Productization
Lighting

Lighting Utilization

The percentage of time circuits were actually on, averaged across the spaces in scope. Where Schedule Compliance asks whether the lights followed the rule, utilization asks how much they were actually used — most useful for spaces with no fixed schedule, where it exposes a stuck sensor or a failing circuit.

01 Metric Definition

What it measures and how it is calculated

What it measures

The percentage of time lighting circuits were on, averaged across the spaces in scope. At portfolio level, the percentage of sites whose utilization average falls within the expected per-space band. Utilization answers how much the lights were actually used — distinct from Schedule Compliance, which asks whether the lights followed the rule. A circuit can be fully schedule-compliant yet show low utilization because the schedule only calls for a few hours a day. The metric is most useful for spaces with no fixed schedule (parking, back of house tied to occupancy or photocell), where there is no clock to compare against.

How it is calculated

utilization_circuit = intervals where state == ON / total intervals × 100

utilization_space = average of utilization_circuit across the circuits in the space

utilization_site = average of utilization_space across the spaces at the site

Portfolio: a site is in_band when band_low ≤ utilization_site ≤ band_high; the card shows count(sites in band) / count(sites)

Unit: %. Requires per-circuit on/off state at high frequency, and an expected utilization band defined per space

Reference thresholds

RangeClassificationInterpretation
Sales floor 70–90%Expected band (example)Floor lit through operating hours; below band suggests a failing circuit or breaker trips, above band suggests after-hours operation
Parking 80–100%Expected band (example)Sensor- or photocell-driven; very high is normal for dusk-to-dawn, a sustained drop points to a failing circuit or clustering lamp failures
Back of house 40–70%Expected band (example)Occupancy-driven; too high signals a stuck or miscalibrated occupancy sensor, too low signals an intermittently failing circuit
Bathrooms 30–60%Expected band (example)Occupancy-driven; out-of-band high points to a stuck sensor, out-of-band low to an intermittent circuit fault

Bands are examples only — calibrate per client, site, and space before activating compliance reporting. Utilization is a flat percentage, not per-hour compliance: a circuit running 12 h/day at the right hours and one running 12 h/day at the wrong hours score identical utilization. Only Schedule Compliance distinguishes them.

Portfolio compliance target

The target percentage of sites in band (reference: 85%) should be defined and agreed with each client. This default is a starting point only, and the per-space bands it is measured against are configured per client, site, and space.

02 Impact

How this metric moves the customer value drivers

The table below shows how moving Utilization impacts each customer value driver the product is designed to improve — the metric page explains the mechanism; the product pages express the magnitude.

Value driverImpact strengthHow Utilization moves this lever
Energy savingsDirectOn-hours are the dominant driver of lighting kWh. A circuit running well above its expected band — a sales floor lit after close, a sensor-controlled space stuck on — is direct, recoverable energy waste. Because lighting is commandable, catching out-of-band high utilization lets Keedian revert the circuit to schedule and confirm the correction, reducing spend rather than just reporting it.
Avoided truck rollsIndirect, leading indicatorOut-of-band low utilization surfaces an intermittently failing circuit, breaker trips, or clustering lamp and ballast failures before they become a dark-space complaint. Acting on the early signal lets a maintenance check be scoped and batched into a planned visit instead of an emergency dispatch, and groups failing lamps into a single relamp rather than repeat lamp-out calls.
03 Detection

How it surfaces and when it is reviewed

How it surfaces

Alarm
Fires when a circuit's on-fraction falls outside its space's expected band for the period — too high for a sensor-controlled space, or too low for a space that should be lit.
Circuit
Utilization shown out of band in the Site Dashboard per-circuit table, with the circuit's on-fraction and its expected band displayed.
Site
Individual circuit or space flagged in the Lighting Detail or Top/Worst Performers tab.
Portfolio
Share of sites whose utilization average falls within band drops below the agreed target in the Executive Summary dashboard.

Review cadence

Monthly
Reviewed during MBR using the portfolio trend chart.
Weekly
Operations team reviews worst performers and circuits drifting toward a band edge.
Real-time
Alert triggered for circuits sustained outside band where configured.
04 Alarms

Principal alarms derived from this metric

The table below summarizes the alarms that fire directly from Utilization. Each row links to the full operational detail (trigger, preconditions, action plan, human role, escalation, prevention) in the SOPs catalog.

AlarmDescriptionSeverityTierAI executes?Value driversSOP
Utilization out of band A lighting circuit's on-fraction falls outside the expected band for its space — too high for a sensor-controlled area, or too low for a space that should be lit. Medium Essential Hybrid Energy savings · Avoided truck rolls Open SOP →
More alarms in development

Roadmap (single-metric): utilization trend degradation, low-utilization clustering tied to lamp-life burn-hour tracking. Composite alarms in development (multi-metric): utilization correlated with Schedule Compliance to separate sensor and circuit faults from schedule faults, and ambient-light integration to bring photocell-controlled spaces into band.

05 Actions

What to do based on the alarm

The action plan for each alarm lives on its own SOP page in the SOPs catalog — with the diagnostic steps, human role, value drivers, escalation, and prevention specific to that alarm. The list below maps each alarm to its SOP.

  • Utilization out of band → — A lighting circuit's on-fraction falls outside the expected band for its space — too high for a sensor-controlled area, or too low for a space that should be lit.

Sensor-controlled space, no fixed schedule (metric-level — read across alarms)

Utilization is the primary signal for parking and back-of-house spaces driven by occupancy or photocell, where there is no schedule to check. Out-of-band high on these spaces points to a stuck occupancy sensor or miscalibrated detection — verify and recalibrate or replace the sensor, do not change a schedule that does not exist. Out-of-band low points to an intermittently failing circuit, breaker trips, or clustering lamp failures — scope a maintenance check. The per-circuit action plan lives in the Utilization out of band SOP in the SOPs catalog.

Responsible
Keedian operations team
Urgency
Medium — sensor faults waste energy or leave a space dark; neither is an emergency unless paired with a comfort or safety impact
Client approval
No for diagnosis — Yes before dispatching a technician where the agreement requires it

Same space across many sites vs. one site only (metric-level)

Read the failure mode from the portfolio view before acting. When the same space type is out of band across many sites, the expected band — or the template behind it — is wrong for that space type; correct it centrally rather than dispatching a technician to each site. When one site is out of band on its own, treat it as a local sensor or circuit fault and dispatch a maintenance check. Confirming this split first prevents a fleet of unnecessary truck rolls.

Responsible
Keedian operations team
Urgency
Medium
Client approval
No for internal investigation — Yes before any band change is applied

Photocell-controlled spaces — exclude until ambient-light integration ships (metric-level)

Exterior and parking circuits driven by a photocell follow ambient light, not the clock or a fixed occupancy pattern, so their on-fraction varies with daylight and season. Exclude these spaces from utilization compliance, or set a wide tolerance band, until ambient-light integration ships — otherwise normal dusk-to-dawn switching reads as out of band. Document any space treated this way so it is interpreted correctly in the MBR.

Responsible
Keedian operations team
Urgency
Low — informational, prevents false positives
Client approval
No

Data or metering issue suspected (metric-level — not a single alarm)

If per-circuit on/off values look implausible or contradict the platform-layer comms-health signal, escalate internally to the technical team before treating any out-of-band reading as real. Do not report the affected site as out of band in the MBR until the data issue is resolved. Document the suspected problem and the period affected so it can be excluded or corrected in the compliance calculation.

Responsible
Keedian technical team
Urgency
High — unreliable data affects compliance reporting and ROI calculations
Client approval
No
06 Escalation

When and how to escalate

Per-alarm escalation criteria live in the Escalation block of each SOP in the SOPs catalog. The patterns below are metric-level — read from the portfolio view, not from any single alarm firing.

Portfolio-level patterns — typically communicated in the MBR
  • Share of sites in band below target for two or more consecutive months
  • The same space type out of band across many sites — the expected band or its template is wrong for that space type; correct centrally rather than dispatching
  • Sites with persistent out-of-band utilization over multiple months that survive every per-SOP remediation
  • Rising lamp-out reports clustered against low-utilization circuits — a candidate for a planned group relamp across the affected sites
Cross-alarm urgency — typically requires out-of-cycle communication
  • A space that should be lit reading out-of-band low during operating hours — a dark sales floor or back of house is an operational and safety issue, not a monthly trend item
  • Data-integrity issue affecting per-circuit on/off values across the portfolio — pause MBR reporting until resolved
  • Any utilization finding with direct safety, regulatory, or reputational impact for the client
07 Prevention

Controls to avoid recurring issues

Configuration controls

  • Define and agree the expected utilization band for every space type — sales floor, parking, back of house, bathrooms — before activating compliance reporting
  • Commission occupancy and photocell sensors against each space's expected band, and re-verify after any lighting retrofit or sensor replacement
  • Exclude photocell-controlled exterior and parking spaces, or set a wide tolerance, until ambient-light integration ships, and document the exception

Monitoring controls

  • Configure automated alerts for circuits sustained outside their expected band rather than reacting to a single interval
  • Cross-reference utilization with Schedule Compliance monthly — where Schedule Compliance is clean but utilization is off, the issue is the sensor or circuit, not the schedule
  • Track low-utilization circuits against lamp-out reports to catch clustering lamp and ballast failures before they become emergency calls

Reporting controls

  • Include the utilization portfolio trend in every MBR
  • Report utilization by space type — this makes it easy to tell whether an out-of-band pattern is isolated to one space configuration or systemic
  • Maintain a log of band definitions and any photocell exclusions, with the date applied, so historical utilization data is interpreted correctly