The Lighting Specification Checklist I Wish I'd Had: 7 Steps for Flos and Smart Lighting Projects

If you're specifying designer lighting for a residential or commercial project—think Flos desk lamps in a hotel lobby, a floor-to-ceiling fixture in a double-height space, or a round chandelier over a dining table—and you're also responsible for making it work with a smart lighting system, this checklist is for you.

I've been handling lighting specification orders for 7 years. I've personally made (and documented) 11 significant mistakes, totaling roughly $38,000 in wasted budget. Now I maintain our team's checklist to prevent others from repeating my errors.

Here's the thing: most specification failures don't happen because you picked the wrong fixture. They happen because of what you didn't check between the fixture and the ceiling, the dimmer, and the control system. Below are the 7 steps I run through on every project now. It takes about 45 minutes and has saved me more money than any other 45-minute block in my week.

1. Pull the photometric data before you fall for the render.

Flos product photography is stunning. That's the problem. A $1,200 desk lamp can look perfect in a render and completely misbehave in a real room.

In 2019, we specified 24 Flos desk lamps for a hotel lobby. The renders were gorgeous. What we didn't pull was the CRI. The lamps arrived at CRI 80. The lobby had exposed oak walls, and the client wanted to show off the wood grain. CRI 80 made the oak look gray. We ended up swapping the LED modules on all 24 fixtures—$4,200 in parts plus a week of electrician time.

Your check: Before you write a single line of the spec, get the IES file, lumen output, CCT, CRI, and beam angle for every fixture. Write the actual numbers in the spec, not adjectives. 'Warm white' is not a specification. '2700K, CRI 90, 380 lumens' is.

2. Map every installation point on the actual ceiling plan—not the furniture plan.

This is the one most people skip. They place fixtures on the furniture plan, send it to the contractor, and find out on install day that the ceiling doesn't cooperate.

A Flos floor to ceiling lamp like the Parentesi needs a confirmed ceiling height and a mounting surface that can take the tension. In February 2022, we specified four of them for a retail space. The architectural drawings said 3.2 meters. The actual finished ceiling was 3.14 meters. The lamps arrived with a fixed rod length. Six inches too long. We couldn't cut them on site without voiding the warranty. New rods, three-week lead time, and the opening was delayed by 9 days.

Round chandeliers have a related problem: the structural connection. A 2097 round chandelier looks light in the catalog. It isn't. If the ceiling is drywall and the structural engineer hasn't confirmed a blocking plate, you're one step away from a very expensive hole in the ceiling.

Your check: For every fixture, confirm three things on the ceiling plan: (1) exact finished ceiling height, (2) mounting surface and structural capacity, (3) power location and cable routing. Do this before you order, not after.

3. Separate the fixture from the control system. They are not the same thing.

This is where I see the most expensive mistakes—and where I've had to change how I think about what a lighting manufacturer actually does.

Flos designs and builds extraordinary fixtures. That's their expertise. But if you're asking how do I choose the best smart lighting system for your project, the answer isn't going to come from a fixture catalog. It's a different discipline.

Here's what happened: In March 2023, we specified a mix of Flos Go spotlights, a round chandelier, and several desk lamps for a mixed-use project. The client wanted app-based control and scene setting. We assumed—wrongly—that because the fixtures were premium, the control layer would be straightforward. Some of the fixtures accepted 0-10V dimming. Some wanted DALI. Some were phase-cut. The Go spotlights were track-mounted with a different driver than we expected. The smart lighting system the client bought didn't support any of those protocols out of the box.

We caught it in pre-commissioning, thank God. But it cost us two weeks and a controls consultant's retainer to fix.

The lesson: the fixture and the control system are two separate specifications. Flos does the first one. For the second one, hire a controls consultant or at least verify the protocol compatibility fixture by fixture. A vendor who says 'we do everything' is probably not doing the control layer as well as a specialist would.

Your check: Build two tables. Table A lists every fixture and its dimming protocol (0-10V, DALI, phase-cut, Casambi, Zigbee, proprietary). Table B lists the control system's supported protocols. Don't order until the two tables match line by line.

4. Test the dimming protocol in situ. Don't trust the word 'dimmable.'

The word 'dimmable' on a spec sheet is close to meaningless. FTC advertising guidelines require that product claims be truthful and substantiated with evidence, but 'dimmable' can mean 'dims to 10%,' 'dims to 1%,' 'dims with a specific dimmer,' or 'dims and flickers at low levels.'

The only reliable test is the one you run yourself. We keep a test rig: a standard dimmer from the project's control system, a kill-a-watt meter, and a dark room. We hook up the sample fixture and run it from 100% to 1% and back. If it flickers, buzzes, or drops out below 15%, it's not going into the spec without a note.

Your check: Order one sample of every fixture type. Test it with the actual dimmer model specified for the project. Document the lowest stable dimming level. That number goes in the spec.

5. Order a physical sample. Yes, even for a 200-piece order.

I've never fully understood why some manufacturers treat sample orders as a nuisance. My best guess is that the sample process doesn't fit their standard fulfillment workflow. But for a designer, the sample is the only way to confirm finish, scale, and light quality before committing.

On a 200-piece order in 2021, we approved the finish based on a 4-inch color chip. When the fixtures arrived, the 'matte black' was closer to charcoal gray. The supplier's tolerance for finish variation was wider than the client's. We couldn't reject the order—it was within the supplier's stated tolerance. But the client wasn't happy, and we ate the cost of re-powder-coating 40 visible units.

Your check: Order one physical sample of every finish and every fixture size before the bulk order. Compare it to the control sample under the project's actual lighting conditions—daylight, warm light, evening. If the finish matters, get the supplier's tolerance range in writing.

6. Confirm spare parts and replacement lead times before you sign.

LED modules and drivers fail. Not often, but they do. The question is whether you can get a replacement in two weeks or two months.

We budget a spare parts allowance on every project now—3-5% of the fixture count for drivers and LED modules. For a recent project with 60 Flos fixtures, that meant ordering 3 spare drivers and 2 spare LED modules. The lead time on those spares was 6 weeks. If we'd needed one in a hurry, the project would have been down for a month and a half.

Your check: Ask for the lead time on the LED module and driver for every fixture type. Ask what the warranty covers and what it doesn't. Order spares with the main order—they're cheaper and they arrive together.

7. Walk the site with the electrician before install day.

This is the last step and the cheapest one. Before the fixtures arrive, walk the actual site with the electrician who's going to install them. Bring the ceiling plan, the fixture cut sheets, and a tape measure.

The things you'll catch: a beam that nobody mentioned, a duct that runs right where the round chandelier was supposed to go, a floor-to-ceiling lamp location that conflicts with a floor outlet, and a track lighting run that's 18 inches short of the power feed.

On one project, the walk caught a structural beam that would have blocked the Go spotlight track. We moved the track 14 inches and avoided a change order that would have cost $2,800.

Your check: Schedule a 45-minute walk with the electrician, the GC, and the ceiling plan. Mark every fixture location on the actual ceiling with painter's tape. Take photos. Send them to the team.

Common mistakes to avoid

These are the ones I keep seeing—and the ones I keep making when I get rushed.

• Trusting the render for light quality. Renders show color and shape. They don't show CRI, flicker, or beam spread. Pull the photometric data.
• Assuming one dimming protocol covers the whole project. Flos fixtures don't all use the same driver. Check every single one.
• Letting the fixture vendor own the control system. They're good at fixtures. The control layer is a different job. Get a specialist involved early.
• Skipping the sample on 'standard' finishes. Standard finishes vary between production runs. If the finish is visible, get a physical sample.
• Forgetting the spare parts lead time. A failed driver with a 6-week lead time is a 6-week outage. Order spares with the main order.

Bottom line: the fixture is one decision. The installation, the control system, the dimming compatibility, and the spare parts are four more. Most people make the first decision carefully and wing the other four. That's how a beautiful Flos chandelier ends up flickering at 20% brightness while the client stands there with a dimmer app that doesn't work.