POWER OVER ETHERNET LIGHTING SYSTEM WITH BATTERY CHARGE CONTROL ALGORITHM

• Main Authors: Siefer, Michael Jay, Harper, III, Arthur Alvin
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.08.2018
• Subjects: CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHTING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY

A power over ethernet lighting system includes a plurality of nodes electrically connected to a power/communication bus. Each of the nodes includes a PoE interface, a micro-controller and a PoE driver electrically connected to a PoE luminaire. At least one of the nodes is an emergency management node that includes a rechargeable battery and a PoE battery charger. The system has a maintained mode in which the PoE luminaire of each of the nodes is powered by electricity from the power/communication bus, and has an emergency mode characterized by a power loss on the power/communication bus. A micro-controller of the emergency management node includes a charge control algorithm configured to determine a charge level of the battery based on a signal from a charge sensor, and configured to dynamically adjust an allocation of power to the PoE battery charger responsive to the charge level.