Commercial LED Lighting Retrofits

Retrofit Or Replace

There are two ways to do this and they are not the same job. A lamp and driver retrofit keeps the existing housing and swaps the internals, which is faster and cheaper and makes sense when the fixtures are in decent shape and the layout already works. A full fixture replacement costs more upfront and gives you better light distribution, a cleaner ceiling, and controls that actually work. The right answer depends on the condition of what is up there and how long you plan to be in the building.

We tell you which one your space needs after looking at it, not before. A ten-year-old office with intact troffers on a decent grid is usually a retrofit. A shop with failing high bays hanging at the wrong height, or a retail space where the original layout was never right, is usually a replacement, because you are paying for the labor either way and the labor is most of the cost. Doing the wrong one to save money on materials is how a space ends up getting relit twice.

Light Levels, Color, And Glare

Brighter is not automatically better. A retrofit that doubles the light level and puts it in the wrong place gives you glare, harsh shadows, and staff who squint at screens all day. We look at what the space is used for and target light levels to match. A warehouse aisle, an office desk, a retail display, and a shop bench each want something different. Fixture placement, beam spread, and mounting height matter as much as the lumen number printed on the box.

Color temperature is the other decision people get wrong. Very cool light makes a retail space feel clinical and makes merchandise look wrong. Very warm light in a shop makes it harder to see what you are doing. We will show you the options and tell you what similar spaces have ended up preferring. Consistency matters too. A building relit in phases with three different color temperatures reads as neglected even when every fixture in it is brand new. Pick one color temperature and hold it across the whole building.

Controls, Downtime, And Utility Programs

Controls are where a retrofit stops being a fixture swap. Occupancy sensors in storage rooms and restrooms, daylight response near windows, and zoned switching so a whole floor is not lit for one person working late all reduce runtime, which is where the actual savings live. Controls also need to be simple. A system nobody on staff understands gets overridden to always-on within a month, and then you have paid for hardware that does nothing but sit there. Simple beats clever on a system nobody is paid to babysit.

We schedule retrofits around your hours. Most commercial lighting work happens in sections so the space stays usable, or after close if that is easier on you. On the utility side, Benton PUD, Franklin PUD, and City of Richland Energy Services have offered commercial energy efficiency incentives, and those programs change from year to year, so check with your utility before the work is done rather than after. We can provide the fixture specifications and quantities an application needs. Applying before the work is done is usually a requirement rather than a preference.