Need to get expert opinion on whether the quotation I got is reasonable. I suspect some items/work are overpriced.


First some background info. House is link intermediate 2-1/2 storey with size 20ft by 65 ft. Half-storey an attic of about 20ft by 15ft. House bought new, now 20 years old.


Single phase wiring, and renovations would result in estimated 30-35 plug points throughout house. Five air-conds to be installed comprising two 2.5hp, one 1.5hp and two 1hp units. Electrician says no need for 3-phase wiring if only up to 3 air-cond are switched on at same time. But usually only 2 would go on daily at same time, so electrical load isn’t much.


I was told electrician charged by number of plug points created. I suppose no charge on existing points unless you want to relocate the points.


For the air-conds, electrician would hack walls, install brackets and conceal wiring and hoses. Air-cond technician would come in later and just wired up the air-conds without further drilling or hacking i.e. plug and play only.


So for the amount of work done by the electrician to prepare the house (see List2) for the incoming air-conds, are the charges reasonable?

Since house is old, I agreed for safety reasons to go with rewiring the house and putting wires in PVC pipes, as the current ones are exposed wires cemented into the wall. Not safe.

How much would rewiring roughly cost for this size of house, bearing in mind the house would have 30-35 plug points. List1 (in grey highlight) as shown here refers to an earlier quotation from the contractor for specific electrical jobs. Taking into account that list plus rewiring the whole house, what is the ballpark figure I should be looking at just for electrical work charges?


Also seeking informed comments about the charges as listed in List1.

TIA.

This post has been edited by corosadia: Mar 19 2017, 12:23 PM


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i just did some electrical works. i suggest you buy material by yourself. there many grades of cable (sirim, jkr, st, 100% copper, made in PRC / malaysia). Mega is good.

if you own house, do more homework, buy good cable then no need to worry about overloading or tripping.

you squeeze him on pricing, he'll substitute the wires, and one day your whole system will trip (hopefully no fire) and you regret because have to hack and replace the wire.

get an electrical engineer fren and ask him to calculate for you, and get the appropriate size and brand of cable. you can take the easy way and rely on the electrician (and he'll tell you 1mm is lighting, 2.5mm for aircond etc). the right way is to calculate the load demand (amp) and get check the cable can carry the load.

good luck

Single phase 63A will be more than sufficient.

Based on NON inverter
2x 2.5hp 9.5A*2 17A
1x 1.5hp 5A
2x 1.0hp 4A
Even if you turn on ALL the aircond, 26A total
there is
37A remaining for everything else
This allows you to turn on only two water heaters max (16A each for 3.6kW) with 5A balance for all the small power stuff lights fans TV.

Technically it would be something to take note.. you can have a choice of 2 out of 3 heavy loads
please use only two out of the following list
a) 26A for all five aircon running
b) 32A for all two water heaters running
c) Electrical Cooking appliances - rice cooker, kettle, electric oven, electric induction cooker, cooker hob (stove)

I would say the price for the lighting point is about there.. but item 8.1 please clarify because there is no way in hell they will use 6mm² thick cable for wires.
The ST regulation is 1.5mm² for lighting points and a minimum of 2.5mm² for 13A SSO points.

Since you are doing rewiring you can try ask the fella upgrade the single sockets to double sockets for a little bit extra.
Single sockets are very annoying as you will need extensions everywhere.

This is very true.
Cables made by MCMA cartel members https://www.mcma.org.my/member.htm are usually good stuff. Like Mega Kabel, Tonn, Fajar, Southern.
For stiff cable, non-MCMA cable like Caramay which had passed MS2112-3 spec is also acceptable. Slightly cheaper because no MCMA cartel fees, but still true spec.
Fajar Cable specialise more for flexible cable (extension cord wire/appliance wire).. comes in grey, but you can also find white variants.

Lain lain substandard cables are much cheaper.. HALF PRICE
but would you trust your nice house to fire risk substandard cable.. it is not because they got the copper cheaper (which is impossible) but simply put it is probably recycled copper (best case scenario), or WCS LESS COPPER than specified.. or NOT EVEN copper (copper plated on aluminum is cheap).. see attachment corosadia

Yet.. in the interest of CHEAP.. 1.3k rolls sold Electrical fires can be caused by usage of NORMAL loads on substandard cable which cause the wire to heat up like a toaster https://www.wbrz.com/news/four-people-escap...trical-problem/

This post has been edited by ceo684: Jan 6 2022, 01:32 PM


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Sometimes easier (as an electrician) to ask customer u supply all the stuff I list out.. then I come to pasang charge you labour only.
Less price dispute and at least customer aware things actually cost that much and not "drop from sky"

i still have a bunch of Mega kabel 2.5mm from my last project.....

good for 20amp [switch will probably blow first at 13amp]....so i have full confidence in my house's electrical circuit

I think the prices for the electrical work are reasonable for Klang Valley. At least much cheaper than mine. Mine are about 5% - 10% more expensive and some more the switches are supplied by me.

Nice If many full rolls left - theoretically you could sell the full roll for just a couple bucks less than market price on spee/laz, confirm got ppl take.

Out of curiosity I hooked up those so called 2.5mm PVC auto control cable for experiment. damn, it gets warm even at 14A load connected to it.

Control cable, because they are super cheap compared to power cables, CAN be safely (and are usually) used for NON-LOAD applications like the 4th wire Signal for inverter aircons or in <50V automation control cabinets.

This post has been edited by ceo684: Jan 6 2022, 04:14 PM

you 2.5mm kabel suspect lah.....

mega kabel 2.5mm kuat until 21 / 24amp...

i use it for DC solar panel (2 x 10amp - max) which is 20amp...as per their table, its good for 24amp dc (2.5mm), and its cool when i touch.....definitely quality counts for something...