# Warehouse LED retrofit cost and EPC upgrades > What a warehouse lighting retrofit involves, how mounting height drives the cost, and why sheds often reach a better EPC on lighting alone. Source: https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/buildings/warehouse --- # Warehouse LED retrofit cost and EPC upgrades Distribution buildings are the clearest case on this site. Lighting is a large share of what the building uses, the plant is often minimal, and the roof is high — so the lighting is both the biggest lever and the most expensive thing to reach. Installed high bay fixtures run at a few hundred pounds each, which is why the quote for a large shed is driven by the fixture count and the access equipment rather than by anything clever. Usually the owner or the occupier directly, because the lighting is in the demised space. ## Mounting height is the number that matters Everything about a warehouse lighting job follows from how high the fittings are. Height sets the output each fitting needs, which sets how many you need, which sets the cost. It also sets the access equipment, and in a live warehouse the access is frequently the harder half of the programme — you are working above racking, around traffic, and usually out of hours. This is why a per-square-foot rate quoted over the phone means very little for a shed. Two buildings of identical floor area with a four-metre difference in haunch height are different jobs. ## Light the aisles, not the racking The common failure in a warehouse relamp is lighting the floor plate evenly as though it were an open space. It is not an open space. Racking creates canyons, and a uniform grid of fittings lights the tops of the racks while leaving the aisles people work in darker than they were before. A specification worth paying for is set out against the racking layout, with the aisle as the thing being lit. That also tends to reduce the fitting count, because you stop lighting volume nobody occupies. ## What a large shed costs For scale: a 200,000 sq ft warehouse relamp sits at roughly tens of thousands of pounds for fixtures and installation, and around meaningfully more once controls are included once lighting controls go in with it. The gap between those two figures is the decision worth thinking hardest about, because aisle occupancy sensing and rooflight dimming are unusually well suited to this building type — a warehouse has large stretches that are genuinely empty for long periods, and often has rooflights already. Sub-£1,000 installations exist, but they are small workshops and single bays, not distribution sheds. Anyone pricing a shed off that figure is pricing a different building. ## Why the rating often moves a long way here Because a non-domestic EPC is an asset rating of the building and its services, not of your metered use, and in a distribution building the fixed services are mostly lighting. There is frequently very little heating to speak of, limited hot water, and a large floor area lit for long hours. Change the lighting and you have changed most of what the assessment is looking at. That makes warehouses the building type where lighting most often gets you where you need to be without touching plant or fabric. ## Questions we get asked ### How much does a warehouse LED retrofit cost? ### Can we do it without stopping operations? ### Will lighting alone get a warehouse to a better band? ### Are controls worth it in a warehouse? 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) Where this page describes costs or savings it gives a general range rather than a quoted figure, because the numbers depend on your building, your operating hours and the equipment being replaced. A contractor gives you a figure after a survey. Last updated 8 October 2026 . - [Lighting controls Aisle sensing and rooflight dimming](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/measures/controls) - [Roof solar The other thing a big roof is good for](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/measures/solar) - [What upgrades cost How the numbers are built up](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/cost) Next step ## Get a quote for your warehouse and distribution 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.