My rates, in one place: £30 an hour, £240 a day, and an £80 call-out to attend. Out-of-hours work carries a 50% premium up to 10pm Monday to Friday and between 9am and 6pm at weekends, and double outside those hours — agreed before anyone drives anywhere. For context, Bristol electricians typically charge £65–£85 an hour and £140–£180 for an emergency call-out — I publish my rates because they're comfortably under that. Those are the headline numbers; the useful part of this guide is what they include, when hourly is the wrong way to buy electrical work at all, and the questions that tell you whether a rate is honest.
My rates
These are estimates, not quotes. Final costings always follow a free site inspection — and jobs often come in under the estimate, never over without you agreeing it first.
| Charging basis | Estimate | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | £30 | Small jobs, fault finding, extras on site |
| Day rate | £240 (8 hrs × £30) | Rewires, first fix, project work |
| Call-out | £80, then £30/hour | Attendance for faults and repairs |
| Emergency / out-of-hours | +50% Mon–Fri to 10pm & Sat–Sun 9–6 · +100% otherwise | Same-day, evenings, weekends |
Region moves these meaningfully, London sits well above everywhere else, and so does what's riding along: a rate from a scheme-registered business carrying insurance, calibrated test gear and certification isn't buying the same product as a cash rate that includes none of it.
What a rate includes: and the questions that expose a bad one
Three questions sort quotes faster than any comparison site. "Is the first hour included in the call-out?" The classic gotcha is a call-out fee plus hour one on top. "What's the minimum charge?" Half-day minimums are legitimate for some trades and some distances, but you want them declared, not discovered. "Does the price include testing and certification?" Any job touching the fixed wiring should end with paperwork; a rate that treats certificates as an extra is quietly not including the part that protects you. Honest answers to all three take ten seconds each, and hesitation is itself an answer.
Want a price, not a meter running?
Describe the job with a photo and you'll get a written fixed price — that's how I quote everything I can.
Hourly vs quoted: when each is the right way to buy
Hourly suits genuinely open-ended work: fault finding, where nobody knows the answer until it's found, and dribs-and-drabs jobs bundled into a visit. Fixed quotes suit everything defined: a board change, a rewire, a shower circuit, where the scope is knowable and the risk of it running long should sit with the professional who priced it, not with you. Be wary of defined jobs sold hourly, that's scope risk transferred to you, and of open-ended jobs quoted suspiciously fixed, which usually means either padding or a change-order ambush later.
Why this site publishes ranges
Every service page here carries its price range with the variables that move it, which most trades won't do, on the theory that quoting blind protects margins. The theory's cost is yours: hours spent extracting numbers that should be public. Ranges published, variables explained, exact price confirmed in writing from photos of the actual job, that's the model, and this guide is its keystone.
How much does an electrician cost per hour?
£30 an hour plus an £80 call-out is my standard rate. Anything well above that elsewhere should come with a reason — London weighting, specialist kit or unsocial hours.
What is a call-out charge?
The fee for attending, usually wrapping travel and the first hour's labour. Its legitimate job is covering the true cost of a van arriving; its illegitimate one is being stacked on top of hour one, which is why you ask.
Do electricians charge for quotes?
For standard domestic work, mostly no, and photo-based quoting makes free even easier to sustain. Complex survey work is the honest exception, and it should be flagged as chargeable before it happens.
Why do emergency electricians cost more?
You're buying displacement: someone's evening, another job bumped, the standing readiness to answer. The premium is honest when it's published in advance and predatory when it's invented at your door at 11pm.
Getting a number instead of a range: call me or send the job with photos and you'll get a written price back.
