Retrofit Planning: Lighting, Plant & Heat Pumps
Sequencing LED, chiller and boiler replacements around lease events and MEES deadlines, and when a heat-pump conversion stacks up.
10 min read ยท Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead ยท Last reviewed July 2026
Controls fixes harvest the waste; sooner or later the plant itself must change, and in commercial property when matters as much as what. A chiller lasts 20 years, a boiler 25, a lighting installation 15, and a lease runs 10: retrofit planning in this sector is the art of landing efficiency work on the natural rhythm of leases, voids and plant end-of-life, so the marginal cost of doing better approaches zero. This lesson covers the three big physical opportunities in a typical office (lighting, cooling plant, and the heating conversion question) and the sequencing logic that makes them fundable.