Five numbers a lighting proposal should show you before you approve it

In JLL's 2025 Global State of Facilities Management report, 84% of facility and real estate leaders named rising operating costs and tight budgets as a top concern. So when a lighting proposal lands on your desk with a payback figure on page one, it deserves a hard look.

A good proposal lets you check that payback yourself. Here are the five numbers to look for, and what to ask when one is missing.

1. What you have today, area by area

The baseline: how many fixtures are in each area, what type they are, and how many watts each one draws. This should come from a walkthrough of your building, not from a drawing or a guess. If the baseline is wrong, every saving built on it is wrong too.

Ask: "Who counted these, and when?"

2. How many hours the lights run

This is the number that moves payback the most. A production floor on two shifts, an office on a 10-hour day and a storage room that is mostly empty all run very different hours. One building-wide figure hides that.

Ask: "What hours did you use for each area, and where did they come from?"

3. What a kWh actually costs you

Savings are only as real as the rate behind them. Check that the cost per kWh in the proposal matches your own bill. For many commercial and industrial accounts in Ontario, the Global Adjustment is a separate charge on top of the hourly energy price, so a proposal that uses the energy price alone can understate your savings, and one that uses a made-up rate can overstate them.

Ask: "Which rate did you use, and can we check it against our last few bills?"

4. The incentive: estimated or pre-approved?

Save on Energy incentives cover up to 50% of eligible project costs. But an estimate is not money in hand. Save on Energy asks you to apply before any binding commitment, such as a purchase order, a signed contract or ordered equipment. A proposal should say clearly whether the incentive figure is an estimate or pre-approved, and who is handling the application.

Ask: "Is this incentive estimated or pre-approved, and when will the application go in?"

5. Maintenance and downtime

LED and controls usually cut maintenance as well as energy: fewer lamp changes and fewer lift trips to high ceilings. Those savings should be listed separately from energy, so you can see what each one adds. And the install plan matters as much as the price: nights, weekends or phased areas if your building can't stop.

Ask: "What part of the payback is energy, what part is maintenance, and how will the work fit around our operations?"

How it adds up

Simple payback is the net cost (after the incentive) divided by the yearly savings. With the five numbers above, you can redo that math in a few minutes and see whether it holds.

On Friday we'll share one Ontario plant's numbers from start to finish.

Want a proposal you can check line by line? We'll walk your facility and show you every number behind it. Email info@circuitlighting.ca.

Sources: JLL, Global State of Facilities Management Report 2025; Save on Energy, Retrofit program FAQs (saveonenergy.ca); IESO, Global Adjustment (ieso.ca).