Typical prices of standard electrical work based on a house with accessible floor and loft spaces (without fixed chipboard, laminate or tiled flooring or excessive furniture) with brick, block or plasterboard walls.
| Electrical work | Price |
|---|---|
| Replace light fitting, switch or socket | from £40 |
| Electrical inspection report (2 bedroom house) | from £120 |
| Replace all lightbulbs with LED low energy bulbs | from £40 plus £6 per lightbulb |
| Replace a consumer unit | from £350 |
| Fault finding (circuits tripping) | £50 for 1st hr then £28 p/h |
| Install shower supply (excluding shower) | from £300 |
| Replace shower like for like (supplied by customer) | from £100 |
| Install two additional double sockets in one room | from £160 |
| Fit an electric cooker (supplied by customer to an existing supply) | from £40 |
| Install cooker supply (excluding cooker) | from £250 |
| Replace bathroom fan with a quiet fan | from £80 |
| Rewire kitchen | from £500 |
Jobs are more straightforward in new houses where existing wiring and fittings already meet regulations. In older houses, work may be more costly and time-consuming.
The installation of any new circuit, any work in the kitchen or bathroom and the replacement of a consumer unit is required, under planning law, to be reported to the local council. I am a member of a scheme that will do this, and I will issue you with an installation certificate. I will need to inspect your installation prior to any work to ensure your electrical system is in a satisfactory state to enable me to issue a certificate. if any potentially dangerous conditions are noted I will give you the details of the remedial action required and quotes for the repairs.
From 2008 electrical regulations require most of the circuits in a house to be protected by an RCD, this is a device in the consumer unit that trips when a fault to earth occurs, this could be an electric shock or a wire comming loose in an appliance. This reduces the risk of serious electric shocks and appliances catching fire (the main cause of house fires in the UK). If any additional installation work is done on a circuit or a new circuit is installed, RCD protection will normally be required. Unfortunatly it is not usually practical to fit an RCD to an existing consumer unit, so a new consumer unit would be required.
Earth bonding cables are required between the consumer unit and any other services such as gas, water, oil and any exposed structural metalwork. The size of these cables depends on the supply, but the typical size for a three bed house is 10mm2, the insulated diameter is about the same as a pencil.
From 2016 fire regulations require all new consumer units to have a fire barrier between the unit and the rest of the house or be made of metal.
If you live in BS3 there is a £10 discount on the call out charge of £50.
I have a minimum charge (£40) for small jobs like this.
Time taken will usually include an inspection of the property plus one or two hours to write up the report.
Two bed house £120
Three bed house £130
Four bed house £150
Additional consumer unit (fuseboard) £100
An energy saving of up to 90% can be gained on your lighting costs
A 60 watt lightbulb on for an average of 4 hours per day, for a year will use about £12 of electricity, at 14p per unit.
A 6 watt LED equivalent bulb will use about £1.20 of electricity.
So if ten bulbs were replaced the energy saving would pay for the investment within 18 months. The average life of the LED lightbulb is more then ten years. They produce their full brightness instantly and dimmable versions are available for £12 per bulb.
I will include a full test certificate with all consumer unit changes.
If any faults are found during testing it could take extra time to diagnose problems and fix them, this will be charged at £28 p/h.
New consumer units tend to be bigger then old fuse boards so if a cupboard has been built around the board, it may have to be removed. Gas regulations require a 150mm gap between gas equipment (gas meter, gas pipes) and electrical supply equipment (meter, cut out, consumer unit)
Finding faults and repairing them can take 10 minutes or 10 hours, so I have an hourly charge for this type of work: £50 call out including first hour then £28 per hour. if you have sockets or lights tripping an MCB or RCD try unplugging appliances or switching off lights, then try to reset the MCB/RCD (you may need to switch it to the off position before resetting). Then plug in appliances or switch on lights untill the circuit trips. If this doesn't work there is a wiring fault and test equipment will be required to locate it.
If the customer supplies the shower and it is a like for like replacement, it should be straight forward. Please note if the shower is supplied by a 32A circuit breaker the rating of the shower cannot exceed 7.5kW. Electric showers need to be protected by a 30mA RCD.
Fitting an electric shower requires electrical and plumbing skills. So as long as the plumbing is done, I can do the rest.
Installing one additional socket will cost from £120, so having an two sockets installed at the same time can offer an big cost saving.
Expect to pay at the higher end of the range if you want wires 'chased' into walls (hidden). Bear in mind that this will take longer and may require plastering afterwards. Surface trunking is quicker and cheaper but won’t look as good.
Sockets will need to be protected by a 30mA RCD at the consumer unit. If there isn't RCD protection on the sockets a change of consumer unit may be required, this will cost from £350
Bathroom fans are requied under building regulations, but they can be very noisy, the leading brands of bathroon extract fans have developed a range of quiet fans. the're not cheap but they offer good efficiency and remove unwanted moist air.
It will take much longer to rewire an occupied house than an empty one.
Rewiring usually takes at least two people. If more staff are used, it may be done more quickly but costs (total man hours) are likely to be the same.