A Comparison: Low-voltage and Overlay Lighting Control Systems

Owners and lessors of U.S. offices typically spend over 40 percent of their total electricity bill on lighting. It is now possible to achieve up to an 80 percent reduction in those costs through advanced lighting control systems and LED lighting technology.

Almost every lighting control system available today is an overlay system. An overlay system uses either a wireless or wired network to control ac line voltage powered lights. These systems are called overlay systems because the control network is overlaid on top of the existing ac lighting power infrastructure.

In contrast, low-voltage lighting control systems supply an intelligent low-voltage network that both powers and controls LED light fixtures in a single system, in addition to providing building intelligence. 

This whitepaper from CommScope compares low-voltage lighting platforms to overlay systems and demonstrates their higher energy savings (averaging 75 percent), lower installation cost, flexibility to offer a broader range of functionality, and their enhanced ability to scale in larger deployments.

Many trends have recently emerged that are resulting in the increased availability and adoption of lighting control systems in office spaces. Lighting control systems for offices have been available for over a decade, but it wasn't until recent years that the number of available solutions began to rise. This marked increase is due in part to the following trends:

Download this whitepaper today to learn how low-voltage control systems have superior benefits for commercial spaces being newly constructed or those that are undergoing renovations and desire a reliable, highly energy efficient controls solution. Low-voltage benefits include:

Low-voltage and wired overlay solutions are better suited for environments that are sensitive to noise, those that have high security safeguards, or those where lighting is mission critical to the tasks being performed. On the other hand, wireless overlay may be suitable for smaller, non mission-critical areas or for applications where accessing wiring spaces is cost prohibitive. The key is understanding the differences between low-voltage and overlay control systems.