After the energy crisis in the 1970s, controls became independent of the occupant on the theory that automatic systems guaranteed energy savings. With a manual system, nobody knew if anyone used it, and you couldn't tell if you were saving energy. But the savings from automatic systems were believed to exist. One of the goals of the research at NCAR was to answer questions about whether man-ual systems are used, save energy, and are liked by occupants. The answers are yes, yes, and yes.
Most occupants use manual controls, and doing so saves energy.
And as an added benefit, the occupants valued having the manual controls. At NCAR occupants' routines were monitored in 58 offices for 8 weeks using data from the BAS as well as observations of window blind use, occupant tasks, and weather conditions. Seventy-four percent of the occupants used their dimmers at least once. The amount of time the lights were at each light setting during occupancy varied according to the office location. On the north side of the building, people kept the lights off 57 percent of the time they were using the office.