Electricians Quote

anna.bloom

really have no idea about this, and need answer asap.

Builder/Electrician putting 10 down lights in kitchen, dining area and i need to specify what our budget is.

How much would you expect to pay for that? I really have no idea.

mumoffour77

Is he providing the lights? or have you bought them?
roughly £10 per light then labour
which is around £20 p/h for a spark!

capita_guy

anna.bloom wrote: »

really have no idea about this, and need answer asap.

Builder/Electrician putting 10 down lights in kitchen, dining area and i need to specify what our budget is.

How much would you expect to pay for that? I really have no idea.

Get him to give you a price and then negotiate.

phill99

Labour should be 150 - 200 and the lights, as mumoffour sugests should be about £10 each. Screwfix often do packs of downlighters which work out qhite a bit cheaper.

baldelectrician

phill99 wrote: »

Labour should be 150 - 200 and the lights, as mumoffour sugests should be about £10 each. Screwfix often do packs of downlighters which work out quite a bit cheaper.

and nastier....

Bikertov

mumoffour77 wrote: »

Is he providing the lights? or have you bought them?
roughly £10 per light then labour
which is around £20 p/h for a spark!

You can get a basic mains voltage (GU10) halogen downlighter for around £3, or a 'fire rated' unit for around £10.

Do think about using a dimmer switch if you can - I find that it increases the life expectancy of the bulbs significantly.

sparky883

Make sure if you use a dimmer switch,That if the downlighters are low voltage,The transformers are dimmable ones,There are diffrent types,Downlighters are a pain in the a~~e to fit!!

keith969

I'd avoid the low voltage ones. Although the bulbs are cheaper tha the mains GU10's, you need a transformer, and that means there is more to go wrong with them. I have seen them fail more than mains ones, as on the low voltage side of the circuit you have a fair current flowing (over 4A) yet they tend to come with rather flimsy wires, and if they are not carefully wired you get hotspots at the terminal block where the output connects to the downlighter. Two that had failed in my house had the terminal block completely melted!

baldelectrician

keith969 wrote: »

I'd avoid the low voltage ones. Although the bulbs are cheaper tha the mains GU10's, you need a transformer, and that means there is more to go wrong with them. I have seen them fail more than mains ones, as on the low voltage side of the circuit you have a fair current flowing (over 4A) yet they tend to come with rather flimsy wires, and if they are not carefully wired you get hotspots at the terminal block where the output connects to the downlighter. Two that had failed in my house had the terminal block completely melted!

That's generally down to bad workmanship / poor installation. Loose screws (or cheap connector block in budget fittings)

You get what you pay for

keith969

baldelectrician wrote: »

That's generally down to bad workmanship / poor installation. Loose screws (or cheap connector block in budget fittings)

You get what you pay for

Quite possibly, the installation did look rather bodged in places. With the much higher current the low voltage bulbs take, poor connections cause more heating so less room for error.

Bikertov

I have changed over 100 (!) mains GU10 bulbs in my house over the last 2 years. Almost all have been downstairs, on normal switches.

Upstairs, where I have dimmers, I have probably changed only about 5 bulbs in the same timeframe...