Day rate, hourly or price-work?
You'll be offered all three. Each suits a different kind of job, and mixing them up is how money leaks out of your week.
Day rate (£280–£420 nationally) works when you control the scope — a fault-find that turns into three hours, or a rewire where you know the house type. You're billing for time and skill, not guessing. Divide your daily target by 8 to sanity-check the hourly equivalent.
Hourly (£45–£55/hour typical) suits small repairs and emergency work where the customer wants transparency — but long diagnostics eat your margin, so most experienced sparks anchor on a day rate and only quote hourly when the job size is genuinely uncertain.
Price-work (fixed quote) demands accuracy. Under-estimate a kitchen rewire and you've given away profit. Once you've done twenty consumer units your estimate should land within 10% — the job-cost calculator builds the number for you.
Where you work lifts your rate
London and the South East run 30–40% above the national average; the North East sits around 15% below. That's cost of living, congestion, and client density — not greed. Charge at the top of your region if you've got the credentials, and check the live figure on the electrician benchmark page.
The jobs that pay
- EICRs — a three-bed inspection is 3–4 hours plus report time; priced properly with certification you're at the top of your range.
- Consumer unit swaps — a like-for-like change is 2–3 hours including testing; add time for extra circuits.
- Emergency / out-of-hours — set a minimum call-out (£80–£150 even for a 15-minute reset) and add 50–100% for evenings and weekends. You're paid for availability, not just time.
A worked EICR
A landlord wants an EICR on a 1985 three-bed with mixed wiring. Access and scope 30 min, inspection and testing 3.5 hrs, report and certification 1 hr — five hours. At £60/hour that's £300 labour; add the e-cert fee and consumables and you're at ~£330 cost. Sell at £450 (a sensible margin, still competitive) with a retest follow-up included. The person quoting £250 has almost certainly left out the paperwork.
Common mistakes
- "Day rate" but working ten hours. Cap the day at eight or name an evening premium, or your £350 becomes £32/hour.
- Not charging for diagnosis. Ninety minutes finding a tripped RCD is billable labour, not a free call-out.
- Ignoring real overheads. Van, insurance, tax, holidays, training and kit all have to be inside the rate. Run your own number in the day-rate calculator.
- Under-estimating rewires. A 1970s bungalow rewire is 5–6 days minimum — overestimate, build margin, and finish-early as a bonus.
Once you've got your number, send it as a proper document with the quote builder — a clean quote beats a text message every time.