Flat rate electrical pricing, per opening or hourly? How electricians price each kind of job (free price sheet)

Published November 3, 2026 · Numbers checked November 2026

• Free. The files come by email.
• Deepsel is our product: free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for contractors (scheduling, quotes, invoicing, card payments, a price book). One section, the one before the FAQ, says how it connects to this sheet.
• The owner prices below are what electricians say they charge on Reddit and the Mike Holt forum, counted by us. They aren't a survey and can't be cut by state. Housecall Pro's measured figures are kept separate.

Flat rate electrical pricing means one price per job, set before you start: your hours times your rate, plus material with a markup. It's how electricians sell panel swaps, EV circuits and ceiling fans. It isn't the only unit, though. Service calls and troubleshooting go by the hour after a first-hour fee, lights and devices go per unit, new houses go per opening or per square foot, and work you can't see the end of goes time and materials (T&M).

Below is the unit for each kind of job, with what owners say they charge and what Housecall Pro measured. The price sheet does the arithmetic for your shop. Put in your hourly rate, first-hour fee and markup, then your hours and material for each job, and it works out a rounded price next to both sets of numbers. A second tab prices a new house per opening and shows what that comes to per square foot. Get it two ways: make your own copy in Google Sheets or download the Excel version (.xlsx). Pick a format, enter your email and I'll send the links.

I keep two kinds of numbers apart on this page. Housecall Pro's are measured: what its customers charged, from "636,022 electrical service entries across 67 service categories" over the 12 months to September 2026.¹ They come from a self-selected group of software users, and the page says its hourly rates, service-call fees and a few marked rows are taken from homeowner cost guides instead, so I leave those out. The other set is what US electricians said they charge on Reddit and the Mike Holt forum: 184 figures we sourced from August 2024 to October 2026, with promotional accounts removed.² Those are self-reported, and most posters don't say outright that they own the business. Neither set splits by state.

The pricing unit for each kind of electrical job

Pricing electrical jobs starts with the unit. Here's the short version; the number in brackets is how many electricians gave a figure.

Per amp isn't a unit anyone uses. In two years of owner posts we found nobody pricing a service by the amp.²

Service calls and troubleshooting: hourly, with a first-hour fee

Troubleshooting is the one job owners agree goes by the hour. "Troubleshooting can make sense hourly because you don’t always know what you’re walking into," an electrician wrote in a June 2026 thread about low prices.³ An owner in another thread put the split in one line: "If it’s investigation work then we charge that hourly - but by and large we just quote jobs."⁴

The usual shape is a first-hour fee, then an hourly rate. Owners who stated one mostly charge $125 to $180 for the first hour, a few up to $375, and solo owners mostly bill $100 to $150 an hour after that.² Some credit part of the fee to the job if the customer goes ahead. Once you've found the fault, the fix is often a job with a flat price on your list. The sheet shows the floor for those: at the example $150 first-hour fee, a $55 receptacle swap on its own is still a $150 visit.

Working out the hourly rate is its own job, so this page takes it as an input. The section on building your own prices gives the owners' rule of thumb.

Flat rate jobs: panels, service upgrades, EV circuits, fans and surge

We counted 27 electricians who priced a panel swap or a service upgrade, 100 A to 200 A or bigger. Every one of them gave a flat price for the job.² For a same-size 200 A panel swap, six gave $2,000 to $5,600. For a 100 A to 200 A service upgrade (meter base, mast, panel), twenty gave $3,000 to $8,000, most of them $3,500 to $6,000, with Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland and Philadelphia at the high end. One employee put his northeast company at $12,000. Housecall Pro's customers charged $2,250 to $5,100 to replace a 30-circuit, 200 A load center (the panel) and all its breakers, and $1,200 to $4,219 for a 20-circuit, 100 A one.¹ It has no row for a full service upgrade.

Code adoption moves the scope, and the price with it. A Maryland electrician: "I charge around 5500 for service upgrades including grounds rods ect for counties that are still on 2017 nec so no emergency disconnect." In counties on the 2020 code or later, which adds the emergency disconnect, the number is $6,500.⁵

A flat price also takes on risk the customer would otherwise carry. One electrician quotes a complete service and panel upgrade at "$4,250, but I did one (time & material) on Monday for $3,582."⁶ On a clean job, T&M came in lower. On the job where the inspector wants more, the flat price is what covers you: "Once I pull a permit for a new mast the local inspector will fail it unless the meter socket is brought up to current code with a disconnect."⁷

Look at what a flat price pays for. A Midwest owner charges "an average of $2250" for a same-size panel swap, and says: "My materials are generally around $800 and I can get it done in 4-6 hours".⁸ That's about $1,450 above material for four to six hours on site, $240 or more an hour, well above what solo owners bill by the hour. The difference pays for the permit, the inspection, the utility, the callback and the panel job that goes sideways.

EV charger circuits are flat too, priced mostly by how far the run is and whether there's digging. Eight electricians gave $600 to $3,500 and up.² At the low end: "my charge was only about $600, I supplied wire and breaker, they supply charger. Typically a 1- 2 hr max job." On a two-outlet garage job, another wrote: "$1700 is right there in the reasonable quote area."⁹ Housecall Pro's customers charged $375 to $1,150 for the circuit and its parts, with the charger, panel work and permit quoted separately.¹ Qmerit, an EV charger installer network, puts the average home Level 2 install at $1,700 from its 2026 data, but its own worked example of that $1,700 includes $800 of charger hardware.¹⁰ So say on the quote whether the charger is in it.

Ceiling fans are a flat price per fan. Four electricians gave $150 to $300 to hang one on an existing fan-rated box, and three gave $250 to $500 when it needs a new box or new wiring.² Housecall Pro: $199 to $550 for a customer's fan on an existing box.¹

Whole-house surge protectors are an add-on. Of 29 owner posts that mentioned surge protection, none asked what to charge for one on its own. The only price we found was an electrician's complaint about a big company's rates: "surge protector installations ($1100 should be $450-$650)".¹¹ Housecall Pro measured $395 to $703.¹ Owners tend to fold it into the panel job, like the one who quotes "$5600 for a panel swap as well. Surge protector included."¹¹

Standby generator installs: I found no owner stating what they charge, and Housecall Pro has no measured row. I'm not going to invent a range. The sheet has the row with no example, for you to fill from your own hours, the equipment quote and the permit.

Per unit: recessed lights, devices and fixtures

Recessed lights go per light, with each switch leg (the new switch and the wire run to the lights) priced on top. Twelve electricians gave $100 to $240 a light, most of them $150 to $225, and three gave $300 to $350 a switch leg.² From Oklahoma City: "OKC- I’m not cheap but I’m at $195/can or wafer. Switchlegs are $347/ea. service call is $125."¹²

That thread started with a first solo bid in Massachusetts: 14 lights for $1,500, worked out by the hour, and the customer still balked. "That was my exact labor budget; 20 hours @ $50/hr…and the dude legit said “12 lights should take 12 hours…I’ll just do it myself”".¹² One reply, with 57 upvotes, put the job at "roughly 2500", and others went to $3,500. A per-light price would have started there.

Device swaps are where the two data sets look furthest apart. On jobs with many devices, eight electricians' prices worked out to roughly $15 to $75 a device, and the ones quoting a set per-device rate mostly said $50 to $75. "I’m typically charging $50-$75 per device on re-devices," a California owner wrote, with dimmers, GFCIs and USB devices extra.¹³ Housecall Pro's customers charged $180 to $930 to replace a receptacle and $90 to $385 for a single-pole switch.¹ The gap is mostly the visit. A per-device price assumes you're already there doing 20 more; one device on its own has to pay for the drive and the first hour. So say which you're quoting.

A shop owner in the same thread warned against fixed device prices on old houses: "Hi, shop owner here. There are always surprises behind the original devices." The advice: "I would inspect a few devices first before committing to a bid."¹³

Light fixtures are thin in the owner data: one electrician said $50 a fixture. Housecall Pro's customers charged $160 to $535 to hang a customer's fixture.¹

Price per opening: new houses and remodels

An opening is any box in a wall or ceiling: a receptacle, a switch, a light, a fan, a smoke detector. You count them on the plans and multiply by your price. A one-year owner: "Resi stuff I price "per opening" for receptacles, lighting outlets, switches, paddle fans, exhaust fans, etc."¹⁴ Home runs (circuits run straight from the panel to one appliance, like the range or the dryer) and the service go on top: "Price per opening. Price per home run. Service is priced separately ."¹⁵

On new houses, where you wire open studs before drywall (the rough) and come back for devices and fixtures (the trim), owners gave:¹⁶

• $55 to $75 on large custom homes, by type: "I charge 55 for a receptacle opening, 55 for a single pole, 65 for a 3 way, and 75 for a 4 way."
• $50 to start in the Kansas City metro: "it starts at $50 per opening, and then add service entrance."
• $150 at a small south Florida shop, plus 25% on material, as a former employee described it.
• One forum bidder "over $200/per opening, which probably seems insane to most here, and me as well".

On remodels, where you cut into finished walls, the same owner who prices per home run is at "$150-250 for a can/wafer depending on difficulty. Receptacle is $160."¹⁵

Owners who explain their per-opening number build it from an assembly: "Build assemblies then do a takeoff. Let’s say a 15 amp outlet; that’s 1 box, a few wire nuts, one outlet, one plate cover and +/- 15ft of wire."¹⁷ Price that material, add your time for one opening, and you have your number. The sheet's example is 0.6 hours and $12 of material, $95 at $125 an hour. Both are placeholders. NECA's labor-unit manual gives hours per item, but it's a paid book, and I found no free, sourced table of per-opening prices to point you to.

Electrical bid per square foot: why owners argue about it

Builders compare bids per square foot, so a per-opening price ends up there anyway. Owners split on whether to bid that way. For: "For residential new construction, many contractors including myself charge a price per sq ft for code minimum."¹⁸ Against: "Sqft pricing is at the end of the day what the builder will look at, but it’s a horrible way to bid jobs."¹⁷ And to a Massachusetts journeyman starting out who asked the going rate: "No one prices by the sqft anymore. To much money left on the table."¹⁹

For code-minimum new houses (the least the electrical code requires), owners gave $5 to $7 a square foot.^{2, 18, 20} In August 2026 a forum poster wrote that "a number of contractors were stuck in the $5/$6/ a sq ft pricing" for years, and that prices near him are finally up "30% or more".²⁰ Rewires ran $6 to $12 a square foot from five electricians, and one charges "$10 per square foot for the rough, $5 per square foot for trim".^{2, 21} Custom homes sit far above: one electrician is "getting almost 39000 to do a 2400 square foot ranch", about $16 a foot.²¹

Here's why it's a fight. Square feet don't tell you what's in the house. A Massachusetts electrician getting ready to go out alone priced a new build per device and came in "around $40k". The builder's other quotes were "around 19k" and "around 26k".²² On a rewire, an owner planned $13,500 for 1,908 square feet with a new panel, and replies ranged from about $20,000 to $40,000.²³ Same house, bids two and three times apart.

What I'd do: price the house per opening, add the home runs, the service and the permit, then divide by the square feet to see the number the builder will see. If it's far above what the builder hears elsewhere, check what's in the house (custom or code minimum) before you cut your price. The New house bid tab does this. Its made-up example, 117 openings at $95 plus home runs, a service and a permit on a 2,000 square foot house, comes to $16,815, or $8.41 a foot. The same house at the sheet's $6.05 a foot is $12,100.

When to go time and materials

T&M means you bill your hours at your rate, plus material at your markup, for whatever the job takes. Owners use it when they can't see the end of the job:

• Troubleshooting, covered above.
• Trim-out only, where someone else did the rough. From an April 2026 bidding thread: "trim out only = t&m".²⁴
• Finishing another contractor's job: "Time and material is the only way to finish someone else's work."²⁵
• Old work, where the walls hide surprises (see the shop owner's warning above).

Some owners run T&M at a lower rate than bid work. On T&M the customer carries the risk; on a bid, you do. An Iowa owner: "I’m in Iowa and charge $110 per hour T&M and markup materials by 1.35." The same owner figures bid work at $160 an hour.²⁶ Whatever your numbers, write three things down before you start: your hourly rate, your material markup and your best guess at the hours. Then bill each visit's hours and parts as lines on the invoice. The electrician invoice template shows how owners lay those lines out.

Commercial jobs: a takeoff with labor units

Commercial and plan-and-spec work doesn't come off a price list. You count every piece of material on the drawings (the takeoff), price it, and apply a labor unit, the hours per item, to each piece. Asked on the Mike Holt forum how to bid a hotel, contractors replied: "Do a complete material takeoff, price the material and apply published labor units to each nut/bolt." And: "You can't apply labor rates to those man/hrs like you do service wok either...you'll get clobbered."²⁷

The usual source of labor units is NECA's Manual of Labor Units, a paid book now in a 2025-2027 edition. NECA says its units include "normal material handling, drawing study, measurement and layout, material installation, and normal non-productive labor". Each item has three units for different job conditions, and supervision isn't included, so you estimate it separately.²⁸ Owners don't agree on the rate behind a bid. One shop bills "$118 for service and $60 for plan spec bid jobs", and a forum poster reckons "$200/hr for service" pays about the same as "$120/hr for a 50-100hr job".²⁹ The Iowa owner above goes the other way, higher on bids. We didn't find enough owner commercial prices to publish a table, so the sheet stops at residential and light work.

How to build your own electrical flat rate price book

Every flat price on the sheet is one sum:

Price = your hours × your hourly rate + material cost × (1 + markup) + permit fees at cost, rounded up.

Hours means every hour the job costs you: pulling the permit, the inspection, the utility, the return trip. Waiting counts. One owner: "we charge a few hundred dollars to wait for an inspector all day."³⁰ On small jobs, the first-hour fee covers the drive.

Two worked examples at the sheet's $125 an hour and 30% markup:

• Recessed light in a finished ceiling: 1.25 hours is $156.25. Add $25 of light and wire marked up to $32.50, and it's $188.75, rounded to $190. Owners said mostly $150 to $225.
• Same-size 200 A panel swap: 12 hours (on site, plus the permit, the inspection and the return trip) is $1,500. Add $900 of material marked up to $1,170 and a $150 permit, and it's $2,820. Owners said $2,000 to $5,600, and Housecall Pro's customers charged $2,250 to $5,100.

The hours in both are made up or back-solved from owner prices. Replace them as soon as you've done each job once with a watch running.

For the hourly rate, owners use a rule of thumb: "To pay yourself $40 an hour, you need to triple that so estimate at $120 an hour."³¹ Tripled, the BLS median wage for an employed electrician ($30.38 an hour in May 2025) is about $91.³² In the 13 states we cover, that median runs from $23.59 in Arkansas to $38.18 in Massachusetts, so tripled it's about $71 to $115. Treat that as a floor. Solo owners who stated a rate mostly bill $100 to $150.² Nobody measures what electricians bill by state, so I won't print a state price table.

Then test the price against the market. An owner with six employees: "charge flat rate prices. Go look at the job and charge based on that labor rate say $200/hr plus materials. If you are getting 1/3 jobs you price your price is good."³³ If you win every bid, your price is probably low.

You can download or buy flat rate price books, but check where their numbers come from. SubcontractorHub's 24-task electrical price list, which ranks for this search, assumes "a loaded labor rate between roughly $115 and $195 per hour" and says of itself: "These ranges are a coverage and sanity check, not a price book you can adopt."³⁴ Housecall Pro's measured ranges are the best outside check I found, and they run wide. A price book built on your own hours is the one you can explain to a customer.

Material markup

About 40 owners stated a markup on material. The most common was 30%, and the range ran from 15% to 100%.² Some add a buffer on top: "I go 30% on material and always add a 5% WTF charge, for unseen problems."³⁵ One owner splits service from contract work: "I charge 30% on contract work for materials and 100-1000% for anything off the truck doing service".³⁶ And with copper prices climbing in 2026, one owner pads the quote: "I just add 15% on top of my material quote now and hope it covers the jump between now and when i actually buy it".³⁷

Markup is on your cost; margin is on the price. A 30% markup keeps 23.1% of what the customer pays for the part, and the markup to margin chart converts the rest. The sheet uses one default markup and lets you type a different one on any row.

How to fill in the price sheet

1. Copy the Google Sheet or open the .xlsx. On Your numbers, type your hourly rate, first-hour fee, default markup and rounding. A check cell shows whether your rate clears three times the pay you want per hour.
2. On the Price sheet, go down the jobs you do and type your hours and material cost for each. Leave Rate and Markup blank to use the defaults, or type over them on a row (a lower rate on long new-construction jobs, a higher markup on small parts).
3. Add permit fees at cost on jobs that need one. Your town sets them.
4. Compare. The blue columns show what owners said and what Housecall Pro measured, and a column flags a price outside the owners' range. Outside isn't wrong. It's a reason to recheck your hours.
5. Type over any price you want to set by hand in Your price. The formula price stays beside it.
6. For a new house, count the openings on the New house bid tab and read the per-square-foot result before you send the number.
7. Mark Y on the jobs that go on the Customer list, write what's included, and print it. It shows prices only, never hours, rate or markup.

More for new electrical contractors

• How much to charge per hour: service call, first hour and hourly rate, with a free rate sheet.
• 200 amp service upgrade checklist: scope, permit, utility, inspection and price.
• Someone asked to use your master license: what being a company's qualifier pays, and what it can cost you.
• Your license and first 30 days, by state: Arkansas, Colorado and Denver, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York City, Utah, Virginia.

When the price list moves off the spreadsheet

A spreadsheet works while you're the only one quoting. It gets awkward when you're pricing from your phone in a basement, or a second electrician starts quoting from an older copy.

That's when the list can move into the price book in Deepsel. Each item has a name, a description that prints on the quote, a unit you type yourself (each, hour, opening, sq ft), a price, and a cost that never appears on anything the customer sees; the edit screen shows the markup and margin between the two. Adding an item to a quote or a job copies its name and price onto the line, and you set the quantity: 117 openings, 2,000 square feet, 3.5 hours. Only the owner can change the book. A quote can carry more than one option (per opening and per square foot side by side, say), and the customer picks one and signs on screen, with an optional card deposit that's credited on the final invoice. For T&M, put the hours on an hourly labor line and the parts on material lines on the job, and the invoice copies the job's lines. What it won't do: work prices out from hours and markup, count openings from plans, charge your first-hour fee by itself (add it as an item), or import this spreadsheet, so you type the list in once or start from the 32-item electrical starter list that Add a trade loads in the price book. The Free plan covers 30 estimates and 30 invoices a month for your whole team; Pro is $29 a month for unlimited estimates and invoices. Details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

What is flat rate pricing for electricians?

One price for a defined job, quoted before you start, instead of billing the hours. You work it out from your hours times your hourly rate, plus material with a markup, plus any permit fee, and round it up. The customer knows the price up front. You carry the risk if the job runs long and keep the gain if you're quick. Owners use it for panel swaps, service upgrades, EV circuits, fans and other jobs with a known scope, and keep troubleshooting and unknown work hourly.

How much do electricians charge per opening?

On new houses, the owners we counted said $50 to $150 an opening, with $55 to $75 on large custom homes and one bidder over $200. On remodels, where you cut into finished walls, $150 to $250. These are self-reported and local. Build your own from one opening's material (box, device, plate, about 15 feet of wire) plus your time, then check it against those ranges.

How do you bid electrical work per square foot?

Work it out per opening first. Count the openings on the plans, price them, add the home runs, the service and the permit, then divide by the square feet. That's the number the builder compares. Owners quoted $5 to $7 a square foot for code-minimum new houses and $6 to $12 for rewires. Square feet don't show what's in the house, which is why bids on the same house can be two times apart.

How much does it cost to rewire a 2,000 square foot house?

Owners we counted quoted $6 to $12 a square foot for rewires, which is $12,000 to $24,000 for 2,000 square feet, and one charges $10 a foot for the rough plus $5 for trim. Bids run far apart: a planned $13,500 for 1,908 square feet with a new panel drew replies from about $20,000 to $40,000. Price it from your own hours on old work, where fishing wire through finished walls is slow.

How do you price electrical jobs: by the hour or flat rate?

Both, depending on the job. Owners bill troubleshooting and work they can't see the end of by the hour, or time and materials, and give a flat price for defined jobs like panel swaps, service upgrades, EV circuits and ceiling fans. Recessed lights and devices go per unit, and new houses per opening or per square foot.

What does a good electrician charge per hour?

Solo owners who stated their rate on Reddit mostly bill $100 to $150 an hour, and most charge $125 to $180 for the first hour of a service call. Housecall Pro's hourly ranges come from homeowner cost guides, not its own data. The BLS median wage for an employed electrician, $30.38 an hour in May 2025, is employee pay. The owners' rule of thumb is to bill about three times what you want to earn per hour.

What markup do electricians put on materials?

30% was the most common of about 40 markups owners stated, and the range ran from 15% to 100%. Some add about 5% for small parts and surprises, some mark up parts off the truck on service calls far more than material on contract work, and one pads material quotes by 15% while copper prices move. A 30% markup keeps 23.1% of the material price as margin.

What is a reasonable day rate for an electrician?

Too few owners stated one to call it a market rate. One self-employed electrician aims to bill at least $1,500 a day to cover expenses, and for many jobs quotes just two labor prices, a half day and a whole day. Work yours out as your hourly rate times the hours you can bill in a day: at $125 and 7 billable hours, that's $875.

Is there a free electrical flat rate price book or electrician price list template?

Yes. This one is a spreadsheet for Excel or Google Sheets with 21 common electrical jobs. For each it shows the unit owners use, what owners said they charge and what Housecall Pro's customers charged, and works out your price from your hours, rate, material, markup and permit fees. It also prices a new house per opening and per square foot, and prints a customer price list that shows prices only.

Sources

1. Housecall Pro, "Electrician Prices 2026: Hourly Rates, Costs & How to Price" (updated October 27, 2026) - method: "The service prices and regional prices in this guide come from 636,022 electrical service entries across 67 service categories from Housecall Pro customers over a 12-month period, ending September 2026"; "Ranges reflect individual services and may not include every charge on the final bill"; "Hourly rates, urban and rural rate differences, service call fees, emergency premiums, permit and inspection fees, and the rows marked * were compiled from national sources, including cost guides from Angi, HomeAdvisor, and Thumbtack". Measured rows used here: replace a single-pole switch $90 to $385; replace a 15- or 20-amp receptacle $180 to $930; replace an indoor receptacle with a GFCI $199 to $848; replace faulty breakers $190 to $850; customer-supplied light fixture $160 to $535; customer-supplied ceiling fan on an existing box $199 to $550; microwave outlet and dedicated 20-amp circuit $459 to $1,388; whole-house surge protector $395 to $703; EV charger circuit and associated components $375 to $1,150; 20-circuit, 100-amp load center and all breakers $1,200 to $4,219; 30-circuit, 200-amp load center and all breakers $2,250 to $5,100. Recessed lighting and whole-house rewiring are marked * (third-party) and not used. housecallpro.com, read November 3, 2026.
2. Deepsel research, prices stated by US electricians on r/electricians and r/AskElectricians, August 2024 to October 2026, plus Mike Holt forum posts for per-opening and per-square-foot pricing: 184 sourced figures from 157 authors, Canadian posters and known promotional accounts removed. Counts by job (authors): service call or first hour 22; hourly rate 21; panel or service, all sizes 27 (same-size 200 A panel swap 6, 100 A to 200 A service upgrade 20); recessed light 12; multi-device swaps 8 (roughly $15 to $75 a device, from per-device rates and job totals); EV charger circuit 8; ceiling fan 5 (4 on an existing box, 3 with a new box or wiring); rewire per square foot 5; new house per square foot 4 (including two forum posts); per opening, new house 3 plus one forum bidder; remodel per opening 2; material markup about 40 statements read. Surge: 29 owner posts mention it, 0 ask its price, 1 figure. Generator install: 0 prices. Per-amp pricing: 0 mentions. Most posters don't say they own the business; ownership is inferred from wording. Counted November 2, 2026.
3. r/electricians, "Why are so many electricians charging so low?" (June 8, 2026): "Troubleshooting can make sense hourly because you don’t always know what you’re walking into." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
4. r/electricians, "Customers keep questioning my hourly charges" (December 12, 2025), an owner's reply: "If it’s investigation work then we charge that hourly - but by and large we just quote jobs." We set aside the post itself, which came from an account posting in unrelated subs, and kept the replies. reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
5. r/electricians comment, Maryland (June 25, 2025): "I charge around 5500 for service upgrades including grounds rods ect for counties that are still on 2017 nec so no emergency disconnect"; $6,500 in counties on the 2020 code or later. reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
6. r/AskElectricians comment (May 21, 2025): "Complete service & panel upgrade is $4,250, but I did one (time & material) on Monday for $3,582". reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
7. r/electricians comment (May 9, 2025): "Once I pull a permit for a new mast the local inspector will fail it unless the meter socket is brought up to current code with a disconnect." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
8. r/AskElectricians comment, owner of a Midwest electrical contracting company (October 8, 2025): "I charge an average of $2250 for this. My materials are generally around $800 and I can get it done in 4-6 hours". reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
9. EV charger circuit prices on r/AskElectricians: "my charge was only about $600, I supplied wire and breaker, they supply charger. Typically a 1- 2 hr max job." (December 15, 2024, reddit.com); "$1700 is right there in the reasonable quote area." (December 21, 2025, two garage outlets, reddit.com). Quotes checked November 2, 2026.
10. Qmerit, home EV charger installation costs (updated October 27, 2026): "Installing a Level 2 EV charger at home costs $1,700 on average, but can range between $749 and $2,500, according to Qmerit’s 2026 installation data." Its example of a $1,700 project: charging hardware $800, electrician labor and permitting $600, materials $300. Qmerit is an installer network, so these are its own jobs. qmerit.com, read November 3, 2026.
11. r/electricians (March 3, 2026), an electrician on a private-equity-backed company's prices: "surge protector installations ($1100 should be $450-$650)" (reddit.com); r/electricians comment (March 28, 2026): "$5600 for a panel swap as well. Surge protector included." (reddit.com). Quotes checked November 2, 2026.
12. r/electricians, "Did I overbid myself out of a job?" (August 22, 2025): the poster, "That was my exact labor budget; 20 hours @ $50/hr…and the dude legit said “12 lights should take 12 hours…I’ll just do it myself”" (reddit.com); "OKC- I’m not cheap but I’m at $195/can or wafer. Switchlegs are $347/ea. service call is $125." (reddit.com); top reply, "Me personally I would be at roughly 2500 with out doing to much math." (reddit.com). Quotes checked November 2, 2026.
13. r/electricians, re-device thread (August 20, 2025): a California owner, "I’m typically charging $50-$75 per device on re-devices" (reddit.com); a shop owner, "Hi, shop owner here. There are always surprises behind the original devices." and "I would inspect a few devices first before committing to a bid." (reddit.com). Quotes checked November 2, 2026.
14. r/electricians comment by an owner who "started my own business about a year ago" (November 6, 2024): "Resi stuff I price "per opening" for receptacles, lighting outlets, switches, paddle fans, exhaust fans, etc." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
15. r/electricians, "How do you guys estimate for a builder?" (October 30, 2026): "Price per opening. Price per home run. Service is priced separately . On a remodel I’m anywhere from $150-250 for a can/wafer depending on difficulty. Receptacle is $160." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
16. Per-opening prices: r/electricians (September 11, 2024), on large custom homes, "I charge 55 for a receptacle opening, 55 for a single pole, 65 for a 3 way, and 75 for a 4 way." (reddit.com, no longer on live Reddit; read in an archive copy); r/electricians comment (July 4, 2025), a former employee describing a small south Florida shop, "$150 per opening (switch’s, receptacles, lights, fans, basically wherever your placing a box.) and 25% mark up on all material." (reddit.com); Mike Holt forum, "Biding" (December 14, 2025), "In residential around here, Kansas City metro it starts at $50 per opening, and then add service entrance." and "last couple residential jobs I bid I’m over $200/per opening, which probably seems insane to most here, and me as well" (search snippets, forums.mikeholt.com). Checked November 2, 2026.
17. r/electricians, "Bidding houses" (February 14, 2026): "Sqft pricing is at the end of the day what the builder will look at, but it’s a horrible way to bid jobs." and "Build assemblies then do a takeoff. Let’s say a 15 amp outlet; that’s 1 box, a few wire nuts, one outlet, one plate cover and +/- 15ft of wire." reddit.com, quotes checked November 2, 2026.
18. r/electricians comment (September 3, 2026): "For residential new construction, many contractors including myself charge a price per sq ft for code minimum." The same commenter gives $7 a square foot locally. reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
19. r/electricians, "Mass square footage rates" (February 21, 2026), a reply to a Massachusetts journeyman starting out: "No one prices by the sqft anymore. To much money left on the table." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
20. Mike Holt forum: "I’m in the Midwest and that number in my immediate area is $5-$7 a sq ft." ("Midwest residential pricing", November 21, 2024, forums.mikeholt.com); "Seems like forever a number of contractors were stuck in the $5/$6/ a sq ft pricing fior new builds.", with prices now up "30% or more" ("New residential prices finally going up around here", August 7, 2026, forums.mikeholt.com). Search snippets; threads not read in full. Checked November 2, 2026.
21. r/electricians comments: "My average is $10 per square foot for the rough, $5 per square foot for trim, $100 per ceiling fan and $100 per hour for difficult light fixtures." (July 4, 2025, reddit.com); "I am getting almost 39000 to do a 2400 square foot ranch" (September 11, 2024, reddit.com). Quotes checked November 2, 2026.
22. r/electricians post, a Massachusetts electrician preparing to go out on his own (March 16, 2025): "after talking to some electricians that do I decided to go with pricing per device."; "I came in around $40k"; "Another quote the builder got was around 19k and a third quote was around 26k." reddit.com, quotes checked November 2, 2026.
23. r/electricians thread (July 4, 2025): a new owner's planned $13,500 for a 1,908 square foot rewire with a new panel; replies put it at about $20,000, $30,000 to $35,000 and $40,000, and one called it "a very fair price". reddit.com, checked November 2, 2026.
24. r/electricians, "Bidding residential" (April 12, 2026), a reply with 99 points: "trim out only = t&m". reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
25. r/AskElectricians comment (April 16, 2025), to a new owner asking how to price: "Time and material is the only way to finish someone else's work." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
26. r/electricians comment, Iowa owner (March 14, 2025): "I’m in Iowa and charge $110 per hour T&M and markup materials by 1.35."; bid work figured at $160 an hour. reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
27. Mike Holt forum, "How would one bid a hotel?" (April 24, 2025): "Do a complete material takeoff, price the material and apply published labor units to each nut/bolt." and "You can't apply labor rates to those man/hrs like you do service wok either...you'll get clobbered." Search snippets; thread not read in full. forums.mikeholt.com, checked November 2, 2026.
28. NECA, "NECA Manual of Labor Units (MLU)": "NECA’s labor units include normal material handling, drawing study, measurement and layout, material installation, and normal non-productive labor"; "NECA’s the labor units do not include any labor for supervision of any type"; "The NECA labor unit tables include three different labor units for each item." 2025-2027 edition sold as a PDF or subscription. necanet.org, read November 3, 2026.
29. r/electricians comment (November 1, 2024): "We charge $118 for service and $60 for plan spec bid jobs." (reddit.com, no longer on live Reddit; read in an archive copy); Mike Holt forum, "Is the GC the problem or me lol" (May 3, 2025): "So if you're charging $200/hr for service, you can charge $120/hr for a 50-100hr job and it's still basically the same pay per hour" (search snippet, forums.mikeholt.com). Checked November 2, 2026.
30. r/electricians comment (March 25, 2025): "we charge a few hundred dollars to wait for an inspector all day." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
31. r/electricians, "Underbidding" (January 26, 2026): "To pay yourself $40 an hour, you need to triple that so estimate at $120 an hour." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
32. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Electricians (47-2111), median hourly wage: US $30.38; MA $38.18, NY $37.86, MN $37.58, CT $37.28, NJ $37.14, ID $30.29, VA $30.24, CO $29.92, UT $29.81, LA $29.59, IA $29.26, NE $29.24, AR $23.59. Employees only. Read from the BLS public data API (series OEUN000000000000047211108 and the matching state series); tables at bls.gov, read November 3, 2026.
33. r/electricians comment, owner with six employees (January 21, 2026): "charge flat rate prices. Go look at the job and charge based on that labor rate say $200/hr plus materials. If you are getting 1/3 jobs you price your price is good." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
34. SubcontractorHub, "Electrical Labor Price List 2026: Flat Rate Pricing Guide & Price Book" (September 21, 2026): "The ranges assume a loaded labor rate between roughly $115 and $195 per hour, which covers most US markets in 2026."; "These ranges are a coverage and sanity check, not a price book you can adopt." subcontractorhub.com, read November 3, 2026.
35. r/electricians comment (December 10, 2024): "I go 30% on material and always add a 5% WTF charge, for unseen problems." reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
36. r/electricians comment (July 6, 2026): "I charge 30% on contract work for materials and 100-1000% for anything off the truck doing service" reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.
37. r/electricians, "Anyone seeing copper wire price increases lately?" (October 6, 2026): "I just add 15% on top of my material quote now and hope it covers the jump between now and when i actually buy it" reddit.com, quote checked November 2, 2026.