Quoted a few grand for the electrics in your kitchen refit? Here's what's actually in that number

The kitchen's a shell. Units gone, floor up, plaster hacked off the back wall where the old scullery is being knocked through into a proper kitchen-diner. The homeowner's standing next to me with a refit quote in his hand, and he's got to the line that's nagging him... a new consumer unit, sitting there in among the sockets and the cooker point. "Why's the fuse box in the quote? I only wanted the kitchen done."

So I walk him over to the old board by the back door and we count together. Four fuses, all rewireable. No RCD anywhere on it. Not one spare way to hang a new circuit off. And I watch the penny drop... because I now have to add a cooker circuit, a couple of circuits for the appliances and the sockets, and there is physically nowhere on that board to put them, let alone legally. The fuse box isn't padding. It's the thing that makes the rest of the job possible.

That conversation happens in half the older terraces I walk into around Slough and Langley. So here's what's actually inside a kitchen electrical quote, and how to tell a fair scope from someone chancing their arm.

A kitchen pulls in more wiring than any other room

People picture "kitchen electrics" as a few sockets. It's the busiest room in the house for power, and a refit usually touches most of these:

• A dedicated cooker circuit. An electric oven or range wants its own circuit back to the board... typically a 32A breaker on 6mm cable, which comfortably covers the household cookers people actually buy. You can't just spur it off the ring.

• Circuits for the worktop appliances. Washing machine, dishwasher, fridge-freezer, microwave... the kitchen sockets often get their own ring or radial rather than sharing with the rest of the house, so a tripped appliance doesn't take out your living room too.

• Sockets moved, added and raised. New units mean new socket positions... above the worktop, switched spurs under the counter for the built-in appliances, an extra double where the island's going.

• A fused connection for the hood or extractor. The cooker hood is usually wired to a fused spur, not left on a plug behind the units where you can never reach it.

• Lighting. Downlights, under-cabinet strips, a pendant over the island... often a new circuit or at least reworked.

None of that is invented work. That's just what a modern kitchen needs to run.

Why the fuse box so often has to come too

Here's the part that surprises people, and it's the one that was staring back at me on that board by the back door.

When you add a new circuit to an installation, that new work has to meet the current wiring regulations... BS 7671. And the regulations require most new circuits, socket circuits especially, to sit behind a 30mA RCD: the safety device that cuts the power in a fraction of a second if current starts leaking to earth or through a person. It's the thing that stops a nicked cable behind a unit becoming a fatal shock.

An old board with rewireable fuses and no RCD can't provide that protection. And if there are no spare ways on it, there's nowhere to put the new circuits anyway. So to add the kitchen work legally, the board has to be able to protect it... which usually means a new consumer unit, or at the very least new RCD-protected ways. That's not the electrician upselling you. It's the difference between a certificate that stands up and one that doesn't. I wrote a whole separate piece on why a new board can't rescue tired old wiring on its own... but the reverse is just as true: you often can't add to old electrics without dealing with the board first.

The bit nobody mentions: it's notifiable, and you should get a certificate

A new circuit in a kitchen is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations in England. That means it has to be either done by a registered electrician who self-certifies it, or signed off by Building Control. Either way you should end up with an Electrical Installation Certificate for the work, and the board change if there is one.

That paperwork isn't box-ticking. It's your proof the job was tested and is safe, and the thing a solicitor asks for when you sell. If a kitchen's electrics get done and no certificate appears, a corner's been cut... and it's your name on the house, not the fitter's.

So is your quote fair, or padded?

Fair question, and I'd rather you asked it. A few things to look for:

• Does it list the actual circuits? "Kitchen electrics... £X" tells you nothing. A fair quote breaks it down: cooker circuit, appliance circuits, lighting, hood, board.

• *Is the board there because it has to be?* If your existing board already has RCD protection and spare ways, you may not need a new one... and a good electrician will test it and tell you rather than assume. If it's a rewireable or no-RCD board, expect it in the number.

• Is a certificate included? It should be. If it's not mentioned, ask.

For a rough sense of scale, a straightforward consumer unit change on its own runs somewhere around £500 to £1,000 nationally as a guide... but that's before any of the kitchen circuits, and the real figure depends entirely on your board, your wiring and your layout. Which is exactly why I won't put a price on your job until I've seen it.

Still staring at a quote you're not sure about?

If you've got a kitchen quote in hand and the electrical line looks steep, I'm happy to look over the scope and tell you straight whether it's fair or whether someone's chancing it... no obligation to use me.

I'm Billy, a NAPIT-registered electrician based in Slough, covering Windsor, Maidenhead, Bracknell, Staines and the wider Thames Valley. If your refit's forcing a fuse box upgrade and you want it costed and done properly, get in touch through the website for a free, no-obligation quote and I'll come and see the job.