Demand Response & Daylight Controls
Demand Response & Daylight Controls : What Every Project Manager Needs to Know California's energy code continues to evolve, and in 2025, demand response (DR) and daylight controls are no longer optional—they're required for most commercial lighting projects.
While NRCA-LTI-04-A focuses on demand response , projects often overlap with daylight dimming zones. Testing ensures the lighting reduces appropriately during daylight hours and additionally dims when a DR signal is received. Systems must be clearly configured to distinguish between automatic daylight response and demand response triggers.
PDF 2022 Title 24 Design Guide
Comprehensive solution integrates multiple lighting control strategies—occupancy sensing, 0-10V dimming, daylight harvesting, partial-ON, partial-OFF and demand response
California Title 24 2016 Section 130.1(e) Demand Responsive Controls — Lighting and Automation In buildings larger than 10,000 square feet, total lighting power shall be capable of being automatically reduced by demand response signal by at least 15%.
PDF Daylighting
The luminaire length threshold for mandatory segmentation and control was changed from four feet to eight feet to better align with common product availability and industry practice. This proposal recommended that manual controls be capable of reducing lighting power below the power level set by daylight responsive controls .
Demand Response 110.12(c),(e),130.1(e) Buildings having a total installed lighting power of ≥ 4,000W (excluding spaces not requiring multilevel control ) shall be capable of bi-directional demand response communication and automatically reducing general lighting power (except in excluded spaces). For buildings that do require both DR and controlled receptacles, including all required ...
California Tightens Title 24 Lighting Code Again
In response to sensor control signals, the daylight -responsive controls must be able to respond via continuous dimming in zones with multilevel lighting. Where daylight -enhanced light levels are greater than 150 percent of the general lighting design level, the general lighting power in that daylit zone must be reduced by at least 90 percent.
The multilevel lighting controls shall provide and enable continuous dimming from 100 percent to 10 percent or lower of lighting power for other controls , including manual dimmers, shut-off controls , daylight responsive controls , and demand responsive lighting controls .
PDF Title 24
Astronomical timeclock shall ensure the lights are off during daylight hours. Occupancy sensor shall provide Full ON and Partial OFF control . Occupancy sensing not required for lighting mounted higher than 24 feet. Automatic reduction of lighting power by at least 80% (Full OFF complies) when zones are vacant for more than 20 minutes.
The 2008 Title 24 marked the first time that demand response requirements appeared in Title 24, and the measures were limited to lighting control systems in large retail buildings (with sales floor areas greater than 50,000ft2).