Cost Of Installing Downlights - A Joke

[DeludedAussie]

We wanted to install 20 downlights in our reception room. It is big

We had an electrican come round and they quoted £1100 which is staggering

I bought two packs of ten lights from wickes (at £20 each) and did this all myself on Sunday. It was extremely straightforward

How on earth can electricians charge this sort of money I have no idea

 

[DeludedAussie]

We wanted to install 20 downlights in our reception room. It is big

We had an electrican come round and they quoted £1100 which is staggering

I bought two packs of ten lights from wickes (at £20 each) and did this all myself on Sunday. It was extremely straightforward

How on earth can electricians charge this sort of money I have no idea

We had three quotes by the way

Two were for about 1000 and one was for 500.

So can anyone explain why electricians think charging £25 a point is sensible?

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

I bought two packs of ten lights from wickes (at £20 each) and did this all myself on Sunday. It was extremely straightforward.

Fire rated downlights?
Cost of replacements for when they burn out?
Where the cables already in place?

...on Sunday.....

Sunday rates?
Where you live?
Tested and certificated?
LABC notification in place or being dealt with?

 

[DeludedAussie]

I bought two packs of ten lights from wickes (at £20 each) and did this all myself on Sunday. It was extremely straightforward.

Fire rated downlights?
Cost of replacements for when they burn out?
Where the cables already in place?

...on Sunday.....

Sunday rates?
Where you live?
Tested and certificated?
LABC notification in place or being dealt with?

No cables there. I made holes and installed all myself

Not fire rated and no need to be as in a house

When they burn out will replace with led bulbs from toolstation. Electrician was going to fit non leds anyway

Live in london

And no need for job to be done on sunday

What would you charge for installing and wiring 20 downlights

£25 a point seems like the going rate? So you would charge approx £1000 as well?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

We wanted to install 20 downlights in our reception room. It is big

Big?

It must be absolutely enormous if it needs 20 lights.

 

[DeludedAussie]

We wanted to install 20 downlights in our reception room. It is big

Big?

It must be absolutely enormous if it needs 20 lights.

Thats not the question

The question is the bill of 1K for installing lights which I did in a day

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

If I lived and worked in London, most probably would have been around that price wise.
I'd have probably come in around that mark and if the job was a breeze, as you've stated, would most likely of discounted to reflect the lack of "if it can go wrong, it will".
Because of where I live, I'd say the £500 quote was low, the others high. But as stated, if you live in London.....

 

[flameport]

So can anyone explain why electricians think charging £25 a point is sensible?

To cover the vast amounts of wasted time giving people 'free' quotes, when they clearly have no intention of having the work done in the first place.
Some people also quote high prices to get rid of grotty jobs they neither want or need. Vast arrays of downlighters being top of the list in many cases.
It's also not unknown for some persons to obtain quotes simply to find out how a certain job should be done and what materials etc. should be used.

If the lights were these ones:
http://www.wickes.co.uk/fixed-downlight-bchrome-pk10/invt/187147/
then you can be sure that no decent electrician would ever have selected or quoted for such items.

£1100 for 20 of them was probably on the high side.
£500 for 20 was probably too low, unless they were intending to supply those cheap Wickes things - which in the end would have cost more, since people tend to complain when the lamps fail after a couple of days.
There is also the issue of these new lights using 1kW which in most circumstances would require a new circuit installing.

 

[bhm1712]

Not fire rated because they are in a house and dont need it? are you for real? so what happens above the lights if one overheats or does catch fire?

did you size up the cable correctly?

did you take into account what somebody else has said already - 20 lamps at potentially 50 watts each = 1000 watts, so drawing around 4.34 amps when turned on. Good luck with turning many more lights on in the house unless you installed a new seperate lighting circuit and supplied it from the CU.

did you do the work legally? i think not...

did you design the circuit to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installation from fire or injury? Obviously not...

What method of joining the new cables into the exisiting circuit did you use? and did you correctly sleeve the cores to show what their job is?

Many many variables make up a price for a job. Idiots tend to think that people work for free and should be able to do work like this for the cost of the parts and maybe a tenner for their wallet.

 

[Chri5]

So access from the rooms above?

Were they occupied, with furniture, beds, carpets and the like? (And how many hours did it take to uplift the flooring for 20 positions, mark and drill 20 centred holes- lets guess at 4 hours work for the holes and positions, same again for lifting floor).

Clip the cable and run via the regs route for joist holes and positioning x 20 runs all be it very short ones. Say minutes each including a few pins and the odd drilled joist (that's 2 hours)

Pick up the LNE feed from the existing loop and the existing switch wire (that's half an hour)

Strip and terminate LNE in and out of 20 fittings (41 cables x 5 minutes each- that's 4 hours).

So as an absolute minimum we are at 14 + hours for someone doing it quickly and all going well.

So how did you do it in a day? (You prepared the rooms before? You lifted the floor before? You mapped out the positions before? You drilled the holes before?),

It's a bloody miricle that's what it is. You can work twice or three times quicker than some seasoned crusty who has been doing that type of work for twenty years.

Maybe you should take up electrical work, this time next year you will be a millionaire

 

[Lectrician]

A pack of 20 downlights for £20 - A pound a pop. What a classy install. What tat.

If you have habitable rooms above, you NEED fire rated fittings to keep the integrity of the plasterboard ceiling - The plasterboard ceiling being there not only to look pretty, but to prevent the spread of fire to rooms above, giving emergency services time to arrive and rescue you.

I hope all your connections are contained in a joint box of some sort - I would guess these cheap lights are not designed to have cables looped into and out of them. I hope you maintained the continuity of your earths too.

This qty of fittings also would more than likely have required a new circuit. I bet you did not consider this.

No decent sparky would go within a mile of those cheapy tacky fittings. They would of quoted for decent BRANDED ones, and would of allowed a good whole day+ for the works. I would be looking at around £600 for this, or £1000 for 10yr guaranteed LED versions.

If your attitude had come across while I was looking at the job, I would of doubled the price, not wishing to get the job.

 

[flameport]

So can anyone explain why electricians think charging £25 a point is sensible?

In most instances, 1 point = 1 hour.
Materials and other supplies extra.

Before people wig out over someone being paid £25 per hour, note that the person doing the job will actually get far less, as that has to cover a vast array of other expenses incurred when running a business.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Thats not the question

OK - I'll turn it into one.

Does the room need 20 lights because it is enormous?

Or does it need 20 because they aren't actually any good at the job of lighting up rooms?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not fire rated because they are in a house and dont need it? are you for real? so what happens above the lights if one overheats or does catch fire?

"Fireproof" lights are designed to stop the spread of fire through the ceiling, not to guard against the lights themselves overheating.

If you have habitable rooms above, you NEED fire rated fittings to keep the integrity of the plasterboard ceiling.

Actually he doesn't, if it's a normal 2-storey house. Downlighter holes do not compromise the fire resistance of a standard 30-minute ceiling.

 

[Lectrician]

This seems to come up quite often, but is something the NIC and LABC insist on - Where does this info come from?