How to Reduce Commercial Electrical Costs With Smart Lighting Controls

Introduction

Reducing electrical costs is crucial for businesses to improve profit margins in today's competitive environment. Commercial lighting accounts for a significant portion of a company's energy use, often around 25%. By implementing smart lighting controls, organizations can achieve major reductions in electricity consumption and costs. In this article, I will discuss several methods to cut commercial lighting expenses through intelligent lighting automation.

Conduct an Audit of Existing Lighting Systems

The first step is performing a thorough audit of your facility's current lighting setup. This allows you to identify areas for potential savings and devise an appropriate lighting strategy.

Carefully survey all lighting fixtures, bulbs, and controls in the building. Document key information like wattage, estimated usage hours, bulb types, and age of fixtures.
Use a light meter to measure light levels in different spaces. This reveals areas with excessive or insufficient lighting.
Interview maintenance staff to gather insights on lighting performance, maintenance costs, and any pain points.
Compare findings to recommended lighting levels for different spaces like offices, warehouses, restrooms etc. as per safety and productivity requirements.

The audit establishes baseline lighting data, highlights improvement areas and helps build a business case for upgrading to smart controls.

Install Occupancy Sensors

Occupancy sensors automatically turn lights on or off based on detecting human presence. They offer tremendous energy savings by preventing lights from burning when spaces are unoccupied.

Motion sensors like passive infrared are ideal for irregularly occupied areas like restrooms, storage rooms and corridors. They turn lights on when motion is detected.
Occupancy sensors using ultrasonic or microwave technology are preferable for open workspaces, meeting rooms and offices. They keep lights on while detecting occupants.
Sensors should be strategically placed to monitor movement and occupancy patterns. Avoid triggering from adjacent room motion.
Sensitivity and time-delay settings must suit space usage. Fine-tune over initial weeks to optimize functionality.
Consider daylight and vacancy sensors to further enhance savings when sunlight or manual switches can control lights.

Occupancy controls can reduce lighting energy use by 15-20% in offices and 30% or more in infrequently used spaces.

Install Tunable LED Fixtures

Tunable LEDs allow users to manually adjust color temperature and dimness to create custom lighting scenes. This enables optimizing lighting for visual comfort and task needs while reducing energy.

Replace old fluorescents and standard LEDs with tunable LED fixtures with in-built controls or smart control compatibility.
Tunable white LEDs (2700K-6500K) are ideal for offices, classrooms and healthcare facilities. Users can vary cool-warm balance to suit changing needs.
Consider color tunable LEDs (RGBW) for retail, hospitality and creative spaces to create vibrant lighting scenes and themes.
Install tunable fixtures at workstations, activity areas and multipurpose spaces for maximum adjustability benefits.
Provide user guidance on varying tunable lighting settings to match ambiance to activities like meetings, concentration work vs collaborative work etc.

Tunable LED systems can achieve 20-30% energy savings over conventional lighting while improving occupant comfort and productivity.

Implement Lighting Management Software

Smart lighting control systems allow centralized monitoring and automation of all building lighting for optimal efficiency. Here are key capabilities to leverage:

Remotely switch lights on/off, create schedules, set dimming levels and tune color settings through wall switches, mobile apps or web dashboards.
Automate lighting adjustments based on schedules, occupancy patterns, daylight availability and local power rates using rule-based programming.
Monitor real-time lighting energy use and receive alerts for failures and maintenance needs.
Integrate lighting controls with HVAC and security systems using APIs for enterprise-level efficiency and automation.
Provide zone-level control for multi-space environments via area controllers.
Utilize cloud connectivity and data analytics to continuously optimize lighting settings and maximize savings.

Advanced lighting management systems can reduce lighting electricity usage by over 50%.

Retrofit With Efficient LED Bulbs and Fixtures

Transitioning conventional lighting to LEDs remains one of the most direct ways to slash lighting power consumption.

Audit suitability of existing fixtures for LED retrofits versus complete fixture replacement.
For retrofits, replace older fluorescent, halogen, incandescent bulbs with direct LED replacements. Match light output and color temperature to original bulbs.
To maximize savings, install dedicated LED fixtures designed for higher efficiency and smart controls integration.
Take advantage of utility rebates and tax incentives to improve ROI on LED upgrades.
Consider adding reflectors and lenses to enhance lighting distribution and reduce fixture counts.

Properly designed and installed LED retrofits can often achieve 40-60% reductions in lighting power density.

Take a Holistic Facility Approach

To maximize savings, adopt a holistic approach that combines lighting upgrades with improvements in other building systems and processes.

Tune HVAC setpoints to account for heat reductions from efficient lighting.
Ensure lighting changes align with space usage plans and interior layouts.
Reshape demand charges by shifting lighting loads to off-peak periods through scheduling.
Engage staff through energy conservation campaigns to build awareness on new lighting behaviors.

An integrated facility strategy amplifies the financial benefits of intelligent lighting controls.

Conclusion

Smart lighting controls provide tremendous potential for businesses to reduce electricity costs. An in-depth audit, strategic upgrades and ongoing optimization are key to unlocking substantial savings from 30% to over 50%. Beyond costs, intelligent controls also create more visually comfortable and productive environments for building occupants. Companies that leverage the latest in lighting technology will gain a competitive edge through lower overheads and improved workspaces.