Electrical works quote

[Kellhound 4]

Hi

I received the following quote and would like feedback if they're reasonable? They seem high to me so wondering if this is the "landed premium" factor being added on or is it that landed is really that much more complex to do. For example, lighting points will add up significantly e.g. probably 60-80 points range for the whole house.

New 13A socket installation - $140 each

New lighting point - $80 each

Lighting installation - $20 each

New fan point - $80 each

Fan installation - $60 each

Cat 6 data point - $250 each

New 13A outdoor socket - $250 each

Split from 1 DB on ground floor to 1 DB on each floor (3 floors) - $8K+

[snoozee 98]

What is the lump sum in total? My house rebuild include lightning conductors, LEW submissions, cost me around 60k.

i don’t have an itemised breakdown of the installation but for yours, the electrician will still need to remove existing wires and such. Generally for A&A and reconstruction, it’s more difficult to run pipes and cables as the columns and beams are in the way. 
also all cables must be run all the way to the DB so the cables length is longer than in a single storey apartment. While electrical cables can be joined, network cables must be done in a single continuous cable else performance will be affected.

for splitting DB, I would suggest don’t bother. The house isn’t that big to warrant for this and you will restrict your furniture layout as well. 
 

suggest you do the following if you have not planned for them

32A isolator for electrical car charger

additional network points for all rooms

network points for CCTV if you intend to use POE CCTVs

plan your two way switches especially for staircases or corridors

Electrical and network cable for video doorbell/Intercom if you intend to get one

if you are going to use induction cooker, plan for a 32A point instead of 13A/20A

standby a 32A isolator at the attic for PV panels

for lighting fixtures, can order from China. I bought all my lights online for my electrician workers to install

Edited April 12, 2021 by snoozee

[Kellhound 4]

Lump sum is about $40K. No need for any submissions, I think? Mine is just "renovation" as I've decided not to do anything that requires BCA/URA submission.

There's an earth bonding line item so is that the lightning conductors you're referring to?

Does DB box really take up so much space? I was under the impression that it's just a small box.......

I've planned for 10+ data points for rooms and POE CCTVs

Does induction cooker really need 32A? Hmmm....provisioning for car charger is something to consider.....

Electrician also quoted me $300 each for 5m LED strip with driver which seems rather exorbitant based on what I can find online.

Plumbing is about $21K which includes installation of fittings and laying of new SS pipes throughout the house.

[petetherock 13]

My three storey renovation electrical quote was 30k all in.

New plugs, 3 DB, 6 isolaters, LAN points, many powerpoints... the nice thing was they didn't try to quote per item, so they were quite friendly towards adding stuff. Even took my old fans from my old place and installed in my new home.

But after Covid costs will go up.

By the way, what's with the trend of starting a new thread for every question... hmmm... 

[snoozee 98]

Don’t think the earth bonding item is same as lightning conductors.

the DB box size will be determined by how the LEW designs the circuit layout and how many breakers are needed inside the box. Even if the box is not very big, you will still end up having a DB box on the wall which you can’t hide it. How often do you think your electricity will trip for you to need to reset it? If the trip is bad enough, you may still need to reset the main ELCB which could be in the main DB. So you end up needing to go to 2 places to reset an electrical trip.

10+ data points not a lot. I have 20 points excluding POE points for cctv and telephone points as well. Basically 2 in each room with 3 in some rooms and points for wireless access points as well.

an electrical cooker will need at least 28A if you are using a 4 burner cooker. If 2 or 3 burners, the amperage is lower. But if you install 20A, you can’t change to one cooker which needs 28A in future. Always good to have higher then lower. Even if you have a 32A isolator, you can still use it for a lower power rating cooker.

if you can, take photos of the during renovation process so that you know where the conduits are being hidden inside the walls. This is so that you will not accidentally drill into any electrical or water pipes in future if you need to install any wall mount furnishings. 

[Kellhound 4]

17 hours ago, petetherock said:

My three storey renovation electrical quote was 30k all in.

New plugs, 3 DB, 6 isolaters, LAN points, many powerpoints... the nice thing was they didn't try to quote per item, so they were quite friendly towards adding stuff. Even took my old fans from my old place and installed in my new home.

But after Covid costs will go up.

By the way, what's with the trend of starting a new thread for every question... hmmm... 

I guess there are pros and cons for lump sum vs itemized. For me, itemized allows me to do better apples to apples comparison between different quotes. It also allows me to adjust my costs/budget on a finer level. The con is you have to manage more figures and do more research into the cost of each individual item.

 

[Kellhound 4]

21 hours ago, snoozee said:

Don’t think the earth bonding item is same as lightning conductors.

the DB box size will be determined by how the LEW designs the circuit layout and how many breakers are needed inside the box. Even if the box is not very big, you will still end up having a DB box on the wall which you can’t hide it. How often do you think your electricity will trip for you to need to reset it? If the trip is bad enough, you may still need to reset the main ELCB which could be in the main DB. So you end up needing to go to 2 places to reset an electrical trip.

10+ data points not a lot. I have 20 points excluding POE points for cctv and telephone points as well. Basically 2 in each room with 3 in some rooms and points for wireless access points as well.

an electrical cooker will need at least 28A if you are using a 4 burner cooker. If 2 or 3 burners, the amperage is lower. But if you install 20A, you can’t change to one cooker which needs 28A in future. Always good to have higher then lower. Even if you have a 32A isolator, you can still use it for a lower power rating cooker.

if you can, take photos of the during renovation process so that you know where the conduits are being hidden inside the walls. This is so that you will not accidentally drill into any electrical or water pipes in future if you need to install any wall mount furnishings. 

Good tip on taking photos of the wiring layout. 

How was your experience with the lighting fixtures from China? My own experience is that it can be hit or miss and can be different from what is depicted in the photos.

[snoozee 98]

1 hour ago, Kellhound said:

Good tip on taking photos of the wiring layout. 

How was your experience with the lighting fixtures from China? My own experience is that it can be hit or miss and can be different from what is depicted in the photos.

so far so good with the lighting fixtures. I bought all LED lights so had to look at some online conversion charts to estimate how bright/dim the lights will be based on the wattage of the LED lights. unfortunately i underestimated the brightness of the LEDs so some areas were over provisioned and was brighter than intended. 

honestly speaking, if you look at the lightning shops selling LED lights, most of them would be getting from China. I had seen the some of the exact same lights i used for my house being sold online at a much higher price. even the LED garden lights which i bought for less than $10 is being sold at about $80 by a PV panel company.
my best buy from Taobao would actually be my gate pillar lights. They are solar powered (with option of hard wired bulbs) and will turn on automatically at night and lasts through the entire night. 

[petetherock 13]

I bought during the 11/11 offers and from the Philips sales. 

So most of my lights are from them. These things are worth spending a bit more for quality, as LED lights can be hard to access. I used Aliexpress for solar garden lights and more easy to change items.
OR

Get the older screw in type fixtures and use bulbs. The LED lights themselves don't break down much. But you have to make sure your drivers are accessible. 

I am particular about sound, so my HT den has it's own DB. 

More importantly, get a pure power line to your HT den if you are particular about sound. Pay attention to the LAN layout and make sure there are enough powerpoints and LAN cables. You can't have enough of either.

Also if solar is a consideration at all, get a 32A isolater ready. Add another for the electric car..

[Kellhound 4]

Did any of you do LED cove lights and did you then encounter shadows caused by ceiling fans?

[yoongf 11]

Use just 1 DB box. If **** happens, u run to just 1 place to troubleshoot. U maybe familar with troubleahooting, other family members may not.

Use tracklights instead of 6inch led downlights. Downlights require testpen to change the driver. If not familar with testpen, each swap is a $40 handiman charge. Tracklights are just plug n play connection. E27 holders on tracklights even better.

Cove lighting is mood lighting and can rarely be used as general lighting. Strip LED lumen output is abt 3x lower than fluorescent extra bright tubes. U will need multiple rows of strip to get the same fluorescent tube effect.

Plan your wifi router location properly and wire up that location. Cat 7 cables makes a big difference if u are a gamer and 1ms latency is critical. Cat7 has a length limitation, so siting yr data Patch panel location is also crucial.

When buying china stuff from Taobao, avoid the cheaper no brand stuff. NVC and OPPLE are  serious china brands with more selection than Philips. 

If u use SP wholesale electric price plan, solar panels will never breakeven financially. 

Car porch. .. put tracklights and light up your parked car as if its a motorshow event. Cater for some E27 holders and install those smart bulbs with candle flame features. Yr carporch can either be a disco or a campfire for your neighbour entertainment.

[snoozee 98]

6 hours ago, Kellhound said:

Did any of you do LED cove lights and did you then encounter shadows caused by ceiling fans?

if your fan is in the way of the light being cast, it will definitely cast shadows. I have 2 sets of track lights on my double volume living room ceiling and if i turn on the lights and ceiling fan which drops around 1.9m from the ceiling, it will cause the flicking effect. so my track lights are hardly used so far.

Edited April 13, 2021 by snoozee

[snoozee 98]

7 minutes ago, yoongf said:

 

Plan your wifi router location properly and wire up that location. Cat 7 cables makes a big difference if u are a gamer and 1ms latency is critical. Cat7 has a length limitation, so siting yr data Patch panel location is also crucial.

If u use SP wholesale electric price plan, solar panels will never breakeven financially. 

 

for multi storey landed houses, one WIFI router will never be enough to cover all storeys. the best is to have wireless access points for every storey to provide the WIFI coverage. I have one access point for each upper storeys and two in my mezzanine to provide coverage for mezzanine and first storey.

yes, SP wholesale price is way better than all other providers. the only "downside" is because there is no locked-in tariff, it is subjected to market (oil) prices compared to other providers which locks in the price for a fixed number of months.

Just to share my home network set up with PBX, CCTV recorder, WIFI controller/POE switch all housed nicely inside a server rack. might be overkill but I prefer to have all the things housed nicely for easier maintenance.

[Topline 1]

3 hours ago, snoozee said:

for multi storey landed houses, one WIFI router will never be enough to cover all storeys. the best is to have wireless access points for every storey to provide the WIFI coverage. I have one access point for each upper storeys and two in my mezzanine to provide coverage for mezzanine and first storey.

 

 

Sorry, I'm not good at this. Do you mean you have a modem in one spot but you use a mesh system that has one unit in every storey? Or do you mean you connect Cat 6/7 cables from one router through the walls into your rooms, with a wired connection point in each room?

[snoozee 98]

29 minutes ago, Topline said:

Sorry, I'm not good at this. Do you mean you have a modem in one spot but you use a mesh system that has one unit in every storey? Or do you mean you connect Cat 6/7 cables from one router through the walls into your rooms, with a wired connection point in each room?

not mesh system. mesh will still have problem penetrating RC walls and floors and performance will be degraded.

yes. one modem/router which is connected to the NLT fiber point. the router is then connected to a data switch. all network cables are connected to this data switch. for each storey. there is a network point in the ceiling for connecting a wireless access point.

basically the wireless access point casts the wifi signal for my devices to connect and data is transmitted via cat6 wire back to the switch and router and to the internet.

this type of network is commonly found in big offices or buildings and is called enterprise wifi nework. it gives much better performance compared to mesh networks or just one wifi router within the house.