Managing Lighting Upgrades

Part 1: Choosing a Design Philosophy for the Lighting System

Part 2: Lighting Systems and Specification Documents

Part 3: Lighting System Bids: What Facility Managers Need to Know

Part 4: Installing and Commissioning a Lighting System

Lighting System Bids: What Facility Managers Need to Know

By Stefan R. Graf - October 2008

Submittals should be provided with unit pricing for each fixture specified. Unit pricing is very important for managing costs and the budget. Be sure to specify unit pricing in the Contractor General Provisions document. Let the suppliers know that submittals will not be reviewed without unit pricing. Sometimes unit pricing reveals that a cost is much higher than expected. This may be because of a misunderstanding of what is specified or the product is being priced by a distributor who has to purchase it from another distributor, creating excessive markups. It’s also possible that pricing will be much lower than expected because the contractor or supplier forgot to price specified hardware or accessories. Unit pricing works to protect everyone.

Carefully review the submittals to be sure that all of the product features, accessories, lamp ordering codes and catalog numbers are correct. This is the contract with the supplier.