What shapes a lighting job in Sydney
Apartments
Flats and apartments made up 30.7% of Greater Sydney's homes at the 2021 Census. Lights inside your unit are one thing. Anything that touches common property, like a shared hallway or the building's outside walls, is a question for the strata manager before it's one for an electrician.
Terraces and Federation homes
Paddington's terraces went up mainly between 1870 and 1895, and Haberfield's Federation houses from about 1900 to the 1940s. In homes like these, ask how the electrician will reach a new light position without cutting into original ceilings or cornices.
Rentals
NSW minimum standards require adequate lighting in every room except storage rooms and garages. Any electrical fault in a rental, including a dead lighting circuit, is an urgent repair for the landlord to arrange.
Garden lights after heavy rain
Sydney can get a lot of rain fast: 391.6 mm fell over four days in February 2020. Ausgrid says equipment near the ground should stay off after flooding until it's been inspected, and low garden lights and their connections fit that description.
The NSW paperwork, even for a straight swap
NSW counts a like-for-like light replacement as electrical work that needs a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work. The electrician lodges it through the Building Commission NSW eCert portal no later than 7 days after finishing, and can have eCert email a copy straight to you.
NSW Fair Trading puts installing, replacing or moving lights and switches on its list of jobs only a qualified electrician should do. Changing a globe is the exception, and Ausgrid's advice says the same.
Before you book a Sydney lighting job
- Do any of these lights touch common property, and does the strata manager need to approve it?
- How will you get cable to the new positions without damaging original ceilings?
- Do the fittings I've bought carry the Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM)?
- Is the lighting circuit on a safety switch, and if not, should it be?
- Will the CCEW be emailed to me when it's lodged?
Your part, and the licensed part
You can
- Change globes in existing fittings, with the light switched off.
- Buy your own fittings, checking each carries the RCM.
- Use plug-in lamps and plug-in LED strips with their own power supply.
- Talk to the strata manager before anything on common property.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Installing, moving or replacing any fitting or switch.
- Dimmers, smart switches and sensor lights.
- Outdoor and garden lighting circuits.
- Checking garden lights and connections after flooding.
How we'd light a Sydney home
In an apartment, we'd talk to the strata manager before the electrician, so nobody plans a light the building won't allow. In an older terrace or Federation home, we'd ask for a plan that runs cable through the roof space and walls and leaves the original ceilings intact. And in any home built before 2000, we'd have the safety switches checked while the electrician's there, as NSW Fair Trading recommends.
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.