Commercial Lighting Controls

Lighting controls cover everything that switches, dims, or schedules a light - from a single dimmer to a building-wide relay panel. On commercial projects, energy codes like Title 24 and ASHRAE 90.1 make many mandatory: occupancy sensing, daylight harvesting, and automatic shutoff. This page points to the right family - dimmers, sensors, and photocells - plus the contactors and panels that tie them together. Lumera Electric's range serves contractors and facilities at trade pricing.

Commercial Lighting Controls

What counts as a lighting control?

A lighting control is any device that switches, dims, or schedules a lighting load. The category spans manual switches and dimmers, occupancy and vacancy sensors, photocells, time clocks, contactors, and networked systems. They range from a single wall dimmer to a building-wide control panel tying every zone together.

What's the difference between manual and automatic lighting controls?

Who triggers them differs. A manual control — a switch or dimmer — requires a person to operate it. An automatic control acts on a condition: an occupancy sensor reacts to motion, a photocell reacts to daylight, and a time clock reacts to a schedule. Most commercial projects combine both.

What is a lighting contactor or relay panel?

Both switch large lighting loads a wall switch cannot handle. A lighting contactor is a heavy-duty relay that turns whole circuits on and off, rated for 20 to 60+ amps and driven by a low-voltage signal. A relay (control) panel houses many contactors to switch dozens of zones from one enclosure.

What lighting controls does energy code require?

Commercial energy codes mandate automatic shutoff plus occupancy and daylight response. Under ASHRAE 90.1, IECC, and California Title 24, most spaces need occupancy sensors, automatic time-based shutoff, and daylight harvesting near windows and skylights. The exact triggers depend on room type and the code edition your jurisdiction enforces.

Should I use wired or wireless lighting controls?

It depends on the building. Wired controls run dedicated low-voltage control wiring and suit new construction where walls are open. Wireless controls use RF between devices and suit retrofits, avoiding new wire pulls. Networked systems of either type add scheduling, zoning, and energy monitoring from software.

Choosing a specific control? Set light levels with LED Dimmers, automate by motion with Occupancy Sensors, and switch outdoor lighting by daylight with Dusk-to-Dawn Photocells.

Lutron lighting controls run from single-room dimmers to RadioRA 3 and Vive systems, stocked through an authorized distributor account.