I'm the office administrator for a 70-person communications firm. I handle facilities and supplies ordering—roughly $180,000 a year spread across a dozen vendors. I don't design lighting systems. I just make sure the lights work, the bathrooms don't smell, and no one sends a passive-aggressive Slack message about the breakroom.
When we moved into a new office in March 2024, I had three problem spots: dark countertops in the kitchenette, bathroom exhaust fans wired to the same switch as the lights, and a vague executive request to make the building feel 'smart.' I did not plan to become a Legrand fan. I planned to stop the complaints.
The Quick Fix: A Legrand Humidity Sensor Switch
First, the bathroom. The exhaust fan only came on when someone hit the light switch. So people turned off the light, and the fan stopped, and the room got steamy and, eventually, unpleasant. I had seen humidity sensor switches in residential catalogs, but for a commercial office I wanted something durable. After checking specs, I ordered a Legrand humidity sensor switch.
Installation was straightforward. It sits in a standard single-gang box and connects like a regular switch. It runs the fan when humidity crosses a threshold—we set ours around 60% (a number based on one of our HVAC tech's guesses; note to self: ask a real engineer next time)—and it has an override button for anyone who wants the fan on manually. It does not connect to Wi-Fi. Which, honestly, is fine. It's a one-job device doing that job well.
I don't have hard data on fan runtime before and after. What I can say anecdotally is that complaints about the bathroom dropped from about one a week to zero in the first month. I wish I had tracked kWh, but as an office administrator, I'll take zero complaints over a spreadsheet.
The Main Project: Legrand Under Counter Lighting
The bigger problem was the kitchenette. We have upper cabinets with a coffee station, toaster, and a sink below. The ceiling light cast shadows on the counter. People couldn't see what they were doing. I looked at stick-on LED strips and battery lights, but for a commercial office, I didn't want to replace them every six months.
I settled on Legrand under counter lighting after a lighting salesman friend told me to stop overthinking. We ordered two 24-inch fixtures and one 12-inch fixture, plus a power supply. I compared quotes from two distributors in October 2024: roughly $220 for each 24-inch fixture, $170 for the 12-inch fixture, and $90 for the driver. Verify current pricing—prices have been moving around a lot. The install was simple. Legrand uses a low-voltage connection between fixtures, and the driver hides under the cabinet. The light itself is clean and even. We chose 3000K warm white, which made the counter feel like a coffee shop instead of a hospital.
The generic alternative from an online wholesaler was about 40% cheaper (which, honestly, made me pause). The numbers said it would be fine. My gut said the last thing I needed was a commissioning project hidden behind the coffee machine. I went with Legrand. That choice didn't win points on a cost-per-fixture report, but it meant I didn't get a single 'the breakroom light is buzzing' ticket.
One thing I learned here: color temperature is not a marketing term. 3000K is warmer; 5000K is cooler. For a breakroom, 3000K made sense. For a workshop or storage room, 4000K or 5000K would be a better fit. Ask what color temperature you're ordering before you assume 'daylight' is better.
The Zigbee ESP32 Experiment (and What a Zigbee Lidl Bulb Taught Me)
Now the part I was not expecting. We already had a few Zigbee Lidl bulbs in the breakroom, mostly because someone bought them on a whim. They worked fine with a cheap hub, but one of our developers wanted to try a Zigbee ESP32 gateway (an ESP32-C6 board, if that means anything to you) instead of buying a second hub. The pitch was: no proprietary hub, more flexibility, and we could connect Legrand's Zigbee-enabled devices to the same network.
If you're not familiar: Zigbee is a low-power, low-bandwidth mesh protocol built on IEEE 802.15.4. According to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (csa-iot.org), Zigbee 3.0 is designed so certified devices from different manufacturers can work together on a common application layer. Devices on the mesh relay messages to each other, so a switch on one side of the office can talk to a light on the other side as long as there are enough devices in between.
The reality was more interesting. The Legrand smart devices paired with our Zigbee ESP32 coordinator, but not on the first try. Pairing mode wasn't where the manual said it was, and I had to dig through a firmware note to find the button sequence. The Zigbee Lidl bulbs, on the other hand, paired instantly. That surprised me. You'd expect the more expensive equipment to be easier, but the cheaper bulbs had been designed for mass-market simplicity.
So is Zigbee seamless? Mostly. But 'Zigbee certified' means devices share a common protocol, not a common personality. If you buy a Zigbee ESP32 setup for a small office, know two things: it's flexible, and you are now the support desk. Our developer enjoyed the challenge. A normal office manager might not.
Does Black Light Help Plants Grow?
Halfway through the upgrade, a coworker asked me: does black light help plants grow? We have a few potted plants on a shelf above the kitchen cabinets, and she wondered if installing a black light strip would help them.
Short answer: for ordinary houseplants, no. Black lights emit mostly UVA, around 365 nm. Plants rely on visible light for photosynthesis—specifically the red and blue parts of the spectrum, roughly 400-700 nm. UVA can affect plant shape or leaf color in some cases, but it is not a meaningful substitute for a grow light or sunlight. The practical answer for our office was to keep the plants near the window and use the Legrand under counter lighting on a timer for general illumination in that area. I'm not claiming a normal LED fixture grows plants. I will not claim that because it isn't true. I'm saying the question made us actually match the light source to the task.
What I Would Do Differently
Looking back, I should have checked the Zigbee device list before ordering. At the time, I assumed Zigbee meant Zigbee. Given that I was also juggling bathroom fan complaints and a fridge leak, the assumption was understandable. But it cost us a weekend of troubleshooting.
If I could redo that decision, I'd ask three questions before buying any smart lighting:
- Is the device Zigbee 3.0 certified, or does it depend on a specific proprietary hub?
- What color temperature is the fixture, and is it right for the room?
- Does the under counter lighting kit include the driver and connectors, or do those need to be ordered separately?
On energy savings, I can't give you a clean percentage because I didn't run a controlled test. According to ENERGY STAR (energystar.gov), lighting controls such as occupancy sensors save energy by automatically turning lights off in empty spaces. That sounds obvious, but it was exactly what we needed: fewer lights left on, fans running when needed, and fewer grumpy employees.
Would I buy Legrand again? Yes. It wasn't the lowest quote I got, but my job is not to win a procurement contest. My job is to keep 70 people from complaining. The Legrand humidity sensor switch solved a specific problem, the under counter lighting made the breakroom usable, and the Zigbee integration, once it worked, gave us real flexibility. Legrand's ecosystem is broad enough to cover switches, sensors, dimmers, and fixtures. If you are a facilities buyer like me, start with the problem, then the protocol, then the product. You'll save yourself a weekend.