What shapes lighting in a Melbourne home
Grey winters
Melbourne's winters are dry by southern Victorian standards but often cloudy. Bureau of Meteorology figures for Melbourne Airport average 120.0 hours of sunshine across the whole of June.
Terraces
Rows built between the 1850s and 1890s fill Carlton, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond and South Melbourne. Sharing side walls with the neighbours, they get daylight from the front and back only, so the rooms in between depend on good artificial light.
Heritage streets
Albert Park, Fitzroy, Carlton, Parkville and East Melbourne are under strict heritage overlays. Inside, lighting is electrical work. Outside, a Heritage Overlay can mean a planning permit for works that change how a heritage place looks, so check with your council before fixing lights to the facade.
Flats and apartments
Postwar Melbourne built walk-up flats, and apartment living took off from the 1990s. By 2021, 15.6% of Greater Melbourne homes were flats or apartments, where a concrete ceiling can limit where new lights go.
Rentals
Consumer Affairs Victoria's minimum standards say inside rooms, corridors and hallways must have access to light that makes them functional, with artificial light available at night. Lighting circuits in rentals have also needed safety switches since 29 March 2023.
Lighting a long, narrow terrace
Work room by room from the front door back. The hallway usually runs the length of the house, so a switch at each end saves walking its length in the dark. The middle rooms need even general light, and the kitchen at the back needs task lighting over the bench, where you'll be standing with your back to whatever light there is.
In a two-storey terrace, light the stairs from both the top and the bottom. Skylights won't help a ground floor room with a bedroom above it, which is where a careful lighting plan earns its keep.
Flats, apartments and concrete ceilings
In many apartment buildings there's no roof space above you, only the concrete slab of the floor upstairs. Moving a light point can mean surface conduit, a bulkhead or wall lights instead, so get the electrician to look before you fall for a particular fitting.
Anything outside your own walls, like balcony or corridor lighting, may belong to the owners corporation. Ask the committee or the strata manager before you book that part.
Paperwork for lighting work in Victoria
Energy Safe Victoria lists lights as non-prescribed work, so there's no separate inspection, but you still get a Certificate of Electrical Safety, within one month of the electrician certifying the work. Energy Safe Victoria says a contractor can't refuse to issue one, even over a payment dispute.
The business you hire must be a Registered Electrical Contractor, and its REC number has to appear on its ads.
Yours to do, and licensed work
You can
- Change a globe in an existing fitting, with the switch off.
- Walk the house after dark and list the dim corners and badly placed switches.
- Choose fittings, and send the electrician the make and model before the visit.
- Use plug-in lamps to test where extra light helps before anything gets wired.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Installing, moving or replacing light fittings and switches.
- Two-way switching for long hallways and stairs.
- Dimmers, smart switches and sensor lights.
- Outdoor lighting, including anything fixed to a heritage facade once the permit question is settled.
How we'd light a Melbourne home
We'd start in the darkest room on a grey July afternoon, not a sunny Saturday, because that's when the lighting has to do its job. In a terrace, we'd fix the hallway and the middle rooms first and leave feature lighting for later. In an apartment, we'd get the electrician to check the ceiling before buying fittings. And if you're a landlord, make sure every room and hallway has working light before the next renter walks through.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.