Trip the Light Fantastic: Retrofitting Commercial and Industrial Lighting
Published February 2022
How many times have you driven past a brightly lit commercial building at night and wondered why all the lights were on when no one was there? Obviously, those buildings do not have any lighting control systems in place and are wasting a precious resource. |
Lighting is one of the major costs in building maintenance. With over 35% of a typical business’ energy bill related to lighting, energy saving controls for lighting are squarely at the center of any effort to reduce energy expenditures. It just makes good sense and saves cents to upgrade commercial and industrial lighting. Not only does a commercial lighting upgrade save operating and maintenance costs, it also improves lighting quality and contributes to the facility’s overall energy efficiency producing less “light pollution” to reduce its carbon footprint.
A complete commercial smart lighting retrofit, yields additional performance benefits, such as a longer rated life span and increased safety and security. Research shows that an increase in light levels in the workplace can lead to an increase in productivity and employee morale. The only disadvantage to an upgrade is its initial investment, but even that pays for itself over and over through the years. |
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Step by step: Assessing Lighting Needs
Before your customers start any major lighting renovation projects, help them establish basic guidelines. Ask them the following questions: What's your budget? What are your main goals? Do you need to meet specific building or energy codes?
Prioritize the client’s goals and purpose for the lighting control system:
- What energy codes are required for the space?
- Do you want the lights to turn off when the space is empty for energy savings?
- Do you want the lights to turn off when the space is empty for energy savings?
- Do you want to control the lighting for security purposes?
- All of the above?
The next thing to do is assess the building layout and to help your clients meet their unique lighting control needs:
- Is it an open office such as cubicles, or closed offices with certain operating times, or
- Is it a warehouse or manufacturing facility that may operate 24/7?
Figure out if the lighting areas and applicable systems can be centralized or distributed:
- Can you group the lighting to create zones and distributed lighting, or will it be controlled per room as “standalone”?
Finally, look at other factors that will influence the installation space and affect the specific controls, such as daylight harvesting:
- Is there natural light coming through windows to be used as daylight harvesting?
- If so, understand additional energy saving ramifications by reducing peak electrical load
- Daylight harvesting allows continued operation during power outages
- Daylight harvesting adds to increased productivity and health by connecting people to their external environment
Smart Lighting – Lighting the world, one bulb at a time
There is no “one size fits all” solution. Every industry, facility and application has different lighting control needs. Some can be met with a simple solution, such as an occupancy sensor, while others require advanced customization and control. Let Leviton help you understand all the challenges and solutions so that you can help your customers.
Smart lighting through wireless controls allows upgrades to be made without having to invest in a major recabling project. Retrofitting is key for the wireless solution. “With old buildings, which are constructed mainly of concrete walls, installing wireless controls are the easiest, smartest and most cost-effective solutions as they save material and installation time and money,” states Reid Parks, Leviton’s product manager for commercial occupancy sensors and applications. “With wireless, most devices are hardwired but not physically connected to each other, but you can connect many circuits together wirelessly through common protocols such as ZigBee or Bluetooth®,” he further explains.
Leviton offers a spectrum of lighting control and energy management strategies for existing buildings to meet any application – from standalone controls such as occupancy sensors for one room up to huge centralized building management systems:
- Occupancy and Vacancy Sensing Control - Occupancy sensors with manual-ON/OFF control add a level of flexibility to the occupancy sensing solution and are ideal for small enclosed areas. For larger spaces that do not require manual override capabilities, a single auto-ON/OFF occupancy sensor takes the burden of lighting control off the occupants, ensuring lights are ON when they are needed and OFF when they are not. Leviton offers a complete line of PIR, ultrasonic, multi-technology including daylight harvesting sensors.
- Occupancy Sensors for Multi-zone/Bi-level Switching - By dividing a space into zones, lighting can become more versatile. The integration of occupancy sensors with HVAC relays lends the option of incorporating heating and cooling systems into the occupancy sensor control for additional energy savings. Leviton’s ProVolt™ is a total room controller solution including and occupancy sensor, powerpack and photocell and can control up to two zones with two relays. This makes it easy to take a typical room with one device and can even be controlled from a keypad.
- Lumina™ RF Wireless Devices - Add wireless zone control to virtually any ON/OFF or dimming device with Lumina RF devices. Compatible with virtually all lamp fixtures and load control devices, Lumina RF Standalone devices offer a scalable, flexible wireless mesh solution to meet the unique control needs of virtually any space all without having to pull new wires. Control one fixture or a group of fixtures in multiple zones. Ideal for both retrofit and new construction.
- Centralized Control Building Management System - Total facility switching control from one access point (versus in individual rooms) is the goal of Leviton’s Centralized Control Solutions. Relay panels, including the EZ-MAX® Plus and GreenMAX® models, integrate multiple room controls into a single system that reduces troubleshooting, narrows the scope of maintenance and expedites installation, which translates into significant labor cost savings.
- GreenMAX® DRC Room Controllers - Secure, Simple, Scalable Commercial Fluorescent and LED Lighting Control Solutions - Confidently design and specify a secure, simple and scalable distributed commercial fluorescent or LED lighting control system with GreenMAX® Digital Room Controls (DRC) Wired or Wireless room controller solutions. Our commercial lighting control system allows for easy installation and operation while simplifying scalability for virtually any application. GreenMAX® Digital Room Controls (DRC) is a fluorescent or LED lighting controller that integrates the Sapphire™ Touch Screen for a configurable user interface or GreenMAX® Relay Lighting Control Panels for additional fluorescent and LED control capabilities. GreenMAX® DRC Wired and Wireless room controllers are fully encrypted, allowing for secure communication and control. Implement a plug-and-play, Category 6, RJ45 hardwired digital network or wireless mesh system. The GreenMAX® DRC Wireless Keypad Room Controller brings Leviton wireless devices and Intellect™-enabled fluorescent or LED fixtures into the system. Add wireless load controls for switching, 0-10V dimming, and phase cut dimming as well as wireless occupancy sensors and wireless photocells. All fully configurable from the GreenMAX DRC App.
- Metering Solutions - By measuring energy usage over days, weeks and months, trends can be identified and the effectiveness of conservation efforts can be proven. Implementing a submetering strategy in any facility is simple and scalable with Leviton’s VerifEye™ Submetering Solutions. VerifEye consists of submetering equipment, data collection and software products, for energy monitoring and tenant billing options.
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Tap into the Right Codes
Most importantly for all lighting projects, new or retrofit, make sure you become familiar with the local and state codes in your area. The codes are specified depending on the purposes of the spaces. Every few years the codes are updated for energy and lighting controls and they customarily are getting stricter. An example is specifying different types of controls, such as automatic shut-offs, if a person is not in that space and occupancy sensors to turn lights off without human intervention.
Implementing a Leviton solution as a new construction or retrofit project meet requirements set by state, federal and local municipal codes for sustainability and energy efficiency. Tax incentives and utility company rebates are also available for eligible projects. Leviton devices can help meet ASHRAE Standard 90.1 2010, California Title 24 2013, IECC and LEED certification requirements.
Leviton offers a free web portal and mobile device application focused on NEC® code updates through the Leviton Captain Code Portal. This portal allows you easy searching by code article, product solution or by application. You can also view the NEMA Code Adoption Map to see which Code cycle is in effect in your area. It even provides links to applicable Code solution videos and more. Simply download the app through Apple or Google Play or register for the portal online.
You can also learn more about additional specific product code compliance at Leviton.com/energycodes or contact your Leviton sales rep directly and we can put together a specific training track for you and your customers. |
Leviton Mfg.
Company Inc.
201 North Service Rd.
Melville, NY 11747
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