Electrician Pricing Guide: How to Charge for Electrical Work in the UK (2026)

Day Rate vs Fixed Price: The Decision That Shapes Your Business

Most electricians start out charging a day rate or hourly rate because it feels lower-risk. If a job takes longer than expected, you get paid for the extra time. But day rates have a ceiling: there are only so many hours in a day, and customers instinctively look to cap the time you spend on site. Day rate billing also creates friction — customers watch the clock, question whether you're moving fast enough, and sometimes feel surprised by the final invoice even when the rate was agreed up front.

Fixed-price quoting removes all of that. The customer knows exactly what they're paying before you start. You earn more on jobs you complete efficiently, and you're motivated to price accurately and work effectively. The key is building enough contingency into your fixed prices to absorb the occasional job that runs long — typically 10–15% on straightforward domestic work, more on older properties where hidden surprises are likely.

The practical rule: use day rates for large, undefined commercial projects or investigative work where scope is genuinely unknown. Use fixed prices for all standard domestic jobs — consumer unit replacements, EICRs, socket additions, rewires — where you can assess scope accurately at survey.

Setting Your Hourly Rate

Even if you quote fixed prices, you need a robust hourly rate as the foundation. Here's how to calculate yours:

• Annual overhead costs: van (finance/depreciation, insurance, fuel), tools, NICEIC/NAPIT fees, public liability insurance, phone, software — typically £12,000–£18,000/yr for a sole trader
• Your target take-home salary: what you want to pay yourself, say £45,000–£60,000
• Billable days: typically 200–220 days/yr after holidays, training, admin and non-billable time
• Your day rate floor: (overheads + salary) / billable days
• Add profit margin (20–30%) to your floor rate — this funds reinvestment and risk

A well-structured sole trader electrician with £14,000 in overheads, a £50,000 salary target and 210 billable days needs to generate £304/day just to break even and pay themselves. Add a 25% profit margin and the target day rate is £380/day, or around £47.50/hr on an 8-hour day. Electricians in London and the South East typically charge £55–£85/hr. In the North and Midlands, £45–£65/hr is more typical.

Consumer Unit Replacement Pricing

Consumer unit (fuse board) replacement is one of the most common electrical jobs and one of the easiest to price consistently. A standard domestic CU replacement in 2026 typically falls between:

• Standard 1-day replacement (up to 12 ways, modern property, straightforward circuits): £400–£600 inc. materials
• Larger or more complex installation (older property, rewire of some circuits needed, 2-day job): £700–£1,200
• Materials cost for a dual RCD or RCBO board: £100–£200 depending on spec
• Certification (EIC) included in the price — always

Don't undersell CU replacements. The certification, test and Part P notification through your scheme (NICEIC or NAPIT) has a real cost and real value to the customer — it's a legal building notice equivalent. Always include it in the price, never discount it away.

EICR Pricing by Property Size

Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICRs) are mandated for all private rental properties in England and Wales and are a significant revenue stream for electricians. Pricing scales with property size:

• Studio or 1-bed flat: £100–£150
• 2-bed house or flat: £140–£200
• 3-bed house: £175–£250
• 4-bed or larger: £200–£300+
• HMO (per-room pricing or day rate): £300–£600 depending on size and number of circuits

EICRs are a volume play — efficient electricians can complete two or three per day in the same geographic area, particularly when working with landlords or letting agents who have multiple properties. Building a batch of EICR appointments on the same day cuts travel time and makes each one more profitable.

Socket, Lighting and Circuit Additions

Small jobs — adding a socket, replacing a light fitting, running a new circuit — are where many electricians lose money by underpricing. A useful pricing framework:

• Adding a double socket (surface mounted, same room as CU): £80–£120 inc. materials
• Adding a double socket (chased into wall, cable run to CU): £150–£220
• New lighting circuit with 4–6 downlights: £300–£500
• Replacing a consumer unit fuse with an RCBO: £80–£150 per way
• Minimum call-out charge (2-hr minimum): £100–£150

Always charge a minimum — a “quick job” that takes 45 minutes still costs you travel time, van running costs and your expertise. A minimum of 2 hours or £120 (whichever is greater) is a reasonable floor for small domestic work.

Full Rewire Pricing Per Room

Full domestic rewires are priced either per room or per property. A per-room approach gives customers a more transparent breakdown and makes it easier to quote accurately:

• Bedroom (sockets, lighting, no specialist circuits): £300–£500
• Kitchen (cooker circuit, sockets, lighting, extractor): £500–£900
• Bathroom (lighting, shaver socket, fan circuit): £300–£500
• Living room (sockets, lighting): £300–£450
• Consumer unit replacement as part of rewire: included or added at cost
• Typical 3-bed semi, full rewire: £3,500–£6,000

Add a contingency for older properties — pre-1960s wiring, knob and tube, aluminium wiring or properties with a history of DIY work all carry hidden complexity. A 15–20% contingency built into the quote is reasonable; communicate it to the customer as part of your survey findings rather than hiding it.

EV Charger Installation Pricing

EV charger installation has become a significant revenue line for domestic electricians. A standard home charger installation in 2026:

• 7kW smart home charger (supply and fit, including dedicated circuit): £800–£1,200
• 3-phase 22kW charger (where 3-phase supply available): £1,500–£2,500
• Cable management and trunking (from consumer unit to garage or driveway): included in above or quoted separately
• OZEV grant reduces customer cost — ensure you're OZEV Approved Installer Scheme registered to claim this

First-Fix vs Second-Fix New Build Rates

New build electrical work for house builders and developers is priced per plot and split between first fix (cable installation before plastering) and second fix (fitting accessories, commissioning after plastering):

• First fix, 3-bed house: £600–£1,000 depending on spec and house builder standard
• Second fix, 3-bed house: £400–£700
• Full package (first and second fix, 3-bed): £1,000–£1,800 per plot
• Volume pricing for 10+ plots: expect to discount 10–20% in exchange for volume

New build work is competitive but provides steady volume and predictable scheduling. The margins are lower than domestic, but the efficiency of working on the same floor plan repeatedly and being on site every day makes it attractive for growing contractors.

Materials Markup Strategy

Materials markup is a legitimate and important part of electrical pricing. You carry the cost, the risk and the logistics of sourcing materials — that earns a markup. Industry norms for electrical contractors:

• Standard domestic materials (cables, accessories, consumer units): 20–35% markup on trade cost
• Large items (EV chargers, smart panels, CCTV equipment): 15–25% on trade cost
• Materials bought from merchants like Rexel, CEF or TLC: ensure your trade account is optimised
• Never supply materials at cost — your sourcing, transport and warranty handling has real value

Quoting Commercial Electrical Work

Commercial electrical work — offices, retail, industrial, hospitality — is almost always quoted on a fixed-price basis, often following a formal tender process. Key differences from domestic quoting:

• Design and specification: commercial clients often have a specification you must quote against, which simplifies material estimation
• Programme: commercial projects run to a programme — your price should account for working to specific milestones, not just completion
• Preliminaries: site attendance, coordination meetings, health and safety plans — often significant on larger projects
• Retention: 3–5% retention held until defects period end is standard — price to absorb this cash flow impact
• Variations: have a clear process and day rate for any works beyond the quoted scope

Trade2Base AI Quote Drafting and Digital Sign-Off

The fastest-growing area of electrical pricing admin is quote production. For a busy electrician doing 3–4 surveys a week, writing up those quotes — itemising labour, materials, VAT, certification — can consume 4–6 hours per week. That's billable time being spent on admin.

Trade2Base's AI quote drafting takes your survey notes and generates a structured, itemised quote in minutes. Pricing templates for your most common jobs — consumer unit replacements, EICRs, EV chargers — mean you're not starting from scratch each time. The quote is sent to the customer digitally, they sign off on it through the Trade2Base customer portal, and it converts to a job and then an invoice automatically — no re-keying.

For commercial work, Trade2Base generates professional PDF proposals with your branding, itemised schedules of works and VAT breakdown — the kind of document commercial clients expect, produced in a fraction of the time it takes to build in Word or Excel.