Engineers discuss how electrification, advanced lighting controls and occupant-focused design are redefining office buildings to meet evolving energy codes and workforce expectations.
Electrical and lighting insights
- The convergence of integrated lighting controls, HVAC and building automation systems is critical for achieving energy efficiency, flexibility and occupant comfort.
- While technologies like human-centric lighting and advanced controls add upfront cost, even small gains in employee productivity can far outweigh energy costs in modern office buildings.
Respondents:
- Niki Fox, PE, LEED AP, Principal, Syska Hennessy Group, New York
- John Yoon, PE, LEED AP, Principal, McGuire Engineers Inc., Chicago
What are some key differences in electrical, lighting and power systems you might incorporate in an office building, compared to other projects?
Niki Fox: The controls system and integration into other systems such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and audio visual (AV).
John Yoon: Start by asking about the design goals of an office and if our electrical basis of design supports or detracts from those goals. For our clients, an office building needs to:
• Help attract/retain talent.
• Maximize employee productivity.
• Increase collaboration/communication.
• Allow adaptation to evolving business needs.
• Meet or exceed minimum code requirements.
• Do all of this at a reasonable cost/return on investment.
However, the owner’s project requirements (OPR) for a particular client may place emphasis on some of these more than others. There are numerous examples. Redundancy/resiliency provisions that would be common in a data center environment to ensure business continuity would be difficult to justify for a commercial office setting. Or the various lighting/receptacle control requirements in the prevailing energy conservation codes may seem excessively complicated to a client who doesn’t have the technical insight to understand the code. Or cybersecurity requirements for the office’s various Internet of Things systems (lighting, building automation systems, AV, etc.) may be incredibly important to the client due to potential for data breaches or operational disruptions to the line of business. Sitting down with the client early in the design process to establish a clear OPR and basis of design is incredibly helpful in this process.
How does your team work with the architect, owner and other project team members so the electrical/power systems are flexible and sustainable?
Niki Fox: We cultivate a full understanding of the program and future add/moves or changes. We use busway technology and locate panels closer to the end user to minimize feeder runs.
John Yoon: Communication and education. The engineer’s goal is to ensure that their design meets the needs of the client. While flexibility and sustainability are good and desirable, the question is what do those concepts mean to the client and are they of value to them?
Each client may have a very different concept of what makes a design flexible and sustainable. For every client who embraces sustainability and has cutting-edge corporate environmental, social and governance requirements, there are a multitude of other clients who have no clue what prevailing standard practices are or their relative importance.
The key to remember is that many clients are rarely involved in the construction process. This is the opportunity to share our insight and guide them in understanding the relative pros and cons of the various options. For some clients, minimum compliance with the energy code may be acceptable. For others, LEED certification may be a goal after they learn what it entails. Communication and education early in the design process are critical in identifying reasonable sustainability goals that have client buy-in.
Sophisticated lighting controls, holistic lighting and other techniques are often incorporated into design. What unique lighting systems are you working on in office buildings?
Niki Fox: Combined solutions with lighting and HVAC in the same system.
John Yoon: Human-centric lighting (HCL), using tunable white light fixtures to mimic natural daylight patterns, is endlessly promoted by lighting manufacturers. In educational settings, using HCL to support circadian rhythms has been demonstrated to promote occupant productivity, wellness and comfort. However, because it is more expensive than traditional light fixtures, HCL has always been one of the first things to be value-engineered out of an office building project when faced with budget constraints. The fact that HCL can use more energy when attempting to replicate daylight only makes the issue worse.
Ultimately, the determining factor is the value of the employees compared to these other factors. Labor costs dramatically outweigh real estate and energy costs in a typical office building. As such, incremental improvements in employee productivity can dramatically outweigh the costs associated with including HCL and similar holistic lighting and control systems. The hard part is finding the client who buys into the concept and is willing to make that investment.
Are you seeing more smart grid or microgrid aspects on such projects? If so, how have you served these needs?
John Yoon: No, it hasn’t been economically viable up to this point. However, after 20+ years of minimal growth in electrical demand, the rapid emergence of AI/hyperscale data centers and large industrial developments are starting to strain the nation’s electrical grid. That skyrocketing demand and the inability of utilities and regional transmission organizations to quickly bring new generation and transmission infrastructure online has resulted in dramatic increases in electricity costs. As energy costs continue to increase and utility incentives for their deployment become more accessible, I expect customer-owned distributed energy systems/distributed energy resources to become more common.
That potential for escalating energy costs and reduced reliability for consumers has motivated several states to adopt significant changes in their energy policy. For example, numerous states have launched virtual power plant (VPP) policy initiatives and grid-scale energy storage mandates to address these potential future shortfalls in electrical generation and transmission capacity. Customer-owned VPPs and grid-scale storage are crucial stopgap measures in optimizing what capacity is currently available. The primary concern is that the subsidies to support these new programs are typically funded by electrical rate hikes. While the claim is that these investments will eventually lower costs, that is still speculative.
What are some of the challenges when designing electrical, power and lighting for office building projects?
Niki Fox: Panel capacity and space for new panels.
John Yoon: One surprising challenge is that we are frequently asked to reuse existing fluorescent light fixtures in office remodeling projects. The client often takes the attitude that there is no reason why functional light fixtures shouldn’t be reused to save money. Even if energy code requirements didn’t apply, accommodating this request could be a very bad idea. There is a growing movement across the country to ban the sale of fluorescent lamps. As of late 2025, 16 states plus Washington, D.C., have enacted or are in the process of enacting fluorescent lamp bans. Oddly enough, the statutory language in many of these bans in intended to eliminate mercury, not to support energy efficiency.
Mercury, while integral to fluorescent lamp operation, is also a hazardous substance that can cause severe neurological issues and kidney disfunction. Per the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the permissible exposure limit for mercury vapor is only 0.1 milligram (mg) per cubic meter for an 8-hour period. The mercury content of a standard 4-foot T8 fluorescent light bulb is dramatically higher than that at 4 to 5 mg. While the temptation is to take a wait and see approach, the trend would suggest that all states will eventually move toward a total ban. As a point of reference, a fluorescent ban took effect for European Union countries in 2023.
What kind of lighting designs have you incorporated into such a project, either for energy efficiency or to increase the occupant’s experience? Discuss the use of LEDs or other light sources.
Niki Fox: High-efficiency LED light fixtures.
John Yoon: We’re unlikely to see any revolutionary energy efficiency improvements soon like when the industry converted from fluorescent to LED. Recent advancements in LED technology have only resulted in smaller, incremental improvements. As a result, the current focus of the energy codes is on increasing the functionality of the associated lighting control systems. The concept is simple. You can save energy by only turning lights on when they are needed and only to the intensity required to provide the light levels needed to perform any task.
However, it’s a bit more complicated in practice. While automating those functions can result in more persistent energy savings, people typically want control over their environment. And when those controls don’t operate as expected, the tendency is for the people to attempt to override those controls. The easiest solution is not to specify different control equipment, but to ensure that proper commissioning and end user training is performed.
When designing lighting systems for these types of structures, what design factors are building owners asking for? Are there any particular technical advantages that are or need to be considered?
Niki Fox: Controls are key.
John Yoon: The trend in lighting is clearly toward increased granularity in lighting control systems, driven by increasingly stringent energy codes. As those codes push projects to maximize controllability, owners have less flexibility to opt out of advanced functionality and we must instead decide how best to deliver that control in a practical, cost-effective way. Once the code-mandated functionality extends down to individual light fixtures, luminaire-level lighting controls (LLLC) with integrated sensors become a logical solution. Conventional hardwired lighting control networks — whether MSTP over four‑pair UTP, DALI over two‑pair cable or similar architectures — still carry a reputation for robustness and reliability. The challenge is that modern control necessitates more devices, more zones and more interfaces and every one of those network nodes needs to somehow be connected back to the system. As the control granularity shifts from zone-based wiring to fixture-by-fixture LLLC connectivity, the labor and material required to provide that control wiring to every luminaire quickly become a primary cost driver and, on many projects, a barrier to implementation. Wireless controls remove most of that dedicated control cabling, thus simplifying installation and making code-compliant levels of control financially attainable.
