Patent ID: 8907589

Claim:
A method of selectively operating a group of networked and commonly powered lighting fixture nodes at reduced power, each of said networked lighting fixture nodes including at least one controllable lighting fixture, said method comprising: electrically coupling a single lighting fixture node of said lighting fixture nodes to a power circuit having a power circuit maximum output; operating each of a plurality of said lighting fixture nodes at a nominal fixture power level; wherein each said nominal fixture power level is less than a maximum power level of a respective of said lighting fixture nodes; identifying a current draw across at least a test lighting fixture node of said lighting fixture nodes being operated at said nominal fixture power level; determining a reduced power level for each of said lighting fixture nodes; wherein said reduced power level for each of said lighting fixture nodes is based at least on said current draw across said test fixture; commanding each of said lighting fixture nodes to substantially operate at a respective said reduced power level; wherein when said lighting fixture nodes are operating at respective said reduced power level, a substantially consistent optical output among said lighting fixture nodes is maintained; and wherein the sum of said reduced power level for all of said lighting fixture nodes is selectively bound based on said power circuit maximum output.