how long should it take to relocate a consumer unit - i'v been without main power for 5 weeks

[Buffiy]

Hi Just wondered if any of you out there have recently had a consumer unit relocated or are electricians / or are married to one? - my consumer unit has been moved 7 meters [from being located in a single storey extention to being moved instead to the main body of the house ( cupboard under the stairs)].

Sofar it has been 5 weeks and I still can not turn on a light or use any of the plug sockets. There are wires everywhere. Also the Electrician is charging me 2K for this in his quotation. Some advice on this would be great

How long has the electrician said it will take?

Have they been there working on it every day?

Have you already paid in full?

hi So the electrician has been very intermittent on the job and has been sofar at my house for 5, maybe 6 days of work but in that time has started other work rather than completing the move of the unit.

Do you know how a consumer unit involving shortening of the wires should normally take ?

I have so far only paid £600 that he said he needed for materials

If it is being moved 7m then is the incoming supply (meter, main fuse etc) being moved?
If so, is the delay being caused by the supply company completing their work?

£2000 seems a lot.

Why hasn't the electrician run the new cabling in preparation for the power to be switched over, rather than leaving you without power for so long?

Isn't it the electricity distributor that has to do it rather than the electrician, which is why it costs a lot and takes ages. Electrician just fits the consumer unit

There are a number of possibilities here. As previous posters have asked, is the meter also being moved?

To answer your question though, I would expect that the new fuse board is fitted, all wiring laid in ready for cutover, acne any channeling done in walls first. This child take a while but you wouldn't be without power.

Then maybe a day to switch everything over.

I wouldn't think more than a few days all in. I'd sack your current sparky and get another one.

You need to check who is doing what, especially regarding the main fuse and relocation of that and cost of that bit. We had our main fuse upgraded some years ago and it was the power people that did it rather than an electrician you just book yourself, that was very quick though as it was just the fuse and it was free as fuse was very low amount before and was just upgraded to whatever was recommended.

Hi all, - thank you for your replies

The electrician quoted ball park 2k to do the whole reposition job and this included purchase and fit a length of armoured cable between the meter and the newly positioned consumer unit, purchase a new fuse box (£30-50) and lengthen required cables.

But I have looked and the labour price for this is 500-1k max to reposition a unit , particularily if this moves the right direction for the wires which this one has. ( from extension to main body of the house)

the meter and the new fusebox now sit 7m apart

No complicated wiring was needed to join the 2 as the cable runs through boxing & holes in the walls created by the builders and lastly through the last wall to pass under the framework of the stairs to the under stairs cupboard where the new consumer unit sits.. The way I see it is the electrician just had to buy and run the big cable that connects the two through the pre-created channels & connect it each end.

To rewire the consumer unit its self , surely the wires in the house woukd only need shortening, not lengthening , to re-connect to the new consumer unit, and then new wires woukd be run to the kitchen and bathroom through the same holes as the armoured cable.

i would say the electrician has been here 5, max 6 days 9-4:30 each day in all of that time, and has probably spent less than 1 day so far on the consumer unit, just connecting the meter to the fusebox and creating an emergency plug in.

Any opinions you can give woukd be great x

Sounds like about 1 day of work to me. 2 tops.

ok thanks - that is really helpful. I am supposed to meet with him today ( at the house) and this knowlege will really help our conversation because he has asked for an interim payment of 1K and we are talking about that today. have already given him £ and to be fair he has bought the armoured cable, fuse box, fuses and some plug fittings for that. Is it reasonable to ask him the cost of the armoured cable to try and understand his pricing??

Do not pay him 1k today.
You are paying him for labour and he has not been doing anything.
Ask him the cost of materials needed.
Ask him the time frame needed to complete the work.
Agree to pay for the cable needed ( direct to the supplier) and the remaining balance on completion of work

I have looked into changing to another electrician, but the workmen advised against it as apparently only he can sign off the work already done. I have already cancelled some of the work we planned with a focus of just getting the house up and running again and the man electrics to the kitchen and bathroom to allow pendant lights to work and installation of electrical appliances. I feel that I have been unlucky but that this strategy might get me the required certificates without another electrician coming in and having to understand from the start what he has and has not done.

Hi needhelpwiththisplease, thanks for that !! Yes I will do that. i'm a girl that lives alone and the way he's behaving, its starting to feel that because he's the only one able to certificate the work already done, he's using that as leverage until I pay him what he's asking .

I think I just need to try and pay a fair price for what has happened and get him off the job as soon as possible.

I really appreciate all your inputs so far. Thank you everyon for your responses and support

Any qualified electrician can sign to say that your installation is safe, so feel free to sack him and get another one.

So I just looked up the price of 4 core steel wired armoured cable and it seems at most around £18-20 per meter, so to buy on the safe side 12 meters ( for a distance of just over 10 meters between the meter and the consumer unit in their new positions that makes £226 . So i need to ask him the cost of all the other materials he used and then work out labour charge I suppose, which for a consumer unit moved to the centre of the house from an extension shouldn't be more than a day's labour?

OK guys: So going with the idea that the consumer unit re-wiring should have been 1 days work : ( he charges £300 per day) + the cost of materials, I looked up SWA Armoured Cable 25mm² 6944 X 4 ( I think this is the one he used) and it’s around £18-20 per m non-trade which works out [for 12 meters] to be £225. He also bought another electricity box ( £80) and a meter tail switch fuse (£50- £80) as the meter tails needed to extend beyond the recomended 3 meters
Imagine the fuse box its self cost £50 and the fuses £100-150, by my counting including the parts and the work to be done ( one day if shortening the wires ) he’s only owed maximum £800-900 all in. Would you say this sounds fair?

If you agreed to his quote of £2k, you cannot turn around now and decide actually you could have gotten it done cheaper so he has to accept less? That's the point of getting several quotes... if you've already agreed this with him, I don't see how you can change your mind mid project.

Unless the £2k included other work that is no longer being done unrelated to this. Then obviously I'd go back and discuss the new cost with him and that would be fair as he's no longer doing the other work.

Just to add that I agree he also can't demand you pay as and when he fancies it. You should be able to pay the supplier directly for the parts needed and then labour on completion of the work. Don't pay sooner!!

H Cactus, I am trying to be fair about this situation.. His quote is as below

 Supply and install 14 way Metalclad consumer unit at location to be confirmed
 Extend all cabling to new location
 Replace meter tails with Steel wired armoured cable sub main to new location
 Issue Test certificate and relevant Building Control notices
£1968.50

So he has factored in the work to extend all the cabling to a new location. However the box has moved from the extention to the centre of the house.

I am not an electrician but on other threads it is written that moving a consumer unit more centrally to the house makes the job faster and easier by far as the wires are already there, they just need redirecting, shortening and connecting.
If anyone with experience gould expand on that it would be very helpful :)

I think the point here isn't whether the quote was fair or otherwise. It is more that you have been without power for so long, and there doesn't appear to be any urgency on the part of the electrician to get the job completed.

I would probably be sitting him down and saying something along the lines of "how much longer is this going to take as I was expecting the work to be completed in a matter of days. Since you have not been on site for the majority of the duration thus far, I think it would be entirely appropriate to set a deadline of x days time after which I will be deducting 10% from the bill for every day the work is not completed".

X could be something like 2 or 3 days.

For those who suggest that you should be able to pay the supplier directly - madness! It's a business, no different to buying your shopping in Tesco. He knows what's needed to do the job and buys it wholesale, and will
mark up by a reasonable margin. You wouldn't get to the checkout and ask to pay the farmer for your milk!

When I had the consumer unit replaced here three years ago (4 bed house), we had a team of four. They were here for two days, they did do some other work too, but they literally checked every single cable and connection in the entire house. I think it was around £2k in labour. I was very satisfied with the work and they did identify and sort out some issues.

@HappiestSleeping is completely right. It's unreasonable to leave you without power and an explanation. You accepted the price and unfortunately it is steep. It does depend on how large your house is, how many circuits. If he has been there 5/6 days then an interim payment for the whole of the job (assuming other works as well as the consumer unit) of £1k seems quite low actually. Labour alone for 5 days would be £1700-£1900 depending on area of the country.

I replaced a consumer unit 3 years ago which cost £1400 (I lived in the north west, 3 bed terrace so not a huge unit) so £2k doesn’t sound that exorbitant to me.