Aisle, zone, or fixture?
The first decision is how finely to control your warehouse: by aisle, by zone, or fixture by fixture, and whether your cold areas need a different answer. That choice drives cost, savings, and incentive eligibility more than the brand of the fixtures does.
A warehouse is mostly empty
Walk any distribution center during a shift and count the people. Most aisles are empty most of the time, and most fixtures are lit for nobody. That is why warehouses are among the best candidates for networked controls, and why utility programs favor them.
The trick is making the empty aisles dim without making the busy ones annoying. Drivers notice immediately when an aisle is dark as they turn in, and the first complaint is often enough to get the sensors taped over or the system set to “on”. We design to avoid that first complaint.
Aisles, travel lanes, and look-ahead
We zone by how vehicles and people move, not by the fixture layout:
- Racking aisles get their own zones, with sensors at the aisle ends and lenses shaped for a narrow aisle.
- Cross-aisles are the early warning system. Their sensors wake the first fixtures of the aisle a forklift is about to enter.
- Travel lanes hold their light longer, because constant cycling under heavy traffic is distracting and saves little.
- Pick and pack areas run on the shift schedule with task tuning, and on occupancy only after hours.
Mounting height decides which sensor you can use. At 30 to 45 feet, a standard ceiling sensor mostly sees racking. We test candidate high-bay sensors on the bench at the planned height and lens pattern before we specify them, and we revisit coverage whenever you re-rack.
LLLC, NLC, and how fine to go
Luminaire-level lighting control puts a sensor and a control node in every fixture. Zoning becomes a software decision, a re-rack needs reprogramming instead of an electrician, and every fixture reports its own energy use. DLC estimates average savings of about 49% for networked lighting controls and 63% for NLC with LLLC. Your results will depend on hours, traffic, and how far we can tune, and we show you our assumptions before you commit. Our NLC vs. LLLC article has the full comparison.
We don’t recommend PoE for warehouses with long cable runs. Wireless LLLC is usually the simpler and less expensive path in a big box.
Cold storage is a different building
Coolers and freezers break assumptions that hold everywhere else:
- Body heat hides. Passive infrared sensors detect warm bodies moving against a cooler background. A worker in a freezer suit shows less heat, so detection range shrinks. We test detection on the bench with insulated clothing and add a door contact where needed.
- Ratings matter. Every fixture, driver, sensor, and wireless node needs an operating temperature rating that covers the room. Battery-powered devices lose capacity in the cold, so we avoid them in freezers.
- Doors are the hard part. Condensation and frost form where warm air meets cold, so devices near doors need moisture ratings and careful placement.
- Light is a refrigeration load. Every watt of lighting inside a freezer becomes heat the refrigeration system has to remove, so savings in cold rooms count twice.
Dock doors
Open dock doors bring in daylight, rain, trucks, and the occasional bird. We tune daylight sensing with the doors both open and closed, keep dock lights on their own control, and set sensitivity so a truck passing outside doesn’t wake the first bay.
Incentives and code
Warehouses fit utility programs well because the savings are large and easy to verify. In TVA territory, which includes Tupelo Water & Light, MLGW, and the North Alabama distributors, EnergyRight requires pre-approval before purchase and gives additional credit for networked controls. Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power run their own commercial programs. In every case, we choose products from the DLC Qualified Products List, prepare the application, and coordinate with your local power company and program staff. We don’t quote incentive amounts until the program confirms them in writing.
Energy code requirements for warehouse alterations vary by jurisdiction, and adoption differs across Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama, so we confirm the applicable edition with the authority having jurisdiction. Our functional testing documentation follows what recent editions such as the 2024 IECC (section C408.3) expect.
What we’d do first
Ride along with a forklift driver for half an hour. The routes, speeds, and blind turns tell us how to zone. Then read our warehouse lighting controls guide, or follow a 410,000 sq ft distribution center scenario from survey to incentive.
