Consumer unit replacement

Spies

My consumer unit is as old as the house (1996) and it's been recommended that I get it replaced because it doesn't have an RCD.

I've been told it would take around 2 days to test all the existing circuits and install and test the new CU, the total cost would be £765.54 inc vat.

tacpot12

That seems very high - two days for a consumer unit change is way too long, unless the electrian knows that there are other problems that need resolving, in which case the quote should have listed what he was going to fix in addition to the consumer unit. 

The testing done prior to removing the old consumer unit should take about an hour, althouhgh this will depend on how many circuits you have. If you have more than 6 circuits it might take a bit more than an hour. I would say it should take about 10 minutes per circuit to do the test and record the  results. There are some other tests that need doing that might add another 20 minutes to so. 

The cost will also depend on what sort of consumer unit they are going to install, and what sort of protective devices they are going fit. If they are fitting RBCOs as the protective devices, then the cost is much more reasonable. RCBO are a combined RCD and Circuit Breaker, and provide you with greater protection from nusance tripping. (Our new cooker tripped our RCD the other day, and all the lights in the house went off because they are on the same RCD - this wouldn't happen if you had individual RCBOs protecting each circuit). A larger consumer unitl will cost more. 

Even a large RCBO consumber unit shouldn't take two days, unless it is complicated.  There will be further testing needed after the consumer unit is replaced, but again, a couple of hours is the most it should take. Fitting the consumer unit and wiring it up shoudl take about two to three hours depending on how straightforward it is - if the conumer unit needs to be moved, then the price is much more reasonable.

The electrician may have priced in an amount to cover issues that they find, or they might be expecting you to pay for every frther problem they find. Their quote should make this clear to you.    

Spies

It is 7 RCBO's that are being fitted in a FuseBox, he's also adding a anti surge which protects the whole home.

Current CU is sunk into the wall, so it will need to be made good and moved slightly as the new one will be surface mounted.

donemedosh

I had a new consumer unit fitted just over 2 years ago & the electrician also added new wiring from an extension took him about 6hours & we had a electrical safety done which took 4 hours so the electrican is charging for 2 days but will take a day & half. A elec safety test cost us about £150 & the new consumer cost us £350 but with the way trades prices are always going up due to high demand £760 is a bit high but I think trying to get another electrican may be more hassle than it's worth

tacpot12

Given the number of RCBOs, plus the surge protectio, and the need to sink the CU into the wall and make good, the price is beginning to come into a range that I would regard as reasonable.

Risteard

tacpot12 said:

Given the number of RCBOs, plus the surge protectio, and the need to sink the CU into the wall and make good, the price is beginning to come into a range that I would regard as reasonable.

Perhaps you shouldn't have jumped to conclusions earlier, then.

Incidentally, inspecting and testing the entire installation in an hour as you have claimed is rather unrealistic.