- 511 E Spring St, Monroe, GA 30655
- Mon–Fri 8AM–5PM
- Residential · Commercial · Industrial
Lighting upgrades cover everything from swapping a tired fixture to laying out a full recessed plan for a room.
Next Gen Electric Co. installs recessed cans, LED retrofits, under-cabinet, exterior and landscape lighting across Monroe — planned around how you actually use the room, then wired, switched and dimmed properly rather than tapped into whatever was already there.
What a typical Monroe job looks like.
Cost
Lighting prices vary more than almost any other job we do, because "add some lights" can mean four cans in an open attic or twenty in a vaulted ceiling with no access. National figures land tightly enough to be useful as a starting point, though.
Standard like-for-like replacement, same amperage
Fuse box to modern breaker panel, often needs rewiring
Secondary panel for a garage, basement or addition
Moving the panel to a better or code-compliant location
One failed breaker, not a panel job at all
Where code requires arc-fault or ground-fault protection
Two houses on the same Monroe street can quote very differently for the same number of lights. Here's what actually moves it.
Entirely up to you. Buy what you like and we'll install it — the only things worth checking before you order are that heavy fixtures have suitable support available, and that anything you want dimmed actually states it's dimmable. Not all LED fittings are.
⚠ Placeholder figures — replace before publishing. National consensus is unusually tight: $125–$300 per light installed in an existing ceiling, averaging around $180, and $700–$1,650 for six cans in a kitchen. New construction runs 40–50% less. Supply NGEC's confirmed Monroe figures or remove the table.
Ask us this first
If your home in Monroe or anywhere across Walton County already has recessed cans that work, there's a good chance you don't need new fixtures at all.
An LED retrofit kit converts an existing can — the housing stays in the ceiling, and a new LED module and trim go in where the old bulb and trim were. No cutting, no drywall repair, no rewiring. The kits themselves are inexpensive, and fitting is quick.
On a house with a dozen tired, yellowing, halogen-era cans, that's a genuine transformation for a small fraction of a full replacement. It also cuts the heat those old fittings were dumping into your attic.
We'll tell you which one applies before quoting. Plenty of customers who ask about a full install end up doing a retrofit instead — and plenty go the other way once they see what a proper layout would look like. Either is fine; what isn't fine is selling the bigger job to someone who only needed the smaller one.
If the only thing wrong with your lighting is that it's old, a retrofit is usually the honest answer.
What we install
Most Monroe calls start with one room and grow. A kitchen that's finally lit properly tends to make the rest of the house look dated.
New cans laid out for even coverage without the runway effect. Includes cutting, wiring, switching and making good around each fixture.
Converting old cans, fluorescent troffers and halogen fittings to LED — lower running cost and far less heat in the ceiling.
Task lighting where you actually chop and read recipes, wired back to a switch rather than plugged into an outlet.
Pendants, chandeliers, vanity lights and flush mounts — including proper support for heavy fixtures and high ceilings.
Soffit lighting, floods, motion sensors, porch and garage fixtures — wet-rated and switched sensibly.
Landscape lighting
Getting it right
This is the single most common regret after a lighting job — the layout was fine, but the light feels wrong. Kelvin is the number that decides it, and it's worth choosing deliberately rather than accepting whatever the box had.
Closest to old incandescent. Living rooms, bedrooms and dining — anywhere you want the room to feel relaxed.
Slightly crisper and the most versatile choice. Works well in kitchens, hallways and open-plan spaces.
Clean and task-focused. Good in garages, laundry rooms, workshops and bathrooms where you need to see accurately.
Bright and blue-leaning. Fine for a workshop or garage, usually too clinical for living areas.
Keep it consistent within sight lines. Mixing 2700K and 4000K in the same open-plan space is what makes a room feel subtly off even when nobody can say why. If you're only doing one room now but might continue later, pick the temperature you'd want throughout and stay with it — including in any retrofit kits, which are also sold in different temperatures.
Layout
Step 01
We look at the room, the ceiling structure, what's above it, and how you use the space day to day.
Step 02
Fixture positions marked on the ceiling, temperature and dimming agreed, and a written price before anything is cut.
Step 03
Cutting, wiring, switching and mounting. Dust controlled and floors covered throughout.
Step 04
Dimming range checked for flicker across the whole travel, everything cleaned up, and offcuts and packaging taken away with us.
It depends on the work you're having done in Monroe. Swapping a fixture for another fixture on existing wiring generally doesn't need one. Adding new circuits, new switching or a significant amount of new wiring generally does.
In practice: a chandelier replacement, no. A room full of new recessed cans on a new circuit, yes. We'll tell you which side of the line your job falls on at the site visit, and pull the permit where one is needed rather than quietly skipping it.
Unpermitted electrical work turns up in the same three places every time: a buyer's inspection, an insurance claim, and a refinance. Recessed lighting is particularly visible — an inspector can count the cans and ask when they went in.
If you're already planning work, lighting is dramatically cheaper with the ceiling open — commonly around half the per-light cost of retrofitting into a finished ceiling. If a renovation or new build is on the horizon, that's the moment to do it.
Sometimes, and it's usually cheaper. If your main panel is in good condition and the service has capacity but you've simply run out of physical space, a subpanel adds slots without replacing the main. It's a common answer for detached garages, workshops, finished basements and additions around Monroe. What a subpanel can't do is add capacity — if the service itself is maxed out, it just moves the problem.
FAQ
National figures put recessed lighting at $125 to $300 per light installed in an existing ceiling, with around $180 the most commonly cited average. Six cans in a kitchen typically lands between $700 and $1,650. The biggest variable is access: cans in a single-storey room with a walkable attic above are quickest, while a ceiling with a room above it means fishing wire through finished space. Wiring around joists or ducts can add roughly $200 to an individual fixture. New construction runs 40 to 50 percent less because the ceiling is already open.
Usually, yes — and it's much cheaper. An LED retrofit kit fits into the existing can housing, replacing the old bulb and trim with an LED module. No cutting, no drywall repair, no rewiring. If your cans are in the right positions and the housings are sound, this is often the honest answer rather than a full replacement. We'll tell you which applies before quoting.
As a starting point, cans are commonly spaced about half the ceiling height apart and kept two to three feet off the walls. An eight-foot ceiling suggests roughly four feet between lights. Then adjust for the room: kitchens need more because of worktop tasks and cabinet shadows, bedrooms usually need fewer, and dark walls absorb more light. We mark the layout on your ceiling before cutting so you can look at it in the actual room.
2700K for a warm, relaxed feel in living rooms and bedrooms. 3000K is the most versatile and suits kitchens and open-plan areas. 4000K is cleaner and better for garages, laundry rooms and bathrooms. 5000K is bright and blue-leaning, fine for workshops but usually too clinical indoors. The most important rule is consistency within sight lines — mixing temperatures in one open space is what makes a room feel subtly wrong.
Almost always the dimmer. Older dimmers were designed for incandescent loads and don't handle LED drivers well, and even some modern dimmers are incompatible with particular fixtures. Matching a proper LED-rated dimmer to the drivers usually resolves it completely. It's a small job and worth doing before replacing the lights themselves.
In most cases, yes. Where there's attic access above, cans go in with just the fixture cut-outs. In finished ceilings we fish wire through the cavity, which occasionally needs a small access hole that gets patched. We'll tell you at the site visit if a particular ceiling will need patching, and whether we're handling that or your decorator is — it's a common surprise on cheap quotes.
Swapping a fixture on existing wiring generally doesn't require one. Adding new circuits, new switching or a significant amount of new wiring generally does. We'll tell you which applies at the site visit and pull the permit where one is needed. Unpermitted work tends to surface during a sale, an insurance claim or a refinance — and recessed cans are easy for an inspector to count.
Yes — path lighting, uplighting on trees and facades, soffit lighting, floods and motion sensors. Exterior work needs wet-rated fittings, correctly buried cable and a properly sized low-voltage transformer. It's popular on the larger Lake Oconee and Watkinsville properties we work on, and worth sizing the transformer with headroom so you can add to it later.
Yes, and plenty of customers do. Buy what you like and we'll install it. The only things worth checking before you order are that heavy fixtures have suitable support available and that anything you want dimmed actually states it's dimmable — not all LED fittings are.
Yes. We handle commercial LED retrofits across Walton and Oconee County — offices, retail, warehouses and shops — including replacing fluorescent troffers and high-bay fittings, and scheduling the work outside trading hours where needed.
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Related services
100A → 200A
When the issue is capacity rather than the box itself — the bigger version of this job.
Breakers
When one circuit is the problem and the panel is otherwise sound.
Inspection
A written, photographed report — often what prompts a panel replacement in the first place.
SPD
Cheapest to add while the panel is already open and de-energised.
Circuits
The new panel's spare slots are what make added circuits possible afterwards.
Standby
Transfer switch work pairs naturally with a new panel.
Ready when you are
A walkthrough of your Monroe home, a layout marked out before anything is cut, an honest answer on whether you need new cans or just retrofits, and a written price covering fixtures, switching and dimming.
