$1000 to install a service panel?

[Fixnfly]

Last fall I had a 24x 28 garage built in my yard and over the winter, I did all the wiring. All I need now is a service panel installed and someone to double check my work. I called a local electrician to come out and give me an estimate and he told me it would be around a grand to install the service panel. There is a utility pole about 25ft from the garage and the power compnay would come out and supply the wire to the garage(underground). I'm planning on digging the trench also. Does a $1000 seem a little high to anyone else? I was expecting maybe half of that

 

[frankush]

Is the electrician's price for labor only? Does he have to supply any material? Is all the interior wiring complete, with the exception of landing and trimming branch circuit wiring in the panel? I won't ever throw a number out without seeing what's involved first. If the interior wiring is complete, you're paying him to assume liability for your work. Contractor's insurance is not cheap, my friend.

 

[Fixnfly]

Labor and materials. All wiring is complete, I put in 15 outlets and two light switches, nothing fancy just basic wiring

 

[James-W]

Around where I live, the cost to have an electrician install a typical electrical service is $1,800 to $2,200 and this includes everything, meter base, breaker panel, ground rods, grounding cable, mast and mast head, and the cable from the mast head down to the meter base. This does NOT include the wiring inside the building, this is just for the electrical service itself.

The home owner cannot get a permit to install the electrical service, the permit has to be pulled by a master electrician. Once the electrician finishes with the service install, he contacts the city inspector. The city inspector will come out and inspect the work, and if it passes, the city inspector will contact the electric company and tell them you are ready to have the new electrical service connected up.

I don't know how it works where you live, it may be different than it is here, but around here you are not supposed to wire the inside of the garage until the electrical service passes inspection. The electrician will wire up a light with a switch in order to illuminate the breaker panel, and he will wire an outlet underneath the breaker panel. I don't know if the light and the outlet is a local code or if it is standard all over, but in any case, that's how it is around here.

 

[nehog]

a grand may be a fair price, but not knowing what he needs to do makes it hard to really be sure. Do you have the meter base, and that stuff done, or is he doing it? You ran the wires, but do you have the outlets and other fixtures installed and wired up?

Where this me, I'd ask him for details. BTW, my daughter had her box at the house replaced a few months ago--it ran about 750 for the job, which included moving the box to another wall (about 5 ft) but didn't require any outside work since the meter and feed were OK, and inside was OK except the moving of the lines (a few had to be re-run or extended, wasn't a big problem...)

 

[hidollartoys]

Speaking as a licensed insured master electrician who does this type of work.... I would say $1000 firm bid is about right for here in eastern Kansas. I would think in PA it might be somewhat higher but I am not sure.

 

[Stuart in MN]

All that matters is what it costs in your area. Labor rates, material costs and permit costs are different in other parts of the country. If anything I'd guess his price is low but if you're not sure about him, get another quote from someone else and see how it compares.

 

[2Big2Ride]

We paid $1,300 for a 200 amp panel & meter base install, permit, and about a hour of two people hand trenching with a shovel.

As was stated earlier, really depends on your area. And let's please value the electricians training & knowledge along with time and materials.

 

[svronthmve]

I charge $1300 to install a 200 amp panel. And that's just up a side of the building to the coonection point. Customer is responsible for any additional overhead or underground charges.

Pay the man & move on! He's cutting you a deal....

 

[ABADWILLYS]

Around where I live, the cost to have an electrician install a typical electrical service is $1,800 to $2,200 and this includes everything, meter base, breaker panel, ground rods, grounding cable, mast and mast head, and the cable from the mast head down to the meter base. This does NOT include the wiring inside the building, this is just for the electrical service itself.

this is about what it cost me, pretty recently, my pole is about 50ft from my shop, we dug the trench for the undergorund service and a licensed electrician pulls the permit and has to do all the rest here, i also had to rent a manlift to run the service up the pole

 

[sickjuice]

Half that? Are you on heroin? He would loose money at $500. Heck even $1000 is a bottom feeder price considering he would be taking liability for your diy wiring. I wouldn't even consider taking a job like that for a grand

 

[jrsulo]

Pay the man,and move on to enjoying your garage !!

 

[bighouse01]

My friend is a licensed elec. We did a panel in my house with new cable to the meter. I spent 400 in just parts. I'd say 1000 is good.

 

[MrMark]

Around where I live, the cost to have an electrician install a typical electrical service is $1,800 to $2,200 and this includes everything, meter base, breaker panel, ground rods, grounding cable, mast and mast head, and the cable from the mast head down to the meter base. This does NOT include the wiring inside the building, this is just for the electrical service itself.

The home owner cannot get a permit to install the electrical service, the permit has to be pulled by a master electrician. Once the electrician finishes with the service install, he contacts the city inspector. The city inspector will come out and inspect the work, and if it passes, the city inspector will contact the electric company and tell them you are ready to have the new electrical service connected up.

I don't know how it works where you live, it may be different than it is here, but around here you are not supposed to wire the inside of the garage until the electrical service passes inspection. The electrician will wire up a light with a switch in order to illuminate the breaker panel, and he will wire an outlet underneath the breaker panel. I don't know if the light and the outlet is a local code or if it is standard all over, but in any case, that's how it is around here.

Sounds bizarre. Not around here.

To the OP, if you wired the garage why are you hiring an electrician now? The service is dead. Just put up the service entrance and you said the POCO will run the wire. They will no doubt land the three feed wires as well. What are you worrying about? Someone to check your work? If so, then the guy should charge you the full price of wiring the garage.

 

[Speedy Petey]

I charge $1300 to install a 200 amp panel. And that's just up a side of the building to the coonection point. Customer is responsible for any additional overhead or underground charges.

Wow! You are selling yourself short.
That is if you mean a complete 200A service, which it sounds like.

Around here a 200A service is in the $2000-$2200 range for a change or upgrade. A new empty panel would obviously be less, but that is a rarity.

 

[CNGsaves]

Last fall I had a 24x 28 garage built in my yard and over the winter, I did all the wiring. All I need now is a service panel installed and someone to double check my work. I called a local electrician to come out and give me an estimate and he told me it would be around a grand to install the service panel. There is a utility pole about 25ft from the garage and the power company would come out and supply the wire to the garage(underground). I'm planning on digging the trench also. Does a $1000 seem a little high to anyone else? I was expecting maybe half of that.

OP since you're in PA it "should" be less than other areas like NY or CA.

However, gotta ask why you're going new buried run to garage from utility pole - - - thus, sounds like addtl meter charge forever??

Why not go subpanel at garage and grab power at house?? This would save you that lifelong 2nd meter monthly charge. Trade-off for this is cable cost would be on you between buildings.

 

[Speedy Petey]

OP since you're in PA it "should" be less than other areas like NY or CA.

I have found that most parts of NYS are very similar to PA in many respects, price included.
Of course, anything from around the TZ bridge south is a different story. Geographically though that is a very small part of NYS.

 

[bassman]

Install a service panel. What does that mean exactly? Install a loadcenter? Or go pull a permit? Which could mean going to whatever outfit (city, county,ect.) handles that in you're area, maybe twice, to drop off, then pick up permit, couple hrs drive time, couple hours there, then getting mat. and installing. Whats he installing, a meterpan/loadcenter combo, or what, and how many amps? Sounds like a low price to me. And he won't be liable for you're work, only his BTW

 

[James-W]

I can't speak for everywhere in the country, but around here before you get to the part of installing the new electrical service you need to contact the electric company and tell them you want to install a new service. They will send you some paperwork and you need to fill it out and you need to include a rough drawing of where the building is in relation to the power lines, etc. You also need to have distances on the drawing and you need to tell them an approximate date as to when you will want the power lines run. (It is best to contact the electric company before you even build the garage to be sure there will be no complications later on, but that is NOT something you HAVE to do) Once the electric company receives the paperwork and they check it over, someone from the power company will stop by take a look at what needs to be done and how they plan to do it. At that time they will decide the best way to run the power lines. In my case they not only ran new power lines to the garage, they also moved the power lines going to my house to a different location on the main lines coming from the street.

Now, having said all that, I will try to answer your question.

Install a service panel. What does that mean exactly? Install a loadcenter? Or go pull a permit?

Putting in a new electrical service around here involves the following: The master electrician comes to your house, or garage, or workshop, or whatever, and looks it over. Then he goes to city hall (in my case about six blocks from my house) and gets the permit. Initially he pays for the permit but ultimately you will get charged for it.

Then the electrician will install the meter base, run the mast up the building, anchor it into the side of the building, and attach a mast head. He will mount the breaker panel to the inside of the building and a he will drill a hole from the back of the meter base, thru the building wall, and into the breaker panel, after which he will install a coupler between the meter base and the breaker panel. He will run three cables from the mast head down to the meter base, then from the meter base into the breaker panel. He will dig a trench for the two 8 foot copper coated grounding rods (they need to be 6 feet apart) and he will pound the rods into the ground. Then he will attach a grounding wire to the grounding rods and run it into the breaker panel. Once that is done, he will run three cables from the meter base thru the coupler and into the breaker panel. Then he will install a light with a light switch above the breaker panel and he will install an electrical outlet underneath the breaker panel. That's what you will get for between $1,800 and $2,200, possibly a bit more or less depending on where you are located and what size service you want installed.

Now, having said that, I happen to have had the benefit of knowing a master electrician and a good friend who was willing to help me do this. After talking with the master electrician and having him stop by and give us some guidance, I went out and bought the meter base, breaker panel, mast, mast head, grounding rods, grounding wire, the mast head and the cable running from the mast head down to the meter base and enough extra cable to run it into the breaker panel.

My friend and I did most of the work ourselves, we mounted the meter base and the breaker panel, then we ran the mast up the side of the building and attached it with the proper fasteners. After that we ran the cable down the mast and into the meter base, leaving plenty of cable to stick out of the mast head so the electric company would have no problem in connecting the main power lines to the mast head. Then we dug the trench for the grounding rods. After that, I got hold of the master electrician and told him we were ready for him to come by and hook it up. The first thing the master electrician did was to go over to city hall and pick up the permit. Then he came by and he checked ALL of our work to be certain it was done right. Once he was satisfied we had done EVERYTHING according to code, he connected the power cables from the mast head to the meter base, then he ran the cables into the breaker panel. Once that was done, he had an electric pounder that hammered the grounding rods 8 feet into the ground, which was wonderful because having to do that by hand would have been a real pain. Then he connected the grounding cable to both of the grounding rods and ran it into the garage thru the hole in the wall we had made ahead of time for this purpose.

Finally, he wired up the light switch and the light, and he wired in the outlet underneath the breaker panel.

Once he was done he went back to city hall and informed the city inspector the job was finished. The city inspector came by the following day and checked it all out. He passed it and then he contacted the electric company to come and install the main lines.

 

[NHBandit]

What are your local laws ? Here in East Tennessee since my garage is a detatched building I was allowed to do my own electrical with no inspection. It was easy and cost me zero other than materials and my time.

 

[ddawg16]

To many missing facts to give an accurate answer....

Is the electrician going to terminate all the ckts in the load center?

As mentioned above....material cost alone will be $400 +

Load Center $220+
2" Rigid pipe and fittings $75
2/00 Wire $200+

So....$1000 actually sounds pretty cheap.

 

[Fixnfly]

Sounds like $1000 is fair. Thanks for the input!
This guy already looked my work over and has no problem with it.
Some of you make wiring a few outlets sound like rocket science....jeeeezzzz

 

[James-W]

What are your local laws ? Here in East Tennessee since my garage is a detached building I was allowed to do my own electrical with no inspection. It was easy and cost me zero other than materials and my time.

Our laws are much different here in southeastern Wisconsin. Around where I live you need a permit to wire practically anything, not necessarily because the city wants the money, although I am sure that is part of it, but they want to inspect what you did to be sure the work was done according to the electrical code. You would be surprised how many people cut corners and do things that are not really safe just to save a few dollars. To avoid that situation, the city wants you to get a permit and then have it inspected. You can do internal wiring on your own, that's not a problem, but when you are finished you need to have it inspected to be sure it was done correctly.

 

[James-W]

Sounds like $1000 is fair. Thanks for the input!
This guy already looked my work over and has no problem with it.
Some of you make wiring a few outlets sound like rocket science....jeeeezzzz

As far as I can tell, nobody tried to say that wiring a few outlets is super complicated. As for myself, I was under the impression your main objective was to find out if the $1,000 quote for installing an electrical service was too high.

I, and everybody else, have tried to explain that while the cost may seem high at first, when you sit down and really think about it there is quite a bit of work to be done and it needs to be done correctly. I never said you weren't capable and I certainly hope I didn't imply you weren't capable of doing the work and doing it correctly. The only thing everyone was trying to point out is that depending on where you live, you may not be allowed to do the new service install work unless you are an electrician, and around here you must be a master electrician just to get the permit to do the service install. The internal wiring in the building you can do yourself and have the city inspect it.

If I upset you, I apologize, upsetting you wasn't my intent. I was only trying to be helpful, as was everybody else.

 

[frankush]

Sounds like $1000 is fair. Thanks for the input!
This guy already looked my work over and has no problem with it.
Some of you make wiring a few outlets sound like rocket science....jeeeezzzz

If you do electrical work for a living, you learn pretty quickly that it's not rocket science. After 30 years in the trades, you learn that there are lots of ways to wire things incorrectly. Some people have the mentality that if it works, it's done correctly. Ask any electrician what he thinks of that statement.

 

[PECVD2]

To many missing facts to give an accurate answer....

Is the electrician going to terminate all the ckts in the load center?

As mentioned above....material cost alone will be $400 +

Load Center $220+
2" Rigid pipe and fittings $75
2/00 Wire $200+

So....$1000 actually sounds pretty cheap.

^^^^^This plus he has to charge for his time to look over your work, to be present for the ditch inspection, for the power company when they pull cable, for the cable install inspection, for the ditch fill/danger tape inspection, final inspection and any possible return inspections. Ohhh and what about taking on the overall responsibility of your work. Sounds really cheap to me.

 

[CNGsaves]

Wasn't THAT much of whopper deal as OP said that PoCo was supplying the wire from power pole to detached garage through underground conduit.

OP . . . how about DETAIL follow-up of what all was ACTUALLY done.

Do you now have TWO meters on property . . one for house and one for the detached garage??

How about pics . . . . we always want to see pics!!

 

[Speedy Petey]

If you do electrical work for a living, you learn pretty quickly that it's not rocket science. After 30 years in the trades, you learn that there are lots of ways to wire things incorrectly. Some people have the mentality that if it works, it's done correctly. Ask any electrician what he thinks of that statement.

 

[ABADWILLYS]

my hook up was a little more complicated also, there was exsisting power wires running overhead where i wanted to put my building, Had to get the Power Co. to take them down, they ended on my property anyways(use to be a trailer park)we used another pole on my lot, i had to install a new guy wire and "bust anchor" if you guys know what that is, since now the power wire ended at the other pole now, the Power Co. put a new transfomer on my pole and did all there hook up and gave us some hardware for the guy(guide?) wire and were(the crew) great to work with, i have a seperate meter from my house even though the garage and house are on the same lot.
heres a "bust anchor" it may have some other names i dunno

 

[Gary S]

Some of you make wiring a few outlets sound like rocket science....jeeeezzzz

Wiring lights and receptacles isn't rocket science. Installing a service center isn't either, but laws prohibit the average person from doing these things in many places. When you see the kind of wiring an average person does, you know why.
A skilled person can easily do all this themselves if local laws allow it. If the laws don't allow it, we are forced to pay a professional to do it so it gets done right.
I'm not in the electrical installation industry, so I don't know what prices are, but your $1000 bid is likely close to what other people pay for the wiring, materials, permits, and anything else to get it installed legally and right.

 

[MrMark]

What places have laws prohibiting the home owner from installing a service panel? I've never heard of this except on this board. I could understand some heavy union political power places like Chicago and surrounding area but not normal places. Installing a service panel, if done without power like it is supposed to be, is about the simplest thing possible. Not even the Poco or an inspector could fail to see whether it is hooked properly. There are all of three wires. The PoCo wants to do it themselves when they come out but they let me do the hook up on mine because they didn't know how to use a torque wrench.

 

[James-W]

What places have laws prohibiting the home owner from installing a service panel?

I can't speak for every municipality, but one place is here in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, located roughly midway between Madison and Milwaukee, and a little to the south. This does not apply specifically to a breaker panel by itself, it applies to a new electrical service in general. If you were going from a smaller electrical panel to a larger one, you MAY be able to do it yourself. The only problem is, you would have to pull the meter to kill the power in order to connect the new breaker panel, so I am pretty sure you need to have a master electrician get the permit and pull the meter for you. But I don't know that for a fact. In any case, if the master electrician has to get the permit, he will also have to sign off on it.

Now, if you want you can call the city of Fort Atkinson and ask to speak with the city inspector, just PM me and I will give you his name and telephone number. Or if you prefer, you can look it up on the Internet, I am pretty sure it is there. Anyway, I just went thru this last Summer so I know first hand what the requirements are.

In case I didn't word it properly the first time, the requirement for a new service is, a master electrician must obtain the permit to do the work, the home owner cannot get the permit on his/her own. As far as who actually does the work, it doesn't really matter, if you can get a trained chimp to do the work, that would OK too, but the master electrician must sign the paperwork stating the work was done correctly and that all electrical codes were followed. Additionally, the home owner cannot call the power company and request the service be connected, the city inspector must do that after he has checked it over and is satisfied everything is correct.

Now the internal wiring in the garage is different, the homeowner can get that permit and he/she can do the work, but it must be inspected by the city inspector so obviously it must meet all wiring codes before it will pass. You cannot cover the walls with any type of sheathing until it passes the
wiring inspection.

Now, I don't particularly agree with the requirements in place here, and I don't quite understand why I had to hire a master electrician to do something that I could have done on my own. But it makes no difference whether I agree or not, the law is what the law is and either I follow the rules or I don't get the new electrical service for my garage. So I followed the rules and everything went smoothly. I got what I wanted, it cost me more money this way, but at least I got what I wanted so I am happy. The city was happy, the electrician was happy and the power company was happy. When I contacted my homeowners insurance agent, he stopped by and checked out the garage for insurance purposes. The fact that I had gotten permits for everything and the fact that everything had passed inspection made HIM happy too. So, all is well that ends well.

On a final note, I am glad it turned this way, even though it was bit more expensive to do it this way. I KNOW everything is done according to code and when/if the wife and I decide to sell this place, we won't be plagued with problems and repairs to correct something that wasn't done right in the first place. I would like to think that if I had done all the work myself I would have done everything exactly right, but I am not a master electrician so I can't be sure. Having a master electrician double check everything I did gives me more than a little peace of mind. That is worth something all by itself.

 

[MrMark]

Thanks for that.