You don’t have to be as cunning as a fox to save money when hiring an electrician, not when you have some insider tips from an actual electrician who is living and working here in Darwin and Palmerston.
And what’s the tip? Group a few things together. This is such a smart way to use any tradesperson but especially an electrician because you can get your routine tasks and some maintenance items all done in the one job for the one call out fee.
This is a clever way to stretch the call out fee over a few jobs, saving you money while getting some work done that could keep your safer or help you use less electricity.
And I’m going to go one step further and share some trade secrets so you can really take control of your electrical needs in Darwin or Palmerston, by naming four important (but not always urgent) jobs that are great value.
Four money saving (and life saving) electrical jobs that can stretch your call out fee further
The jobs I want to highlight are:
- Testing ceiling fan capacitors
- Checking and/or replacing smoke detectors
- Testing safety switches
- Minor filter cleans for your air conditioners
Here’s a little more detail about each one, so you can understand why they’re important jobs to get done.
Fan capacitors: We all do it. During the Wet our fans are stuck on high speed. But we need those lower speeds when the Dry arrives. The problem is, when the fan is only going on one speed out of three, problems can occur with the fan capacitor. And we typically don’t realise this until it’s a freezing 16 degrees and we need our fans for air flow. This check brings peace of mind, knowing you’ll be able to rely on your fan year round.
Smoke detectors: Is this the year for replacing your smoke detectors? As you know, in the Northern Territory smoke detectors need to be replaced every 10 years. While that’s important in your home, it is vital in any rental properties you own or manage. Smoke detectors in rental properties in Darwin, Palmerston, and surrounds, must be up-to-date at all times and if they’re not compliant they must be replaced immediately. It’s worth getting your smoke detectors serviced and tested now, so you play it safe. For example, I have heard that you can’t smell smoke whilst you are asleep. Apparently, it doesn’t wake you up. So consider this YOUR wake up call to do the right thing.
Safety switches: Safety switches have been around for more than 15 years now, and all new houses must have these switches on all of their appliances and circuits. Do you know the manufacturers say you need to test them regularly to be sure they are working properly? After all, we don’t want to be THAT TEST when we accidentally come into contact with live wires. The safety switch is probably one of the most important inventions in recent history and is responsible for many people’s saved lives. It doesn’t take long to test them, so asking your sparky to run a test when they’re at your house or office just makes great sense. It actually could save your life, or the lives of friends, families, and colleagues.
Minor filter clean for airconditioners: Our air conditioners are the most relied upon appliances up here in the Top End, and yet many of us still keep forgetting to clean their filters or get them serviced. This not only can leave them inefficient and therefore more costly to run, but it means they’re just circulating germs and dust which nobody has ever wanted, not least during this time of Covid. So, it’s really a smart use of money to get us (or your electrician) to give your filters on your air conditioners a quick once over while we’re on site. At the same time, we won’t help being able to also give your air cons an inspection and advise you if they need servicing before the Wet Season. It’s common that you probably can’t remember the last time you’ve had your air conditioners services, so we’ll help play detective with you and not only work out when the last service took place but also what a good servicing interval would be for your air cons in your premises.
Of course, there are many other things a good electrician can do for you while on site, but if you’re planning to get one of the above jobs done soon, why not get the other three done and pay a lot less call out fee per job.
On a side note, at the time of writing this, our call out fee for Darwin and Palmerston is $50. It’s going up to $60 on July 1, 2021, and then we need to move it to $70 from January 1, 2022. So, the final tip for stretching that call out fee further, is to use our priority booking form today and get us booked in before the price goes up.