Electricals and WTF!

Things have been progressing at a slow and steady pace and we had our electrical's appointment coming up soon. I spoke with a few friends some of whom were sparkys and the best advice I got was to place all the standard power points that the builder supplies in the most difficult places that way the easy one's could be dropped in later. I managed to get my hands on an electrical price list well before our appointment and it gave me a good chance to price around. Some things I found the builder was fairly cost competitive but some other things were wayyyyyyy over priced. The boss and I were looking at upgrading some of our light switches to some nice fancy back lit ones however they were more then double the retail price so we opted to do it all later and stick to the basics.

So we arrive for our electricals and find out that our Customer Service Officer needs to see us prior to the appointment. We meet our CSO who seats us down and informs us that we need to put up another $9000 to install a water tank to pass our BASIX requirements. After I got up off the floor I explained that we were on a recycled water estate and didn't need a water tank however I was informed that as the recycled system is not yet complete we will need to put the tank in. I then thought maybe I can do it cheaper myself, no not an option as it must be done by the builder. Whilst "Not happy Jan" we left and went to our electricals.


Electrical was kept to a minimum and the majority of our additional cost was spend in double and triple switching. We had to add a few extra lights to complete some switching circuits but that was about it. I could not swallow forking out $130 per downlight for the builder to do it when I could do it for about one third the cost post build. We just got the standard baton light fitting put into a place where a downlight would be and it will all be changed later. Things like bathroom 3 in 1 or 4 in 1 I would recommend getting the builder to do as they need to be on their own circuit. All up we spent just over $2500 in electricals. Be aware though that we spend the very minimum and it would be very easy to spend in the tens of thousands!