Office & Lab Lighting Controls

The document will explain the general purpose and use of the Lutron 2-Button with Raise/Lower light switch. The use as it applies to daylight harvesting will also be explained.

Prerequisites: None

1. The Lutron 2-Button with Raise/Lower light switch is a simple switch which toggles the lights both and off. The top button (marked with a light bulb, see Figure 1) will turn the lights on while the bottom button (marked with the word “Lutron”, see Figure 1) will shut the lights off. It is important to note that there is a ramp time involved with this process. A “ramp” is closely related to a fade. When depressing the top button, the lights will ramp to 100% brightness in about 3 seconds. The same is true for depressing the off switch, which will ramp the lights to 0% (effectively off).

   The Raise/Lower feature is equivalent to fading the lights both higher (towards 100%, fully on) and lower (towards 0%, off.) This feature uses the 2 buttons found in the center of the switch, marked with an up arrow and a down arrow.

2. Daylight harvesting is a feature enabled in the master lighting control system. Daylight harvesting uses a sensor located in every office (a small circular bulb attached to a ceiling tile) which measures the amount of daylight coming through the windows. The system automatically adjusts the amount of lighting which the office lights will then output. If the outside light is very bright, the office lights may be very dim. This feature is used for energy savings and is one of the requirements for out building to get LEEDS Silver status.  For more information about the Daylight Harvesting feature, check out his PDF.

When daylight harvesting is active and your lights have been dimmed, the Raise/Lower features of the Lutron light switch may become unusable. Note that this is different than “disabled.”  The Daylight Harvesting feature will not allow the end user to raise the lighting in the room higher than the level harvesting has set.  However, you may be able to lower the lights unless harvesting has them set to lowest possible level. The On/Off buttons will always work whether or not Daylight Harvesting is controlling the lighting output.