Electric Service upgrade

[G Henslee]

Mark,

Get another bid. You may be pleasantly surprised. Or not, but at least you'll have a better idea. If the 2 bids are quite distant, consider a third.

[Mikepier]

Sounds about right. I had my service changed with new panel and meter pan for $2000.

[Harry Payne-Diaz]

My recent upgrade cost less than half that price. You should always get 3 estimates, and even though I shouldn't have to say this: don't tell the contractors what the other contractors bid was. My neighbor did that. She didn't quite understand the concept.

[The Real Tom]

Not in ohio, but my advice will apply anywhere, get another estimate, if it's more than 10% difference, get more. Always check with the BBB for any complaints, and ask for references.

Now in in Pa, I heard one electrician installing a 200 amp circuit for less than a grand. But then your situation will depend on location, time, and number of circuits that need transfering.

imho,

tom

[mwlogs]

Greetings Group,

We are about to embark on a room addition. One 'hidden cost' item that we need to have done is update our electric service from 100 amp with one main and one sub-panel to a single 200 amp service. The contractor has quoted a price of around $2000 to handle this. Does this sound reasonable for the Central Ohio area?

Thanks!

Mark

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Probably. Depends on how much wire he has to change for the tap in the main line to the house also. It is more than just changing a service box and breaker.

[Beeper]

[Andy]

I live in Texas in an area where an owner can do his own upgrade. I recently upgraded a cabin I own from 60 amps to 200 amps.... I installed a new Main panel and hookup, and breakered off to the existing 60 amp panel, which became a sub-panel. Not too much work in doing that, and upgradeable at any time in the future.....

The panel from Home Depot is about $150 The pipe, big wire, meter box, ground, and head is about $70 Breakers run around $50 total. The rest, using the existing wiring for the cabin was mainly a lot of labor, putting stuff together, mounting it according to Elec Company requirements, etc..... So, I would think that under $1000 would be reasonable since a good electrician can do it in under a day...

However, if you are having him wire your new addition, pull a permit, have it inspected, in addition to the above work, he will have to make several trips out. I don't think $2000 is too high for that, but that's just an opinion......

So, like others have said, get several blind estimates.... Make sure that the work gets inspected. And make sure the electrician uses a panel like Square D so the breakers will be cheap and readily available....

It ain't rocket science, but it does take a bunch of labor and material...

Good Luck

Andy in Texas, (P.E.)

[HorneTD]

Beeper What are you saying about "bonded even better"? A bond is a very special type of insurance. It protects a particular beneficiary for a particular purpose. If you are suggesting that customers require a performance bond you should also tell them that the cost of a performance bond is always added to the cost of the job. Bonds are very rare on residential projects because of their cost. A certificate of insurance is all I have ever needed because most people won't pay to have a job bonded.

-- Tom H

[Sasha]

Three years ago, I had 100 A old main panel replaced with 150 A Siemens panel and service. Electrician didn't change any wires, only re-hooked up old circuits to new brakers. He spent overall 5 hours doing this. I paid $1200. I live in NYC metro area. Since then I myself re-wired almost entire house added more then a dozen new circuits installed basement workshop 50 A subpanel.