A consumer unit change is the job every domestic sparky quotes weekly and most under-price at least once a month. The board itself is the easy part. The price lives in what you find when you test the circuits it feeds.
What electricians charge
Ranges we see on quotes in 2026 for a straightforward like-for-like change to an 18th-edition board with RCBOs, including the certificate and notification:
| Job | Typical price (inc. VAT where charged) |
|---|---|
| Small board, up to 6 circuits, easy access | £450 to £650 |
| Standard house, 8 to 12 circuits | £600 to £900 |
| Larger property, 14+ circuits, or a split-load to dual-RCD upgrade with SPD | £850 to £1,300 |
Add half a day’s labour if the bonding has to be brought up to standard, and price any remedial work separately once you have tested.
What moves the price
- Number of circuits. Every way is an RCBO, a termination and a test. Count them on the survey, not on the day.
- RCBOs versus dual RCD. RCBOs cost more per way and save the customer a whole house going dark when the tumble dryer trips. Quote RCBOs as standard and dual RCD as the cheaper option, not the other way round.
- Surge protection. An SPD is required in most domestic installations under the 18th edition. Put it on the quote as a line, so the customer sees it was included and not slipped in.
- Main bonding. Gas and water bonding that is missing or undersized has to be sorted before you can sign the certificate. It is a common extra and it should be a line on the quote, not a surprise.
- Meter tails and the cut-out. Undersized tails are yours to change. A damaged cut-out or a missing isolator is the network operator’s, and the wait for them is not your labour.
- What testing finds. A borrowed neutral, a ring with a break in it, a circuit that will not hold on an RCD. This is where the money goes, and it is why the next section matters more than the table.
Quote it so the extras are agreed before you start
Put three things on the quote and you will never argue about a consumer unit change again:
- The price for the board change, with what it includes (board, RCBOs, SPD, labour, testing, the Electrical Installation Certificate, Part P notification through your scheme).
- The price for the known extras you can see on the survey: bonding, tails, an isolator.
- A line about the unknowns. “If testing shows a fault on an existing circuit, I will stop, show you, and price the repair before doing anything.” That sentence is worth more than any terms and conditions page.
Then the deposit line: “£200 secures the date and covers the board.” Balance on completion, paid on the day if you can take a card.
Time on site
A clean 10-way change with no surprises is a long half day for one person: isolate, strip out, fit, terminate, test every circuit, label, certificate. Allow a full day and say so, because a customer who was told “a couple of hours” and sees you there at four o’clock assumes something has gone wrong.
The paperwork that goes with it
An Electrical Installation Certificate, the notification to building control through your competent person scheme, and a copy of both to the customer. In England a consumer unit change is notifiable work. Put “certificate and notification included” on the quote, because it is one of the things customers were told to check for, and most of your competitors leave it off.
Doing the quote from the van
“Quote Mr Okafor seven-eighty for the consumer unit change, twelve-way RCBO board with SPD, bonding to gas and water, EIC and notification included, deposit two hundred.” Your PA writes it up with your scheme number on it, you check it, and it goes to the customer by text with an Accept button. The certificate starts from the same job when the work is done. That is what TradePA does for electricians, and the lines above are what it puts on the page.
A word on the above. This is general information for UK trades, written to be useful, not advice for your situation. Prices vary by job and by region, and tax and legal rules change. Check the current position on GOV.UK or ask your accountant or legal professional for actual advice.
The TradePA team
TradePA is the AI personal assistant for UK trades. Say the job and it writes the quote, gets the invoice ready to send and writes the reminder when money is late, for £10 a month. About TradePA.
