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Count a building in five steps

You collect what the office needs to price a lighting retrofit. Do these five steps in order, in every building, and the office takes it from there.

Step 1

Ask before you shoot

Before the camera comes out, ask the person walking you round. Use these words, or close to them.

"Before I start, is it OK if I film the ceilings and take a few photos of the light fixtures? They are only used to price the lighting. I will keep people and paperwork out of the shot."
  • Point the camera up, at the lights. Keep faces, screens and desks out of frame.
  • If a room is off limits, skip it and write down which one.
  • If they say no to the camera, count by hand and tell the office when you send it in.
A rep at an office front desk asking the facility manager for permission before filming the lights

Ask the right person

Ask whoever let you in, and get their name. If they cannot say yes, ask who can, and write that name down too. The office will need it later.

Step 2

Sweep the room

One short video per room gives the office the count, the layout and the ceiling in a single file.

  1. Stand in the middle of the room.
  2. Tilt the phone up so the ceiling fills most of the screen.
  3. Start recording and turn one slow, full circle.
  4. Say the room name, the fixture count and the ceiling height out loud.
"Warehouse bay one. Twenty-eight high bays. Ceiling about thirty feet."

Ceiling height: a rough figure is fine. A standard door is about 7 feet, so judge how many doors tall the room is. If you cannot tell, say so.

Very large rooms: if the far fixtures look blurry, do a second circle from the other half and say which half it is.

From above: the rep stands in the centre of the room and turns one full circle. From above You One slow full circle From the side: the phone is tilted up toward the ceiling, and the floor-to-ceiling height is the figure to say out loud. From the side Ceiling height say it out loud Phone tilted up
Stand in the middle, tilt up, turn one circle, say the numbers.
A rep standing among pallet stacks in a warehouse, holding a phone up toward the ceiling lights to film the sweep
Step 3

Photograph each fixture type

One clear photo of each type in each room, not every fixture. The video already has the count. The photo shows the office exactly what to replace.

High bayHangs from a high ceiling
StripBare tubes, often 4 or 8 ft
TrofferPanel set in a drop ceiling
Wall packOutside wall, over doors

Not sure which one it is? Photograph it anyway. The office confirms the type from the photo.

The fixture in its room

Step back so the fixture and the ceiling around it are both in the photo. The office should see the type and how it is mounted.

Wattage label

If you can see a sticker or label with the wattage, take a second photo close enough to read it.

Something else

Downlights, pole lights, canopy lights, exit signs. Photograph any type that is not one of the four.

A warehouse ceiling with rows of high bay fixtures hanging from the roof trusses
High bay
A store aisle with long rows of bare strip light fixtures across the ceiling
Strip
An office room seen from the doorway, with recessed troffers in the drop ceiling
Troffer
A brick building at dusk with lit wall packs mounted above the doors
Wall pack
A fixture label close enough to read: LAMP F32T8 32W 120V
Wattage label

Example photos. Show the fixture in its room, and get close only for the label.

Step 4

Cover the whole building

The main floor is the easy part. Counts come back short because of the small spaces round the edges. Walk every one of these before you leave.

  • Every room. Offices, break rooms, restrooms, closets, mechanical rooms.
  • Hallways. Sweep each one like a room.
  • Stairwells. Every landing, top to bottom.
  • The exterior. Walk the outside. Wall packs, pole lights, the loading dock, any canopy.
  • Pole lights. Count the heads, not the poles. Two heads on one pole is two fixtures.
A building floor plan. The main warehouse floor is usually counted. The hallway, stairwell, restrooms, mechanical room, offices and the exterior are shaded as the areas most often missed. Warehouse floor usually counted Hallway Office Restrooms Stairs Mech. room Closets Exterior: wall packs, poles, dock Often missed
Shaded areas are the ones counts most often leave out.
An office hallway with ceiling light fixtures running its length
Hallways
Looking up a commercial stairwell at the strip light over the landing
Stairwells
A small commercial restroom with a ceiling panel light
Restrooms
A commercial building at dusk with wall packs lit and a parking lot pole light
The exterior
Step 5

Send it in

Fill in the Lighting Count Submission form for the building and upload the videos and photos to it. Your part ends there.

  1. Your partYou send itVideos, photos, names
  2. The officeOffice reviewsChecks the count against the videos
  3. The officeAssessmentPriced and presented to the owner
  4. Our crewsInstallReplacement fixtures go in

What to send

  • One sweep video per room, named for the room
  • One photo per fixture type, plus any labels
  • Any rooms you could not get into
  • Name and number of whoever can say yes

You are not selling or running the job

Pricing, rebates, the proposal, the conversation with the owner and the install all sit with the office and our crews. One team handles every number, so the owner hears one consistent answer, and you never have to field a technical question on the spot. If the owner asks you something, pass it to the office.

The ECO LED Lighting Count Submission form: business name, street address, decision maker, room video and fixture photo uploads, and rooms you could not access
Stuck in a building?

Call the office before you leave

631-306-7888 · HR@ecoledco.com