Wave Electrical Solutions carried out a full lighting upgrade and series of electrical improvements at a commercial premises in Shortlanesend, Cornwall. Old fluorescent fittings were replaced with surface-mounted LED panel lights, alongside a boiler supply relocation and an IP-rated socket installation near the sink area.
Fluorescent lighting has had its day in commercial spaces. The fittings are ageing, the tubes need replacing regularly, and the quality of light they produce rarely does a working environment any favours. When a business in Shortlanesend got in touch about upgrading their lighting and tidying up a couple of electrical loose ends, it was a straightforward brief with a meaningful outcome.
The main focus of the work was replacing four existing ceiling fittings with 1200mm x 300mm surface-mounted LED panels in a natural white 4000K colour temperature. That particular colour temperature sits in a useful middle ground – clear and bright enough for a working environment without tipping into the cold, clinical feel you can get with higher Kelvin ratings. For a commercial space where staff are on their feet and actually using the room, it makes a real difference to how the space feels day to day.
All four original fluorescent fittings, tubes included, were removed from site and taken away for safe disposal at an appropriate electrical waste centre. That’s not a throwaway detail – fluorescent tubes contain small amounts of mercury and aren’t something that should simply go in a skip. Proper disposal is the correct way to handle them, and it’s something we take care of as standard.
The new LED panels were surface-mounted directly to the ceiling, which keeps the installation clean and avoids any need for recessing into the ceiling structure. Surface mounting is a practical choice in many commercial settings where you want good general light coverage without significant disruption to the ceiling above. The panels deliver a wide, even spread of light across the room – far more consistent than the older fittings they replaced.
Alongside the lighting work, the boiler power supply needed relocating. The existing cabling wasn’t ideally positioned, so the supply was rerouted to the inside of an adjacent cupboard where it would be both tidier and more accessible if needed in future. The cabling was housed within surface-mounted trunking to keep everything neat and contained – it’s the kind of detail that matters when you’re working in a space that people use daily. Nobody wants cables running across walls in a way that looks like an afterthought.
The third element of the job involved the socket outlet near the sink. In any commercial setting, a standard socket in close proximity to a water source needs to be assessed carefully. The existing outlet was situated within the dado trunking and wasn’t rated for that kind of environment. The socket was relocated to mid-wall height and replaced with a new IP-rated outlet, which carries the appropriate ingress protection for use near water. The old socket position within the dado was decommissioned and finished with a blanking plate, leaving the installation safe, compliant, and tidy.
Shortlanesend is a small village just outside Truro, and like a lot of commercial premises in the area, the building had accumulated a mix of electrical installations from different eras. Jobs like this one are fairly typical – not a full rewire, but a focused set of improvements that address specific issues and bring things up to where they need to be. The difference a proper lighting upgrade makes to a working environment is often underestimated until it’s done.
All work was carried out during standard working hours, with the aim of keeping disruption to a minimum. From the moment the old fittings came down to the final checks on the new IP-rated socket, the job was completed in a single visit – the kind of outcome that matters to a business that can’t afford extended downtime.
If your commercial premises has fluorescent lighting that’s overdue for replacement, or electrical installations that have been patched together over the years and could do with proper attention, it’s worth getting things looked at properly rather than waiting for something to fail.
