Downlights in kitchen area?

[FollowingAmirage]

So we are considering downlights in kitchen area. Ideally just where needed to light up the workspace. How much should we expect to pay for installation (~8 in total?)?

We will also have pendant lighting on top of the kitchen table (narrow room so no space for a Kitchen bar/island) and possibly dimmable lights for seating area...

I am completely clueless, i know these need to be fire rated, but no idea on costs of units and what’s reasonable price for installation. We had an initial quote from an electrician for 4.5k, we are in the south east. But I think this is over the top! Note: this is for a kitchen diner knock through rather than an extension.

Any tips/advice will be greatly appreciated. I would also love to hear other alternatives to downlights?

For LED spotlights budget between £15 to £25 each go for warm white not cool white, if the 4.5 is just to wire the lights I would say that is way over the top however the issue is going to be how much work is involved running the actual cables, running in line with the joists is straight forward but going across them normally requires the ceiling down, it’s normally more work wiring into existing than it is to run new

If you have wall cabinets & want the worktop lit underneath OMLOPP range from IKEA might be a very cheap & easy option . They come in strips & spotlights & are dimmable. You'd need to be able to hide the power cord in some way so may not work depending on layout.

@user1471528245 For LED spotlights budget between £15 to £25 each go for warm white not cool white

Curious to know why you suggested this? I really don't enjoy the 'yellow' from the warm white bulbs...

What work did the 4.5k involve - it sounds ludicrously expensive to me.

For comparison, although nearly a decade ago, we had kitchen knocked through and had new kitchen circuit put in for sockets and two new lighting circuits (1 that controls 3 pendants, the other with 6 spotlights) and a new circuit board at the same time and that cost us about £600. Although because of the work we were doing they could do a first fix for the circuits with the ceilings down and then came back later to connect up so they were only here a day and a half total.

Make sure you think about kitchen wall cabinet positions when planning spotlight locations

Thank you all for the replyies. That’s very helpful. So the work is for 8 downlights (the ceiling is coming down so no access issues, fire/heat alarm, 2 pendant lights, moving a couple of sockets (from the wall coming down to adjust walls) and 2 outdoor lights in the patio...I heard some ppl got a whole house rewired for less . I’m waiting for 2 other quotes so hopefully the others will be more reasonable!