Electrical issues

I did the Clipsal electrical design yesterday, and now feel a little like I've had my pocket picked!, and on reflection I find it a little disappointing.

When we were initially quoting the house there was an understanding that the electrical specification was going to be something done in detail later, there was $1,000 added to the price as a variation allowance, I've got to say that our understanding of the electrical specification has always been very sketchy, whenever anything electrical was raised it was always palmed off as something that would get sorted out during the Clipsal spec.

At the time did put in extra allowance for additional sockets and fans, but as far as the actual light fittings the quotation included 24 'batton' light fittings at $52 each.... but we never had any intention of using these, and I had every intention of supplying out own fittings, understanding that we could get a credit for the unused baton fittings and would have to pay an installation charge... all sounded simple and fair!

HOWEVER!
It turns out that yes, they have credited the $52 per light fitting (and remember this price was for them to supply and fit each fitting), yet are charging us $68 to install each light fitting that we supply!

Also it turns out that the electrical installation now has nothing to do with AV or IT installation, so on leaving the all important clipspec meeting I find that all the AV and IT equipment I want installed are effectively unresolved!.

The work I wanted to do is as follows

• Mount flat screen TV to wall on a pivot-able mount
• Mount surround speakers to wall and ceiling, route cables through walls
• Put two additional speakers in patio ceiling connected to TV AV system
• Route HDMI and power cables through wall
• Add 4 Ethernet points to main TV area
• Add 2 Ethernet points to each other TV area (3 off) and study
• install 16 port 10/100/1000 switch in study.
• CAT6 cabling throughout

So, Ill do it myself, fortunately data cabling doesn't require an electrical licence (unlike everything else in Australia!), and a quick Google later I find selby.com.au who can supply me with the mounting brackets, speakers, Ethernet wall plates and speaker cable I need for about $400, the switch is probably another $150 and Ill need some CAT6 cable

One thing I'm deliberately doing is routing cables through the walls and directly connecting source and device without intermediate wall plates or connection points.
Not only is this cheaper, but without extra connections its more reliable, yes I guess when you remove the equipment then having wires poking out of walls may appear unsightly, but with the equipment in place all this is invisible, and by eliminating all the cable breaks that wall plates represent I'm making the connection more reliable.... at the end of the day what I'm trying to build a system that once installed is functional and reliable, not one that looks cool when its dismantled.