Electrician cost, is this normal now?

[spiker611]

I got a quote from an electrician (southern Wisconsin) to install a 200a disconnect and 200a breaker (for a future SPD) and connect it to a new GridBOSS.

The equipment (disconnect, breaker) came out to about $1000 but the quote is $4700 total, about $3700 in labor, wire, and PVC conduit. This seems exceptionally high, but I've never hired an electrician for such a job.. is this normal these days?

If I'm generous and say there's $400 in wire/pvc then the only way this makes sense is 2 people at $165/hr for 10 hours. But why the heck would it take 10 hours?

I'm not planning to do this myself because it requires:
- Utility comes out pulls the meter
- Electrical work is done
- Town inspector comes and does inspection
- Utility comes back to reinstall meter

I need this all done in one day otherwise I'll be out of power until inspection passes and utility can reinstall the meter. I'm not confident enough in my own skills to do this quickly enough.

 

[Backyard]

Did they not break down the labor hours and other costs? They normally will if you ask.

I don't know what your rates are where you're at but $165 an hour doesn't seem too far off what I'd expect.

Don't forget the tool, truck and consumables they might be tacking onto their labor

 

[SparkyJJO]

You have to have the utility come out to pull the meter? That sucks. I've pulled my own on a few occasions. They just inspected it at next reading to be sure I didn't bypass anything and moved on.
Of course now that they aren't sending a meter reader out anymore I wonder if that has changed...

 

[robby]

About $150 an hour is on the high end for a typical electrician but when they are working before the Panel box they typically charge more. Unless this is some kind of really unusual job it would not take two electricians 10 hours.
to Install a Transfer switch, it might take 5 hours.
I highly suggest you get a break down quote with the Hourly rate included and also get a second quote on the Job.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

to Install a Transfer switch, it might take 5 hours.

5 man hours. Maybe.

$3700 sounds like what I call a “I don’t want to take the job” price.

I’m not a licensed electrician. I installed a new entrance panel last summer for a homeowner. She bought what I told her to which was about $450 including the panel and breakers, and I charged $500 for the day. $70-ish/hr.
(Just a note: I had to pull all the circuits, add some jboxes and extend a couple of circuits, fish some wires so they were in the wall instead of on the surface, populate the breakers, etc. Took about 7 hrs total. A licensed electrician would not have used less time, but would not have used more. The license doesn’t make them slower or faster than equivalently competent work.)

 

[timselectric]

A second quote will answer all questions.

 

[TM48]

That's one sloooow electrician.

 

[glandpuck]

Ask the electrician to provide the quote for all of the materials used in the project. Then you make certain from the supplier that this is the best wholesale price and you directly pay for and take possession of the materials. Then make certain the electrician provides a complete price for the job that also passes inspection. Pay 25% up front to electrician when they arrive to work, 25% when job completed and final 50% when inspection passed. Do not hire on an hourly rate unless totally unavoidable. If you have to, then do as much of the work as you feel able and comfortable to do yourself. Lastly, for a master electrician, the $165 rate is reasonable. For a lesser skilled electrician, maybe less. Depends on supply and demand.

 

[Mike 134]

A second quote will answer all questions.

X2 And be sure you are very exact what work you need done. No words like, well, maybe, I'm thinking, that will cost you because I'd add a fudge factor into my price to cover the "maybes".

 

[going_commando]

Ask the electrician to provide the quote for all of the materials used in the project. Then you make certain from the supplier that this is the best wholesale price and you directly pay for and take possession of the materials. Then make certain the electrician provides a complete price for the job that also passes inspection. Pay 25% up front to electrician when they arrive to work, 25% when job completed and final 50% when inspection passed. Do not hire on an hourly rate unless totally unavoidable. If you have to, then do as much of the work as you feel able and comfortable to do yourself. Lastly, for a master electrician, the $165 rate is reasonable. For a lesser skilled electrician, maybe less. Depends on supply and demand.

That's a good strategy to make sure you'll never get anyone to show up.

 

[going_commando]

I got a quote from an electrician (southern Wisconsin) to install a 200a disconnect and 200a breaker (for a future SPD) and connect it to a new GridBOSS.

The equipment (disconnect, breaker) came out to about $1000 but the quote is $4700 total, about $3700 in labor, wire, and PVC conduit. This seems exceptionally high, but I've never hired an electrician for such a job.. is this normal these days?

If I'm generous and say there's $400 in wire/pvc then the only way this makes sense is 2 people at $165/hr for 10 hours. But why the heck would it take 10 hours?

I'm not planning to do this myself because it requires:
- Utility comes out pulls the meter
- Electrical work is done
- Town inspector comes and does inspection
- Utility comes back to reinstall meter

I need this all done in one day otherwise I'll be out of power until inspection passes and utility can reinstall the meter. I'm not confident enough in my own skills to do this quickly enough.

Seems a bit high to me, but is the electrician pulling the permit and paying for the power company disconnect/reconnect or are you? I will charge a bit more for customer provided equipment, and if he's never heard of EG4 or knows what the Gridboss really is I can't blame the guy for some CYA factor.

 

[HarryN]

Let's look at it a slightly different way.

~ 1 000 for your equipment that you can define
~ 1 000 for all of the stuff that needs to be added, including a possible trip to the local electrical warehouse
~ 500 to read the manual for the equipment that he has no experience with
~ 1 000 to deal with the cost of having to be certified and licensed, business taxes and fees, insurance, equipment / tools, and pay business license, insurance and fees
~ 1 000 of actual labor to do the job

That is the reality that a small business faces in America today.

 

[TM48]

This is why I do everything myself.

 

[timselectric]

I could easily do it for half that. But don't ask, because I ain't doing it.
It really comes down to what the local market can bare.
Get a second quote, and that will tell you if it's a fair price for your location.

 

[Solar Guppy]

Trades don't have to explain to anyone what their costs or profit are. If you don't like the price, don't use them.

Just an FYI, one of the largest cost of doing business is insurance, then labor and it only keeps getting more expensive and small jobs are hard to justify from a business prospective a partial work day, as it may prevent anything else getting billable hours.

This isn't google shopping, its all local to the trades in your area, the smaller population area's the less choices

 

[zanydroid]

I need this all done in one day otherwise I'll be out of power until inspection passes and utility can reinstall the meter. I'm not confident enough in my own skills to do this quickly enough.

This is exactly my thought on anything before the main disconnect. FWIW that quote is in line with my HCOL (SF Bay Area)

You can keep looking , or you can reduce scope. What do you have there right now? If you have a 200A main panel you can DIY hack it into a disconnect in a code compliant way, no need for POCO. Then put the gridboss after it. Spam photos of it and we can help.

If you only have a 100A main panel, you need to hire an electrician or take the risk of no power/manage the risk some other way… your only solution then is to get better at shopping/quoting it out

 

[timselectric]

I don't know of any reason to upgrade to a 200a service, if 100a is all that you need.

 

[Heatpumpman]

I'd ask the head of the building department for recommendations of electricians who do good work and are reasonable. Hell, get 2 or 3 quotes, they're free to you, outside of the time involved. Homeowner's in FL can pull an electrical permit for upgrades, but the lack of the 'work with' the power co. slows most of that down.

 

[spiker611]

I don't know of any reason to upgrade to a 200a service, if 100a is all that you need.

I'm not upgrading the service.

 

[zanydroid]

I'm not upgrading the service.

Then why did you scope up to modifying the main panel instead of DIY refactoring it into a disconnect with stuff like plug-on lugs?

(probably didn't know about them, let me link one)

EDIT: looks like this for Siemens, buy one for your brand.

You use subfeed lug instead of a breaker to reduce moving parts I guess. Dunno if they're cheaper

Siemens Siemens ECLK2125 Sub-Feed Lug Kit, 125 A, 2-Pole ECLK2125 | Zoro

Order Siemens Siemens ECLK2125 Sub-Feed Lug Kit, 125 A, 2-Pole, ECLK2125 at Zoro.com. Great prices & free shipping on orders over $50 when you sign in or sign up for an account.

www.zoro.com

 

[29597342]

A few years ago, I found an electrician that charged by the hour - $100/hr if I recall. The point, maybe you can find someone that will do 'by the hour' + parts and this could help you get some measure of understanding/control of the situation instead of just a black-box crazy 'quote'.

In any case, with this kind of quote, I'd get more than 1

 

[Dagoth Ur Does Solar]

I want to say in my area, $150 an hour was roughly what the electricians bill out, maybe that was the high side from the ones I talked to when I was looking at getting some work done.

I will share that when I recently had a breaker interlock and 50A generator inlet installed by a local company, the total came out to about $940, that was labor for two electricians and the cost of the interlock kit, inlet, the 50A breaker, and the wire they pulled. I think they took a little under two hours. Didn't have to pull my meter or anything for this.

I didn't ask for a breakdown from parts and labor because I was happy with the price. It was a job I could have done myself if I had some time, but at under $1k I was ready to just get it installed and done. Based on the cost of the particular interlock kit for my box, the UL listed 50A inlet and all that, I'm sure they were in easily like $300 or so on the parts just based on what I priced out myself. So I don't think they were over $150/hr.

Point being I don't know if I'd be splitting hairs over the per hour price, but more curious about the 10 hour estimate. Get a second quote from someone else just to see.

 

[PVGeezer]

DIY it. I did something similar (new 200A service panel and 200A disco, two EG4 18kpvs). Power was back on same afternoon, I was ready and waiting with 4 hours to spare.

Install everything you can before you call for the utility and inspector. Boxes hung and conduit in place. There really isn't that much you have to have the power cut to do. Have all the wire cut and ready. Get the utility there early.

Use the $3K plus you save to buy a nice genny. That way you won't be worried if you end up going into a second day. And you'll have the generator for future outages....

 

[spiker611]

Then why did you scope up to modifying the main panel instead of DIY refactoring it into a disconnect with stuff like plug-on lugs?

(probably didn't know about them, let me link one)

EDIT: looks like this for Siemens, buy one for your brand.

You use subfeed lug instead of a breaker to reduce moving parts I guess. Dunno if they're cheaper

Siemens Siemens ECLK2125 Sub-Feed Lug Kit, 125 A, 2-Pole ECLK2125 | Zoro

Order Siemens Siemens ECLK2125 Sub-Feed Lug Kit, 125 A, 2-Pole, ECLK2125 at Zoro.com. Great prices & free shipping on orders over $50 when you sign in or sign up for an account.

www.zoro.com

Not sure what you're talking about. Did you see that I'm using the gridboss?

DIY it. I did something similar (new 200A service panel and 200A disco, two EG4 18kpvs). Power was back on same afternoon, I was ready and waiting with 4 hours to spare.

Install everything you can before you call for the utility and inspector. Boxes hung and conduit in place. There really isn't that much you have to have the power cut to do. Have all the wire cut and ready. Get the utility there early.

Use the $3K plus you save to buy a nice genny. That way you won't be worried if you end up going into a second day. And you'll have the generator for future outages....

I would get a generator but I have batteries so it won't provide much benefit.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

why I do everything myself

A curse on me, too. I think I discovered I was cursed about 50 years ago, when I was ten or eleven LOL

the smaller population area's the less choices

AND often, the less costly.
Living rural, guys only get a call a few times a week; more populated areas it can be many times a day.