Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Sep 21, 2014 7:01 pm I am wondering whether anyone has had their builder tell them that there is a legal requirement to place batten light fixture's in each room? We are putting in down lights post handover and have already organised it all with our electrician. We asked BGC to put in junction boxes instead of the batten light fixtures but they are saying that they will not do this due to building regulations and that we can just change them later. I feel that this is hugely annoying because we will need someone in to fix all the holes when it could have been avoided. Even our electrician said that this seems really odd and that BGC are probably being lazy . I have done a lot of researching and I can't see anywhere that you NEED to have these installed? most people who are putting in down lights post handover are allowed junction boxes. Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 2Sep 21, 2014 7:33 pm Strictly speaking for an Occupancy Certificate you need "Power installation completed to the satisfaction of the Electricity supply authority. (Power company’s seal on meter)" Some power supply authorities inspectors 'may' consider that without any form of lighting in a room the installation isn't complete. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 4Sep 21, 2014 9:03 pm my builder told me the same thing. Just put batten where downlight ended up. Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 6Sep 22, 2014 5:30 pm Exactly the same thing happened to us - I feel your annoyance, it was very frustrating! One way to get around it is if you have a builder that will allow your own electrician on site during the build. Our does this but they charge for it, around $1K I believe. We chose to do as JB1 said, and put a regular fixture in the position where one of our DLs will go along with a junction box and then have our electrician deal with it all post completion. Building in Eliza Ponds, Spearwood I talk about my community here: https://www.facebook.com/22suburbs Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 7Sep 22, 2014 6:21 pm In WA we don't get occupancy certificates. We just move in... We only had a couple of batten light fixtures when we got handover as all of the rooms had junction boxes so we could install our downlights minus damage from the builder putting in their fixtures. We could of had the whole house set up with junction boxes if we wanted though, no issues from Redink! We ended up changing some of the installed battens to downlights as we changed our minds after handover and it was messy....they all had roof beams in the way and had to do a fair bit of patching. I'd keep pushing it, maybe have a few and see if they will let it go with that but definitely the less the better... Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 8Sep 23, 2014 11:14 am The calculated Star Rating for a house is affected by the energy efficiency of the light fittings. (down lights can drag down the Star Rating). The builder must install light fittings as nominated on the plans that were used to calculate the Star Rating. If the type of light fittings are changed then the Star Rating may need to be recalculated to ensure that the minimum 6 Stars are obtained. Post handover, the builder is no longer responsible for any changes that are made. Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 9Sep 23, 2014 1:46 pm Hey guys, We are in WA but I don't know much about occupancy certificates etc. I cannot be bothered fighting with them and are just going to leave it for now and sort out post-handover. Regarding the space in the roof, our electrician said this shouldn't be too much of a problem because we are having tiles and apparently this leaves more room between the beams etc compared to colorbond sheeting. I just wanted to make sure we weren't the only people dealing with this issue but it seems fairly common across the board. Thanks for your feedback. Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 10Oct 09, 2014 3:03 am Hi, As a elec contractor in perth this really annoys me! When contracted to install new LED recessed lights in a new dwelling, it is almost guaranteed that you find 90% of existing battons fitted too close to timbers!. Generally large domestic electrical companies have apprentices wire and fit new homes, then a Tradesman comes and signs off on the installtion. There is LED lights on the market that can be a minimum of 50mm from a combustable material(timber) as per manufacture details, this will help in some cases your elec contractor will know this. I would fight this or have strict conditions on where they position the light battons as in measurements! Get them to get in the roof space and measure between ceiling battons before they install the standard light batton. _____________________________________ Building in Bedfordale Perth WA https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=89716 Churchman Brook Electrical Services EC 8659 Re: Builder requirement to provide light batten? 11Oct 09, 2014 4:36 am Hi, Just realised when this was posted, tad late I think! you have probably already had elec work done! Sorry _____________________________________ Building in Bedfordale Perth WA https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=89716 Churchman Brook Electrical Services EC 8659 Thanks Draftroom that definitely helps a heap. We are still at the very early stage of planning to see what kind of house would fit on our plot. While we are on a… 3 15779 Hi - thanks for your reply. Yes I think 'Ill go for whitish with very speckly bits rather than pure white something like this. PS was actually 2008 I built the… 2 11709 That was always going to be a challenge and a test of patience. Full marks to your mate. Did you discuss the wet area near the trampoline? 16 17379 |