Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 24, 2015 5:23 pm Hi all,
We're building a 2 storey home and we've just had our electrical appointment and decided to go with downlight provisions and install downlights after handover. As I understand it, the wires will be run the location of each downlight with the cable run through a hole in the ceiling. We then need to arrange an electrican to cut the downlight hole and connect each down light which we've supplied. Do any electricians or people who done similar know the cost to have downlights installed? secondly, any electricans that come recommended would be much appreciated. Cheers, David Re: Downlight provisions - Install after handover 2Feb 24, 2015 7:49 pm Also wanted to ask if anyone had experience with the Ledlux downlights shown below? http://www.beaconlighting.com.au/ledlux ... white.html Re: Downlight provisions - Install after handover (Ledlux DL 3Feb 24, 2015 10:09 pm What will probably happen is your builder's electrician will install the cabling and terminate a "surface socket" inside the ceiling above each DL location. It should then be as simple as drilling the hole, fishing around for the socket, plugging in the driver and fitting the downlight up. The only potential hiccup is the sparky might need to climb in the ceiling to make sure there are no timbers in the way of the hole, which can take a bit of time. You could probably save yourself a lot of money by going around and measuring and marking on a plan, suitable measurements for DL locations, ensuring the centre of the hole has about 100mm radius clear around it to any timbers. If you wanted to, you could even cut the holes and fit the downlights yourself as they simply plug in. As for how much an electrician would charge to come back and install them for you later, the average rate is about $80/hr per guy, so if you allow time for travel, setup, clean up, mucking around in the ceiling etc an electrician and an apprentice as a team should be able to knock over say 5 or 6 lights per hour - so that's about $30 per light - assuming all the wiring is done with surface sockets fitted off in the ceiling. As for the LEDlux, as with most stuff from Beacon, it is cheap no-name chinese product sold at premium prices. I had a Philips lighting rep come and see me today and they are selling a similar downlight on special for $19, 3 year warranty, good brand etc. You just need to go to a specialist electrical wholesaler to purchase them. Or get your electrician to supply them. He would get them cheaper than you, so even by the time he puts a modest margin on them, you'd still pay less than retail. If you're happy spending $40 or so per downlight I can recommend MUCH better ones. The LED downlights with flat diffusers like thay are very glarey and uncomfortable. I recommend downlights with the luminous opening set back into the fitting so that it cuts off the majority of glare. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Downlight provisions - Install after handover (Ledlux DL 4Feb 26, 2015 10:58 am The only issue is that I'm building a double storey house so the sparky won't be able to hop up in the ceiling. My builders sparky just advised the follow: "Down light provision is the cable measured to the points were the down light is, the electrician will punch a screwdriver hole to the spot where a down light would be. Your electrician would then cut the hole and will have to install the socket connect for the down lights". Yeah I'm definitely not a fan of the hear the builder provides, hence why I'd like to do it after handover and get a better quality LED. I have a contact at Gamma Illumination and am considering something like this... what are your thoughts 1960'sMD? http://www.gammaillumination.it/IMG/pdf/1007_led.pdf Re: Downlight provisions & install after handover... What to 5Feb 26, 2015 9:55 pm Yes I have specified those Gamma downlights on some of my budget commercial projects, they would be ideal and probably close to your $40 region per light if you can get a good deal. I say go for it. And sounds like the builder's electrician should make it fairly easy to install the downlights after handover. Might be worth trying to get him to do it for a cash job during fit off - depending on how difficult your builder is of course Re: Downlight provisions & install after handover... What to 6Feb 27, 2015 11:17 am Thanks for your input mate, appreciate the timely responses. Have you used much else from the Gamma range? Any of their other downlights which you think will be suitable for residential application? I've already tried and asked my builder if we can have them install the DL's I supply and apparently they do not do that. It's either their small range of beacon DL's or you do it yourself I'm in the process of getting some quotes for the install after handover and at this stage its looking at around $20 a DL. Re: Downlight provisions & install after handover... What to 7Feb 28, 2015 6:41 am I've used a few things of theirs over the years. In terms of quality, they sit in the middle between the beacon type stuff and high end proper commercial quality, so will be more than adequate for residential. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Downlight provisions & install after handover... What to 8Mar 13, 2015 3:29 pm 1960sModernistHome I've used a few things of theirs over the years. In terms of quality, they sit in the middle between the beacon type stuff and high end proper commercial quality, so will be more than adequate for residential. Thanks again for your input... I'm currently sourcing a few samples and will make up a mock board to test the 4 or so downlights I have now. Have you had much experience with JSB lighting before? Re: Downlight provisions & install after handover... What to 9Mar 13, 2015 4:11 pm Yeah JSB are good, I personally have not used them because they haven't had much of a presence in the Qld market, but I know of them and they are pretty good. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Downlight provisions & install after handover... What to 10Mar 27, 2017 10:56 pm Hi All, Building a single storey with Eden Brae homes. Is it a good idea to install downlights after the handover to save some money. Anything the builder should do for me before handover to make it easier for the electrician? Please let me know. P.S. I don't know any electrician. Thanks for your help! VJ That's a fantastic result! Happy you got it sorted out. cheers Simeon 6 8640 Can you give advice on how to get missing certificates needed for a form 21? Our bank requires us to provide one but we are missing 4 building certificates from our first… 3 71811 yes it does, you've just not understood it. theres a difference. 4 5322 |