Unless it’s based on a comprehensive survey, a lighting retrofit can be filled with landmines that could boost the cost of the project and lengthen the payback. GreenTech auditors and engineers are trained to look for these problems and design projects that take them into account. Here are just a few examples.
First, you need to know exactly what’s overhead, both on the ceiling and even above it. There may be cables, HVAC pipes, or other equipment reducing access to the lighting fixtures or there could be asbestos behind the ceiling tiles that needs to be remediated. You might also find unexpected surprises inside the light fixture itself. Based on its outward appearance, you might assume one type of ballast configuration only to find that it’s wired a completely different way once you open it up.
Sometimes, the problem is not what’s overhead but what’s underneath. Take, for example, a plant where the owners have permanently installed heavy equipment on a large section of the floor – right below a whole row of high bay light fixtures. When the time comes to retrofit the plant, it will not be possible to drive a lift beneath those fixtures to retrofit or replace them. Short of hiring acrobats to climb across the ceiling, there would be no way to access them. One option might be a new lighting layout that calls for installing floods on the walls or other nearby vertical surfaces, like poles or pillars.
A similar problem could be created in a warehouse where the company has moved racks around over the years without regard to the existing high bays. Wherever the racks block the light fixtures, they simply disconnect them. That, together with the lumen depreciation of aging high bays, will eventually result in uneven, inadequate lighting throughout the facility. So a lighting retrofit would have to involve removing or relocating those fixtures before newer technology could be installed.
Another obstacle to reaching the lights could be the condition of the floor itself and whether it can support a lift. You could have an old building whose floors are delicately inlaid or decorated in some way that makes running a heavy lift over them unacceptable. In some cases, it might be possible to erect scaffolding to reach the ceiling, but this would obviously have an impact on the cost of the project. As with the other potential pitfalls mentioned above, the earlier you discover this, the more accurately you’ll be able to budget. When it comes to renovation, nobody likes surprises.