Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 19, 2012 2:41 pm Well, title is self explanatory. Just want to know how many downlights do people have in their homes (all together) and the total cost for them.
Also would be great to know if people have normal downlights or LED. If you have LED installed, do you see any benefits over regular downlight? And if you were to install them all over again would you go normal or LED? Thanks Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 2Jan 19, 2012 2:55 pm We are currently doing a home with 300+ l.e.d downlights including L.E.D fluros's ! We have worked out that the cost savings to be more than half compared to running halogen downlights, and they will pay themselves off in 1.5 years. When you look at a scale that large.. it is very beneficial. Your benefits are: longer lasting lamps lower runnings costs less heat generated Pay for themselves over a period of time can install more lights per circuit because the power draw isnt as large as halogens, meaning less cable runs, less circuit breakers at the switchboard etc etc Negatives: Light output can be poor on cheap l.e.d lights, meaning you need more of them. ( try to pay 60.00 plus per fitting, i can suggest or supply samples/quantity if you want ) Cost questionable quality on cheaper fittings Dimming, alot of these l.e.d's dont dim. hope this helped Electrical - Automation - Smart wiring - New homes - Commercial - Data cabling] 1300 050 315 www.cenemelectrical.com.au www.facebook.com/cenemelectrical Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 3Jan 19, 2012 3:50 pm cenemelectrical We are currently doing a home with 300+ l.e.d downlights including L.E.D fluros's ! We have worked out that the cost savings to be more than half compared to running halogen downlights, and they will pay themselves off in 1.5 years. When you look at a scale that large.. it is very beneficial. Thanks... yeah, 300+ LED lights... and how much would it cost? If I do that through my builder it will come out to $90,000 Anyone else any other "reasonable" amount of light and the total cost? Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 5Jan 19, 2012 4:12 pm webber11 We have 21 downlights covering Lounge, kitchen and family room. Thats all the builder provisioned for, we did not add more to that. Thanks, was it included with your home and did you have an option of adding anymore and at what cost? Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 6Jan 19, 2012 4:29 pm AubinGroveFan webber11 We have 21 downlights covering Lounge, kitchen and family room. Thats all the builder provisioned for, we did not add more to that. Thanks, was it included with your home and did you have an option of adding anymore and at what cost? Yes it was included as standard with the home, we didn't bother to add more so did not take any quote. Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 7Jan 19, 2012 8:16 pm We are having 58 downlights. 36 LED downstairs and 20CFL in the alfresco and upstairs playroom and 2 halogens in the showers. The LED's are expensive but expect them to payoff over time. Slab Down: 2/6/11 Moved in 13/3/2012 Current Status : Waiting for the garden to grow. My build thread : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=47031 Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 8Jan 19, 2012 8:29 pm All builders vary greatly as we all know, but many give one only light per room and one exterior light per access door to the outside, these are just bayonet points or the common Chinese hat as they say. If you want more pay for them thru builder or add after handover. I was able to spli thru builder move and add extras in room for down lights but I didn't want every room with this . I chose 240v down lights as the 12 volt blow too often IMO. All of varies again on the spec of your build. Base , executive or display version Buy lights thru a distributor ( and I challenge anyone to find a store where they are not on special , bloody deceptive retailers ) and have an electrician install them at appro 50-55 each per install. Led,s cost more , ceiling fans ditto . Friend price for install from a sparky roughly 40 each I spent approx 3k on lights and it cost approx $1500 to install 55-60 lights all up both inside and out. I only have down lights in the lounge and theatre and alfresco so a total of 14. Can't remember what extra prestart cost were but I recall we had 32 lights included in standard contract . All for house size approx internal living in the 210sqm mark. Luck Timeline Aug 08-Land Mar 09-Demo/Titles Sept 10-Handover No1 Sept 11-Handover No2 April 12-Sold No2 Aug 14-Land/Demo Jan 15-Slabs viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25736 Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 9Jan 19, 2012 9:17 pm We are going to end up with about 50 inside and about 10-12 outside. I am hoping we can trade the 10 bayonet lights for 10 down lights and not have to pay anything extra as our tender allows for 40 down lights and 10 bayonet lights Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 10Jan 19, 2012 11:09 pm Echo All builders vary greatly as we all know, but many give one only light per room and one exterior light per access door to the outside, these are just bayonet points or the common Chinese hat as they say. If you want more pay for them thru builder or add after handover. I was able to spli thru builder move and add extras in room for down lights but I didn't want every room with this . I chose 240v down lights as the 12 volt blow too often IMO. All of varies again on the spec of your build. Base , executive or display version Buy lights thru a distributor ( and I challenge anyone to find a store where they are not on special , bloody deceptive retailers ) and have an electrician install them at appro 50-55 each per install. Led,s cost more , ceiling fans ditto . Friend price for install from a sparky roughly 40 each I spent approx 3k on lights and it cost approx $1500 to install 55-60 lights all up both inside and out. I only have down lights in the lounge and theatre and alfresco so a total of 14. Can't remember what extra prestart cost were but I recall we had 32 lights included in standard contract . All for house size approx internal living in the 210sqm mark. Luck How much does it cost to install LEDs after handover? I assume average LED price is about $100.? Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 11Jan 20, 2012 12:21 am AubinGroveFan"quote="Echo How much does it cost to install LEDs after handover? I assume average LED price is about $100.? I don't imagine it costs any different to install an LED than any other form of light provided the wiring Is already there. they are still either 12 or 240 volt, so either you need a transformer or you don't. Transformers cost FA. Why $100 , Do you mean to buy the globe, buy the fitting , wire it up from scratch , or install to an existing electrical point ? Just cos the builder says they are $100 don't make it so. My builder wanted $7500 for soakwells and drain pipes to all the down pipes, I said no I will get them myself for a quote I had for $3900 but I will need a copy of the drainage plan that builder would have needed to submit to council for building approval and license. Well, that threw them a nasty turn, cos they didn't have one, I suggested how did you quote it to me then , all I got was a dumb look, they requoted for $2900 , I said go ahead. Ahh the build process , you don't get many wins so cherish them , if you chose to go again that is Light fittings ( with boring globes ) cost from $10 bucks for a boring oyster to the GDP for a small country for some ghastly looking chandelier , that IMO look ridiculous in the modern home. Those a bit older than me would say " mutton dressed up as lamb " Whatever you decide , I wish you all the best. Timeline Aug 08-Land Mar 09-Demo/Titles Sept 10-Handover No1 Sept 11-Handover No2 April 12-Sold No2 Aug 14-Land/Demo Jan 15-Slabs viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25736 Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 12Jan 20, 2012 1:43 am About 25. We are going sparingly with downlights as overall they are pretty inefficient given the number of lights you need for the area vs pendants. Got a couple of 15W LEDs from ledcentral.com.au to try out in our current place. They are side by side with a couple of the existing 55W Halogens and surprisingly the LEDs are brighter! Dimmable too. They are about $65 each in the quantaties we want. I also got a 9W GU10 replacement LED from them as well to replace a halogen in a desk lamp but that is nowhere near as bright. Downsides of LEDs are you cant get as much of a yellow colour as halogen but I quite like the colour of the warm white LEDs personally - not too stark, not too muddy. Also the beam angle is a little more distinct but dont really notice that anymore. And with the 15Ws as above, they are an all in one unit so replacement will mean having to get in an electrician to swap out the whole unit - hopefully that wont be for a while and they will have better and cheaper LED options at that stage. They do fit into the standard downlight cutouts though. Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 13Jan 20, 2012 7:09 am All our downlights are flex and plug so they just plug into a Clipsal 413 in the ceiling which makes any future changeover or replacement a lot easier. Slab Down: 2/6/11 Moved in 13/3/2012 Current Status : Waiting for the garden to grow. My build thread : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=47031 Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 15Jan 20, 2012 2:37 pm We are having 48cfl downlights throughout the house then I will probably add another 16 after hand over. Also got 1 halogen which is a sensor downlight which will go in the garage! http://lindeman28.blogspot.com - Our building blog Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 16Jan 20, 2012 2:56 pm We bought our house "as displayed" with 60 downlights (12v halogen) and added another one in the ensuite which probably cost about $90-$100 from memory. For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 17Jan 20, 2012 3:29 pm We're replacing 100 light points with LED downlights. My brother is a sparky and he sourced the light fittings, and LED's wholesale for us and his labour is free. The LED's are 8 watts warm-white and are dimmable. They are equivalent in brightness to 50 watt halogen. So far have installed in in family, kitchen, entry, passage and under some feaure bulkheads/recesses and very happy with brightness. The cost worked out about $25 per fitting inclu LED. We had builder install the standard bayonet point and lights during construction so all the wiring is there; just need to replace with the GU10 fitting and LED. With the LED using 8 watts and a standard 50 watt halogen and transformer consuming 50 watts plus, you do the math in terms of energy savings. We can run 6 LED's for the equivalent of one standard 60 watt light bulb. And LED's do not get hot; these things can run for hours and get only warm to the touch so the fire risk compared to halogen is minimal plus LED's last an extremely long time. Re: How many down lights do you have in your home? 18Jan 20, 2012 5:21 pm OurLindrum52 We're replacing 100 light points with LED downlights. My brother is a sparky and he sourced the light fittings, and LED's wholesale for us and his labour is free. The LED's are 8 watts warm-white and are dimmable. They are equivalent in brightness to 50 watt halogen. So far have installed in in family, kitchen, entry, passage and under some feaure bulkheads/recesses and very happy with brightness. The cost worked out about $25 per fitting inclu LED. We had builder install the standard bayonet point and lights during construction so all the wiring is there; just need to replace with the GU10 fitting and LED. With the LED using 8 watts and a standard 50 watt halogen and transformer consuming 50 watts plus, you do the math in terms of energy savings. We can run 6 LED's for the equivalent of one standard 60 watt light bulb. And LED's do not get hot; these things can run for hours and get only warm to the touch so the fire risk compared to halogen is minimal plus LED's last an extremely long time. Thanks. So what do I need to ask a builder to install during the build if I want to add LED post handover. Because we counted over 70 downlights and that's on a shy side; display house had over 120. With builder's prices we'll be up for over 20k just for downlights. What would be approximate cost including purchase price of LED and installer's cost for 70-80 downlights if bought and installed post handover? Thanks Re: How many downlights do you have in your home? 19Jan 23, 2012 2:25 pm 81 downlights.... They are AC (no transformers) and are GU10 fittings, so led globes can be plugged straight in at a later date. Costing $6k via builder. H's Emperor Q1 on acreage Site cut 16/6/11 Slab 2/8 Frame 29/8 Tiles 9/9 Bricks 13/10 Plaster 2/11 Fittings 28/11 PCI 19/3 Re: How many downlights do you have in your home? 20Jan 23, 2012 2:41 pm AubinGroveFan, i would simply ask the builders sparky to put one batten light in each room. Make sure he puts it in the place that you would be putting a down light and not in the middle of the ceiling as this will save you filling the hole and painting the ceiling I have been told by my sparky that the Redback brand are very good and will only cost around $12 each from John R Turk. Add some wiring and a few points in the ceiling and i fail to see how sparkies can justify charging $100+ per down light Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39751 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 105604 They already have two well known ones (HIA & MBA) that many new home buyers mistakenly think are regulatory bodies that Joe Public can complain to. 6 18030 |