On this page 3 sections
Lighting controls: a switch, a dimmer, or a panel the occupants will actually operate
Lighting controls fail when they are smarter than the people who use the room. The right control is the one the space will live with: a switch, a dimmer, a panel, or a sensor. Retrofitting controls onto LED that was never specified for them is a second job.
Empty rooms
Occupancy and vacancy sensors where they earn their keep are occupancy controls.
Daylight at the glass
Dimming where daylight actually reaches the task is daylight controls.
The office layout
Open plan versus meeting rooms is office lighting.
The control has to match the fixture and how the floor is run
A control is only as good as the LED behind it and the way the space is operated. Line-voltage switching, low-voltage relay panels, and dimming each ask something different of the fixture and the wiring.
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How it dims
0-10V, DALI, and line-voltage phase dimming are not interchangeable. The driver in the fixture decides which one it accepts — a control specified for the wrong protocol flickers, drops out, or will not dim low.
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How it is operated
A wall station in each room, a low-voltage relay panel in the electrical room, or a time clock that runs the floor on a schedule. Which one fits is a question about who operates the space, not a badge on the box.
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What the floor was wired for
Adding dimming or a relay panel to a floor switched from a single point means new low-voltage or line-voltage runs — that is the scope, not a device swap.
When lighting controls aren’t the right job
Switching the occupants will actually operate is this job. Sensors in empty rooms, or a new office lighting layout, are not.
It is an occupancy or vacancy sensor in an empty room
That is occupancy controls.
It is daylight dimming at the perimeter
That is daylight controls.
Lighting controls questions
The floor is always on or always hunting.
Then the control does not match the occupants. A switch or a dimmer the occupants will actually operate is this job. A sensor in an empty room is occupancy controls.
Code asked for occupancy sensors.
Where rooms empty out, that is occupancy controls. On a constantly occupied floor, a panel or a switch is this job.
There is glass all along the perimeter.
Daylight dimming is daylight controls. This job is the switching the rest of the floor lives with.
The office walls moved.
The lighting layout is office lighting. Controls ride with that layout; they do not fix a grid that no longer matches the rooms.
What are the different types of lighting controls?
Switches, occupancy sensors, photocells, and networked panels. Title 24 defines a lot of this in California.
Still not sure it is the right job? Call (279) 972-9272 — available 24 hours.
Serving 19 communities across the Sacramento area
Litel Electric serves businesses throughout all 19 communities in our service area — from Davis and Woodland to Roseville, Folsom, and Elk Grove.
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