DLC Premium and Save on Energy rebate eligibility

Confirm the current program rules. Incentive programs change their eligible measures, incentive rates and application process regularly, and some close or are replaced entirely. Treat this guide as background on how the listings work, and verify eligibility and rates against the program's own current documentation before you quote a rebate to a customer.

What DLC is

The DesignLights Consortium is a non-profit that maintains a qualified products list, the QPL, for commercial and industrial lighting. A product earns a listing by being independently tested against thresholds for efficacy, light output, distribution, warranty and lifetime.

It matters because utility and government incentive programs across North America — Ontario's included — generally do not assess fixtures themselves. They point at the QPL and pay against what is listed on it. Efficiency programs need a defensible, auditable definition of "efficient", and the QPL is it.

DLC covers commercial and industrial categories: high bays, troffers, panels, linear fixtures, exterior area lighting, retrofit kits. Most residential products fall outside its scope, where ENERGY STAR is usually the relevant mark instead.

Standard versus Premium

The QPL has two tiers. Standard means the product meets the baseline requirements for its category. Premium means it clears a higher bar, principally on efficacy — more lumens delivered per watt consumed — and often on controllability.

The distinction matters commercially because programs frequently pay a higher incentive for Premium, and some measures are restricted to Premium only. On a warehouse retrofit of a hundred high bays, the gap between tiers can exceed the price difference between the fixtures. It is worth pricing both ways rather than assuming the cheaper fixture wins.

Check the listing, not the marketing

"DLC listed" printed on a box is not evidence. Listings are per model number and per configuration, and they can lapse. A fixture family may be listed in some wattages and not others, and a version sold before a revision may not carry the current listing.

Search the DLC's own QPL by the exact manufacturer model number you are buying, and confirm the tier shown there. If the model number on your invoice does not match the model number on the listing, the claim is at risk however similar the products look.

What to keep on file

Programs are audited, and the burden of proof sits with the applicant. From the start of the job, keep:

• The exact manufacturer model numbers, matching the QPL entry, on the invoice
• Quantities per location or space
• What was removed — type and wattage of the outgoing fixtures, which is what the saving is calculated against
• Pre-approval documentation where the program requires it, obtained before the work starts
• Dated photographs of the existing installation before removal

The pre-approval point is the one that costs people money. Several programs will not pay retroactively on work that started before an application was approved, no matter how eligible the equipment is.

Where this applies in practice

The retrofits that most often qualify are the obvious ones: metal halide or T5/T8 high bays in warehouses and shops, fluorescent troffers in offices, and exterior area and wall pack lighting. Our UFO high bays and linear high bays are the usual replacements, and adding occupancy sensing with something like the CSC LED high bay motion sensor can qualify as a separate controls measure under some programs.

For residential work, look for ENERGY STAR rather than DLC — see our ENERGY STAR lighting range.

Ask us before you quote

If you are pricing a retrofit against an incentive, send us the fixture schedule. We can confirm the exact model numbers we would supply so you can check them against the QPL yourself before the number reaches your customer.