What a panel cost actually contains
The quote you receive normally bundles four things: the enclosure and its internals, the protective devices, the labour to assemble and test, and the cable terminations at each end. Only the first two are catalogue items. The third varies with how the board is built, and the fourth is often the difference between two quotes that look identical on paper.
The most reliable way to price a panel is to build the bill of materials first:
| Element | What to count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Enclosure | Ways, IP rating, metal or insulated | Access and cable entries affect labour |
| Main switch or incomer | Rating, poles | Often sized by the supply fuse |
| Breakers | Ways used, curve, rating | Spare ways are a design decision, not a cost saving |
| RCD / RCBO | Type (AC, A, B), sensitivity | Type A costs more than AC and is often required |
| Surge protection | Type 2 usually, Type 1 at origin | Increasingly requested by insurers |
| Metering / monitoring | Optional | Adds wiring and panel space |
| Busbar and links | Per pole | Comb busbars cut labour significantly |
| Terminals and ferrules | Per core | The invisible line that separates tidy from rushed |
| Labels and schedule | One per panel | Required for a usable handover |
| Testing | Per board | Insulation, continuity, loop, RCD times |
The labour side
Assembly hours scale with ways, but not linearly. The first ten ways and the next ten are not the same work, because the second ten usually come with more circuits, more cable entries and more labelling. A useful model is: base time for the enclosure and incomer, plus time per way, plus a fixed testing allowance, plus a factor for how crowded the build is.
Three things move labour more than the component count:
- Dressing and routing. A panel wired with comb busbars and pre-cut lengths takes a fraction of the time of one wired point to point.
- Documentation. A schedule that matches the panel is worth the twenty minutes it takes; a panel without one costs the next person an hour.
- Access. A board in a finished hallway with the floor down is slower than the same board on a bench.
The estimating formula
Use this as a scaffold, not a truth:
panel cost = (Σ component prices × quantity) + (base hours + ways × hours per way + test hours) × labour rate + contingency
Then add the parts that are easy to forget: transport, waste, the extra hour for a late delivery, and the certificate. Contingency of 10–15% on a first estimate is normal practice, not padding.
Because component prices are local, the arithmetic only becomes meaningful when you supply your own numbers. A structured tool that generates the bill of materials from the design removes the counting step — the documentation section explains what the export contains.
A worked model with index units
To show the shape without inventing prices, the table below uses cost units. Treat the enclosure as 1.0 and express everything else relative to it; multiply by your own local enclosure price at the end.
| Line | Quantity | Index per unit | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enclosure, 24 ways | 1 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Main switch | 1 | 0.18 | 0.18 |
| RCBO, type A | 8 | 0.22 | 1.76 |
| MCB, spare ways | 6 | 0.06 | 0.36 |
| Surge protection | 1 | 0.30 | 0.30 |
| Busbar and links | 1 | 0.15 | 0.15 |
| Terminals, ferrules, labels | 1 | 0.10 | 0.10 |
| Materials subtotal | 3.85 |
Now the labour. At a base of 1.5 hours, 0.25 hours per populated way, and 1 hour of testing, a 14-way board lands at 1.5 + 14 × 0.25 + 1 = about 6 hours. Multiply those hours by your own all-in rate — wage plus on-costs, supervision and overhead, not the charge-out rate on the invoice.
That makes the split arithmetic instead of folklore. Materials here are 3.85 index units, so labour is one third of the total when 6 × rate = (3.85 + 6 × rate) / 3 — that is, when the all-in rate is about 0.32 index units per hour, roughly a third of the enclosure price per hour. At 0.5 units per hour the same 6 hours is 3.0 / 6.85 = 44% of the total; at 0.2 it is 1.2 / 5.05 = 24%. In markets with high labour costs the share passes half; where components are imported and duties are high, materials dominate instead.
That ratio is also the lever: at a third of the total, cutting assembly time by a fifth cuts the total by under 7%. Buying cheaper breakers usually cuts quality, not cost.
Run the formula twice before a quote is fixed — once with your supplier's component prices, once with your own hours and rate. If you would rather not assemble the quantities by hand, open the demo project, build the panel and export the bill of materials; the documentation page lists exactly what each export contains.
Typical split, and why it drifts
| Category | Usual share of total | What pushes it up |
|---|---|---|
| Enclosure and internals | 20–30% | IP rating, metal, larger size |
| Protective devices | 30–40% | Type A/B RCDs, higher breaking capacity |
| Assembly labour | 25–45% | Point-to-point wiring, crowded layout |
| Testing and certification | 5–10% | Third-party inspection |
| Contingency | 5–15% | First estimate, unknown site conditions |
The ranges are wide because the inputs are. Any calculator that returns a single number without asking for your local component prices and labour rate is returning someone else's market.
Five ways panel estimates go wrong
Counting ways, not circuits. A three-phase circuit occupies three ways and one breaker. Counting devices instead of poles understates the board.
Forgetting the spare capacity. A board at 100% fill cannot be extended, and the next electrician will price the replacement. Twenty per cent spare is cheap insurance.
Ignoring the type of RCD. Type AC is cheaper and, in many installations, no longer acceptable for circuits with electronics. Swapping types after the panel is built is a rebuild.
Pricing the panel without the terminations. The board is one end of every cable. The labour at the other end is real and often quoted separately — or not at all.
Skipping the schedule. The panel schedule is a deliverable, not paperwork. Generating it from the design rather than typing it afterwards removes a whole class of mismatch errors; a template shows the fields that matter.
Assembling versus manufacturing
A related cost question: buy a populated board from a panel builder, or have it assembled on site? Factory assembly usually wins on consistency and testing, and loses on lead time and on changes after the order. Site assembly wins on flexibility for small jobs and loses on quality control. The break-even is around the point where the board needs a bespoke busbar or a formal test certificate — past that, the workshop is usually the better buy.
Where the design decides the price
Half of the panel cost is fixed before anyone opens a catalogue. Circuit grouping decides the number of ways; load calculation and cable sizing decide the breaker ratings; the presence of a surge device decides the enclosure size. This is why estimating a panel from a description is unreliable, and estimating it from a design is routine: the bill of materials falls out of the single-line diagram and the circuit list.
You can build that baseline in a browser — import a plan, place devices, generate the panel and the schedule, export the BOM — and then price it locally. Open the demo to see the flow, and check plans if you want the exports.
Sources
- IEC 61439 series, low-voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies — webstore.iec.ch
- NFPA 70, National Electrical Code — nfpa.org
- IEC 61009 series, RCBOs — webstore.iec.ch
- Electrical Safety Foundation International — esfi.org
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, electricians — bls.gov
Informational only, not legal or engineering advice. Component prices, labour rates and standards editions vary by country and change over time; verify against current supplier quotes and the code in force for your project.
It depends on ways, device types, enclosure rating and local labour. Prices vary by an order of magnitude between a small consumer unit and an industrial distribution board, and between markets. Build the bill of materials and price it locally rather than relying on an average.
Usually the protective devices, followed by assembly labour. In high-labour markets the two can swap places. The enclosure is rarely the dominant line unless the rating is unusual.
Around 20% is a common working rule for residential and small commercial boards. It costs little at build time and avoids replacing the enclosure later.
Yes, mostly through cable entries, dressing time and physical access. A bigger enclosure also needs more wall space, which matters in kitchens and risers.
Only indirectly. A plan gives devices and rooms, not circuits. You need circuit grouping and cable sizing before the panel composition is known — that step is what produces a real bill of materials.
It builds the panel configuration, the schedule and the bill of materials. It does not hold local prices; you export the BOM and price it with your supplier. See [what the exports include](/en/docs/).
Design it in the browser
Turn the plan into circuits, a panel schedule, a single-line diagram and a calculated bill of materials. Start free or open the demo.
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