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Putting commercial quote in perspective

Doing some electrical work in a commercial building and have been told to use the buildings approved electrical contractor.

The quote he gave me seems outrageous, and I wanted to see what people though.

Here is a basic run down of the environment.

My suite has a 480V 3PH 200amp feed coming into it.

  1. Install a 480V 400A 3PH panel and connect to incoming feed (5ft hard conduit) Price: 00

  1. Install a 208V 200A 3PH panel Price: 00

  2. Run an electrical connection (15 feet / hard conduit) with remote disconnect to an HVAC unit Price: 00

  1. Wire a UPS into the LINE 480V panel, and the LOAD 208V panel, total of 10 ft of hard conduit. Price: 00

  2. Run three conduits from the 208V UPS load panel to three 208V 200A
3PH sub-panels. Use 100amp breakers on the main, and 45 feet total conduit. Price: $9000

At first glance, I thought this pricing was very high consider it really isnt that much work as far as man hours, and the parts are not astronomical in price. Am I wrong?

Reply to
essenz
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Suggest to you higher ups that competitive bidding might be better for their bottom line AND make someone look very good to their higher ups.

Without knowing where in the world you are and all the conditions surrounding the quote one can only speculate about the rates quoted.

Be advised that copper and other electrical materials cost have increased substantially and most electricians are either highballing or giving estimates contingent on market prices.

Reply to
Tim Perry

Think of it this way. With all the safety, labor, bonding, licensing, permitting, inspection,and insurance laws it used to cost from $50 to $100 an hour for a contractor to do work in the US. Now with a 20 per cent decline in the value of the dollar the costs are higher. China is competing for copper so copper goes up in price as we talk. So get it done now, before the price goes up.

Reply to
Gerald Newton

I spoke to contractor again today. He said that a 480V 3PH 400A panel is $2500 and his hourly labor rate is $95 per hour.

I still dont see how that correlates to $6000 for installing the panel.

Say $3000 for panel and 10 ft of cable/conduit, that leaves $3000. Say $1000 for permits, etc.,. $2000 left for labor. At $95 an hour, thats

21 hours, almost 3 days.

I dont know about you, but bolting a panel to a wall and running 10 ft of cable/conduit should only take 1 day.

And the HVAC connection was quoted at $2400. Again, $100 for the disconnect, say $500 for permit, leaving $1800 for labor, or 18 hours

- again a little more then 2 days. The HVAC hookup is literally just running 15 ft of cable/conduit from the panel to the disconnect.

Maybe I'm old school, and just believe you should put > >

Reply to
essenz

It is probably a two-man job, so cut the elapsed time estimates in half.

200A and 400A three-phase feeders aren't like the wires in your house, and we don't know what the environment is there. Straight runs, offsets, height from the ground, etc?

I agree with the others, that rather than looking for reaction to one quote, you should get competitive bids, then question the high bidder's price if there is a high one.

Ben Miller

Reply to
Ben Miller

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