U.S. calculation output
Independent photometric analysis, lighting design and controls documentation, issued to your engineer of record. Eastern time zone, English, invoiced in USD.
IES recommended practice is American. RP-7 for industrial interiors, RP-1 for offices, RP-8 for roadway, RP-6 for sport — these are the documents the practice designs against, and have been throughout a twelve-year career. LM-79 and LM-80 data, IES photometric files and BUG ratings are the same evidence base on both sides of the border.
A Québec address on a consultancy tends to read as foreign standards and unit conversions. It isn't. The calculation runs in footcandles, against the IES practice your specification already cites, and the output is a document your engineer of record can review without translating anything. The same holds for classified areas — Class I and Class II, Division 1 and 2 under the NEC is the system this practice already works in, with explosion-proof and dust-ignition-proof selection made on gas group and temperature code alongside the photometry.
Lighting power density limits and control requirements differ depending on which code a jurisdiction has adopted. Some states are on a version of ASHRAE 90.1, others on the IECC, California runs Title 24, and adopted versions lag the published ones by varying amounts. The compliance path is not the same in each case.
Which is why project location is the first question asked. The applicable code is established before modelling begins, and each calculation set states the standard it was run against so the basis of design can be checked by whoever reviews it.
The practice provides photometric analysis, lighting design and controls documentation. It does not provide professional engineering services and does not seal drawings in any U.S. jurisdiction. The deliverable goes to your engineer of record, who reviews and stamps under their own licence.
That division is the normal arrangement for specialist photometric work and it removes the licensure question entirely. You get the modelling and the specification; the responsible engineer retains responsible charge.
Montréal is Eastern time, so the working day overlaps completely with New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Miami, and substantially with the West Coast. Correspondence, calculations and specifications are issued in English. Invoicing is in USD.
Work is remote. What starts a project is a plan set, mounting heights, and the target criteria or the code that applies — the same inputs a domestic consultant would ask for.
Consulting services exported from Canada are zero-rated for GST/HST and QST, so nothing is added to the fee. There is no duty on a calculation set or a specification — nothing crosses a border but a file. And because the work is performed in Canada, the fee is foreign-source income, so no U.S. withholding applies.
If your accounts payable team needs a W-8BEN-E on file before releasing payment, it is provided on request.
Retail plazas and their site lighting, national quick-service restaurant chains including drive-thru and canopy, elementary and high schools, aircraft hangars, YMCA facilities including natatoria and gymnasia, baseball fields and sports complexes, hotels, and classified industrial areas. New construction and retrofit both, across a range of states and therefore a range of adopted energy codes.
Each type carries a constraint that decides the design. Hangars are a mounting-height and uniformity problem across a large volume, with glare judged from a technician looking up at an airframe rather than from a plan view. Natatoria add corrosion-rated enclosures and veiling reflections on the water that determine whether a lifeguard can see the bottom. Schools are calculated to IES RP-3 with screen glare and an energy code that varies by state. Retail plazas are two problems at once — the interior and the parking field, where spill at the property line is what the municipality actually reviews. Quick-service restaurants are the tightest of them: vertical illuminance at the order point and the pickup window, menu board luminance set against ambient rather than in isolation, and the adaptation problem of a driver leaving a bright canopy for a dark lot — all of it repeated across site geometries that differ while the brand standard does not.
A multi-site commercial and industrial retrofit portfolio: existing-conditions audits and photometric baselines modelled against retrofit options, carried through to payback analysis and Lighting-as-a-Service structures for a capital decision.
A Florida high-school sports complex: football field, baseball diamond and aquatic area calculated together to IES RP-6, with per-luminaire aiming from 800 W heads at 15° and 35° on 60 ft poles, and spill outside the fields of play modelled in the same run.
No. The practice provides photometric analysis and design documentation, not professional engineering services, and does not seal drawings in any U.S. jurisdiction. Your engineer of record reviews and stamps under their own licence.
Projects run nationwide. The applicable energy code is established per project, because adoption and version vary by jurisdiction.
USD for U.S. projects. Fees are fixed for a defined scope and quoted before work starts.
No. Services exported from Canada are zero-rated for GST/HST and QST, so nothing is added to the fee — a $1,000 fee is a $1,000 invoice. There is no duty on a calculation set, and because the work is performed in Canada the fee is foreign-source income, so no U.S. withholding applies. A W-8BEN-E is provided on request if your accounts payable team needs one on file.
Yes. Class I and Class II, Division 1 and 2 work is routine, including explosion-proof and dust-ignition-proof selection on gas group and temperature code. Calculations use photometric files that include the guard rather than the bare optic, because guards and glass globes materially change output and distribution.
A few lines is enough: the space, the levels it has to hit, the state it is in, and when it is needed. You get a written scope, a fee in USD and a schedule back, normally within two business days.
