For years lighting controls have been marketed on convenience, security and the beauty they can create. Now, the green building movement places a spotlight on the energy-saving features of lighting controls, and provides builders and architects a fresh way of selling in a down market. Or all the products in a new home, lighting control products might be the only ones designed specifically to save energy, not consume it. A dimmer switch here and an occupancy sensor there can result in substantial household energy savings of up to 20 percent, according to the California Energy Commission. "In the past, from a manufacturer's perspective, we weren't telling people to put in lighting controls because they save energy," says Gary Meshberg, business development manager, Lightolier Controls, and chairman of the Home Lighting Control Alliance. "But with rolling brownouts in California, rising oil prices, discussions of power grids, and so much attention on movies like 'An Inconvenient Truth,' energy has become the lead hook.
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