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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.