Kelly : (00:06 )
Welcome to buildings and beyond

Robb: (00:08 )
The podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment

Kelly : (00:13 )
By focusing on efficiency, accessibility and health.

Robb: (00:18 )
I’m Rob Aldrich

Kelly : (00:19 )
And I’m Kelly Westby.

Robb: (00:22 )
This week is part two in my conversation with Steve Klocke, architect and rater here at Steven Winter Associates. We were talking about his top 10 frustrations, top 10 multifamily design mistakes. And this week we talk about the second five on his list. We start by talking about lighting controls, which was probably the one that I found most surprising.

Steve: (00:48 )
Here’s the deal.

Robb: (00:49 )
All right. I was surprised to see this on your list. I was.

Steve: (00:52 )
Really? Because this is so often done poorly.

Robb: (00:56 )
And again, we’re talking about multifamily buildings. When there are just lights that are on always is that the issue?

Steve: (01:02 )
as far as I can tell, the only reasons to have lights on all the time is if you’re growing pot, which is certainly legal for some of you. Or in areas of, you know, Egress, et cetera. The trick is, in areas of egress. So there’s a lot of different parts of the code and lot of different codes that apply to lighting. So here’s the jist. 10 foot candle is the norm for supplying illumination to a space. Let’s focus on Egress, I guess, cause that’s areas that usually get screwed up. But when it’s not, when an ingress area is not in use, you can go down to as low as one foot candle and that a big jump in consumption of energy. So, you know, there’s parts of the energy code that says you have to have occupancy sensors in these, you know, dozen spaces. It doesn’t say you can’t have occupancy sensors in these other spaces, right? And so it’s a misinterpretation of the problem.

Robb: (02:11 )
So really, it’s not that people are lazy and don’t care about energy. But sometimes they think the code forbids?

Steve: (02:20 )
That’s my impression. Yeah. You know, and the rooms like electrical rooms, for safety reasons, et cetera. I’m not gonna argue with that. But you know, a lot of times you’re going to have these stairs where in some buildings we have, you know, for security reasons they don’t want people to use the stairs. And so they actually kind of make it harder to use the stairs. And yet they’ve got the lights on 24/7 full blast in there and just kills me. And so really what you need to do is put in controls. It’s all about controls. You know this from an engineering standpoint, Rob, it’s all about controls. And now, occupancy sensor, vacancy sensor, what’s the difference? An occupancy sensor will turn on when someone enters the room and it’ll turn off after a certain period afterwards once it stops sensing that person in there. A vacancy sensor, you typically will turn on yourself and then it’ll turn itself off. And there are some spaces where one is appropriate and some of the places where the other is appropriate.

Robb: (03:21 )
And that’s not a timer? You turn it on, and then there is an occupancy sensor that senses you leave

Steve: (03:27 )
In this room we’re sitting in right now, It is an occupancy sensor, and it doesn’t matter if the sun is shining bright through the windows, this light comes on, which drives me nuts. And it will eventually shut off, but you know, think of all the startup, you know, wear and tear on the lights, and the consumption, et cetera. And so, you know, an occupancy sensor makes sense in your egress areas where, look, if it’s an emergency, you don’t want someone have to flip the switch and turn the lights on and you know a hundred people plowing over you because you’re the first one through the door.

Robb: (03:59 )
I see. So, a vacancy sensor, in this office in which we’re