Fusebox replacement

pawkldn

Hi we have had a electrical installation condition report done (2 bed maisonette) which highlighted some issues all of which can be sorted by replacing old fusebox (installed in the 80s) we have been quoted £500 for installing an 8 way fuse board incl parts. The works are expected to take half a day. The site is in London Borough of Sutton. Is that withing standard price range for this job?

fenwick458

does it actually say "8 way fuse board incl parts" on the quote?
is the company registered with a competent persons scheme (eg NICEIC or NAPIT among others) and are you going to a receive a certificate?

pawkldn

fenwick458 said:

does it actually say "8 way fuse board incl parts" on the quote?
is the company registered with a competent persons scheme (eg NICEIC or NAPIT among others) and are you going to a receive a certificate?

Hey yes yes and I'm assuming yes. Why does it seem cheap?

Mickey666

An 8-way populated consumer unit can be bought for under £100, so that leaves £400 for half a day's work.  £800 per day (£4,000 per week, nearly £200k/year) for an electrician sounds expensive to me.  

Does that £500 include VAT?

tacpot12

£500 + VAT would be ok for this in London. You are not just paying for half a days work, but also for the electrician to turn out for the next year if you have problems with it, for the time they spend getting the consumer unit, for the calibration of their equipment they need to issue a valid certification, for their membership of the component person's scheme that allows them to save you money over notifying the work to building control, etc. 

Mickey666

Sure, the electrician has overheads, which is fair enough, but does the average electrician really earn around £200k per year (excluding materials)?

fenwick458

well the quote is lacking specifics:
what type of consumer unit? if it's an 8 way dual RCD thats the bottom of the range. 10 way with 8 x RCBO's and a surge protector would be top of the range. or if indeed it's an 8 way fusebox then it won't meet the regulations and I'd steer clear.
you need to check if they are registered too you can't just assume.
consumer unit upgrades tend to be higher priced than other electrician jobs, so you can't assume that the electrician gets that money every day of the week, but it does seem like the going rate for London

Anamox

I had one done in a similarly expensive area to you for £350, 8 way dual RCD (bottom of the range as Fenwick says). This included building regs certificate and a full NICEIC installation certificate.

Risteard

Anamox said:

I had one done in a similarly expensive area to you for £350, 8 way dual RCD (bottom of the range as Fenwick says). This included building regs certificate and a full NICEIC installation certificate.

I'm in an economically deprived area and would charge more than that for that.