Building owners and managers are faced with many challenges when considering energy efficiency building upgrade projects. Investments in these types of projects involve trade-offs between the benefits provided and the costs required. Over the past few years, there has been a growing focus on building occupants. The role of occupants is shifting to help drive technology investment in order to provide an improved occupant experience. The challenges surrounding building investments have transitioned to mirror this shift. Building upgrade projects must balance cost savings associated with improved energy efficiency with creating benefits for all stakeholders, including creating an optimal experience for building occupants. Lighting upgrades provide substantial energy savings and are often cheaper than retrofit projects for other building systems, such as HVAC or IT. A key part of creating an optimal experience for all occupants is lighting. Lighting upgrades, especially when combined with lighting controls, allow lighting systems to help guide the future of a building. Networked lighting control systems seem to represent a complex landscape for facility managers to navigate. Upgrading a building’s lighting system can seem particularly challenging when there are multiple stakeholders involved in the decision, such as in higher education. Demand for an optimal experience, which is critical for colleges and universities, guides the energy savings investments that institutions make.
In this Guidehouse Insights webinar, Krystal Maxwell, senior research analyst at Guidehouse Insights; Casey Talon, research director at Guidehouse Insights; and Nolan Bello, business unit manager at Audacy Wireless Lighting Controls, a division of IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC., discussed perceptions of lighting controls in higher education and the factors considered for campus building projects. They also looked at various control types that are expected to be prevalent in higher education institutions. The webinar offered insights into how lighting controls can provide an optimal experience for all stakeholders on campus, including decision makers, facility managers, students, and faculty.