Upgrading your lighting: what a sparkie does and how to keep it cheap

What lighting work involves

Lighting is priced per fitting on top of an electrician's call-out. The cheap end is a like-for-like swap — an old fitting comes down and a new one goes up on the existing wiring. The dearer end is cutting in a new point: running fresh cable through the ceiling, adding a switch, and making good. That difference in wiring is the single biggest thing that moves the per-fitting price.

LED downlights are the most common job, and they reward doing in bulk — installed ten at a time in one visit, the per-light price drops well below the single-fitting rate. Dimmers, two-way switching and smart controls add hardware and wiring time, while high ceilings, voids and statement pendants slow every fitting down.

Where lighting hands over to other specialists: outdoor and garden lighting and home-automation control systems can be their own patch, though many electricians do the lot. What never changes is that the wiring itself is licensed work.

How the cost works

The band on this page runs from swapping a few fittings at the low end to a whole-home upgrade with dimmers and outdoor lights at the top. The estimate here adjusts for the number of fittings, whether new wiring is needed, and ceiling height — but the economics point one clear direction, which is to batch.

The call-out is the same whether the sparkie does one light or a dozen, so keep a running list and book one visit when there's enough to justify the trip. Per fitting, batching is the biggest saving available in this job. When you do buy the fittings, quality LED downlights with replaceable drivers cost a little more but outlast the cheap ones that fail first.

Verifying your electrician

This is the simple part, because the rule is absolute: all lighting wiring must be done by a licensed electrician, everywhere in Australia. Ask for the licence number and check it against your state's register — it takes two minutes and any professional expects it. After the work, ask for the certificate of compliance; it matters for insurance and resale, and good electricians provide it as routine.

Signals of a good job beyond the paperwork: they plan the switching with you before touching anything, suggest where dimmers earn their keep, and leave tidy, labelled work. Moving a switch after the fact is effectively a new job, so it pays to think the layout through before the sparkie arrives.

Mistakes to avoid

Lighting mistakes are rarely dangerous — that's what the licensing prevents — but they're easy to make and annoying to live with.

• Calling the sparkie for one fitting when three more are a month away — batch the visit
• Buying the cheapest downlights, which fail first and cost more to replace over time
• Not planning switching before the job, then paying again to move a switch later
• Skipping the compliance certificate on licensed work
• Forgetting that new points and switches cost far more than like-for-like swaps
• Ignoring dimming and colour temperature, then finding the new lights feel harsh