When our Sales Consultant did our initial quote, he put in an allowance of $3,000 for our electrical appointment, and boy did this come in handy. Although Plantation are reasonably generous with their standard fit out, we have ended up going with LED down lights throughout all of our living areas, which carry not only the additional cost of light points, but also light fittings (though we are sourcing the actual fittings from another source). Overall though, we did not go massively over our allowance and are very happy with the final outcome.
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| Our kitchen feature light to hang over the island bench! |
In a nutshell:
- LED down lights to the Entry, Halls, Kitchen, Dining, Living, Theatre and Alfresco
- Oyster lights to each of the bedrooms and the Laundry
- Fluros to the Garage, Pantry & Walk In Robe
- Down lights under the overhead cabinets in the Kitchen
- 3x Pendant lights over the island bench in the Kitchen (nice feature!)
- LED Oyster light to outside Laundry & Front Porch
- 2x External wall lights to brickwork either side of Porch
- Fan/Light/Heat combo to Bathroom & Ensuite
- Downlight over each vanity in the Ensuite
We also upgraded all our light switches to the "slimline" type as well as a couple of power points that are visible in the living area.
We should have our finance approval in the next couple of days so fingers crossed we will have everything ready to go before we head off overseas in less than 3 weeks as our land is now going to register whilst we are away!
We having our electrical appointment next week with Your Home Consulting. Is there any tip or advice you may have or something we need to do perhaps before this appointment? We went to lighting illusions and had a browse around for LED downlights (so many to choose) and still choosing our kitchen pendant. Do you if Your Home Consultant can do just pre wiring so we can get our own electrician to install downlights after handover?
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the electrical appointment, have a good think before hand about where you want your light switches, power points and light fittings - we had all this prepared before we went and it made the appointment very quick. YHC can do pre-wiring so you can get your own electrician into fit after handover. We decided to get YHC to do the fittings as it was one less thing we had to worry about but yes, they will happily just do the pre-wiring.
DeleteWe're about to build with Plantation and are looking at costing out our lighting now. We've got the $3,000 allowance also, but I am concerned it's not sufficient, and reading your very informative post, it sounds to me like for every individual downlight instslled, we will incur a cost for an additional ceiling light point ($75) & then either the supply & installation ($64 for CFL ea), or the installation of owner supplied ($36 ea) does this sound about right to you? we're also very keen to have LED - I have friends with the CFL downlights and they take ages to warm up. you mentioned you sourced your own - are you happy with what you purchased and would you recommend them?
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah, exciting times ahead!! Our total electrical plan came to $4,700 - so slightly over budget :) But initially we were not planning to do down lights throughout the house either. Yes, the wiring to each point is $75. Plantation charged us $23 for an owner-supplied LED fitting. Not sure about supply & install of the CFLs as we never explored that option. I would definitely recommend the LED down lights - we sourced ours from Lighting Illusions and they have a very wide "beam" hence you don't need as many to light up a room. One option (if you want to save a little bit of money) is to have Plantation pre-wire all your downlight points (@ $75 each) and then talk to the electrician on site and offer them cash to install your down lights. We had a couple of extra lights that weren't on our plan and our electrician only charged $10 per fitting to install (rather than $23 from Plantation).......food for thought.
DeleteThanks so much for your response & the tips re lighting - we'll likely do the same! I'm reading through your blog at the moment - some brilliant tips in here - great of you to share your experiences.
ReplyDeleteNo worries - happy to share all the tips I've picked up along the way!! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
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