Small industrial unit, advice on pricing

[mgnelec09]

Hi All,

I am due to wire a small industrial unit, they want 14 double sockets 10x 3phase 16 amp sockets, a new mains board and all wired in swa cable on metal tray.
The gear will cost around £1000.00. was thinking around a week to install.
can anyone give me a ball park figure for the whole job?
Ive to test and certify all work also. many thanks

 

[i=p/u]

just multiply by 5 like a big gun would, on a serious note only you should know whats involved but sure someone has few points to make as they have done it lots of times. and welcome

 

[malcolmsanford]

5 @ 8 hours a day @ 35 pound an hour x = 1400 for labour 1000 plus mark up of 15% = 1150 so ball park would be 2500 pound.

As it is commerical you should charge a little more than you normally do for domestic. In the good old days you could have charged over 50 pounds an hour in the SE but times have changed, and you would know your area and market.

 

[bugsy]

How many metres of cable and what size, how many metres of cable tray, what size board?

 

[telectrix]

i would have thought that it would pay you to have a mate with you for the containment and pulling cables. either add his wages for the week, or recalculate your timespan for 2 ( maybe do it in 4 days ) and price accordingly. e.g. your labour for 4 days + £400 for the mate.

 

[mgnelec09]

Thanks guys for your input.

Just checked the drawing...there is 12 machines all rated at around 5.5kva.

I was going to run a 2.5mm 4core to each machine and put each machine on a 16a tp breaker at the board.

Im a pretty new small business and havnt done a lot of new 3 phase installs as work mainly on domestic and commercial.

Is there a better way of doing the above or am I right doing this? it just seems like a lot of breakers and a big board for a small unit.

i.e. could I put two machines on the one breaker?

Ps only joined electricians forum yesterday,Was always a little sceptical.
How wrong I was as you guys have been so helpful. many thanks

 

[telectrix]

best practice would be each machine on its own dedicated radial and MCB. least of all , if there was a fault on a circuit, only 1 machine would be lost, and each machine can be individually isolated. IMO the only way to go.

 

[malcolmsanford]

How big is the area, and how long would the runs be. You could think about doing the install as a couple of Ring Circuits.

 

[Engineer54]

What type of business is it, and will those 12 machines be operated continuously during working hours. When working in Industrial type units/factories, careful assessment of installation requirements need to be ascertained, before the final design of such installations...

 

[mgnelec09]

It is going to be a joinery shop and the machines are saws, routers etc.
The building is about 25 metres by 12.

Didnt think you could run 3 phase in a ring?

The furthest cable run would be around 30 metres.

Was going to suspend some tray across at high level hung on catenary wire.

 

[bugsy]

If you give me all the runs materials etc I'll run it through our estimating system, need each run tray runs cable ets as per previous post

 

[netblindpaul]

NO, PLEASE, DO NOT RUN A 3ph RING.
YOU WILL NOT comply with legislation.
Listen to Engineer54.
You need to run individual supplies to each machine to comply with both 7671 & other statutory regs.
There are also considerations in 7671 you may not think about, check the brb carefully to ensure compliance in wood working premises.
It is easy to install a non compliant installation without realising!

 

[mgnelec09]

cable tray 6" =35 mtrs

3ph runs: 4x 30mtr, 3x 25 mtr,2x 20mtr, 3x 10 mtrs

14x 230 d/skts dotted around perimeter of building 25mtrx 12 ish pprob run in swa or pvc conduit and singles

Is there a website that you can get a reliable estimating program that is easy enough to use?

 

[mgnelec09]

Its a joinery shop only manned by 1-2 people.

therefore probably only 2 machines used at any one time.

thanks for your help

 

[bugsy]

£6,018.77 inc all fixings etc labour rate @ £24.65 inc our discounts plus 15% however this is based on the information you have given and does not include working at over 2m

 

[mgnelec09]

Thanks for getting back to me with this bugsy. much appreciated

 

[i=p/u]

my kind of price??

 

[bugsy]

Forgot to metion includes MK commando interlocked 415 s/o , MK metal clad DSSO ,priced as basket not tray ( easier to install) 415 runs all radials

 

[Engineer54]

Its a joinery shop only manned by 1-2 people.

therefore probably only 2 machines used at any one time.

thanks for your help

OK, Presently just two persons working in this factory unit, but that may increase as and if demands for the product(s) increase.

As suggested, wire any 3 phase outlets individually back to the DB, and balance across the phases, again ascertain the outlets that are going to be used most frequently. Not too sure about using catenary wire to hang the tray-work from. It's not going to be particularly rigid when clouted by lengths of wood, as it probably will be from time to time. Any reason for not using studding, it will give a little more rigidity ??

As for the the general purpose 13A socket outlets, i personally would use metallic conduit in an industrial environment, much better for mechanical protection, but aesthetically too. Conduit installations can work out much cheaper to install than SWA cabling if you are competent on conduit fabrication. To be honest you can't get much easier, than a single conduit run around the exterior walls, ...remember you don't have to make the conduit a ring back to the DB, only the circuit wiring . A single ''staggered ring circuit'' pulled in to the conduit installation will suffice, for your general purpose outlets.

 

[somersetsparks]

Id second engineer, on one of my moonlighters I priced a similar sounding job, although a bit smaller, worked out a lot cheaper to do in 2x2 trunking and 20mm tube, looked smarter as well, just had one run of trunking from DB around 3 sides.