OT - British Gas - electric rip off

Well, it cost me £150 just to get an RCD replaced which seemed a lot but my need was great! Given that it seems to cost over £100 to get just about anything done that requires someone to come out to the house I wasn't that surprised.

Bear in mind trade price here for a consumer unit is less than 60 quid including breakers. Then go figure.

Steve

Ah But

First of all some one has to come and break the seal and remove the main fuse

Then another person has to come and replace the Consumer Unit

Then it has to be certified by some a CORGI Engineer

Then the fuse has to be replaced and resealed

Some one may remember Flanders and Swann's "The gas man Cometh".

And that was before the days of CORGI

Regards

DieSea

Consumer unit is about £60 to £80, populated.

Three hour's work to install (and that's being generous) plus one hour for testing.

Assuming they're adding 100% on the consumer unit (usual mark-up for a major utility company) they're charging about £120 an hour (plus VAT on the lot) which sounds a touch high to me.

Even BT only charge £100 an hour.

You should be able to hire a local electrician who has done the 17th Edition course to do the job for about £120 to £150 plus bits, and he'll probably let you buy the bits.

'twas on Monday morning that the gas man came to call, the gas tap wouldn't turn, I wasn't getting gas at all. He tore out all the skirting boards to try and find the main, and I had to call the carpenter to put them back again...

Oh it all makes work for the working man to do....

No CORGI for electricity.

And the qualification just changed for the 'certifying electrician'.

For the next three months or so there may be a shortage of people about who can sign off on jobs in your home.

The qualification costs about £120 and takes a day down at you local tech for people with a 'Level 3' (ONC or BTEC) electrical engineering qualification.

we get an awful lot of electrical work done for work (computer/ projector installs in schools), and the electricians we use charge =A3200/day for one man and his apprentice.

Fitting a consumer unit should be a fairly easy days work I'd have thought.

what do the 'leccy baord do if they find the seal on your main fuse is broken? (because youre taken it out yourself)

I broke mine and when they came to replace my meter a few months later the woman who did it didnt even mention the broken seal.

I know it is bad that now even as MIEE I am not qualified to change a fuse, but I didn't think we'd allowed the CORGIs to take over electrical installation as well as Gas.

Surely C.Eng MIEE must wallop "Level 3" Btec ?

Steve

Can you come out and fix a washing machine? No? No chance then!

Certainly, if you can convince the people down at the tech that you know that a screwdriver cuts your hand open when you hold it by the wrong end.

I'm told, by people who have done the course, that it's trivial to pass the 'examination' at the end.

In message , puffernutter writes

There is another option - tell them to f**** off and leave it as it is.

Remember the BG boiler scam - bonus for every one they sold on inspection.

This particular lot is absolutely nothing to do with Europe.

It's all very British...

I'm intrigued. What do I ask for at t' college ?

Steve

No, its an EU imposition. IEE news had a lot of correspondence on it.

Steve

True, but this CU sounds very old, and personally I'd want to inspect it before I passed it off.

Steve

All,

Thanks for the comments, it was about what I figured. I'll push her harder to get more quotes!

I'm glad I did mine before Part P came in, and I'm FIEE (and still not allowed to touch it!)

Cheers

Peter

Some one as OLD AS ME REMEMBERS

Its my short term memory that has a problem

DieSea

Ok a mate of mine is a "Heating Engineer" in Bradford and CORGI registered

He tells me when the computer controls for central heating is put in it has to be signed off

He takes from April 'till September off and goes "Vanning with his Disco

He must charge too much

DieSea