When a property manager calls about lighting control, the conversation almost always starts the same way: they want energy savings, but they don't want to gut the ceilings. Fair enough. The good news is you almost never have to.
Most of our office retrofits in the East End and along East Avenue are buildings from the 1920s through the 1980s. The wiring is mixed — original BX in some spaces, MC cable in others, occasional surprises behind the drop ceilings. We plan around what's there instead of fighting it.
Wireless where it makes sense, wired where it matters
For private offices and conference rooms, wireless occupancy sensors and battery-free switches (Lutron Vive, EnOcean) keep the install footprint small. We pull no new line-voltage runs and finish a floor in a few evenings without disrupting tenants.
For open floors, garages and exterior fixtures we still prefer wired DALI or 0–10V control because the long-term reliability is better and the dimming is smoother on the eye.
Daylight harvesting is worth the effort
Rochester gets surprisingly bright south-facing daylight even in February. Pair a daylight sensor with the perimeter zone and you'll cut perimeter lighting load by 30–50% during business hours without anyone noticing.
The trick is the calibration. Out of the box, most sensors hunt — lights pulse up and down as clouds pass. We calibrate over two visits, a week apart, with the blinds in their normal position. After that they sit quiet.
What we'd do differently
If we could rewind to our first commercial retrofit, we'd spend more time on the keypad engraving conversation up front. Tenants live with those keypads every day. Generic 'On / Off / Dim' labels feel cheap. Engrave them with the room's actual scenes — Presentation, Meeting, Cleaning, Off — and the system suddenly feels intentional.