Wireless Lighting Controls: Reducing Energy Use, Costs, and Maintenancetest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

August 2014

Wireless lighting controls are gaining in popularity in institutional and commercial facilities as an effective way to control operating costs and reduce energy use for lighting systems. Not only do wireless systems help maintenance and engineering managers reduce installation costs. They also help departments avoid high maintenance costs often associated with lighting systems, by eliminating the need to go inside walls to install, repair or replace wiring.

Once a wireless system is up and running, managers also can control the amount of time fixtures are on and at what levels of brightness they burn during the day.

“Wireless controls are strong in the commercial environment for economic reasons,” says Paul Ericson with Sparling Inc., a lighting design and consulting firm. “In the retrofit world, there are a lot of costs in trying to run control wires into existing walls and things. And even though the wireless products tend to be on the expensive side, they’re less expensive than re-wiring the building.”