Walk through most older commercial buildings around here and you'll find the same thing overhead: humming fluorescent fixtures, a few tubes that flicker, and two or three that gave up entirely. Craig Faria Electrician has handled commercial lighting installation and LED retrofits in Taunton, MA, and nearby areas since 1996, and we see plenty of buildings burning money on lighting that was outdated a decade ago. Better light changes how a space feels, and the drop in the electric bill tends to get people's attention just as much.
From a base in Taunton, MA, Craig Faria Electrician works with businesses throughout Bristol and Plymouth counties. Our crew handles commercial lighting installation and LED retrofits for offices, retail spaces, restaurants, warehouses, apartment buildings, and industrial facilities, covering new fixture layouts, fluorescent and HID conversions, high-bay lighting, exterior and parking lot poles, occupancy sensors and controls, and emergency and exit lighting. Craig started the business in 1996 and grew it into a full team over nearly three decades, and we're members of the Massachusetts Electrical Contractors Association.
Nobody calls us about lighting until it gets bad enough to notice. A few tubes go out and get replaced, then the ballasts start humming, then somebody realizes half the warehouse is running dim and maintenance is on a ladder every other week. Meanwhile the electric bill has been quietly high for years.
The cause comes down to technology that simply aged out. Fluorescent and metal halide fixtures lose a significant share of their output over their service life, so a system designed properly twenty years ago now delivers a fraction of the light it started with. Ballasts fail, lamps get harder and more expensive to source, and every one of those fixtures draws far more power than an equivalent LED would. Factor in the labor cost of constant relamping and the number climbs quickly.
Fixing it properly starts with a walk-through and a light reading rather than a catalog order. Our crew measures existing light levels, counts fixtures and notes their condition, checks the panel and circuits feeding them, and looks at how the space actually gets used before recommending anything. The resulting plan might call for a straight fixture-for-fixture swap, a redesigned layout with fewer and better-placed fixtures, retrofit kits where the housings are worth keeping, or new controls that shut lights off in areas nobody occupies. Installation gets scheduled around your operation, and disposal of the old lamps and ballasts is handled on our end.
What you notice first is the light itself, which reads cleaner and far more even across the whole space. The bill follows about a month later, and the ladder stops coming out because quality LED fixtures run for years without attention. Buildings that qualify for utility incentives often recover a meaningful piece of the project cost, which shortens the payback considerably.
The energy savings are the obvious part, though building owners usually tell us the other changes matter just as much.
LED fixtures typically draw somewhere between half and a third of what the fluorescent or HID equipment they replace consumed. Across a warehouse or a full office floor, that difference shows up clearly on the next bill. Facilities running long hours see the fastest return.
Relamping is a recurring cost that rarely appears in anybody's budget as its own line item. Quality LED fixtures run for tens of thousands of hours, so maintenance calls mostly stop. Warehouses with high ceilings benefit most, since every lamp change up there involves a lift.
A machine shop, a boutique, and a corridor all need something different, and older systems rarely account for that. Measuring existing levels and designing to the actual task tends to produce better light with fewer fixtures. Retail owners in particular notice how much color rendering affects the way merchandise looks.
Occupancy sensors, daylight harvesting, and simple scheduling cut consumption further without anyone having to think about it. Storage areas, restrooms, and conference rooms are usually the easiest wins. Adding controls during a retrofit costs far less than going back for them later.
Exterior lighting shapes how safe a property feels after dark, and it's often the most neglected part of a building's system. Pole lights, wall packs, and canopy fixtures all convert well to LED, and the improvement in coverage is immediate. Property owners fielding tenant complaints about dark lots see those calls drop off.
Lighting frequently comes up alongside other projects, and our team handles those as well.
New tenants almost always want the lighting changed, and that work fits naturally into a larger fit-out. Our tenant improvement electrical services cover circuit layouts, rough-in, devices, and inspections for office, retail, and restaurant build-outs.
Emergency and egress lighting has to stay live during an outage, which is one of several reasons buildings add backup power. Commercial generator installation puts Generac or Kohler standby equipment in place with automatic transfer for the circuits that matter most.
Our broader commercial electrical services cover maintenance, service upgrades, troubleshooting, and general service calls across offices, restaurants, retail spaces, and industrial buildings. Many customers start with lighting and keep us on for everything else.
Lighting projects touch every part of a building, so the crew doing the work matters.
Lighting retrofits for commercial and industrial spaces have been part of our work for years, and Craig has built the business with that as a focus. Knowing which fixtures hold up, which drivers fail early, and which layouts genuinely work saves customers from learning it the expensive way.
Retail floors, restaurants, and production areas can't shut down for a lighting project. Nights, weekends, and phased work by section are all normal for our crew. Most customers stay fully open through the entire install.
A retrofit only makes sense if the math works, so we'll walk you through what the current system costs to run and what the new one should. When a full replacement doesn't pencil out, expect us to say so and suggest a smaller scope instead.
Older lighting circuits sometimes need attention before new fixtures go up, and that's easier to catch when the same crew handles both. Panel capacity, circuit condition, and control wiring all get checked as part of the job. Nothing gets hung on wiring that should not carry it.
Fixtures carry their own manufacturer warranties, and our labor is covered for a full year beyond that. If something we installed isn't performing the way it should, one call gets it sorted.
Massachusetts has long offered some of the strongest commercial lighting incentives in the country, and eligibility depends on your utility and the equipment you install. Taunton, Raynham, Berkley, and a few neighboring towns are served by Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant, which runs its own efficiency programs separately from Eversource territory. We'll point you toward the right program for your address, though the utility handles the application and approval.
Sometimes, and it depends on the condition of the housings. Retrofit kits work well in fixtures that are structurally sound and worth keeping, which can save meaningfully on a large project. Older fixtures with corroded housings or failing sockets are usually better off replaced outright, and we'll tell you which category yours falls into.
A small office might be done in a day or two, while a full warehouse or a multi-building property can run several weeks in phases. High ceilings, lift access, and working around your hours all factor into the schedule. You get a phasing plan up front so you know which areas are affected and when.
That reputation came from early LED products, and the technology has moved well past it. Color temperature is selectable now, so warm, comfortable light for a restaurant dining room and crisp neutral light for a warehouse aisle are both easy to specify. Samples go up before anything gets committed to building-wide.
Yes, and that's a big part of what we do for properties along the South Coast where salt air is hard on fixtures. Pole lights, wall packs, canopy lighting, and building-mounted floods all convert to LED, and we handle the pole work, wiring, and photocell or timer controls that go with them.
FAQs reviewed by Craig Faria, licensed electrician and owner of Craig Faria Electrician in Taunton, MA.
Let us walk your building and take some readings, and we'll show you what the current lighting costs to run versus what a retrofit would involve. The numbers usually make the decision pretty easy.
Business Name: Craig Faria Electrician
Address: Taunton, MA, 02780
Phone: 508-509-0076
Business Hours:
Mon - Fri: 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Sat-Sun: Closed
Emergency Service Available
One-year workmanship warranty.