How much would you expect to pay for a new electrical consumer unit/circuit board

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We need some electrical work done and the electrician upon seeing the circuit board has recommended that we get the existing one replaced since its been added to over the years. Does anyone know roughly how much this should cost since the quote seems really high...

It's ages since we had ours done so sorry I can't remember from personal experience but the Which cost guide reckons £450-550 if that helps?

trustedtraders.which.co.uk/articles/cost-guide-electricians/

we have just had ours replaced and three new plugs put in and the cost was £495 for the work we are in Yorkshire though so dont know if prices are different, but get several qoutes as we had ones from what we paid to £925 for the same work

It is entirely dependant on what you want and the current condition of the wiring in your property. Changing a consumer unit is a major job. Price can be affected by many things such as if the electrician is carrying out an EICR(Electrical Installation Condition Report) beforehand, if the main bonding needs to be upgraded and the type of board that is being selected. Dual rcd boards will be cheaper but are more inconvenient in fault conditions, all RCBO boards are more expensive but dont suffer the same inconveniences as dual RCD in fault conditions. Are they offering Surge protection built in to the new board.
General rules would be:
Get more than one quote
Make sure the electrician is part of a competent person scheme, that can be checked here www.electricalcompetentperson.co.uk/
An EICR is always a good idea before changing a consumer unit to save finding problems that could cause tripping after fitting.
Ask what brand of unit they intend to fit if its
British General/Axiom/Chint tell them to fuck off
Make sure you are comparing like for like
Further guidance can be found here for consumer units c.yell.com/c8854d37-7838-45a9-a30e-2c5194fcba12_application_pdf.pdf
and here for EICRs
www.ccelectricians.co.uk/resources/EICR%20Consumer%20Leaflet.pdf

Thanks all that's helpful. The consumer unit is at capacity at the moment, We've been told they can add another unit to it which will cost £280 plus £60 for the test certificate plus vat or replace the whole thing which will cost £1750 plus vat . It just seems a lot but I appreciate its a big job. That breaks down to £900 materials £700 labour and £150 test certificate all plus vat.

I'd naively budgeted £900...

1750 plus vat just for the board change or for the whole job? If its say a kitchen rewire and the board its probably not a bad price if its just the board it would have to be huge to be reasonable.

A consumer board is circa £100. If a straight swop would prob be a couple of hours so I would say£300 reasonable. But depends on where you are and currently due to the demand on trades due to building work they can charge a lot more

If they replace the board they have to test every circuit before reconnecting to make sure it will disconnect in time. That can add to the cost when remedial work is needed, although arguably that remedial work is needed anyway.
Actually replacing the boards is not so hard if everything is testing ok and the cables are long enough and the space big enough.
Having several boards in itself is not a problem, there would have to be something wrong with them to make it necessary to be changing them. However it would of course be easier to do them all into one board at the same time.
Hope that helps. Ps R1R2 above is clearly an electrician so they are a good person to listen to.

Ours was £450 - just been done, 16 fuses.

(South East)

£1750 plus vat is just for the board change and the test certificate. The work we actually need doing is on top of that. It's quite a big 5 bed house in the midlands

Just counted and there are 22 fuses currently

They're taking the piss, IMO - £500 is more like it.

With all due respect LBO in this scenario £500 wont even cover materials, at 22 existing ways in use it wont be a standard consumer unit being fitted, most likely a double stacked board or even a three phase board with a single phase kit fitted, which all equals lots of £££. As to if its reasonable there are far too many variables, certainly worth getting quotes from at least two other companies before going ahead. Myself as a rough price with no other details other than number of ways id be in the £1500-£1700 range, thats using all hager rcbo for outgoing circuits and a full EICR before starting..
It is worth considering that with so many ways currently in use and more potentially being added that the main building supply may be inadequate to take any extra load, especially if its something like a EV charger being fitted.

Was quoted £250 in February.

Had mine done last month £1200

£250 would not be enough for a proper job.

I have a 20-way board with RCBOs and parts alone would come to about £800. If I was looking for another I'd go for a 24 or 36-way Distribution board, which is into Industrial territory but would have capacity for future caravan, outbuilding, hot tub, saunas, EV car charger or whatever else may become necessary.

You might be lucky and not have any pre-existing defects or non-compliant circuits but in an old house that's been added to it's unlikely.

We have just had ours replaced in a large 5 bed Victorian house, cost around £500. Our electrician is very safety conscious and does everything by the book. We did end up paying another couple of hundred as he has to test all the circuits and couldn’t locate a fault so had to take ever socket off etc. He said sometimes you find the fault on the first socket, sometimes the last. So that took him a few hours.

He has since fitted two other whole new fuse boards in our rental houses and that came in around £500 inc the testing and some other little bits.
If you’re in the north west I would highly recommend him.

I had my old kitchen completely gutted just over a month ago and replaced with a John Lewis kitchen. The fuse box was replaced and relocated by third party electricians for £450 (London).

£250-It was a proper written quote from a very good electrician who required my kitchen last year.

Rewired not required!

I think we paid £400 about 9 years ago for circuits to be tested and a new consumer unit. We asked for a quote for rewiring but we advised it was unnecessary at that time.