Need a new consumer unit for approx three ring mains and two lighting circuits (kitchen/extension and cooker already on a fairly new one, no immersion heater).
One-man-band professional electrician coming round to quote at the weekend. What should I reasonably be expecting?
To be shafted.
Got my 7 way replaced with a 14 way Hager CU with 8 RCBOs and SPD (a quality unit hence by no means the cheapest, parts cost £200-300), quotes were about £650-800. Due to scheduling constraints I went with the £800.
It's roughly a half a day job so work out your hourly rate. Parts costs upwards of £100 depending on what you want (RCDs, RCBOs, SPD, AFDDs*, etc etc).
Theo
It should be what you are asking.
IMHO get a price for all RCBO for a five circuit CU.
Are the two CU's getting combined or are you just swapping the older one?
Metal clad consumer unit, 5x RCBO , and probably an upfront, or, consumer unit integrated SPD, full test on completion, Install Certificate and Part P notification should be included. I would have SPD fitment if it was my house. £600 would be about right. £500 is possible if a cheaper type of no-name consumer unit is used, or standard circuit breakers with 2 x RCDs used. e.g. Fusebox' RCBOs are £12, Wylex are £32.
In message <t08au1$5pj$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 19:31:12 on Tue, 8 Mar 2022, ARW snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk> remarked:
?
I'm asking here what would one expect to pay for something like that, fitted.
Half a day sounds about right, which round here is cheaper than in a big city.
It's actually two older ones: one probably pre-war, the other maybe
50's.In message <FpOdncUHA7r-Mrr snipped-for-privacy@brightview.co.uk>, at
13:32:51 >Yes, paperwork needs to be in order.
The Kitchen/extension consumer unit I'm thinking of keeping is similar to:
with two NSB32's fitted in addition to the RCD.
But if it saves money (by making it easier to fit) there's room for a wider version of that, to replace all three.
Sounds about what we had in July last year for a house in Penzance. Supply and fit £300, and with all the necessary paperwork.
A one-man band too, who did a very neat job. The house was empty at the time so I posted him the keys which may have helped him with fitting it in.
Yes, £600-800 were the quotes when I had ours done a couple of years ago, for slightly larger house.
Not all one-man bands are crooks. Fewer than if you use a big firm, I'd say.
Bill
so only fuses in existing, no RCD/ELCB etc. If so be prepared for problems...
Dave
Do you know if the circuits are in good order (eg from EICR before purchase)?
Yup, the subtext here is expect to uncover a few additional bits that might need fixing...
Equipotential bonding might not be up to scratch. Circuits might not text successfully (ring continuity etc), requiring extra investigation. There might be shared neutrals between circuits (will cause RCD trip), or circuits might fail insulation resistance checks.
Apart from anything else, it's upgrading to a more modern configuration I'm trying to achieve.
Or do you think it's possible the existing wiring might have undetected 'leaks'?
In message <t08tbn$hcc$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 00:45:44 on Wed, 9 Mar 2022, John Rumm snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.null remarked:
We'll have to take that as it comes. However a Smart Meter was fitted in
2017 by previous owners, so maybe it was checked out then (I will look for paperwork at time of house purchase, later).
Is your electrician a young chap?
If so, expect sucking of teeth followed by "this installation is older than my greatgrandparents, it'll all need replacing" ...
Precisely. There's a lot to be said for letting sleeping dogs lie as far as existing circuits are concerned, and installing a new CU to current regs for any additional circuits.
In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, at 09:06:36 on Wed, 9 Mar
2022, Andy Burns snipped-for-privacy@andyburns.uk remarked:
Neither the installation for the new kitchen/extension, nor the smart meter, qualify for that.
Yes, the installation comprising the two old fuseboxes does, which is why I want them replacing, Dear Liza.
Part of me wants him to upgrade the tails (quite short) between the main fuse, the Smart Meter and the consumer unit backboard, with better than the 60A ones currently in place, so I can get the main fuse upgraded.
But on balance, I think it might just confuse the situation.
I get this a lot when talking to eg professionals in HR, IT, the law, that if you ask two, three, four or five questions at the same time, they only answer the easiest, and ignore the rest.
I'm about to send off a request to an IT department regarding three separate (but interlinked) tasks, and which would be *vastly* more efficient for them to do all three at the same time. But I have this sense of foreboding they'll just pick the easiest and ignore the other two.
So maybe they'll get a series of them, instead.
[Recursively, I asked the guy doing the electrics for the new extension to quote separately for doing this latest project, and despite several reminders - and not even needing to do a special site survey as he was already here - just ignored it. I suppose someone will now claim that's evidence it's "too difficult" work, rather than "I'm already fully booked till the end of the year"; which isn't true because I know for a fact these guys moonlight at weekends].Roland Perry wrote on 09/03/2022 :
Not relevant - they don't do any tests.
Well yes, but investigation takes time. Most electricians don't want "if then maybe" jobs they want predictable work so they can schedule the next. I think most will want to re-wire. If you have shared neutrals, for example between upstairs and downstairs lights how on earth can any one find that? It could be in any junction box. In my case it was linked smoke detectors that caused issues. Upstairs on on upstairs lights, downstairs one on downstairs lights. Linked by wire it was enough to trip the RCD/ELCB. Took me ages to find, and then get Sparks back to finish job.
Later when the kitchen was re-fitted we had issues with broken rings. Again a pig to find, you probably need to remove every socket.
No checks will have been done for Smart Meter. They just swap the meter. So you didn't get an EICR when you bought?
Dave
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