Light Savings For Apartment Buildings During Non-Peak Hours

I live within a dense cluster of tall apartment buildings in Vancouver. And upon seeing the skyline at night I am bothered by all the unnecessary lights drawing power. Do we really need every hallway and stairwell lit during non-peak hours? It just seems like a waste. Same goes for office buildings and other large venues like malls and community centers. For now I’ll focus on the shared areas of the typical apartment building.

My goal would be to implement an on-demand system that would go into effect during non-peak hours, say midnight to six AM.

I suppose everyone’s first instinct would be to install motion sensors, however those draw power. Light switches would be near-impossible, as they are optional to use and may arise in user conflicts (like multiple people traversing the same stairwell).

So I propose switches which are embedded into the floor, placed at strategic locations by doors, elevators, and all stair landings. When activated, these switches would turn on a local bank of lights, for X amount of time (a few minutes would be sufficient). The switches would work like a large pad, similar to a weigh scale. The lights would remain active as long as a person’s weight was on a pad.

For security reasons, these pads would be central to each door, so you’d be lighting the next area before entering. This is also handy for when you’re at home, and you’d like to see out into the hallway through the peephole. This is only for common areas, you still have to switch the lights on in your own apartment after entering.

The elevator system should also turn on the lights for the hallway it is making a stop at, to ensure the area is illuminated for exiting passengers.

I really don’t know how much help this would be to the environment, but if adopted by thousands of buildings in each city, it would save some energy, as well as offer some relief in terms of light pollution.