When we built our house we were charged $150/recessed light by the builders electrician. When we had our electrician over after the fact, he basically told us we paid way too much/light he only charges $65/light. The builder probably added on $$ so that he made a profit which I totally understand, but I was horrified at the $150/light. For extra electrical we ended up paying almost $10,000 in the entire house.. Totally not something we budgeted for.

Have the electricians separate out the material and labor.

LED bulbs alone cost $25 to $50 each. So you have nearly $1000 in bulbs alone if you add the mark up and etc.

My trim cost about $40 each. I am using a nice reflective trim with chrome on them. Again, you need to know what they cost each for your special situation.

Depening on the difficulty of wiring, 5 switches can be many hours of wiring. My electricians charge $75 per hour. Let's say 5 hours of wiring for switches. That is another few hundred.

When you say $ per light, it is all misleading. It depends on how much wiring is required and how exposed the walls are.

Thanks for that. I did call back before that message. Found out they are 7" cans, 12 of them, Halo with all the trim, lights, etc. included.

Ceiling and walls are completely open. No wiring has been done yet in the kitchen at all, although the wiring of the kitchen is being paid for under a separate part of the contract. This was above and beyond that first part (the house, had to be re-wired substantially due to existing knob and tube).

i am in the quoting process with my GC as well and have been quoted $150 per can for recessed LED's.

Check out Cree LED Lighting. Coming out with a new 6" recessed, dimmable down light with built-in reflector, equivalent to about 75 watts, (pulls about 10.5 watts)compatible with standard recessed housing you can pick up at big box store for about $35 for a 6-pack. No need for special $$$ LED housings.
In anticipation of this, we finished our basement with 31 IC cans, cost us, with all wiring, about $45.00/can. The big expense will be the bulbs. Of course, the basement was wide open for the electrician.

Let me see,
It was very, very, very expensive..

Sooooooooooooooooo expensive

I would say it was
priceless.

No money in the world
could cover the ligthing,

electrical work and

undermount lights,

canisters,

chadelier.....

Well I should say this is probably

what I paid

for

the

beautiful

lighting.

A new Victoria Secret bedroom outfit,
a little romatic music, (Barry White, Marvin Gaye,)
candels burning,
a spray of Tresor.
a soothing back rub for him and oh la la....

What did I tell you. PRICELESS!
I confess
My husband did all my lights.
I am soooooo lucky that he has this talent.

~boxerpups

In Southern CA, most electrical contractors are getting $100 per can installed, with trim and std 65wattBR30 blub. Add a Cree LED driver at $80 and you are @ $180.00 per light.

We got 5 recessed LED lights with just plain trim. The bulbs can cost about $40 - $50 and the trim is another $10 per insert.
The labor is of course not cheap but you should double check if recessed lighting was specifically added to the lighting budget.
If yes, then all GC should charge is for the material and you can tell him that you can supply it for him if you want. If not included then of course he is marking it up as it seems a lot to me but then mine were only 5....
I would definately ask for breakdown in material and lobor for this one. Good Luck