Commercial Lighting & EV Charging in Chatham-Kent
Commercial Lighting & EV Charging
Postma installs commercial lighting and EV charging across Chatham-Kent, Sarnia-Lambton and Windsor-Essex. LED retrofits, high bay and exterior lighting, controls and sensors, and EV chargers for staff, customer and fleet parking, by ECRA/ESA licensed electricians.
These two sit together for a reason. Lighting is usually the largest electrical load you can reduce, and EV charging is usually the largest one you are about to add. Both come back to the same question: what capacity does your building actually have.
Commercial LED Lighting Retrofits
On warehouse, shop and retail buildings, lighting is one of the few operating costs you can cut without changing how the business runs.
A retrofit reduces consumption, but the part owners underestimate is maintenance. Older high bay fixtures fail on a schedule, and every replacement in a 30 foot ceiling means a lift, a technician and an area shut down. LED fixtures last long enough that the labour you stop spending is often a bigger line than the energy.
High Bay & WarehouseHigh bay and linear fixtures for warehouse, shop and production space, including aisle and rack lighting layouts. |
Office & RetailTroffers, panels and downlights, display and accent lighting, and colour temperature chosen to suit the space rather than the catalogue. |
Exterior & ParkingParking lot poles, wall packs, canopy and building lighting, and photocell and timer control on exterior circuits. |
Controls & SensorsOccupancy and vacancy sensors, daylight harvesting, zoning, timers and scheduling on lighting contactors. |
What Actually Determines the Payback
| Factor | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Operating hours | The single biggest variable. A warehouse running two shifts and a building lit eight hours a day get completely different results from identical fixtures. Any payback figure quoted without your actual hours in it is a guess. |
| What you are replacing | Replacing metal halide or high pressure sodium high bays saves far more than replacing recently installed fluorescent. The older and the higher wattage the existing fixture, the stronger the case. |
| Maintenance you stop spending | Lamp and ballast replacement in high ceilings costs lift time and labour every year, and it never appears in an energy calculation. On high bay buildings this is frequently the larger half of the return. |
| Controls | Sensors and scheduling often add more savings than the fixture swap alone, because most buildings light space nobody is in. Aisles, storage areas, washrooms and exterior lighting running past sunrise are the usual candidates. |
| Retrofit or replace | Some existing fixtures accept an LED retrofit kit and some are better fully replaced. Retrofit kits cost less up front; full replacement usually performs better and carries a longer warranty. We quote both where both are viable. |
| Available incentives | Incentive programs for commercial lighting come and go and vary by utility. We will tell you what is available at the time you are quoting rather than building a payback figure around a program that has closed. |
Do it while the lift is already on site. If we are in your building for a high bay lighting project, that is the cheapest time to also deal with anything else at ceiling height: unit heaters, destratification fans, exhaust fans and roof mounted equipment. Combining trades on one lift rental is a straightforward saving. See commercial HVAC.
Commercial EV Charging
EV charging is an electrical capacity project with a charger attached, not the other way around. That is the part most buildings find out too late.
The chargers themselves are the straightforward part. What decides whether the project is simple or expensive is your existing service capacity, the distance from the panel to the parking, and how many chargers can run at once. Answering that before you buy hardware is the difference between a clean install and a stalled one.
What We Install
- Level 2 charging for staff, tenant and customer parking
- Fleet charging for service vehicles and company cars
- Multi-unit residential and condominium parking, including per-suite metering considerations
- Conduit, feeders and panel work to support current and future chargers
- Bollards, mounting, trenching and site restoration
- Load management systems where the service will not carry every charger at full output simultaneously
The Assessment Comes First
| Question | Why It Decides the Project |
|---|---|
| Spare service capacity | Chargers are a continuous load, which is treated differently from intermittent equipment. A building can look like it has headroom and still not support four chargers. This is the first thing we measure and the answer that shapes everything else. |
| Panel space | Each charger needs a dedicated circuit. A full panel means a sub panel, which is manageable, or a service upgrade, which brings a utility timeline into the project. |
| Distance to the parking | Conduit and cable runs are usually the largest line in an EV quote. Whether the route is an open ceiling or requires core drilling, trenching and asphalt reinstatement changes the cost more than the charger selection does. |
| Simultaneous use | Most buildings never need every charger at full output at once. Load management lets you install more chargers on the same service by sharing capacity, which is often cheaper than upgrading the service. |
| Future stalls | Running conduit and capacity for stalls you have not installed yet costs very little while the trench is open. Coming back to add them later means opening the same ground twice. |
| Who pays for the power | Staff parking, customer parking, tenant parking and fleet charging have different answers, and it affects whether you need networked chargers with usage tracking or simple units. Worth settling before hardware is chosen. |
Ask us before you buy the chargers. A capacity assessment takes a site visit and tells you what the building supports, what it would cost to support more, and whether load management gets you there without a service upgrade. Doing it in that order is considerably cheaper than doing it after the hardware arrives. See service and panel upgrades.
Lighting & EV Charging FAQ
What is the payback on a commercial LED retrofit?
It depends almost entirely on your operating hours and what you are replacing. A two shift warehouse running metal halide high bays is a very different case from an office lit eight hours a day. We quote against your actual hours and fixture count rather than a generic figure, and we include the maintenance labour you stop spending, which is often the larger half of the return on high ceiling buildings.
Should we retrofit existing fixtures or replace them?
Some fixtures accept an LED retrofit kit and some are better fully replaced. Retrofit costs less up front, full replacement generally performs better and carries a longer warranty. Where both are viable we quote both so you can see the difference rather than being handed one option.
Can lighting work be done outside business hours?
Yes, and on retail, office and occupied buildings that is usually how it is scheduled. Warehouse and production lighting is often done during a planned shutdown or over a weekend so aisles and work areas are not closed off during operating hours.
Are there incentives for commercial lighting upgrades?
Programs exist and change over time, and availability varies by utility and by project. We will tell you what is available when you are quoting rather than building a payback around a program that has since closed.
How many EV chargers can our building support?
That depends on spare service capacity, panel space and whether the chargers need to run at full output simultaneously. It is the first thing we assess, because it determines whether the project is a straightforward install, a sub panel addition, a load management setup, or a service upgrade with a utility timeline attached.
What is load management and do we need it?
Load management shares available capacity between chargers rather than sizing the service for every charger at full output at once. Most buildings never need maximum simultaneous draw, so it often lets you install more chargers on your existing service. Where it applies it is usually cheaper than upgrading the service.
Can you install EV charging at an apartment or condominium?
Yes. Multi-unit residential brings additional considerations around metering and who is billed for the power, which affects whether networked chargers with usage tracking make sense. Those decisions are worth settling before hardware is selected.
Should we run conduit for chargers we are not installing yet?
Usually yes. While the trench is open and the crew is on site, adding conduit and capacity for future stalls costs a fraction of coming back to open the same ground again. Tell us how many stalls you expect to want eventually, not just how many you are installing now.
See all commercial electrical services, or our service and panel upgrades if your building needs more capacity first.
Planning a lighting upgrade or EV charging? Call 519-354-9491 and we will assess your building first. Postma quotes lighting against your actual operating hours and fixture count, and assesses your service capacity before any charger hardware is selected, across Chatham-Kent, Sarnia-Lambton and Windsor-Essex.