Electrical Appointment

Ground Floor Standard Provision

First Floor Standard Provision

The electrical appointment was fairly straight forward, but that's because we did our home work beforehand. We have already decided how many extra power points we wanted and where they will be located. We have also decided on downlights, but because Rawson was going to charge $120 per downlights plus $50 per additional light points, it was obvious that converting them over to downlights after handover would be more cost effective. When adding additional power points and light points, bare in mind that after a certain amount (7x double power points and 14x light points), you will also need to include the cost of any additional power/light circuit ($250/$240). So keep track of how many you are adding, you don't want to unnecessary pay for an extra circuit when you only need one more point. Also, if you're strapped for budget, prioritise the ground floor over the first floor. You always have access to the roof space to add more wiring to the first floor, but the ground floor really needs to be done during construction.

We had a look at several downlight options and immediately decided it would be better to stick with those that used regular power sockets with built in transformers. This means that in the future, we won't need electricians to replace any broken downlights. It's just a matter of unplugging the old and plugging in the new ones. However, this means the electrician will be required to switch over the standard baton light points to quick connects or surface sockets. A small initial cost that I believe is well worth the hassle later on. We got this idea when we saw the BrightGreen booth at the home expo. So at first, we were dead set on either the D700 or D900 throughout the house. However, after a bit of research, we found a comparable product with wattsaver. Just have to decide which to get now. Have to admit though that the newer D900+ looked fantastic.

BrightGreen D900+ downlights with various trims

I realise this blog hasn't been updated in a long while but I'll try to bring it up to speed in the next post.
Another thing you may want to consider are power point with built in USB ports. These days, you can never have enough power socket to charge all the mobile phones/tablets around the house. We asked for a quote and was surprised to find that these were $126 upgrade for each plate. Luckily for us, we've found SockItz and for a fraction of the price, these can be easily switch over after handover (by a qualified electrician).

SockItz power socket with USB charging ports