Are electricians ripping us off?

[siteguru]

My Wallbox Pulsar Plus cost me -£160 ... yes, you read that right.

+£940 for the Wallbox, fitted
-£500 contribution from Volvo (I was originally to be getting a free charge point with my Volvo V60 PHEV [company car] order, but Volvo offered £500 instead. Volvo subsequently cancelled the car order).
-£350 Government grant
-£250 Energy Saving Trust Scotland grant

Total = £940 - £1100 = -£160

 

[Radders]

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh but had several quotes to supply and install the Zappi charger. All around £1200 to £1500. Watched the guy install - took about 3 hours (including him talking to his base). The charger itself, I believe is around £700 so these guys are on at least £100 per hour allowing for VAT. Seems like a good gig if you’re booked in for several of these in the week. Maybe I’m just out of touch with what electricians charge these days.

Installed my own two years ago, ohme ( original), new consumer unit in the garage cables, earth rod (stipulated by Ohme) £325 no issues whatsoever. Probably best option is to get a quote from 'non specialist' electrician. The install is straight forward electrical work in most cases.

 

[Rolfe]

I believe I'm eligible for a £300 grant towards one, but to get that I'd have to use one of their approved installers.

 

[Chris Rob]

Hi
I installed my ohme unit cost £550,consumer unit £40.
Then i got a local electrician to wire up for me £150.
I was quoted between£1000/£1400 rip off
chris

 

[Radders]

Hi
I installed my ohme unit cost £550,consumer unit £40.
Then i got a local electrician to wire up for me £150.
I was quoted between£1000/£1400 rip off
chris

Good for you Chris, I would say 99 times out of 100, the install is straight forward. £150 for 2/3 hrs work is more like it

 

[Jonoffun]

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh but had several quotes to supply and install the Zappi charger. All around £1200 to £1500. Watched the guy install - took about 3 hours (including him talking to his base). The charger itself, I believe is around £700 so these guys are on at least £100 per hour allowing for VAT. Seems like a good gig if you’re booked in for several of these in the week. Maybe I’m just out of touch with what electricians charge these days.

I did the calculations and decided that I can charge the car on the granny charger and be prepared for long journeys. You then use public chargers when you are more than 150mile from home anyway. So having a home charger costing £700 alone is not worth it. If I really need a charge I can use a public charger 30-40miles away. I totally agree with you - I got quotes that simply make no sense. I do not need to charge the car at 7kwh. It is still cheaper to leave the car on charge 24hrs than try to charge only at the cheap rate for the odd occassions I would need to.

 

[tsedge]

I did the calculations and decided that I can charge the car on the granny charger and be prepared for long journeys. You then use public chargers when you are more than 150mile from home anyway. So having a home charger costing £700 alone is not worth it. If I really need a charge I can use a public charger 30-40miles away. I totally agree with you - I got quotes that simply make no sense. I do not need to charge the car at 7kwh. It is still cheaper to leave the car on charge 24hrs than try to charge only at the cheap rate for the odd occassions I would need to.

It does depend if you can get a cheap rate period and your mileage / usage.

We get 220 miles average (over the seasons) on a 'tank', which is 61kWh, and we do 10,000 miles a year of which 7,500 miles is charged at home, or 34 'tanks'. In a year, we therefore charge 34x61 = roughly 2,080kWh at home.

On Octopus Go, the costs are (currently):
at the 30p/kWh day rate = £624
at the 9.5p/kWh cheap rate = £198

So we save £426 a year on the cheap rate. Given that our charger installation costs were about £800, it pays back within 2 years.

The other benefit is that we can quickly charge up the car when we have two days back-to-back with longer journeys.

 

[NiroMG]

I wasn't prepared to pay those prices. I had 3 phase 16A commando socket installed for £120 parts £110 labour and £280 for an 11kw portable charger.

And my electrician turned the extra 10 meters of cable into an extension lead

 

[Roger]

Our Zappi install cost £2.1k minus £0.5k OLEV grant, but it also included Eddie, Hub and Harvi. The electrician knew everything there is to know about Myenergi products, and installation worked perfectly from day one! This was in February 2020.
We are now looking for a 10kWh Libbi to be installed by a different, but approved company. We’ve been quoted a somewhat high price of £12.9k including VAT.
What range of prices are other forum contributors paying for similar installations?

 

[ALANB]

I've just had an OHME home pro installed for £985 and that included fitting me 2 external water proof 13A sockets for my gardening stuff in summer and lights at Xmas, which I thought was not a bad deal.

 

[johnd973]

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh but had several quotes to supply and install the Zappi charger. All around £1200 to £1500. Watched the guy install - took about 3 hours (including him talking to his base). The charger itself, I believe is around £700 so these guys are on at least £100 per hour allowing for VAT. Seems like a good gig if you’re booked in for several of these in the week. Maybe I’m just out of touch with what electricians charge these days.

The charger might be £700 but then add a consumer unit, some very pricey armoured cable, CT clamp, breaker etc and you've probably got £850 just in materials.

He's also got to cover the cost of a lot of training, buying/running a van, paying his personal tax and national insurance, VAT, possibly corporation tax, pension, travel time, possibly an accountant, pl & pi insurance, advertising, tools, test equipment, etc, etc.....

Running a business is not cheap!

 

[tsedge]

The charger might be £700 but then add a consumer unit, some very pricey armoured cable, CT clamp, breaker etc and you've probably got £850 just in materials.

He's also got to cover the cost of a lot of training, buying/running a van, paying his personal tax and national insurance, VAT, possibly corporation tax, pension, travel time, possibly an accountant, pl & pi insurance, advertising, tools, test equipment, etc, etc.....

Running a business is not cheap!

People don't understand if they've no experience being in business, they think the only work is when the sparky is on site.

 

[ALANB]

Probably should add that by moving to IO after I got the OHME installed saved me about £80 per month so it will pay for itself within a year.

 

[google1901]

Does want vs need come into it? I say this as our 1st EV (Q1 2020) had option of gov't grant. I looked at our usage e.g. could I charge my car at home to cover usage for the following day etc.. Could a granny charger handle it or we need 7KW? We're now onto 2nd EV again repeated the process & same result. I should say if the maths suggested a 7kw charger I had contacted the local (EV certified) electrician (he quoted 3hrs + parts). OK for us the granny charger could handle it. And granny charger performance? Same one for 3yrs and to date no issues.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Does want vs need come into it? I say this as our 1st EV (Q1 2020) had option of gov't grant. I looked at our usage e.g. could I charge my car at home to cover usage for the following day etc.. Could a granny charger handle it or we need 7KW? We're now onto 2nd EV again repeated the process & same result. I should say if the maths suggested a 7kw charger I had contacted the local (EV certified) electrician (he quoted 3hrs + parts). OK for us the granny charger could handle it. And granny charger performance? Same one for 3yrs and to date no issues.

My 7kW charger came free wth my first EV (Hyundai Ioniq 28kWh) with free install via grant. However, I charge mainly on the granny charger and only use the 7kW for urgent charges.

 

[SteveRW]

The charger might be £700 but then add a consumer unit, some very pricey armoured cable, CT clamp, breaker etc and you've probably got £850 just in materials.

He's also got to cover the cost of a lot of training, buying/running a van, paying his personal tax and national insurance, VAT, possibly corporation tax, pension, travel time, possibly an accountant, pl & pi insurance, advertising, tools, test equipment, etc, etc.....

Running a business is not cheap!

There was no extra consumer unit needed and less than one metre of cable in a plastic conduit to the charger. He used some cable clips.

I know that running a business has fixed costs, I run one myself and have family members in various trades. I think the lack of tradesmen is largely the reason for inflated costs. It’s hard these days to get quotes even for large lucrative projects. The most ludicrous example I had recently was a carpenter quoting £4000 to build an understairs cupboard out of MDF for my daughter’s house. It was a section a mere 50 inches high by the width of the stairs. She, in her innocence, asked me whether I thought this was reasonable. I suppose I should have said, of course, he’s been trained and runs a van and has to buy his own tools etc etc.

I’m being flippant but I do think we’re being overcharged for what is a simple installation.

 

[Ian Key]

I think the lack of tradesmen is largely the reason for inflated costs. It’s hard these days to get quotes even for large lucrative projects. The most ludicrous example I had recently was a carpenter quoting £4000 to build an understairs cupboard out of MDF for my daughter’s house. It was a section a mere 50 inches high by the width of the stairs. She, in her innocence, asked me whether I thought this was reasonable. I suppose I should have said, of course, he’s been trained and runs a van and has to buy his own tools etc etc.

I agree. A friend of mine wants a new bathroom and asked a locally respected plumber/bathroom company for a quote. His first words were "we won't be able to do it before next year" followed by "it'll be £12000 plus extras" and he hadn't even looked at it or asked what she wanted.

 

[DBedford]

There was no extra consumer unit needed and less than one metre of cable in a plastic conduit to the charger. He used some cable clips.

I know that running a business has fixed costs, I run one myself and have family members in various trades. I think the lack of tradesmen is largely the reason for inflated costs. It’s hard these days to get quotes even for large lucrative projects. The most ludicrous example I had recently was a carpenter quoting £4000 to build an understairs cupboard out of MDF for my daughter’s house. It was a section a mere 50 inches high by the width of the stairs. She, in her innocence, asked me whether I thought this was reasonable. I suppose I should have said, of course, he’s been trained and runs a van and has to buy his own tools etc etc.

I’m being flippant but I do think we’re being overcharged for what is a simple installation.

You’re only over charged if you accept the quote! Basic business practice to increase prices when you’re busy.

 

[SteveRW]

Basic business practice to increase prices when you’re busy.

As I said, shortage of tradesmen means being able to ask whatever you like.

 

[dragon2611]

I do wonder if I did decide to swap out my current charger for a new one if I'd be better trying to find a local electrician rather than the manufacturers installers.

Also wonder what they'd do about Penn fault protection if the new charger comes with it, as I have an external device in the mini CU for that as my current charger didn't have it.