Building owners and facility managers have a largely untapped potential for savings through LED installation, with even greater opportunities for savings available by installing networked lighting controls simultaneous with LEDs, according to an article from Building Operating Management on the FacilitiesNet website.

Energy use is the single biggest operating expense for the nation’s commercial office buildings, accounting for about a third of typical operating budgets, according to the Energy Star program. 

By 2035, the Department of Energy predicts that LEDs will constitute 86 percent of all lighting products in the United States, saving electricity equal to the total consumed annually by 45 million homes and reducing energy costs by nearly $52 billion.

With LEDs already nearing market saturation in the residential sector, the vast bulk of the projected savings will derive from aggressive adoption of LEDs in the commercial and industrial sector, where the technology is now at less than 13 percent market adoption.  

Capitalizing on this opportunity hinges on rapid, widespread commercial adoption of networked lighting controls — systems that link up lighting fixtures, sensors, and switches either wirelessly or through control wiring. 

Read the article.