ADInstruments owner Michael Macknight said when sunshine entered an office, the lights automatically dimmed in the newly refurbished Donald Reid warehouse.
But only if someone was in the office.
Every office had motion sensors to turn the lights on and off when someone entered or left.
The ''smart'' lighting system installed in the 5400sq m of floor space between Vogel and Cumberland Sts sensed the amount of daylight coming in the 100 double-glazed windows and adjusted the brightness of the bulbs in the 300 LED fittings.
Philips New Zealand head of lighting Gordon Wiffen said Philips supplied most of the LED bulbs for the warehouse, which was the only Dunedin building to be ''100%'' LED lighting - the most efficient lighting available.
The warehouse had the most efficient lighting in Dunedin, Mr Wiffen said.
Mr Macknight said although LED bulbs were expensive, the cost would be recouped in five years of energy savings.
Unlike the one-off refurbishment cost, electricity costs were continuous so electricity efficiency was important, he said.
The total cost for a intelligent lighting and heating systems was a company secret but it was money well spent and 54 staff were happy, he said.
The heat generated from the central computer server room was redistributed to offices in winter, he said.
The warehouse heating and cooling was run by a ''chiller'' in the basement, a big heat pump - the biggest unit of its kind in New Zealand.
The thermostats in the offices allowed the chiller to ''learn'' the energy use patterns and ''adapt'' to provide the most comfortable temperature for staff in the most efficient way.
The chiller calculated the most efficient way to heat or cool to the desired temperature, such as heating slowly and cheap from 5am for when the staff arrived for work at 9am.
ADInstruments global human resource manager, Mr Macknight's wife, Kelly, said the warehouse was freezing when the chiller was in the learning stage and was adapting to the staff's comfort levels.
The staff worked on the top floor, the ground floor was used for car parking and the middle floor was empty but had heating and lighting installed to allow the company room to expand, Mrs Macknight said.
Southern Electrical Ltd electrician Winston Fenton said the original building plan predicted a 400-amp service but on installation only required 200 amps - a daily $50 saving in line charge costs.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) spokesman Mike Eng said commercial buildings in New Zealand used about $0.8 billion of electricity each year, about 21% of the electricity used in New Zealand.
EECA estimated most commercial buildings could save a quarter of their electricity costs and collectively save the economy about $200 million.
ADInstruments designs and sells data acquisition and analysis systems for life science research and education, which records and analyses physiological signals such as heart rate and blood pressure. Ninety-eight percent of its customers were from outside New Zealand.
Cable in warehouse
• 6.2km of power cable
• 8.1km of lighting cable
• 2.8km of mechanical cable
• 30km of data cable 0.2km of audio cable.
