Commercial lighting services can become a burdensome challenge for even the most seasoned building managers. Dealing with outages, ordering supplies and scheduling vendors for downtime, is a demanding task. In today’s article, we’ll look at some of the most common issues associated with commercial lighting services, and some proactive actions that you can take to alleviate them.

• Incorrect Product

  A relatively obvious answer to your lighting outages could be the wrong product is installed in your facility. Someone may have tried to minimize the upfront costs and installed lower-priced lighting that have shorter life ratings. This would cause a higher frequency of outages and increase your replacement material and labor costs.

• Missing or Incorrect Material at a Site

  Sometimes the facilities manager orders, or has the store order, the product directly from their distributor to be stocked in the location. It is inevitable that the location will not carry enough inventory – or even the wrong inventory. Thus, when the technician arrives at the site you may not have enough product or not have any at all. In the event the technician is supplying the product, he or she, may have the wrong product. For example, the location may have 4500K lighting and the technician only carries 3500K because that is a more common lamp. Now you run the risk of the location really needing the lights and the technician installing 3500K lamps and those tubes will not be the same color as the rest of the location. This may also occur with the ballast. The location may have pulse start ballast, but the technician only carries rapid start ballast.

• Electrical Issues

  Even if the location has the correct product, or the technician has the correct product, outages can still occur frequently. This could be due to electrical issues plaguing the building. It is not uncommon to see electrical issues interfere with lighting performance in the building.

• Bad Scheduling

  Just as product ordering and inventory can be challenging, scheduling can go awry at times. This can lead to technicians showing up at inconvenient times. Times when work cannot be performed, or not showing up when scheduled.

The above-mentioned issues illustrate how lighting performance can go wrong. However, these issues can be solved with proactive planned lighting maintenance. This maintenance regimen keeps buildings safe, well-lit, and with the correct product so light is consistent throughout the entire space.

Here are the three best practices that we recommend for implementing a successful planned commercial lighting services maintenance program:

• House Inventory

  Have the commercial lighting services vendor be sure to inventory the lighting components at your location. This is a two-fold solution to keep your building well-lit and to reduce your costs. By inventorying the lighting components, it ensures first trip completion and eliminates return trip charges. Additionally, the vendor will know exactly what to have in stock to replace the light, ensuring the highest quality performance.

• Maintenance Schedule

  Work to determine a maintenance schedule with your commercial lighting services vendor. This could be on a quarterly or semi-annually basis. This will ensure the best time to visit and provide consistency to the store personnel.

• Consider a Re-lamp or Retrofit

  A re-lamp program will provide new lighting, possibly more energy-efficient lighting, and you can install a product with a longer life-span. Another alternative would be to consider energy-efficient LED lighting. This can eliminate maintenance costs completely.

While maintaining your lighting can be a challenge, taking these proactive steps can drastically reduce the stress and financial burden of commercial lighting services. If you are looking for a national lighting service company to help you with maintaining your lighting reach out to Action Services Group. We would be happy to put together a free no-obligation assessment of your facility. We look forward to working with you. Call us at 610-558-9773, email [email protected] or schedule a call.