method of estimating an end of life of at least one lamp thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10681787-B2
Application number	US-201615566417-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2016
Priority date	Apr 14, 2015
Publication date	Jun 9, 2020
Grant date	Jun 9, 2020

Abstract

A lighting system (100; 120) comprises at least one lamp (10) and a processing unit (20) for estimating an end-of-life of the at least one lamp (10). The processing unit (20) is configured to receive a lamp burning time during which the at least one lamp is turned on and a forecasted temperature over a selected period of time at a location of the at least one lamp. The processing unit (20) is configured to estimate the end of life of the at least one lamp based on the lamp burning time and the forecasted temperature. By using the forecasted temperature, use of dedicated lamp sensors measuring internal parameters of the lamp usable for the end-of-life estimate may be avoided and the estimate may be simplified.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A lighting system comprising at least one lamp, a processing unit for estimating an end of life of the at least one lamp, and a weather station communicatively connected to the processing unit, wherein the weather station is arranged in proximity of the at least one lamp, the processing unit being configured to:
receive a lamp burning time during which the at least one lamp is turned on,
receive, from the weather station, a forecasted temperature for the weather at a location of the at least one lamp for a selected period of time in the future, and
estimate the end of life of the at least one lamp based on the lamp burning time and the forecasted temperature; and
the weather station is configured to:
forecast the temperature at the location of the at least one lamp, and
send the forecasted temperature to the processing unit.

2. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is configured to:
determine the lamp burning time over a period of time in the past up to the present, and
determine a future lamp burning time over the selected period of time in the future based on the forecasted temperature, and
add the determined lamp burning time to the future burning time to obtain a corrected lamp burning time at a date corresponding to an end date of the selected period of time in the future.

3. The lighting system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the processing unit is configured to determine the future lamp burning time based on the determined lamp burning time or on forecasted weather data.

4. The lighting system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the processing unit is configured to:
compare the corrected lamp burning time to a laboratory burning time obtained during lifetime test for one or more dates, and
select one of the dates whose corrected lamp burning time corresponds to the laboratory burning time for estimating the end of life of the at least one lamp.

5. The lighting system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the processing unit is configured to:
determine a first correction factor depending on the forecasted temperature,
determine the future lamp burning time by multiplying the determined lamp burning time by the first correction factor and the selected period of time in the future, wherein the selected period of time is chosen by a user.

6. A lighting system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to receive a measured temperature for the at least one lamp and to estimate the end of life of the at least one lamp also based on the measured temperature.

7. The lighting system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the processing unit is configured to:
determine a second correction factor depending on the measured temperature, multiplying the determined lamp burning time by the second correction factor.

8. The lighting system as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising at least one temperature sensor coupled to the at least one lamp wherein the at least one temperature sensor is configured to measure the temperature of the at least one lamp.

9. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the forecasted temperature is a forecasted average temperature over a period of one year.

10. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the forecasted temperature depends on a period of the year.

11. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising at least one burning time sensor coupled to the at least one lamp, wherein the at least one burning time sensor is configured to measure the burning time of the at least one lamp.

12. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising at least one location sensor coupled to the at least one lamp, wherein the at least one location sensor is configured to provide the location of the at least one lamp to the processing unit.

13. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the weather station is further configured to:
measure the temperature in proximity of the at least one lamp, and
send the measured temperature to the processing unit.

14. A method of estimating an end of life of at least one lamp of a lighting system, the lighting system further including a processing unit and a weather station, wherein the weather station is arranged in proximity of the at least one lamp and is communicatively connected to the processing unit, the method comprising:
estimating the end-of-life of the at least one lamp based on a lamp burning time during which the at least one lamp is turned on and a forecasted temperature determined by the weather station over a selected period of time in the future at a location of the at least one lamp.

Assignees

• Signify Holding Bv

Inventors

• Flinsenberg Ingrid Christina Maria

Classifications

• H05B45/58 Primary

  involving end of life detection of LEDs · CPC title

• H05B47/20

  Responsive to malfunctions or to light source life; for protection · CPC title

• G01R31/44

  Testing lamps · CPC title

• H05B44/00

  Circuit arrangements for operating electroluminescent light sources (for operating light emitting diodes H05B45/00) · CPC title

• H05B47/28

  Circuit arrangements for protecting against abnormal temperature · CPC title