Around £485 excluding VAT for a typical ten-way board with individual circuit protection, supplied and installed. Published figures run from about £350 for a smaller home with six circuits to £800 for a larger one with twelve or more, and by property type they land at roughly £350 for a terrace, £550 for a semi and £750 for a large detached house.
The published figures disagree, and it is worth knowing by how much
Checkatrade's dedicated consumer unit guide, dated June 2026, gives the £485 figure. Its own hourly-rate guide, dated May 2026, gives £625 within a £450 to £800 range for the same job. That is a 29% gap between two pages of one publisher.
Which? Trusted Traders, surveying nineteen traders in November 2025, gives £500 to £1,500 for supply and fit on a standard three-bed semi, taking half a day to a day. Its top end is close to triple the Checkatrade average. All of these exclude VAT.
The pattern is the same one that runs through this trade: modelled averages sit low and tight, surveyed trader ranges sit wide and high. For a South London quote, expect to land above the modelled average rather than on it.
The parts and the labour, separately
Published component pricing, all excluding VAT and from June 2026: labour to install a board is around £160 regardless of type. A ten-way board supplied on its own is about £120 with standard breakers or £250 with individual protection on each circuit. Removing the old fuse box is around £75, meter tail cable around £4 a metre, and replacing a single circuit breaker about £52.50.
That breakdown is useful for one purpose above all: it shows how much of the price is the board and how much is the work around it. A quote that looks high against these figures is usually carrying remedial work, not margin.
Board types change the number
A dual RCD board is the cheaper option and separates circuits into groups, so one fault trips several circuits at once. A main switch board with individual protection on every circuit gives full separation at a higher component cost, so a fault in the kitchen leaves the lights on upstairs. A high integrity board sits between them, grouping most circuits and giving individual protection to critical ones.
Supply-only prices reflect that: from £30 to £200 for a part-populated main switch board, £80 to £200 for a part-populated dual RCD, and £70 to £250 for a populated high integrity board, all excluding VAT. Since the labour is roughly the same either way, upgrading the board type is one of the cheaper decisions on the job.
The number of circuits is the biggest driver
More circuits means more ways on the board, more terminations, and more testing. It is described as the single largest influence on the cost, ahead of property size.
The second driver is the one that turns a fixed price into a variable one: the condition of the existing wiring. Defects have to be fixed before a new board goes in, because the new board will find them. A properly conducted change involves testing every circuit before energising it, and circuits that fail cannot be reconnected as they are.
This is why an electrician who inspects before quoting is worth more than one who prices over the phone. A quote given without seeing the existing installation is a guess with a provisional sum hiding inside it.
Replacing a consumer unit is notifiable work
Regulation 12(6A)(b) of the Building Regulations 2010 names the replacement of a consumer unit specifically. It is one of only a handful of domestic electrical jobs that must be notified, alongside installing a new circuit and altering circuits in a special location.
In practice that means either a registered electrician self-certifies the work and the scheme notifies your council, or the work is notified to building control in advance. It is also why published guidance says quotes for this job usually include testing and certification: they have to.
Expect an Electrical Installation Certificate from the electrician and, where the work was self-certified, a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate issued by the scheme rather than by the electrician. Both are worth filing, because they are what a buyer's solicitor will eventually ask for.
Whether you need one at all
Modern boards improve safety, meet current requirements and remove the need to replace fuses after a trip. Beyond that, the honest prompts are condition-led rather than age-led: rewireable fuses rather than breakers, no residual current protection, repeated unexplained tripping, or a condition report that codes the existing board.
If a new board is being recommended alongside other work, ask which of those applies to yours. A board change is a legitimate upgrade and also an easy upsell, and the difference lies in whether anyone tested the installation first.
Notifiable work is the wrong place to take a chance on who turns up.