Energy Academy
Controls & Daylighting11 / 13

Time Scheduling & Integration with BMS

Scheduled on/off, seasonal adjustment, linking to occupancy sensors.

9 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026


Some of the simplest lighting savings come from a clock: ensuring lights are on only during the hours a space is actually used. Time scheduling, especially integrated with the building management system, catches the lights that occupancy and daylight controls miss, and it forms the outer layer of a good control hierarchy. This lesson covers the wasteful default it replaces, basic and BMS-integrated scheduling, the cleaning problem, and how the control layers stack together.

In this lesson

  • 01The wasteful default
  • 02Basic time control
  • 03BMS integration
  • 04Cleaning and out-of-hours strategy
  • 05Layering the controls
  • 06Sources and further reading