Commercial Retrofit Guidance [email protected]
SYLVANIA retrofit planning team
About The Brand

About SYLVANIA

SYLVANIA is built around a practical retrofit idea: commercial upgrades work best when fixture families, ceiling conditions, controls intent, and emergency needs are aligned early.

Since 1901, we have supported indoor commercial-lighting programs that value repeatable product logic and smoother building upgrades. Our role is not just to supply hardware. We help teams move from retrofit intent to installed performance with less guesswork.

1901 Founded
2,800+ Team Members
42 Countries Served
2.1M Annual Indoor Lighting Capacity
73 Patents & Technical Filings

What Shapes Our Work

Specification Discipline

We aim to resolve conflicts in cut sheets, controls assumptions, and emergency coverage before they become field issues.

Technical Clarity

Our teams explain trade-offs in plain project language rather than hiding behind generic performance claims.

Serviceable Solutions

Maintenance access, commissioning ownership, and long-term support are considered part of the design conversation.

Measured Compliance

UL, DLC, and internal quality processes exist to reduce project risk, not as marketing decoration.

Regional Support with Project Context

Our headquarters in Wilmington coordinates North American application engineering, while regional teams support international submittal expectations and delivery planning. That mix helps us answer application questions in the context of the project, not as isolated product requests.

We maintain engineering and support coverage around office interiors, warehouse programs, exterior campus lighting, and emergency upgrades where schedules are often compressed and phasing decisions matter.

Regional lighting support network

How We Tend to Work

01

Start with the Application

We prefer to discuss the building, occupancy pattern, and maintenance context before narrowing product families.

02

Surface Trade-Offs Early

Trade-offs around comfort, efficacy, controls complexity, and serviceability are easier to manage before procurement or installation begins.

03

Support the Handover

Projects are not successful until the owner understands the control logic and the site can maintain the system cleanly.

Key Milestones

1998 - Company Launch

Established in Wilmington to support specification-oriented commercial lighting programs with a strong application-engineering model.

2006 - Controls Integration Team

Built a dedicated controls support group to help owners and contractors align sensors, dimming pathways, and commissioning sequences.

2012 - Outdoor Site Expansion

Expanded the portfolio for campus and site lighting where optics, pole spacing, and operating schedules needed tighter coordination.

2017 - Retrofit Program Support

Formalized phased-installation workflows for occupied commercial and institutional projects with after-hours turnover constraints.

2021 - Emergency Lighting Focus

Strengthened documentation and support for UL 924-oriented emergency and egress packages across renovation-heavy applications.

2025 - Expanded Commissioning Toolset

Added workflow support around wireless startup, daylight response tuning, and closeout documentation for multi-phase retrofit projects.

Certifications & Compliance

We rely on recognized standards where they help owners, specifiers, and contractors evaluate risk with more confidence.

UL 1598 UL 1598
UL 924 UL 924
DLC Premium DLC Premium
ISO 9001 ISO 9001
CE CE
RoHS RoHS

Looking for a Project-Oriented Lighting Partner?

We work best with teams that value clear coordination before the site schedule tightens.

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