Closing the BAS Gap: The Sweet Spot for Light Commercial Buildings

Modern smart building technology has made huge strides, yet the vast majority of commercial buildings still operate with old-school thermostats and little else. In fact, buildings under 50,000 square feet make up 94% of the U.S. commercial building stock (about 5.5 million buildings), but only 13% of them have any kind of building automation system (BAS). 

Let that sink in—the “Untapped 87%” remains largely disconnected. Why? It’s not for lack of need or potential benefit (these buildings represent half of all commercial square footage and 44% of energy use). Instead, as we concluded our white paper The Untapped 87%, the culprit is complexity: conventional BAS products and delivery methods are too complicated for small buildings. 

Owners and operators of light commercial facilities “don’t have the time, resources, or capital to wade through this muck”. In bigger buildings with bigger budgets, complexity can be managed by internal staff or paid consultants, but in a 20,000 ft² office or a neighborhood church? Not so much.

What’s needed is something in between the simplicity of a DIY smart thermostat (which you might buy at Lowe’s) and the complexity of a campus-scale automation system (from your local Johnson Controls or Siemens branch). 

But how do you actually find that “just right” solution? More importantly, who is going to deliver and support it? These facilities don’t have controls experts on staff—often the janitor or an on-site generalist ends up in charge of HVAC controls by default. These folks are already stretched thin. They need an HVAC controls solution that is drop-dead simple to install and use, and a trusted partner to call when things go wrong.

In partnership with BOMA BC, we set out to write a buyer’s guide for exactly this audience: facility managers and operators of small, light-commercial buildings who want to reap the benefits of a BAS without the usual headaches. (Think Class C office buildings, retail shops, churches, community centers—the resource-constrained “long tail” of the market.) 

In preparing the guide, we spoke with industry experts on the front lines of the small-building controls space. What we heard was encouraging—inroads are being made—but also realistic: there’s still no universally available easy button for this class of buildings. Success requires a new approach. The old playbook of custom-designed controls, lengthy on-site programming, and heavy service contracts just doesn’t scale down—that’s why most small buildings have zero digital controls today. 

Instead, our experts consistently advised flipping the script: focus on choosing the right partner first, and let that partner bring the right simplified product set to the table. 

In other words, pick the partner before the product.

No Easy Button (Yet), But Signs of Progress

Before diving into how to vet a partner, I wanted to understand what’s new since The Untapped 87% was published. We talked to four leaders familiar with light-commercial BAS efforts, and each highlighted a piece of the puzzle. 

Scott Muench from J2 Innovations described what they call a “microBMS” designed for this light commercial market. Their approach is to automate as much of the install process as possible, driving down the cost. Charles Pelletier from Distech Controls echoed this approach, stressing that the majority of the cost for complex systems is labor. 

Using standardized templates and setup wizards, BAS software like this can automatically create the logic, graphics, and database needed for common devices like rooftop units or VAV boxes. This plug-and-play approach avoids custom coding and speeds commissioning.

“When you have a known set of entities… you can very easily train somebody to drag and drop… all of a sudden everything just starts working, because the database, the graphics, and the control logic are automatically attached,” Muench said. 

Strato Automation makes control solutions specifically for this market. Kelle Donahue shared Strato’s tiered approach to match the system design to each site’s needs, while still keeping the design super simple. Tier 1 = networked thermostats with a simple web interface, scheduling, and alarms. Tier 2 adds features like economizer control, optimal start/stop, and trend logs. Tier 3 approaches a full BAS, enabling remote diagnostics, programming updates, and equipment overrides. The key is avoiding over- or under-investment.

Reed Powell from MacDonald-Miller, an HVAC and controls contractor serving the Pacific Northwest, shared lessons from experimenting on this problem for over 10 years, testing technology across all three of those tiers, and striving to grow the addressable market for controls and remote monitoring by finding simpler products to resell. 

Shifting to connected thermostats with added sensors and simple analytics allowed MacDonald-Miller to network hundreds of sites, provide centralized monitoring, and even enabled basic fault detection at low cost—all integrated into their annual service contracts. Today, they’re evaluating solutions like 75F for sites that need a bit more horsepower. 

So, the good news is that the industry knows what the solution needs to look like. Affordable hardware exists (from connected thermostats up to stripped-down “mini BAS” controllers). Cloud software exists to tie it together. Forward-thinking contractors are packaging these pieces and testing what actually works. 

But it’s still a fragmented landscape. Depending on where you are and who you call, you might get very different answers to a simple question like, “How can I add controls to my building?” 

One vendor might propose a couple of smart stats and a $20/month cloud subscription. Another might propose a scaled-down version of their enterprise BAS—still five figures and fairly complex. It’s easy to see why an inexperienced buyer could feel lost.

What to Look for in a Simple Building BAS Solution

Of course, what buyers need is some sort of checklist that says: this works for your building. Let’s summarize the core requirements that any viable light-commercial BAS solution (product + service) should meet. 

Consider this a cheat sheet distilled from our research and interviews:

• Low cost, both upfront and ongoing—For small facilities, think thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands, for installation, and hundreds per year for ongoing costs. The easiest way to hit those targets is by reducing labor through simple, plug-and-play installation. Wireless devices where practical, pre-configured setups, and designs that junior techs or even electricians can handle are key. As Charles Pelletier (Distech Controls) put it: “The more you have a plug-and-play system, the closer you are to your target [cost]… If you want to be low cost, it needs to be super easy to install.”
  
  
• Simple to buy—The process should feel like buying a service, not managing a construction project. Mechanical contractors or small-building-focused system integrators often package controls, connectivity, and software together. The selected system should be a one-stop shop, not a mix of components stitched together by you.
  
  
• Simple to operate—The user interface should be obvious to a non-specialist. If your least tech-savvy staff can’t navigate it or you need a commissioning agent to reap energy savings promises, it’s too complex.
  
  
• Secure remote connectivity and serviceability—Remote monitoring and control reduce truck rolls and speed issue resolution. Cloud-based, but cybersecure, systems make access easy, unlike many legacy BAS.
  
  
• Ongoing support—Even simple BAS needs updates and occasional reconfiguration. Look for flexible, affordable support models—modest annual fees for remote monitoring, bundled first-year support, or pay-as-you-go.
  
  
• Ability to expand beyond HVAC—A single platform should grow with you, potentially adding lighting control, metering, or load management later. As Scott from J2 said, the opportunity is to “glue together multiple subsystems seamlessly.” Operators “don’t want to jump between 10 different systems, they need one consistent interface.”
  
  
• Bonus points: Multiple qualified service providers in your local market can support the same platform, so you’re not locked in if you need to replace your installer.

To summarize, a light-commercial BAS solution should be low-cost, low-touch, and end-to-end simple—from purchase to installation to daily use. It should deliver tangible benefits (energy savings, fewer complaints, less downtime) without requiring you to become a controls expert or hire one full-time. 

Fortunately, such solutions do exist today, but the facility operator shouldn’t have to figure out which exact combo of widgets and software is ideal. That’s not their core job. Instead, they should focus on finding someone local who specializes in delivering the right tech for this type of building. 

Partner First: Who Will Actually Do This for You?

So let’s flip the perspective now. If you’re an FM, operator, or janitor managing a simple building and you want to implement a BAS, the most important decision is choosing the right partner to work with. 

This could be a local controls contractor, system integrator, or a mechanical contractor with a controls division—the point is to find a company that “gets it” when it comes to simple buildings. As Charles from Distech put it, “find a partner that needs your business as much as you need them”—someone for whom your project is not an afterthought but a core focus.

Who are the candidates? In general, a few categories of service providers are stepping up to serve this market:

• Mechanical contractors with controls divisions—These HVAC service companies often add controls teams as a “sticky” service to complement maintenance work. For light commercial, they can be ideal partners because they know both the equipment AND the controls. As Kelle Donohue explained, when one company handles both, it “eliminates one step in the finger-pointing game… one throat to choke versus a multiple-entity solution.” Many bundle HVAC and controls service contracts into one, reducing headaches. The caveat: some treat controls as a sideline; buyers must gauge their commitment to smaller projects.
  
  
• Independent controls system integrators (SIs)—These firms specialize in building automation, sometimes representing light-commercial solutions. They bring deep controls expertise, but some are used to large, custom projects and may over-engineer for small sites. Some SIs aren’t interested in serving light commercial due to low dollar value. Buyers need to look for SIs that actively market small-building solutions and offer service contracts to those buildings.
  
  
• Hybrid vendors—Kelle from Strato noted that some electrical or low-voltage firms now offer combined IT, security, and HVAC controls. They can be a one-stop shop, but he warned, “They don’t know HVAC sequences of operation very well…” If considering them, buyers need to probe their HVAC experience and ask for similar project references to avoid being a guinea pig.

Ultimately, it’s less about where they’ve come from and more about their commitment to this segment. 

Buyers need to find a partner who has both the capacity and the workflows in place to deliver consistently. Bare minimum: multiple trained technicians familiar with the product they’re proposing. If one person is your entire support system, you’re at risk if they’re unavailable.

An experienced partner will have refined their install process for speed and cost efficiency—using standardization, automation, and repeatable workflows that bring typical project costs into the low- to mid-four-figure range. If a quote is far higher, or they can’t explain their process, that’s a red flag.

They should also offer remote monitoring and support, with the ability to diagnose issues online before a truck roll. That kind of proactive service, often priced in the hundreds per year, keeps operating costs down and shows they’re committed beyond the install.

Finally, the best partners can clearly articulate the technology stack they use for small projects—explaining why it’s the right fit based on cost, simplicity, and proven results. 

Chicken or the egg: market demand or contractor supply? 

Solving the simple-building BAS challenge takes the right product in the hands of the right partner. The technology exists today—everything from connected thermostats to micro-BMS platforms—but technology alone won’t move the needle. 

We also need two other pieces: owners who understand the value and ask for it, and a deep bench of contractors equipped to deliver it. Without both, it’s a chicken-and-egg problem: demand stays low because the supply chain isn’t ready, and the supply chain doesn’t invest because the demand isn’t there.

MacDonald-Miller is a good example of what it looks like when one side of that equation is in place. They see the value they can bring to small-building owners and have been experimenting for more than a decade. As Reed Powell told us, “the technology and the products are there. It’s just about getting that last mile.” 

They’ll be ready when the market catches up. That readiness comes from pairing vetted technology with proven delivery workflows—a combination that’s still rare in this space.

That’s the path forward: more contractors with the capabilities we’ve outlined, more owners asking the right questions, and technology that’s already proven in the field. The checklists in this piece aren’t theory—they’re the filters that separate a scalable, sustainable solution from another short-lived pilot. 

Our job as an industry is to get those questions into the hands of the right people, so that when the next conversation about controls comes up, the market is ready on both sides of the table. One checklist for the partner, one for the product. Put them together, and the BAS gap starts to close.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.