Cost of spotlights

[Dogzndiamonds]

I am just in the process of doing my electrical plan for my extension & my builder has told me to budget for £60 per spotlight, I repeat, per SPOTLIGHT!! This means spending thousands on lighting as in the kitchen alone we will need 20! Can anyone else tell me if this is as ridiculous as it sounds or if it's about right?!

Sounds bizarre! Is he buying them or are you? I spent about £20 each or so on mine - if that, can’t quite recall. I’d certainly remember if they were £60 each!
There’s a wide variety of spotlights out there...really depends what design you’re looking for.

We just had ours done this year as part of kitchen refit, had old style ones replaced with LED, £25 per light.

Perhaps he’s including his time to fit them and the wiring etc?

I would assume he’s factored his labour/ supplies into the price of each light but even so a pack of 10 in screwfix is only 80 quid. I’d source my own lights.

Yes sorry that's everything. It includes the wiring, labour, fittings & bulbs, it just still seems v expensive to me. Maybe we'll stick to a couple of pendants only!

20 lights? Are you sure? The LED ones are bright and available in different sizes.

Unless your kitchen is huge you shouldn't need 20 spotlights. If you use ones with a 60 degree angle of light you should need 6 innards 3m × 3m room. Cheaper lights have a 30 degree angle, so you need more of them to light the same area or you end up with dark spots. The brightness can vary too, so also watch for this.

Sorry pressed send too soon... the brightness is measured in lumens. The higher the lumens the brighter the light.

Just had our done (yesterday) £40 per recessed spotlight supplied and fitted.

I assume it's because for every spotlight they need to do all the wiring, holes in plasterboard etc for the ceiling.

20 seems a lot though - our 23ft kitchen has about 11 I think plus a standard light at one end.

Will they all be on one circuit? - we have ours split between 3 and that's good. You can light a specific area or the whole lot.

Plus I think they do ramp up the price a bit for 'extras' not specified in the plan.

I was trying to find the extras list from our loft conversion to get a comparison but I cannot find it.

spotlights are not a particularly good way of lighting a room. Especially if they poke through holes in the ceiling. Imagine trying to light a room with 20 little torches pointing down.

If you insist on spots or downs, get mains-voltage LED ones so you avoid the cost and complexity of transformers and equal-length cables.

IMO the fashion for holes will pass, and future plasterers will make a handsome living repairing ceilings.

Noise, smoke and flame can pass through holes, if that matters to you.

Thanks for everyones input, all useful. The room is 10m x 5.5m so a really big space. I shall look at zoning and maybe have spots in the kitchen area but stick to pendants or wall lights in the dining/family areas. I appreciate there are lots of different products of varying quality but wanted to get an idea if £60 seemed reasonable or extortionate.