Rewiring European Lighting

April 02, 2024

Online shopping and efficient shipping have given more options to where you can buy lighting from. Over the past 10 years we have noticed a major influx of clients bringing in European and overseas lighting to be converted to North American electrical standards. In this post we are going to discuss what can be converted, what cannot and what to look for if you are buying a light from overseas.

Starting with the bad news.........

We do not work on new European lighting (Murano excluded)

Why?

There's a lot of reasons but the main one is quality. New lights don't lend themselves to being taken apart and rewired. Manufacturers tend to use a lot of plastic threadings that snap off or use poor quality sockets that are very difficult to remove and replace with North America ones. Many new lights are suspended from their wire as well which is not covered by our CSA license. Like an Audi or a BMW the lights may look cool but can be rife with problems and are costly to work on. Some past conversions we've done far exceeded the retail price of the light. As a result, we do not work on them anymore except for Murano ones which use historically established manufacturing techniques.

On to the good news.

Vintage and Antique Lighting

Now these we can do!

Many antique and vintage European lights are of incredible quality and truly stunning pieces. However, they do require more work to rewire that North American lights. This is due to the fact that they generally have thinner gauge wiring running through them and the fact that most of the threadings on the arms are metric which needs to be converted to imperial in order to fit our North American sockets. Both of these require extra time and labour convert. In the event that our standard wire will not fit through the arms, we can look at specialty wire or externally wiring them. With all conversions we supply North American mounting hardware and larger ceiling plates if required.

What to look for when looking online.

If you have your eye on a piece overseas and are thinking of buying it and shipping it over, here's what to look for

New:

Is it rated for use in North American and if not, can it be and can it be certified UL, CE, CSA by the manufacturer or retailer? If not, look elsewhere as it won't work here and you electrician will not install a non certified light. No use in spending hundreds (if not thousands) for a light plus shipping if you can't use it here.

Antique and Vintage:

Pricing can escalate quickly on these so budget for shipping, duty and taxes and for it to be rewired. If you love it, it's worth the added price but don't be surprised if that 100 euro light turns into a $1000 light when you factor in the additional fees.

Final Words

Do your homework and make sure it will work here or you can make it work before making such a large purchase. Returning them is not always an option or an expensive one if required. If there is an antique or vintage piece you are interested in but want an estimate before purchasing it let us know and we would be happy to provide one.

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