Rewiring a property

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a sum, but when ever I have work done I get a minimum of 3 estimates.

    I have just bought a property near Pecs, it needs retiring as the current wiring is the old aluminium style. Could someone give me a ballpark figure what it would cost to get this done please? The property is 150 2m and I would like it done to a good spec. Thanks.
   

    -@tristan65

We renovated from scratch about 7 years ago.  Our house is larger, about 200m2 on two floors. If I remember correctly, it cost about 5-7K EUR for a complete rewiring job including some special features - like connecting an outbuilding/shed, connecting airco/heat pump on a special tariff. We have "industrial" 3-phase supply here  (it's not that common now).   Price includes all his supplied materials and labour. However, we bought the bulk of materials ourselves. The electrician gave us a list and we ordered it from a supplier.   I can do my own electrical work but I didn't have the time back then.

One electrician working alone did the entire building and it took him about 3 weeks. We had to have another authorised guy to reconnect to the actual power company, replace the meters etc.  He took about one or two days to do that bit as we needed the power company to come by to replace the overhead cables to the street pole.     

Electricity is quite easy.   The worst one is gas.   That can take months.

@fluffy2560

Thanks for that, much appreciated. I have out bulidings too, probably about another 150 sq, I want to convert some of the attic space into a man cave. I'm guessing I should budget around the 10k mark?

    @fluffy2560Thanks for that, much appreciated. I have out bulidings too, probably about another 150 sq, I want to convert some of the attic space into a man cave. I'm guessing I should budget around the 10k mark?        -@tristan65

It's a bit like how long is a piece of string.  Depends what you want to have there.  150 m2 is quite substantial. My outbuilding is about 40m2 max downstairs and possible usuable area of 30m2 upstairs in the roof.

My outbuilding is fully networked/cabled for the Internet and powered with 3-phase to use "big tools".  I did all the shed electrical work myself except putting in the underground cable.   

We don't have any heating or gas there.   But we have put in sewage and water connections to the edge of the building but we haven't connected anything as the building needs total renovation inside and outside and a new roof.   

If we did want heating so I could hang out in the winter, I'd put in a wood burning stove and a electric airco/heatpump (it provides  more instant heat). Needs a drain for the condensate.  Your attic space could get really hot in the summer.  We can hardly go in our house attic in the summer.  We've got roof windows (Velux) and it's an absolute sauna. I'm putting in a ceiling fan in the main bedroom and I have to wait until the evening before it's cool enough to get to the cables that route to the ceiling under the attic floor.

In the shed, I'm planning a kind of galeria part.  We have to replace the roof, so I'm going to have it "open plan" in half the shed - I want to install a steel beam there for lifting heavy objects (i.e. car engines).  I have looked into a car lift but it's verging on bonkers to have one of those.  It's affordable but one needs more space than we have. And I'm getting a bit old for that kind of mucking about.

If you're not doing it yourself,  10K including fittings sounds quite reasonable.  You could add a bit more, say 1.5K for an airco/heatpump.  They aren't expensive - under 1K EUR plus a bit for the work if you have the special off peak use agreement with the power company.  Our heatpump/airco untis are off 0800-1000h and 1800-2000h.  It has its own meter and switch gear. 

Whatever you do, double all your sockets.  We told our electrician, wherever there's a socket, make it a double or even a triple.  He thought we were mad.  But then again, we also installed RCD (US: GFCI) devices installed.  He argued about that on cost grounds but it's a essential safety feature.  RCD is Residual Current Device.  They aren't compulsory here but they should be.

    It's exciting to have a project like this. As for rewiring, it really depends on a few factors like the complexity of the job and the quality of the materials you want to use. I'd recommend getting a few quotes from local electricians to get a better idea. They'll be able to give you a ballpark figure based on your specific needs.
   

    -@mariadelosangelesgonzalezbocci

I'd just add to that helpful advice that it's worth shopping around, especially online.

I bought a double switch and plastic surround in my local electrical shop - 2500 HUF and 500 HUF.

In Obi, the same thing, 4000 HUF and 750 HUF.   

It's only a small saving of 1750 HUF but that's 3 litres of petrol/diesel at today's prices!!

It all adds up.

@fluffy2560 mate I could do with tapping you up for more advice when I’m over there do some work. Ive done some rewiring work in the past, all 240v and on a ring main, I wouldn't mind adding some 3 phase to one of the garages as I want to get a mill and lathe in there plus a few other bits and pieces.

    @fluffy2560 mate I could do with tapping you up for more advice when I’m over there do some work. Ive done some rewiring work in the past, all 240v and on a ring main, I wouldn't mind adding some 3 phase to one of the garages as I want to get a mill and lathe in there plus a few other bits and pieces.
   

    -@tristan65

If you've got 3-phase, keep it.  The standard now is single phase.   If you have 3-phase, make sure the electrician knows you want it to remain.  Each phase is like 20A on my installation.

I don't have any lathes or milling machines yet but I've got various welders - stick welders, mig and a nifty plasma cutter (that's like 30A+ which I've connected to a specific phase). 

I'd like a lathe/milling machine but single phase only.  It's only a hobby thing. I'm not doing industrial work.

For underground cables, you've got to uprate the cable to your maximum power plus like 20+% to take into account heating of the cable underground. 

The cable we used is 4-core armoured, in underground conduit, buried about 18" down (below spade depth).  The conduit we used is water pipe but really it should have been orange electrical conduit which is easily available.   The cores were phases L1, L2 and L3 plus Neutral.   There's no Ground/Earth because the Neutral is connected to Earth at the substation.   However, I installed my own Earth rod at the shed in case there's an Earth voltage differential between the house and the shed.  I use that electrode for earthing stuff in the shed, not the house Earth.

When you rewired your place did you go the hungarian way and use a radial circuit or the UK way with a ring main?  Is it actually feasable to rewire the place using a ring main system?