commercial
Industrial electrical and machinery
Industrial rates run £50 to £90 an hour, and breakdown response is priced separately because that is what the work actually is. On a line that is down, the cost of the electrician is a rounding error against the cost of the hour, and everybody involved knows it.
What this covers
What it costs. £50 to £90 an hour in working hours and more for breakdown response out of them. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Machine power, isolation and emergency stops
- Control panel building and modification
- Motor starters, inverters and three phase distribution
- Breakdown response on production lines
- Containment and cable management on factory floors
What is involved
The work divides into installation and keeping things running. Installation is machine power, isolation and emergency stops, containment across a factory floor, motor starters and inverter drives, and three phase distribution out to it. Maintenance is thermal imaging on distribution boards, planned inspection on a shorter cycle than any domestic installation, and the breakdown call that arrives without notice.
Isolation is the discipline that separates this from commercial work. Every machine needs a means of isolation that can be locked off, and safe working means proving dead, locking off and holding the key rather than trusting a switch and a colleague. A site that runs a permit system will expect an electrician to work inside it. An electrician who is impatient with that is the wrong electrician for a factory, whatever they are like on a house.
Control panels are their own specialism. Building one, modifying one, or fault finding on a panel somebody else built and nobody documented is slow, methodical work, and the value is in the drawings as much as the wiring. A panel modified over fifteen years with no updated schematic is the commonest thing an industrial electrician meets, and the first hour on it is usually spent drawing what is actually there.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask what their breakdown response time is and whether it is contractual. Ask whether they work to a permit system and are used to one. Ask whether panel drawings are updated and handed over as part of the price, because that is what the next person needs. Ask about experience with the specific drives or controls on your plant.
Common questions
What response time can I expect on a breakdown?
Under an arrangement, whatever was agreed, commonly four hours or next working day. Cold, it is whenever somebody is free. On plant where downtime is expensive, the arrangement is the thing worth buying.
Do you work to our permit system?
Any electrician who works in industry should expect to, and should say so without complaint. Someone impatient with permits is the wrong choice for a factory however good their work is.