Nineteen downlights, four safety switches, and a customer who checked our paperwork

A renovation in a strata unit, where the lighting was the visible job and the safety switches were the one that mattered.

The owner was mid-renovation in a two bedroom unit and wanted the old round oyster lights gone. We quoted on site on the Tuesday afternoon, she approved it 31 minutes later, and the work was done on the Thursday.

The lighting

Nineteen downlights installed and set up. On each one the lighting circuit was isolated and tested for suitability, the opening measured and cut or widened where an existing fitting came out, the new downlight installed, then power reinstated, tested and commissioned.

Nineteen is a lot of holes in a ceiling. Getting the spacing and the beam angles right before anyone picks up a hole saw is most of the job, and it is the difference between a room that feels evenly lit and a room with bright patches and dark corners.

The part that was not on the wish list

While we were in the board we replaced four RCBOs. The original brief was lighting. The circuits that had no proper protection were not something the owner had thought about, because almost nobody does until someone opens the board and points at it.

This is the pattern in a lot of our work. Someone calls about the thing they can see, and the thing worth doing is the thing they cannot.

Working in strata

Renovating in a unit means more people have a say. Before we started, the owner asked for our electrical contractor licence and our current public liability insurance so she could give them to building management. We sent both the same day, and offered to send anything else strata or the building manager needed.

We also sent through the manufacturer’s data sheet for the downlights we were supplying, covering specifications, cut-out size, lumen output, colour temperature options and compliance details, so that she could take it to the building’s fire compliance people and be certain the fittings suited her ceiling before we cut a single hole.

Planning downlights or a lighting change in a unit or house around Bonnyrigg? The lighting page covers what we install, the strata page covers how we work with building managers, and we are your electrician in Bonnyrigg.