Shop lights on the existing point, or a licensed new point

Last updated 31 October 2026.

Shop lighting searches mix three jobs. The first is a dead lamp or a failed driver on a track that is already wired. The second is a new track, a new circuit, or a load the board cannot take. The third is an exit sign or an emergency light that has gone dark, which staff sometimes describe as “the light above the door”. The first can be a maintenance visit if the point exists and the fitting is not an exit sign. The second is an EMA licensed electrical worker. The third is the fire guide, because SCDF treats exit signs as fire safety, not as merchandising.

EMA’s page on engaging licensed electrical workers says electrical work, at home or at the office, should be carried out or supervised by a licensed electrical worker. The list includes addition, extension or replacement of lighting points, switches and socket-outlets, and repair or replacement of circuit breakers. A handyman swapping a plug-in lamp on a socket is not that list. A new spotlight cut into a ceiling, or a track that needs a new cable, is. The class of worker depends on the load. A licensed electrician is limited to installations not exceeding 45 kVA. A food court or a shop whose approved load is larger needs a technician or an engineer. We do not send the 45 kVA class at a food court and hope.

Prices that already exist are access prices for lamps, not a shop track menu. On the high-ceiling page, a lamp, downlight or driver from 3.6m to 4.8m is S$220 to S$380, including the fibreglass ladder. From 4.8m to 6.0m the scaffold row is S$380 to S$680. A heavy chandelier, chemical anchor or lowering winch is S$480 to S$950. A shop track at 2.7m is none of those sentences. It is quote on inspection. A pre-sale photography visit that mentions mismatched downlights is a home package at S$488 to S$688. It is not a per-lamp rate for a mall.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking. A roller shutter is a different product and stays on the shutter page.

The first question on site is whether the fitting is still on a sound point. The track is isolated before anyone handles a live end. A driver that has failed in an existing head can be replaced if the head and the cable are the ones in the photo, and the price is quote on inspection because no driver row is printed. A burned terminal, a melted connector, or a breaker that will not stay on is not a lamp. That is the DB page: diagnosis and one like-for-like 30mA RCCB or MCB from S$138 to S$480, or a dedicated appliance circuit at S$220 to S$450 when the circuit is actually a 20A, 32A or 40A appliance circuit. A lighting track is not automatically an appliance circuit. If it is not that sentence, the line stays quote on inspection.

Height is the second question. A step ladder on a sales floor, with customers walking under it, is the sloppy version. The high-ceiling page already says a domestic step ladder is the wrong tool above a stair void, and MOM’s work-at-heights practice is a tied ladder or a scaffold, not a chair. In a trading shop the ladder also needs the mall’s permit if the centre requires one. The overnight row of S$380 to S$650 is permit-to-work admin and one hardware fix when the mall requires the night slot. It is not a second copy of the lamp price, and it is not a whole new track.

The third question is the sign over the door. Clause 8.1 of the Fire Code wants exit lighting and an exit sign. A decorative track aimed at a mannequin does not satisfy that clause, and removing the exit sign to “clean the look” is fire safety work. SCDF lists relocation of emergency exit signs among works that need a qualified person’s plan. We will not take the exit sign down as part of a lamp change. HDB’s shop guide also tells the tenant to maintain exit lighting and emergency lights to FSSD’s standard. A town council clearance is required, under that same guide, before lightings are fixed on common property. A spotlight inside the tenancy is not a licence to mount a floodlight on the corridor soffit.

Count the heads that are dead, not the heads that are ugly. Send the track, the ceiling height, and a photo of the board if a breaker is involved. Say mall or HDB shop. If you want a new run of track, say the length and whether a new cable is needed. Supply of the track is quote on inspection. We do not pick a colour temperature package and call it a design fee.

Common-property lights, car-park lights and corridor lights in an HDB estate are not the tenant’s track. The town council or the mall owns those. Do not book them as a shop lamp.

Name the supply and the height before you name a brand of lamp.

Questions a shop should ask

A lighting quote should be able to say which of these it is.

1. Is the cable already there, or does this need a new point?
2. What is the ceiling height, and is the floor a sales floor?
3. Is any fitting an exit sign or an emergency light?
4. Who is the licensed electrical worker if the work is on EMA’s list?
5. Does the shop’s approved load stay within the class of that worker?
6. Is the light on common property? If yes, what did the town council or the mall say?
7. Does the mall require a night slot? That row is S$380 to S$650 and it is not the lamp.
8. Is a new track being supplied? There is no supply price printed here.

The same lamp is a different permission on a common corridor.

EMA’s licensed-worker page is the reason a new lighting point is not a handyman extra. The Electricity (Electrical Installations) Regulations, as amended, also point the licensed worker at SS 638 for the installation. A non-domestic installation with an approved load above 45 kVA needs an electrical installation licence, and the owner appoints a licensed worker of the right class. Hazardous trades need a licence regardless of load. We do not describe a shop as “under 45 kVA” from a photo of one track.

HDB’s shop guide tells tenants to open utility accounts before fitting-out, and to use an EMA licensed electrical worker for electrical works. Additional electrical load is subject to spare capacity and a fee. The guide does not print the fee, so neither do we. Lightings fixed on common property need town council clearance. Exit lightings are to be maintained to FSSD’s standard. That is a maintenance duty, not a licence for us to certify the sign.

SCDF clause 8.1 sets exit lighting and exit signs apart from display lighting. The minimum on an escape route is the figure in SS 563, which the code explains as not less than 0.5 lux at the floor for at least one hour, with a changeover of not more than one second in the critical exit areas. A shop track does not provide that. BCA plan approval is a separate question if the lighting job becomes a new ceiling or a raised floor. Changing a lamp is not that.

Official pages

• EMA: engaging a licensed electrical worker
• HDB renovation guide for shop tenants and owners, December 2025
• SCDF Fire Code 2023 clause 8.1: exit lighting and exit signs

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices the permit-exempt visit. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices hacking, a new layout, and an HDB renovation permit. Homey Furnishing is not a property agency, not a CEA practice, and not a vector-control operator.

How you're charged

A job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. The hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. There is no fuel surcharge and no published night premium except the mall overnight row. A shop does not inherit a flat’s price just because the fitting looks similar.

The high-ceiling lamp bands are used only when the height and the fitting match that page. Everything else in a shop track is quote on inspection, except a DB fault that matches the DB page. The mall night row is added only when the mall requires it.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Replace the dead heads in one visit. Four separate call-outs cost the mobilisation, not the lamp.
• Do not buy a track that needs a new cable and then ask for a lamp price. The cable is the licensed job.
• Leave the exit sign in the drawing. Relocating it is a qualified-person submission.
• Book mall work in the slot the centre already allows, so you are not paying a second mobilisation.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Access bands and board bands are printed. A shop track head is not.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.

• High-ceiling lamp bands
• Shop power points and the board
• Exit lights, which are not track heads
• DB box and power trips
• Mall overnight slot