If your Aiken business is still running fluorescent tubes, metal halide fixtures, or high-pressure sodium lights, you are paying significantly more for lighting than you need to. LED technology has reached the point where a retrofit is not a question of if but when. The energy savings are real, the payback periods are short, and the reduction in maintenance alone can justify the investment for many businesses.
This guide breaks down the actual numbers behind commercial LED retrofits, explains the different conversion options, and helps you determine what kind of return on investment your specific business can expect.
The Real Numbers: How Much Can You Actually Save?
The 50% figure in the headline is conservative for most commercial applications. Here is why. A standard 4-foot T12 fluorescent tube consumes about 40 watts. The magnetic ballast that drives it adds another 10 to 15 watts of heat loss. So each fixture with two tubes is drawing roughly 90 to 110 watts. A direct LED replacement tube uses 15 to 18 watts per tube and requires no ballast, or works with a compatible electronic ballast. Two LED tubes in the same fixture draw 30 to 36 watts total. That is a 60 to 70 percent reduction in energy consumption from the same fixture locations producing equal or better light output.
Even upgrading from the more efficient T8 fluorescent tubes with electronic ballasts yields significant savings. A T8 system draws about 56 to 64 watts per two-tube fixture. LED replacements bring that down to 30 to 36 watts, a 40 to 50 percent reduction.
To put that in dollar terms, consider a small office or retail space with 50 fluorescent fixtures running 10 hours per day, 260 days per year. At Aiken's average commercial electricity rate of approximately $0.11 per kilowatt-hour, switching from T12 to LED saves roughly $1,800 to $2,200 per year in electricity costs. A warehouse or industrial facility with 200 or more fixtures can save $8,000 to $15,000 annually, depending on the existing fixture types and operating hours.
T8 and T12 Conversion: Your Three Options
When retrofitting fluorescent tube fixtures to LED, you have three main approaches. Each has different costs, complexity, and long-term benefits.
Option 1: Type A (Plug-and-Play) LED Tubes. These tubes are designed to work with your existing fluorescent ballast. You simply remove the old fluorescent tube and insert the LED tube. No rewiring needed. This is the fastest and cheapest option per fixture. The downside is that you are still dependent on the ballast. When the ballast eventually fails, you have to either replace it or rewire the fixture. Ballasts also consume a small amount of energy, so your savings are slightly less than a ballast-bypass solution.
Option 2: Type B (Ballast Bypass) LED Tubes. These tubes wire directly to line voltage, bypassing the ballast entirely. An electrician removes or disconnects the ballast and rewires the socket connections. This eliminates the ballast as a point of failure and maximizes energy savings. The upfront cost is higher because of the labor involved, but the long-term reliability is better. This is the most popular option for commercial retrofits.
Option 3: Complete Fixture Replacement. Instead of retrofitting existing fixtures, you replace them entirely with purpose-built LED fixtures. These are often slimmer, produce more uniform light, and can include integrated controls like dimming and occupancy sensing. This is the most expensive option upfront but delivers the best light quality and longest lifespan. It is most cost-effective when existing fixtures are old, damaged, or in poor condition.
Rebate Programs That Reduce Your Upfront Cost
Several programs can offset the cost of a commercial LED retrofit in the Aiken area. Dominion Energy South Carolina offers commercial lighting incentives through their energy efficiency programs. These typically provide per-fixture or per-watt rebates for qualifying LED upgrades. The specific rebate amounts change annually, so check with your utility representative or ask your electrician to help identify current programs.
The federal Section 179 tax deduction allows businesses to deduct the full cost of qualifying equipment purchases, including LED lighting, in the year of installation rather than depreciating it over time. For a $20,000 retrofit, this can mean a $5,000 to $7,000 tax benefit depending on your tax bracket, effectively reducing your net cost by 25 to 35 percent.
Some manufacturers also offer volume pricing or contractor discounts for larger projects. A licensed electrical contractor who regularly does commercial LED work will have relationships with distributors that can provide better per-unit pricing than retail purchases.
Warehouse vs. Office Lighting: Different Needs, Different Solutions
Office spaces typically use 2x4 troffer fixtures with fluorescent tubes recessed into a drop ceiling. These are straightforward to retrofit with either Type A or Type B LED tubes. The key consideration in offices is color temperature and color rendering. Most offices do best with 4000K (neutral white) LEDs that provide a clean, productive light without the harsh blue tint of 5000K or the yellow cast of 3000K. A Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 80 or above ensures that colors look natural, which matters in retail, design, or any client-facing environment.
Warehouses and industrial spaces present different challenges. Ceiling heights of 20 to 40 feet require high-bay fixtures that produce significantly more lumens than office lighting. Traditional warehouse lighting often uses 400-watt metal halide or high-pressure sodium fixtures. These are energy hogs that also take 5 to 15 minutes to warm up to full brightness after being turned on. LED high-bay replacements in the 150 to 200 watt range produce equivalent or better light output with instant-on capability and 60 to 70 percent energy savings.
Warehouse LED retrofits also benefit enormously from occupancy sensors and daylight harvesting. In a facility where not every aisle is in use at all times, motion-activated lighting can reduce energy consumption by an additional 30 to 50 percent beyond the LED conversion savings alone. Combine LEDs with smart controls and a warehouse can cut lighting energy use by 75 to 85 percent compared to the old metal halide system.
Calculating Your Payback Period
The payback period for a commercial LED retrofit depends on three variables: the upfront cost, the annual energy savings, and the maintenance savings. Here is a simplified way to calculate yours.
Step 1: Count your existing fixtures and identify the types (T12, T8, metal halide, etc.). Step 2: Get a quote for the LED retrofit from a licensed electrician. For budgeting purposes, typical costs range from $50 to $100 per fixture for tube retrofits and $200 to $400 per fixture for high-bay replacements, including labor. Step 3: Calculate annual energy savings using this formula: (old wattage minus new wattage) times hours per year times your electric rate, divided by 1,000.
For most Aiken businesses, the payback period falls between 1.5 and 3 years for office and retail spaces and 2 to 4 years for warehouse and industrial facilities. After payback, the savings flow directly to your bottom line for the remaining lifespan of the LEDs, which is typically 50,000 to 100,000 hours, or 10 to 20 years of normal commercial use.
Do not forget maintenance savings in your calculation. Fluorescent tubes last 15,000 to 25,000 hours and require periodic ballast replacements. Metal halide lamps last 10,000 to 20,000 hours. In a large facility, the labor cost of replacing burnt-out lamps, especially at height, adds up fast. LED fixtures that last 50,000 hours or more eliminate most of that maintenance for a decade or longer.
Getting Started With Your LED Retrofit
The first step is a lighting audit. A qualified electrician walks your facility, documents every fixture type, counts the total fixtures, measures existing light levels, and identifies the best retrofit approach for each area. This audit gives you an accurate scope of work and a realistic savings projection based on your specific situation, not generic estimates.
Most commercial LED retrofits can be completed with minimal disruption to your business. Office retrofits are often done after hours or on weekends. Warehouse high-bay replacements can typically be done section by section during operating hours using a lift. A well-planned project with staged installation means your business never goes dark.
The bottom line is straightforward. If you are running legacy lighting in your Aiken business, you are spending roughly twice what you need to on lighting electricity, replacing lamps more often than necessary, and getting lower quality light in the process. An LED retrofit solves all three problems with a payback period that most business owners consider fast by any investment standard.