While planning to build a house from scratch or renovate one, you must plan ahead of time for the cost so that you don’t outrun the budget. One of the main sectors that you must consider is how much electrical wiring costs. Well, you may estimate the average cost per square foot from $4 to $20 for living places and $6 to $15 for commercial settings.
Selecting the perfect wiring for your living place or commercial area is just as important as selecting foundation materials such as brick, rod, cardboard, or concrete.
You must consider the capacity you will need, the area you need to cover, materials, quality, and the safety of the wiring, as well as hiring the electrician. In this article, we are going to look at the price range of electrical wiring depending on the area of a living house.
What is the Cost of Electrical Wiring With Room-by-room Analysis?
While discovering your options for estimating the cost of electrical wiring, you should consider the function and electrical demands of each particular section. For example, a dining joined with a kitchen will require more electrical outlets than a bedroom or study.
Again, whether you are renovating or building a new home also acts as a crucial factor in finalizing the cost.
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Since replacing aluminum wiring in St. Louis or any other city in the US may cost you more than placing electrical wiring in a new home, you should pay close attention to the details of the cost. Continue reading to learn more about the cost of electrical wiring.
● Wiring Needed for Bedrooms and Living Areas
Although your bedroom and living areas do not require heavy equipment, you may still want to keep a standardized electrical wiring.
You will have to think about the charging ports for cell phones and laptops/desktops and, at the same time, for televisions, sound systems, and proper lighting. You may choose the standard 120-volt circuits (either 15 or 20 amp) for the light fixtures in both rooms.
You should try to position outlets spacing less than 12 feet to ensure the charging station. A charging port right at the side of your bed may help you access cell phones and table lamps easily.
Furthermore, consider extra power sources if you are looking for LED lighting to make your home ambiance a little bit special. However, you must make sure you document which electrical wiring you are using, as when the time comes, the home seller needs to know about the wiring of the whole house from the basement to the ceiling of your house.
● Wiring Needed for Laundry Room and Kitchen
A typical house is equipped with washers and dryers, usually with individual electric demands to operate. You may opt for a 20-amp circuit that dedicatedly serves as the main source of electricity for washing equipment.
Again, it is safe to assume that the dryer will need a 240-volt circuit with a significant 30-amp to ensure good operation of dryers.
On the other hand, your kitchen may have more electrical demand than you imagine, as it is important to ensure proper lighting; you need to install a dishwasher, blending machine, fridge, oven and garbage disposal, and a few gadgets on your countertop.
The energy center for your family will need at least two 20-amp circuits for the machines on the countertop, a strong 120/240-volt circuit for your oven, and a separate 120-volt circuit for grinding machines and garbage disposal.
As you can see, your laundry room and kitchen will require a high demand for electricity as they are equipped with bulky appliances and are heavily used almost every day in a living house.
So, you need to estimate how much wire is needed by a thorough inspection of every appliance’s electrical demand. By doing so, you can keep the machines working to meet the everyday electricity demand.
● Wiring Needed for Shower and Washroom
Your bathroom, which consists of a shower, washbasin, and toilet, requires high demand for carefulness in terms of selecting the wiring as the combination of water and electricity can become life-threatening.
Try to keep the 120-volt electrical outlets within reach of adults (at arm’s length), right beside the sink, to use electric razors and hairdryers.
You must ensure that the light fixtures installed in your bathroom are safely placed with adequate cover so that water has no access directly to the overhead bulb.
Also, don’t forget to properly cover the electric wiring throughout the bathroom walls or ceiling, as a damp wall is a potential source for a hazardous incident in your house.
Factors Affecting the Wiring Cost
Communicating with your electrician is the first thing you should do as a professional in this field. It will be able to provide you with the budget range you can expect during the construction or renovation of your house.
Other than the room-by-room analysis, the wiring cost for your living place depends on a few other factors as well. They are as follows:
● Size of your living place:
If you are renovating your house, you may need to pay less for wiring as you won’t be replacing the light fixtures and electrical outlets. However, when you are building a new house, you may need to calculate the cost.
The cost may range from $3-$6/Foot2. Depending on the quality of wiring you select, you can higher or lower this price range.
After finalizing the wiring price, all you need to do is multiply the price range per square foot by the square footage of your house’s floor plan. We have tried to show an estimation according to the house size:
| Size of your home’s floor plan | Standard price range |
| 30002 feet | $9,900-$18,000 |
| 20002 feet | $7,200-$13,000 |
| 17002 feet | $5,630-$10,000 |
| 10002 feet | $3,300-$6,000 |
| 7002 feet | $2,000-$4,200 |
● Installation of Electrical Service Panel:
To ensure the safety of your house, you must install a good quality electrical service panel. An electrical service panel is one metal compartment containing all the fuses and circuit breakers.
The panel acts as a bridge between the main power source from your utility company and divide it to the power outlets around your home.
When you are planning to renovate your home, ask your electrician to check the sufficiency of the electrical service panel as per the equipment you will install in your house.
A professional electrician will let you know whether you’ll need a new panel or not. In most houses, 100 to 200 amps service panels are common.
You can install 100, 150, or 200 amp panels that’ll cost around $750 to $2800 and around $200 extra while replacing a service panel and installing a new one.
● Installation of Electrical Wiring Type:
Depending on the type of wire you are using, you can expect a price range from $0.10 to $4.00 per linear foot. In residential construction, the most common type of wiring is known as ‘Non-metallic sheathed’ (or NM) or ‘Romex’ and costs around per linear foot $0.50-$3.00.
Other wire costing is mentioned as follows per linear foot without the installation cost:
- Coaxial wires are used for internet cable that costs $0.10 to 0.60,
- Direct buried wires are ideal for wet and damp environments and underground powerlines; USE (underground service entrance) cable costs $0.50-$3.00.
- Metallic sheathed AC/BX is the ‘Armored Cable’ which is protected with the aluminum cover. The cable is screw and nail resistant and is mostly used in exposed interior settings such as in the basement. The cable costs around $0.50- $3.00.
- Ribbon is common for low-voltage wiring in multiple parallel settings and is popular as a flexible cable. It is well-known for its use in LED strip lights and computer connections.
- The underground feeder carries electricity from the main power source to the outdoor settings, such as in garages, to operate water pumps, etc. The cable costs $0.50 to $1.30.
- The STP(shielded twisted pair) wires cost around $0.20-$0.40 and are ideal for use in installing common business networks to reduce electromagnetic and radio frequency.
Conclusion
Have you found the answer to the question of how much electrical wiring costs? The cost of wiring your entire house with brand-new wire and service panels will be less than replacing the old wiring system.
However, you must remember to hire an insured, licensed, and bonded electrician with at least 5 years of experience.
Remember that your house’s wiring system will last for more than 50 years when you install the correct wire type, which covers your house’s electricity needs. However, you must inspect the wiring every 5 years and for over 25 years old house if you are buying one.
