# Cold storage EPC upgrades and lighting > Why lighting pays twice in a refrigerated building, how refrigeration dominates the rating, and the fitting constraints that come with working below zero. Source: https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/buildings/cold-storage --- # Cold storage EPC upgrades and lighting A cold store is the one building type where lighting is worth more than the lighting bill suggests. Every watt a fitting draws ends up as heat inside an insulated box, and the refrigeration plant then spends more energy taking that heat back out. Cut the lighting load and you cut the cooling load with it. Usually the operator rather than the landlord, because refrigeration is almost always tenant plant. ## The double saving, and why it changes the sums In an ordinary warehouse, waste heat from lighting is free winter heating and a mild nuisance in summer. In a cold store it is a cost twice over: you pay to produce it and you pay to remove it. That makes the payback on a lighting upgrade materially better here than the headline lighting saving implies, and it is the reason cold stores often justify a better specification than their floor area alone would suggest. It is also the reason an operator should ask a contractor to quote the cooling effect, not just the lighting saving. ## What the fittings have to survive Standard warehouse fittings are not specified for this. Below freezing, drivers behave differently, seals matter, and condensation on a fitting moving between temperature zones is a real failure mode rather than a theoretical one. - Low-temperature rated drivers, because a driver specified for an ambient warehouse will fail early in a blast freezer. - Sealed housings with an appropriate ingress rating, for washdown and for condensation. - Fittings that start reliably from cold rather than warming up to full output. - Mounting that does not bridge the insulated envelope and create a cold bridge or a condensation path. ## Where the rating actually sits Because a non-domestic EPC is an asset rating of the building and its services, not of your metered use, refrigeration plant is a large part of what is being modelled in a cold store, and it will usually outweigh lighting. That does not make lighting the wrong first move: it is still the cheapest thing to change, it needs no shutdown of the cold chain, and the cooling benefit comes with it. It does mean an honest plan here looks further than lighting. Door protection, air curtains, defrost strategy and the age of the plant are all in play, and several of them cost very little. ## The operational constraint nobody mentions first You cannot empty a cold store the way you can empty a warehouse aisle. Stock has a temperature it must stay at, and the cost of moving it or risking it usually dwarfs the cost of the lighting work. Programmes here get built around the cold chain rather than around the electrician. In practice that means zone-by-zone working, short possessions, and occasionally doing the work during a planned defrost or a stock-low window. Worth raising at quotation stage rather than discovering on site. ## Questions we get asked ### Does LED lighting really reduce refrigeration costs? ### Can we use ordinary warehouse fittings in a cold store? ### Will lighting alone move a cold store EPC rating much? ### Do we have to shut the store down? Sources - A non-domestic EPC is an asset rating: it is based on the fabric of the building and its services rather than on metered consumption. [A guide to energy performance certificates for the construction, sale and let of non-dwellings, DCLG, 2014](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-performance-certificates-for-the-construction-sale-and-let-of-non-dwellings) Last updated 8 October 2026 . - [Warehouse lighting The ambient version, and the cost basis](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/buildings/warehouse) - [Lighting controls Occupancy sensing suits a mostly-empty cold store](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/measures/controls) - [Plant and controls Where the rest of the load sits](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/measures/heating-hot-water) Next step ## Get a quote for your cold storage One commercial contractor, quoting off a survey of the actual building rather than a rate per square foot over the phone. Or call [07367 293494](tel:+447367293494). Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm.