Anita’s Call for Lighting and Fan Advice
Hi there. This is John Dale from GlobileNet again. I was going to cover the subject, a bit of a multi-topic subject here. I had a call from Anita, a new customer that was looking at products that would serve her to replace existing downlights, the old-style gimbal downlights, and to get some recommendations on fans in bedrooms that would be suitable for the size of the rooms.
Problems with Old-Style Downlights
So the problem was that the downlights were just not bright enough and they were continually failing. They’d put LED lamps in as replacements, but they never last very long because those older style drivers that are in the ceiling, they’re generally not very compatible with new LEDs. And new drivers cost as much as a new downlight. So it doesn’t make sense to actually install drivers. It’s better to replace them. In one of the bedrooms, they had 70mm cut-out, which are a less common size. All the rest were 90mm cut-out. So I discussed with her that it would probably be best to make them all 90mm cut-out and that we would make an adjustment to the hole to suit.
Our Recommendations for Bedroom Fans
After giving her the quote and following up with her, we’d suggested certain types of fans. There are certain fans that we particularly favor. They can be a little bit more expensive than your typical Bunnings. Not necessarily overly expensive, but at least we know when we put that product in, our warranty terms are covered and we’re not putting ourselves at too much risk of failures.
Customer Chooses Bunnings Alternatives
In this case, when she’d received the proposal, she was happy with the proposal, but not the overall price. I told her how much the materials were. And she said, Well, let me go out and try to find some alternatives, which she did. The alternatives that she bought were from Bunnings, perfectly fine products. But as I say, the warranty side of that product or any product supplied by a customer means that they own the warranty and we don’t cover warranty issues, which means basically when they call us, we charge them a call fee rather than no charge at all and just changing the product. But she knew that and she was happy to proceed on that basis.
Challenges Found in the Roof Space
During the installation, we did find that there was a lot of rubbish in the roof, so we had to be particularly industrious, if you like, to make sure we didn’t put too much litter on the floor because certain areas were single level and some areas were two-story, but in any of the levels, they didn’t have sarking, and so they had a lot of litter in on top of the ceiling.
Adjusting the 70mm Cut-Outs
We re-drilled the 70mm hole using a special dust cover in the collection, which stops too much dirt accumulating on the floor. And we covered the bed so that there was no dust lying, at least on the bed.
Issues with Previous Electrical Work
The rest of the 90mm lights went without too much of a problem, but there were a couple where previous electricians had actually drilled the stud out, which I don’t like doing, particularly, and probably shouldn’t be done. At least, definitely shouldn’t be done on any load-bearing stud. So we did suggest to move them over. I did patch them and fill the holes, which she was happy for. She would then have the opportunity to put the paint on.
Installing the Correctly Sized Fans
The fans that they acquired, based on my suggestions, were correctly sized, and we put those in for her in three bedrooms and made sure that there wasn’t any interaction with any of the downlights in the process. So Anita was very happy. We went through and made sure that the job was complete after her requirements.
Extra Work Adding More Downlights
She left us asking us to come back for some more work by adding some downlights in one of the bedrooms, which we did later. Anyway, she was very happy.
The Value of Letting Us Supply the Products
The only thing I can say in this type of house is if you ever get an electrician back and there’s no warranty and it’s just a call fee, you typically, for us, you’d be paying $230 plus GST. Some are slightly less, some are slightly more. More are likely to be more than that. So it’s a really good idea to allow the electrician to supply the product so that they carry for the duration of the warranty of the product, a free labor repair service. Thank you.
