Plenty of commercial signage in BC still runs fluorescent tubes. If you are calling someone out annually to replace tubes and ballasts, a retrofit is worth costing — in many cases it pays for itself within a few years on maintenance savings alone, before energy is counted.
What a retrofit involves
The cabinet, faces and structure stay. Only the internals change:
- Tubes, ballasts and sockets are stripped out.
- The cabinet interior is cleaned and repainted with a high-reflectance white — this genuinely affects output and is often skipped by cheaper providers.
- An LED module layout is calculated for the specific cabinet depth and face area.
- Modules are mounted, wired in labelled runs and sealed at every entry.
- A new driver is fitted with accessible service points.
- Faces are cleaned, or replaced if they have yellowed badly.
Most single-cabinet retrofits are a half-day on site.
Where the savings come from
Energy. LED typically draws around a fifth of the equivalent fluorescent load. On a large or double-sided cabinet running dusk to dawn, this is meaningful.
Maintenance. Usually the larger saving. Fluorescent signage needs tube replacement roughly annually and ballast replacement every few years, each requiring a service call with lift access. LED modules run for a decade.
Appearance. Harder to quantify but real. Fluorescent output dims and shifts colour as tubes age, and a cabinet with one failed tube has an obvious dark band. LED gives even output that stays consistent.
When it is worth it
- The cabinet and faces are structurally sound.
- You are calling out for tube or ballast replacement more than once a year.
- The sign runs long hours, especially dusk to dawn.
- You have multiple locations — savings multiply and consistency improves.
- The existing sign is non-conforming under current bylaw, so replacing it entirely would mean permitting a smaller sign.
That last point is frequently the decisive one. Many older signs exceed what today's bylaw permits and are legal only as existing non-conforming structures. Replace the sign and you lose that status. Retrofit the internals and you keep it.
When replacement is the better answer
- The cabinet is corroded or water is getting in structurally.
- Faces are badly yellowed, cracked or crazed — though faces alone can often be replaced.
- Your branding has changed and the graphics need to change anyway.
- The sign is genuinely dated in a way that reflects poorly on the business.
What to watch for in a quote
Not all retrofits are equal. A cheap one drops a strip of modules into a dirty cabinet and calls it done, producing visible banding and hot spots.
Ask specifically whether the quote includes repainting the interior, whether the module layout is calculated for your cabinet depth, whether the driver is sized with headroom, and what warranty covers the modules and the driver separately. Those four questions will separate a proper job from a quick one.
Doing it across multiple sites
For multi-location operators, retrofitting the group at once is worth planning. Standardising on one module type and colour temperature means every location reads identically — which, for franchise and multi-site brands, is often the real motivation regardless of the energy maths.
