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Decoding California’s Title 24, Part 6

William Attardi on August 26, 2025

Commercial building energy codes regulate the design of nonresidential buildings to minimize energy consumption. While the majority of U.S. states adopt model codes and standards, the State of California developed its own code: Title 24, Part 6 of the state’s Building Standards Code. The latest version was released in 2025 and will take effect January 1, 2026. Title 24, Part 6 covers residential, nonresidential, high-rise residential, and hotel/motel buildings. Title 24, Part 6 contains robust, detailed lighting and control requirements. It requires a broad range of controls to ensure general lighting is turned Off or reduced when not needed.  .  For lighting, a number of changes have been made, mostly adjustments and clarifications. Decoding California’s Title 24, Part 6

Memo: Clarifications to the NLC 2020 Report – 2025 update

William Attardi on February 22, 2025

 “Energy Savings from Networked Lighting Control (NLC) Systems With and Without LLLC”  Key updates include refined clarification of the definition of luminaire-level lighting controls (LLLC) used in the report, elaborated explanations on several important aspects of the control savings factors (CSFs), and distinguishing the calculation methodology between high-end trim savings and other control strategies (occupancy sensing and daylight harvesting). The memo emphasizes that the documented CSFs reflect average savings across a diverse set of projects, where optimal programming varied, and highlights considerations for small sample bias in evaluations. Building-specific CSFs and their limitations are explained, and the memo differentiates findings from a related redesign study to avoid misinterpretation. Lastly, an updated executive summary and errata sheet correct clerical errors, reaffirming that NLC systems with LLLC offer higher energy savings potential but encouraging ongoing updates as technology and datasets evolve.

TRAINING: How to Design a Lighting Control System by C. Webster Marsh and Craig DiLouie

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

Based on EE105: Lighting Control System Design, a new course in the Lighting Controls Association’s Education Express program provides detailed information about designing an effective lighting control solution. In Part 1 of this Lighting Controls System Design series, we learned about key documentation including the Content Intent Narrative (CIN), Sequence of Operations (SOO), and Owner Project Requirements (OPR). The next step in design development in Part 2, is to turn these requirements and conceptual design into a realized design. In Part 3 of this series on how to design a lighting control system, we will discuss installation and post-occupancy. You will learn about bidding, responding to questions from installers, reviewing submittals and defending your design, following-through with the installation of the equipment, functional testing, training essential staff, and ultimately ensuring the owner is satisfied. How to Design a Lighting Control System

Telling Time – 12-hour time is a very ancient system that traces back to the Mesopotamian empires. They had a cultural fixation with the number 12, used a base-12 numerical system, and divided up most things into 12ths whenever possible – including day and night. The 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night system spread throughout Europe and the Middle East and has defied multiple attempts to change it over the centuries. Also, for anyone curious as to why there was such a love of the number 12, it was because that was how they counted on their hand. Look at your hand. Notice how each of your fingers minus your thumb has three easily identifiable parts to it. They used to count by using their thumb to count each part of the finger, much in the same way we count to 10 using our fingers today. So, 12 was the max you could count on one hand.