More than perhaps any other building system, lighting is pervasive. Present in ceilings throughout commercial facilities, connected LED lighting offers myriad valuable opportunities – from facilitating smart building features that enhance occupant comfort and productivity to enabling significant energy savings. To the latter point, 2020 research by the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) revealed that networked lighting controls (NLC) can boost the energy savings potential of LED lighting projects by an average of 49%, and up to 70% in some building types. A follow-up study this year found that integrating NLCs with HVAC systems can save substantially more. For example, occupancy sensors – a common feature of NLC systems –were found to cut the energy usage of large building HVAC systems by 30%.
So, NLCs are clearly effective energy-savers for commercial buildings. Yet, they comprise less than one percent of installed commercial lighting in the US today. Among reasons for this is wariness to invest in a technology that’s rife with unfamiliar terms – including confusion over differences between products labeled “integral controls” versus “networked controls” (hint: they are overlapping categories, not mutually exclusive or subsets of each other). Take the quiz in the gallery to test your knowledge of (and learn more about) integral controls!
Squeezing all the savings we can out of commercial lighting systems is an important goal not only to save money for end-users, but as a decarbonization strategy. By increasing awareness about and comfort with NLCs, we can expand the reach of this transformative technology. Check out the DLC’s website to learn more.
