The layout, the calculations behind it, and a fixture schedule an electrical contractor can price.
Choosing fittings is the easy part of lighting. Deciding where they go, how many there are, and what happens when someone turns them down is the work.
A layout from us covers four things. A reflected ceiling plan with every fitting positioned and dimensioned, coordinated against sprinklers, diffusers, speakers and detectors rather than drawn in isolation. The calculations that justify those positions. A fixture schedule an electrical contractor can price without asking questions. And a controls strategy that says what is switched or dimmed together, and how.
Without those four, a lighting package is a list of products and an assumption. The commonest outcome is a ceiling where the fittings clash with the mechanical services, discovered during installation, resolved by moving whichever item is easiest rather than whichever is right.
We calculate rather than estimate, because the rule of thumb figures in general circulation are wrong often enough to matter.
Every space has a target illuminance on a defined working plane. Around 300 to 500 lux for general office work. 500 lux or more for detailed assembly and inspection. 150 to 200 lux for warehouse aisles. Considerably lower, and deliberately uneven, for restaurant and hotel spaces where atmosphere is the point.
The calculation takes the target, the room dimensions, the surface reflectances, the mounting height and the fitting photometry, and returns a quantity and a spacing. It also returns uniformity, which is the figure people forget: an average of 400 lux made up of bright pools and dark gaps is a worse room than an even 350.
Where the space is critical we model it properly and provide the output, so the numbers can be checked rather than taken on trust.
The schedule is the document that turns a design into something buildable and priceable.
For every fitting type it records the reference, the quantity, the wattage and lumen output, the beam angle, the colour temperature and CRI, the IP rating, the cut out or mounting detail, the dimming protocol, and the emergency requirement where one applies.
The details that get missed are always the same. Cut out sizes that do not match the ceiling build up. Dimming protocols specified as simply dimmable, which means nothing to a contractor and gets resolved on site with the wrong driver. Emergency fittings added after the layout is set, which changes the spacing. And drivers with no accessible position planned for them.
A schedule from us states all of it, which is also what makes a lighting tender genuinely comparable between suppliers.
A room that only works at full output is a room that only works at one time of day.
Controls planning defines the zones, so that perimeter fittings near glazing can dim independently of the core, and a boardroom can go from presentation to meeting without anyone standing at a bank of switches. It defines the scenes, which for hospitality and retail is the difference between one space and three. And it defines the protocol, DALI, phase dimming or otherwise, early enough that the drivers ordered actually support it.
Daylight linking and occupancy sensing belong in this conversation too. Both reduce running cost, and both are far cheaper to design in than to retrofit.
This service exists because a catalogue of fixtures is not an offer worth making on its own.
Anyone can supply a light fitting. What makes a lighting package worth buying as part of a project is that the fittings were chosen against calculated levels, coordinated against the ceiling, scheduled so the contractor can price them, and controlled in a way that suits how the space is used.
The design and the supply run as one job. Fixtures are procured without a markup on the supplier price under our project management service, and the range they come from is on the lighting hub. If a layout points to fittings we do not carry, we will tell you and source them anyway.