How to price electrical work — a UK electrician's pricing guide (2026)
Undercharging is the single biggest financial mistake electricians make — and most do not even realise they are doing it. When you price a consumer unit replacement at £500 because that is what you saw quoted online, without accounting for your actual costs, your margins disappear. This guide covers how to set a minimum day rate, how to price common electrical job types correctly, and how to get to £500 per day take-home without turning down work.
Why electricians undercharge — and the cost of it
Most electricians price based on what competitors charge or what “seems reasonable” — not on what they actually need to earn. The problem with this approach is that competitor prices are often wrong too, and what seems reasonable to a customer has nothing to do with your real cost of delivering the work.
Consider the invisible costs most electricians forget to price in: test equipment depreciation, Part P notification fees, certificate printing and storage, continuing competency training, public liability and tool insurance, vehicle running costs, time quoting jobs you do not win, and the days you work but do not bill (admin, travel, callbacks). When you add all of these up, your effective working cost per hour is usually £15–£25 higher than you think.
The consequence of undercharging is not just lower income — it is that you cannot afford to invest in the business. You cannot buy better test equipment, take on an apprentice, or market your way to better customers. Electricians who price correctly consistently grow faster than those who compete on price.
Setting your minimum day rate — the formula
Your minimum day rate is the rate below which you are actively losing money. Here is how to calculate it:
- Annual personal drawings target: what you want to take home after tax (e.g. £45,000)
- Annual business costs: insurance, van, tools, certifications, software, marketing (e.g. £18,000)
- Tax and NI provision: roughly 25–30% of profit for a sole trader
- Billable days per year: not 365 — realistically 180–200 days after holidays, admin, quoting, and non-billable time
If you want £45,000 take-home, need £18,000 for costs, and provision 28% for tax on £63,000 profit, your total revenue need is approximately £87,500. Divide by 190 billable days and your minimum day rate is £460. Anything below that and you are subsidising your customers out of your own income.
That is your floor — not your target. Your target day rate should be 20–30% above your minimum to allow for investment in the business and a buffer against slow months.
Pricing by job type
Below are typical UK market rates for common electrical jobs in 2026. These are the prices charged to end customers including labour and a standard materials markup — not your trade cost.
| Job type | Typical range | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer unit replacement (10-way) | £600–£900 | 5–7 hrs |
| EICR (3-bed house) | £220–£280 | 2–3 hrs |
| EV charger installation (7kW) | £750–£1,200 | 3–5 hrs |
| First fix, new build (per plot) | £900–£1,400 | 1–1.5 days |
| Second fix, new build (per plot) | £600–£900 | 4–6 hrs |
| Additional socket or spur | £80–£150 | 0.5–1 hr |
| Full rewire (3-bed semi) | £3,500–£5,000 | 3–5 days |
Prices vary by region. London and South East rates typically run 20–30% higher than the national figures above.
The parts markup you should be charging
Many electricians charge trade price for materials and make nothing on them. This is a mistake. You are running a logistics operation as well as an electrical business — sourcing parts, driving to the merchant, carrying stock in your van, and managing returns when jobs change. That overhead has a cost.
A standard materials markup for domestic electrical work is 25–40%. On a consumer unit job with £180 of materials, a 40% markup adds £72 to your revenue and covers the time and overhead of sourcing. For specialist items like EV chargers (where you may have manufacturer relationships), markups of 20–30% on a £400+ unit are entirely reasonable.
The key is consistency. Set a standard markup percentage and apply it to every job. Do not negotiate it away unless the customer is supplying their own materials — in which case, make clear that you do not warranty customer-supplied parts and charge a separate survey or sourcing fee for your time advising on specifications.
Consumer unit replacement: full pricing breakdown
18th edition dual RCD 10-way unit, domestic, 1 electrician
Getting to £500/day take-home
£500 per day net take-home is achievable for a self-employed electrician doing domestic and commercial work — but it requires deliberate job selection, correct pricing, and a materials markup policy. Here is what the maths looks like:
- Revenue per day: £700–£800 (labour + materials markup)
- Less materials cost: £100–£180
- Less daily overhead allocation: £80–£100
- Less tax provision (28%): £130–£150
- Take-home per day: £380–£520
To consistently hit the top of that range, you need to be selective about which jobs you take. Small one-off jobs (a single socket, a bathroom light) are poor value — the travel and quoting time absorbs too much of the day. Focus on jobs that take 4–8 hours where materials markup is significant, or multi-day jobs where you are on site consistently.
Quoting commercial electrical work
Commercial electrical work — offices, retail units, industrial units, schools, care homes — is priced differently to domestic. The quantities are larger, the cable runs longer, the testing more complex, and the documentation requirements more formal. But the margins can be significantly better if you price correctly.
For commercial work, always price from a full schedule of works rather than estimating by day rate alone. Walk the site, produce a materials take-off, estimate labour hours per circuit or run, and add a separate allowance for testing, documentation, and any specialist requirements (three-phase, data cabling, emergency lighting). Commercial clients expect a detailed breakdown and will scrutinise it — vague quotes lose commercial jobs.
Day rates for commercial electrical subcontracting currently run £250–£350 in most regions, higher in London. If you are quoting as a contractor rather than a subcontractor, add your management overhead, profit margin, and the cost of carrying the job (materials purchased before payment terms kick in) to arrive at a true commercial quote.
Trade2Base for electrical quoting
Trade2Base lets you build quote templates for your most common electrical jobs — consumer units, EICRs, EV chargers, rewires — with labour hours, materials, and markups already populated. When a new enquiry comes in, you select the template, adjust quantities, and send a professional PDF quote in minutes rather than building it from scratch each time.
Materials markup is configured at the business level and applied automatically, so you never accidentally forget it. For jobs where you are VAT-registered and dealing with other businesses, VAT is handled correctly on the quote and the resulting invoice, including the domestic reverse charge for CIS construction work.
The Part P and NICEIC/NAPIT registration number you enter into Trade2Base appears automatically on every quote and certificate — a professional presentation that builds customer confidence and reduces the “are you qualified to do this?” question before you have even arrived on site.