6 min read
It is the first question almost every client asks, and the honest answer is that there is no single price — for the same reason there is no single price for "a kitchen". What there is, though, is a small number of decisions that move the number far more than the rest.
This post is about those decisions, so that when you do get a quote you can read it properly.
Scope matters more than brand
People expect the choice of manufacturer to dominate the cost. It rarely does. Four questions move the number much harder.
How many circuits? Lighting control is priced per circuit, not per room. A living room with five separately controlled lighting circuits costs more to automate than a bedroom with one — and open-plan spaces tend to have far more circuits than people expect, because the whole point of an open plan is being able to light parts of it differently.
Worth knowing: this is the number you have most influence over. A lighting designer specifying eleven circuits in a living room is making a cost decision as much as an aesthetic one.
Retrofit or new build? Running cable through finished walls means chasing plaster, making good and redecorating. The same cable in an unbuilt wall costs a fraction of that. This is the single biggest lever you have, and it is entirely determined by when you involve someone.
Dimming or switching? A circuit that only needs to go on and off is cheaper to control than one that dims smoothly. Dimming is also where lamp compatibility becomes a real issue — cheap LED lamps that flicker or buzz on a dimmer are a common and avoidable disappointment.
How far does it go? Lighting only is one number. Lighting plus security is another. Add cameras, climate, curtains and whole-house audio and you are in a different bracket again.
Where the money actually goes
Roughly, a project splits four ways:
- Control hardware — the Comfort controller, dimmer and relay modules, the network equipment that ties them together.
- Field devices and cabling — switches, keypads, sensors, actuators, motors, and the cable that reaches all of them.
- Design and coordination — surveying the property, producing the specification, and working with your architect and electrician so the infrastructure is right.
- Commissioning and handover — installing, programming the scenes and schedules, testing every zone, and training the household.
The last two are labour, and they are where a good installation separates itself from a box of parts. A system that is never tuned to how the household actually lives gets switched off within a month. We have been called to houses where the hardware was perfectly good and the programming had never been finished, and the owners had concluded that automation "does not work".
Two costs that surprise people
Lead times and landed cost. Most control hardware is imported. The price you are quoted should be the landed price — including duty, VAT, freight and clearing — and it is worth confirming that explicitly, because a quote that excludes them is not comparable to one that includes them.
Lead times matter as much as money on a live construction site. Equipment that arrives after the electrician has moved on costs you a second visit from the electrician.
The cost of the electrician. An integrator's quote frequently covers the control system, not the first-fix wiring it depends on. Somebody has to run the cable, and that is usually your electrician on your main contract. Neither party is hiding anything — but if you compare two quotes and one includes cabling while the other does not, you are not comparing anything at all.
Ask both parties, in writing, exactly where the boundary sits.
The cheapest decision you will make
Talk to an integrator during design, before first fix. Not after.
At design stage, adding a lighting circuit is a line on a drawing. After plaster, it is a chase, a repair, a repaint and a very unhappy client. We have seen projects where late involvement doubled the cost of the same end result.
Even if you are not ready to commit to the full system, running the cable while the walls are open costs comparatively little and keeps every option open. It is the closest thing to free money in this business. There is a separate post on exactly what to run if you are at that stage.
Start small, expand later
You do not have to do everything at once. Because every subsystem runs on the same Comfort platform, a house can start with lighting and security and add cameras, climate or audio in a later phase — without replacing the controller or redoing the programming.
If budget is the constraint, the order we would suggest is roughly:
- Security first. The lowest cost per unit of benefit, and the one that matters at three in the morning.
- Lighting in the rooms you actually use in the evening. Not every room. The ones where scenes get used daily.
- Cameras and access control, particularly the gate.
- Climate, curtains and audio as the house and the budget allow.
What matters is that the first phase is designed with the later ones in mind. That is a design decision, not a budget one, and it costs nothing to get right at the start. Sizing the controller and the containment for where you intend to end up is free at the beginning and expensive to correct later.
What it costs to run
Rarely asked, worth knowing.
Electricity. Control equipment draws very little — the standing draw of a controller and its modules is small against a household bill. In practice a well-programmed system usually reduces consumption, because lights and cooling stop being left on in empty rooms. We would not sell a system on energy savings alone, but it is not a cost.
Internet. You need a connection for remote access and notifications. The system itself should run locally without one.
Support. Ask what is included after handover and what is chargeable. Adjustments in the first few months are normal and should not be a surprise on either side.
Reading a quote properly
Four things to check before comparing numbers:
- Is the programming included, and how many revisions? Scenes almost never survive first contact with a household unchanged.
- Is commissioning separated from installation? They are different jobs; a quote with no line for commissioning may not include it.
- Are lamps included? Dimmable lamps that behave properly are not the cheapest ones, and a lighting circuit is only as good as what hangs off it.
- What is the warranty, on the hardware and on the labour? They are usually different lengths.
Getting a real number
Any figure quoted before someone has seen your drawings is a guess. What we do instead is walk the property or read the plans, agree the scope room by room, and produce a specification with a price against it — one your electrician can also quote from.
That specification is useful to you even if you go elsewhere. It is the document that lets you compare two quotes honestly.
If you are building or renovating in Nairobi and want a realistic number, tell us about the project.