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Retrofit Commercial Lighting Here to Stay

With LED lighting systems here to stay, many companies are considering energy-efficient lighting retrofits as a way to keep their overhead under control. With energy savings of up to 65% and a payback time of six months to two years, it’s easy to see why more and more companies are taking this route. These companies often see additional savings and benefits including better quality lighting with lamp color improvements and reduced glare as well as lower maintenance costs, lower climate control costs and utility rebates.

Poor Installation Work Results in Lost Savings

Unfortunately, when an LED lighting retrofit job is done poorly or mistakes are made, your expected savings can be nonexistent or are used up in repairs or additional materials and labor to fix the problem. Though there can be a wide variety of problems with an LED retrofit, we’ll take a good look at some of the most common ones, including today’s topic, how poor planning for an installation can leave you with a higher-than-expected bill or unhappy coworkers.

Installation Plans

After you’ve evaluated your new system to ensure it works well for your purposes, your part is done, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t. Developing an installation plan of action is essential to the success of your lighting retrofit. If you don’t work out a plan with the retrofit company and all the departments involved at your business, you’ll probably run into costly problems.

Before the first lamp is replaced, you need to spend some serious time getting information on how the installation plan will be put into effect. Put the plan in writing, including a rough timeline, and make sure to request feedback from the departments it will impact. Broadcast the plan to everyone in each department, because someone who isn’t part of management may think of problems with the timeline and materials that hadn’t been previously considered. Are you planning to update the lighting in accounting in April? You may want to wait until after the 15th. Does your toy company have its busiest time of the year around the winter holidays? You may want to squeeze their part of the retrofit well before or just after the rush. What about that manager who agonized for weeks over which color temperature lights they preferred? Make sure you get the final decisions in writing and that everyone involved is ready to cooperate and work with the retrofit company to get the installation done quickly and efficiently. You don’t want to pay the retrofit company additional labor costs because human resources’ 25 years of employee records is blocking their access to light fixtures the week the HR manager is out town and out of pocket in the Andes.

Preparation Pays Off in Commercial Lighting Retrofit Projects

By dealing with these issues ahead of time and getting the final decisions in writing, you can avoid wasting precious time and energy arguing about how the installation is supposed to be carried out and who will pay for mistakes that were made. Because every industry is a little different, you’ll want to verify that the contractor has undertaken successful retrofits in a company or environment similar to yours before agreeing to a contract. Even better, get an installation checklist that lists every aspect of the install from how security access is handled to cleanup. Don’t forget to allow for special equipment needs.

To avoid this issue, have a good plan laid out in writing before you start the process. For assistance in planning your retrofit, please feel free to contact us – we’re happy to help make your project a success!

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