alsant
Member
- Location
- villa park il.
am i in the ball park with charging 1400.0 for service upgrade for two bed ranch
new license
- Thread starter alsant
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
What size service?
growler
Senior Member
- Location
- Atlanta,GA
Other than the service size what all are you going to have to do on this service up-grade. You really need to look at the job and see what all will be required.
A back to back meter and panel is the easiest when it's in an open garage. With something like this $1400 may cover it but what if the panel is 50 ft from the meter and you need a disconnect and feeder cable. It's not just the added cost of the feeder cable but the cost of installation. What about the grounds. How about the ground system? Having to run new GEC in a low crawl space is not easy and takes time. Driving ground rods takes time and cost. The easiest thing to figure is materials cost so know your expenses before the job starts.
Figure out what all you need to do and this will give a better idea of the price you need to charge.
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
It depends on the ballpark. Every job will have its little challenges and your cost of doing business must be factored in.We do a basic change out for 1500.00 and we have done enough of them that I know this figure makes a profit.I have gotten as high as 3000.00 for a more difficult install ,panel on one side of the house and meter on the other fishing the cable through the walls.
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Besides what others have said, also keep in mind why was they wanting the upgrade, if it was because they had over loaded circuits and was blowing fuses and tripping breakers, then you have to let them know that just upgrading a service will not fix these problems, I have done many upgrades from old 4 circuit fuse box, that had all 14 AWG in the house, and by code these wires had to go on 15 amp breakers, so some times the problem can be worse when you leave if they were using 30 amp fuses, if you cant up sell new circuits to areas such as the kitchen, baths, furnace, and splitting up any other heavily loaded circuits.
There are many non-electricians who think is all you got to do is supply more power and the tripping will go away.
There are many non-electricians who think is all you got to do is supply more power and the tripping will go away.
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
or just put a bigger breaker in
Sure a service upgrade request is usually a good time to look at the entire picture, ever since the big service guys took over the area, the lower prices for a basic 200 upgrade runs on average $4,000 and they get the lions share of the work, I think it is, because they do as you pointed out, school the customer on the upgrade process, and what in involved in upgrading for value, not just throwing in a load center, at some low price.
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
The majority of heavy ups are for new heat systems or they are converting from LP or natural gas to all electric.Always good for additional work.
90% of our service up grades are the result of services that turned into rust buckets, or poor cable riser installs, when I hear heavy up, I have to ask does the guy using it know what he is is doing? in over 40 plus years I heard that used on the net a few times, another day another thread.
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
WOW you had the net 40 years ago.
krisinjersey
Senior Member
- Location
- Hackettstown, New Jersey
All electric?
All electric?
Who's converting to all electric heat? It must be realtive to climate, because up here electric heat is only very limited. Our heating season is longer than our friends to the south, but the money here is better spent on replacing an inefficient gas or oil furnace or boiler with a new high efficency unit. Service upgrades are used more commonly for added circuit capacity, and in conjunction with the large addition market. We haven't done a 100A install on a new house in at least 5 years, and we don't even offer it as an upgrade anymore. Going market price here for a "standard" 200A upgrade is $2000 with the customer obtaining the permits. To get the work we run at around $1650 and pray for an upsell or change order. At $1400 you may be getting the work but are you selling yourself short? Call some local electrical contractors and ask for a price on a 200A upgrade and see how competitive you are.
All electric?
Who's converting to all electric heat? It must be realtive to climate, because up here electric heat is only very limited. Our heating season is longer than our friends to the south, but the money here is better spent on replacing an inefficient gas or oil furnace or boiler with a new high efficency unit. Service upgrades are used more commonly for added circuit capacity, and in conjunction with the large addition market. We haven't done a 100A install on a new house in at least 5 years, and we don't even offer it as an upgrade anymore. Going market price here for a "standard" 200A upgrade is $2000 with the customer obtaining the permits. To get the work we run at around $1650 and pray for an upsell or change order. At $1400 you may be getting the work but are you selling yourself short? Call some local electrical contractors and ask for a price on a 200A upgrade and see how competitive you are.
macmikeman
Senior Member
- Location
- Planet macmikeman
Good plan. I'd go with that....... not
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
We have very cheap electric and you dont have the uncertain price of fuel oil.when propane took a 2 dollar jump we saw alot of new electric furnace installs the utility even offered a rebate for heat pumps.
Actually I did work the net then, we had high speed at 8 bits and used watts lines for the network.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
You had someplace to walk!
hotwire1955
Senior Member
- Location
- nj
A good price is about $6,400.00 :roll::roll:
fridaymean
Member
- Location
- Illinois
Sounds way to cheep for this area. Knowing what is involved for only the panel, meter, riser, ground rod - It is still cheep. If you are trying to get EMT to fit back, or rework from the closest JB, divide circuits if necessary, add dedicated circuits if necessary, etc, etc, etc. And have it look professional, have it be safe, and be proud of your work, and walk away with a PROFIT, good luck at $1400.
krisinjersey
Senior Member
- Location
- Hackettstown, New Jersey
??
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And as for the price of the 200A upgrade, run it through your estimating software and cut the overhead number back to what a fledgling company has and see where you come out, because mine says $1264.00 with 12%profit.
Not that I'm going to charge that, but in a pinch I could:roll:
??
Since you quoted the entire statement, clarify what you wouldn't go with. And being as you live on an island in the ring of fire, I wouldn't imagine heating bills are cripling your budget. The average daily temp in Honolulu in January 73 degrees, in Newark NJ 31.3. I'd say we have a higher heating demand here. A couple years ago we compared two houses, same model same developement, one all electric baseboard with individual room control, and one with a 2 year old gas furnace rated at 97% efficient with a total system efficiency estimated at 80% by the heating contractor with 2 zones. We did the power work for both and got everyone on board to see what the result would be to end the argument up here.The difference? Electric house cost an additional $85 per month in heat on average from October 15th 2007 to March 15th 2008 over the gas house. Now the entire observation was unscientific and there was no true control to say it was a perfect example. But when neighbor A talks to neighbor B and the numbers are that far apart, electric heat isn't a good sell here. In a shorter heating season with a lower demand, maybe. But not here.
And as for the price of the 200A upgrade, run it through your estimating software and cut the overhead number back to what a fledgling company has and see where you come out, because mine says $1264.00 with 12%profit.
Not that I'm going to charge that, but in a pinch I could:roll:
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