CEE lighting bonus 2026: what has gone, what remains

Since 25 February 2026, an indoor lighting renovation project can no longer be financed by a standardised CEE bonus. The order of 23 February 2026 removed from the catalogue the three sheets that covered relamping in buildings: BAR-EQ-110 for residential, BAT-EQ-127 for tertiary and IND-BA-116 for industry. The subject deserves a cool-headed look. It is neither the end of energy savings on lighting, nor the end of project financing. It is the end of one specific mechanism, which rarely weighed more than a minority share of the budget.

A reminder: what a standardised sheet was for

The energy savings certificate (CEE) scheme is based on standardised operation sheets. Each sheet describes a technical measure, sets the conditions to be met and gives a fixed amount of savings expressed in kWh cumac, that is, cumulated and discounted over the lifetime of the equipment. The project owner does not have to demonstrate the real saving: they tick the criteria of the sheet, and the corresponding volume of kWh cumac is sold to an obligated party, which pays a bonus.

No sheet, no fixed amount. In theory there remains the route of specific operations, but it requires a heavy engineering file, an adversarial savings calculation and access conditions that most often reserve it for very large industrial projects. For relamping offices, a workshop or a warehouse, it is not a realistic option.

The three sheets withdrawn concerned the replacement of existing luminaires with luminaires using LED modules, with requirements on luminous efficacy and lifetime. They were among the simplest measures to put together: few supporting documents, a fixed amount calculated on clear criteria. It is precisely this simplicity that has disappeared.

What has gone, what remains

The reading is simple: indoors, no more standardised bonus, whatever the sector. Outdoors, the scheme continues.

What this changes in practice for a project owner

Three practical consequences, in the order in which they arise.

• Quotes that include an indoor CEE bonus line are obsolete. If a file was costed at the end of 2025 with a bonus deducted, the financing plan must be redone. Better to do it before ordering than after.
• The payback time lengthens, it does not collapse. The bonus improved the return on investment, it was not its driver. The driver is the difference in consumption between the existing installation and the new one, plus the fall in maintenance costs.
• The decision shifts to the financing plan. The question is no longer which grant will be recovered, but how to spread the expenditure so that it is absorbed by the saving achieved.

The disappearance of a bonus does not change a building’s savings potential. It changes the way it is financed.

What can still be financed by CEE

Outdoor lighting with sheet RES-EC-104

Outdoor lighting renovation remains eligible through sheet RES-EC-104, revised by the order of 24 November 2025. It covers outdoor light points, typically roads and site surroundings; the eligibility conditions and exact scope are checked file by file, against the text of the sheet. It is often the item where installations are oldest, with discharge lamps still in service, high consumption and poorly controlled illuminance levels.

Two points to watch. First, compliance: an outdoor project is sized according to the NF EN 13201 series for roads and NF EN 12464-2 for outdoor workplaces, taking into account the requirements for limiting light nuisance. Second, the quality of the equipment: an outdoor floodlight works under real thermal and climatic stresses, and the difference in lifetime between two products of similar appearance is considerable. Our ranges of Rexylum luminaires for outdoor and road lighting are selected on this criterion above all others.

The related items still in the catalogue

A lighting project rarely comes alone. Several measures that accompany it remain eligible and make it possible to rebuild part of the lost financing:

• building management systems (BMS), which control lighting among other things, and whose value depends on the performance class achieved;
• air destratification in high-ceilinged premises, typically the warehouses and workshops concerned by the same project;
• variable speed drives on the site’s motors, fans and pumps.

In other words, the reasoning is carried out at the scale of the site and not of the luminaire alone. A global operation often recovers, through these items, part of what indoor lighting no longer brings in.

How a lighting project is financed in 2026

Long-term leasing over three to five years

This is today the most widely used arrangement. The equipment and installation are carried by a lease over three to five years. The company does not tie up any cash: it pays a periodic instalment, calibrated to be covered by the energy saving generated from commissioning. On a site where lighting consumption is divided by three or four, the instalment is absorbed and the cash position remains neutral, sometimes positive depending on the case.

Two reservations, stated frankly. The arrangement is only worthwhile if the saving really materialises, which requires a serious calculation upstream and not a rule of three on the installed power. And the accounting treatment of the lease depends on your situation: it is a point to have validated by your accountant before signing.

Payback time, calculated zone by zone

An average payback time at the scale of a site does not mean much. Two zones of the same building can show very different returns, because the decisive parameter is not the installed power but the number of operating hours. A zone run on three eight-hour shifts operates several times more hours than an office floor on daytime hours: with equivalent equipment, its payback is much shorter.

The method that works therefore consists of dividing the site: ceiling height, real hours of use, required illuminance level, presence or absence of daylight, environmental constraints. Then treating first the zones with a short payback, which finance the following ones. That is exactly the purpose of a lighting audit carried out on site, survey in hand.

Equipment decisions are then made at the same level of detail: high bays for great heights, LED panels for tertiary suspended ceilings, and the whole Rexylum professional LED luminaire catalogue for special cases. Rexylum is our brand of luminaires, alongside partners such as Filamento Lighting and Tridonic, and ranges designed for extreme environments: from -60 to +120 °C, ATEX zones, corrosive atmospheres, radioactive environments.

A costed example, without a bonus

The case of an airport arrivals hall gives the order of magnitude of a well-divided operation. The existing installation had 398 luminaires. The study made it possible to bring the project down to 315 light points, by correcting excess densities and over-lit areas rather than replacing one for one.

No bonus enters this calculation. The return comes from the difference in consumption and from the reduction in the number of light points to maintain. It is this type of equation that still holds in 2026, and it is the one to check before signing.

What the end of the bonus does not change: compliance

A point often forgotten in financing discussions. Regulatory obligations have not moved. A workplace must meet the illuminance levels and visual comfort criteria of NF EN 12464-1 for indoor spaces, as well as the requirements of the Labour Code. NF EN 1838 governs emergency lighting, NF X35-103 the visual ergonomics of workstations. These texts apply whatever the method of financing chosen.

This is why a project is not judged only on the watts saved. A relamping that divides consumption by four but brings illuminance below the required threshold, or that creates discomfort glare, is a bad project, bonus or not. The check goes through a photometric study with modelling of the levels zone by zone before the works, then a check of the real levels at commissioning.

What to remember

• Since 25 February 2026, there has been no standardised CEE bonus for indoor lighting, in any of the three sectors.
• Outdoor lighting remains eligible through sheet RES-EC-104.
• Related items, BMS, destratification and variable speed drives, make it possible to rebuild part of the financing.
• Long-term leasing over three to five years is the main lever: the saving covers the instalment.
• Payback time is calculated zone by zone, not as a site average.
• Compliance obligations remain identical and must be checked before the works.

If your project had been costed with an indoor CEE bonus, the most useful step is to redo the calculation with the 2026 parameters. Luminance Consulting carries out the audit and the photometric study free of charge, site visit and 3D modelling included: we are paid on the solution we supply and have installed, not on the engineering, and we say so frankly. We work throughout France, with a site visit for the survey. Get in touch with our teams to have your site costed.