LED downlight replacement in Sydney — cost, choices & compliance

Straight lamp-and-fitting swap (existing hole, ceiling access, no rewire): $65–$95 per downlight fully installed with a mid-tier IC-4 LED.

Rewiring an old 12 V halogen circuit to 240 V LED: add $25–$45 per light. Almost always worth doing — the old transformers are a common source of buzzing and premature LED failure.

Moving or adding positions (patching plaster, running new cable): $80–$140 per light on top of the base rate. Best combined with a repaint.

Bulk jobs (12+ lights, same visit): 15–25% off the per-light rate. Whole-home 30-light changeovers typically land at $1,800–$2,600.

Wattage & brightness — for most Sydney living rooms and bedrooms, 9 W (≈800 lumens) matches the old 50 W halogen look. For kitchens, garages and workshops, step up to 12–15 W (≈1,200 lumens).

Colour temperature — 3000 K warm white for living/bedrooms, 4000 K neutral for kitchens/bathrooms/laundries, 5000 K cool for garages/workshops. Tri-colour fittings let you switch between all three at install.

Dimmable or not — decide up front. Dimmable LEDs cost $8–$18 more per light and need a compatible trailing-edge dimmer. Non-dimmable is fine for most rooms.

IC-4 fire rating — mandatory anywhere insulation touches the fitting (most modern ceilings) and anywhere the ceiling is fire-rated (strata common areas, garage under living). We only fit certified units.

One 50 W halogen replaced with a 9 W LED, running 4 hours a night, saves about 60 kWh per year — roughly $17 at 2026 NSW retail rates.

Across a typical 30-downlight Sydney home, that's around 1,800 kWh per year saved, or ~$500 off the annual power bill.

Payback on a full-house changeover: 3–5 years cash payback, plus the halogens stop cooking your ceiling insulation and the LEDs last 20,000+ hours instead of 2,000.