The costs of working in London - An Electricians Day in London | Thomas Nagy
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- Опубликовано: 30 июл 2017
- In this video I am giving you a break down of all the costs associated with working as a self-employed electrician in London. I had quite a few requests about people wanting to know how much it costs to trade in the Capital. So here it is.
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Having been born and brought up in London, I could not wait to move out to the Lake District when I was 40. Sorry to disagree but London is not friendly, I spent years of my life sitting on the Underground looking at grey miserable faces. Moving to Cumbria was literally a breath of fresh air. Whenever I have to visit London I cannot wait to get back out again. Driving around the East End for years was a bloody nightmare. The friendliest people are up North.
Yes I agree, its the country life for or just not in the Big city. Even here in Canada, I do not want to live in the city. Been there and done it and don’t want to do again .. thank you very much.
I completely agree with you Mark, I was a security engineer/electrician in London about 10 years ago, I found it to be the most miserable and depressing place to work and stay, pretty much the opposite of what Thomas says, I've now moved to DEVON and is the best decision I've ever made so so much happier here. Great videos though Thomas, I like your style, humour and professional content keep up the good work.
I was brought up in brum and left home at 16 to get out of town. Did some work in Kent last year and so glad I don’t do towns often now as Canterbury was a killer. I’d hate London.
It's depressing, im sure humans aren't meant to live in such great numbers, something about me just calls to the country, can't wait to get away from cities
Loved London when I was younger, find it so depressing now. A couple of years working Canary Wharf faced with the ocean of suits at 5pm waiting in our lines for the tube. Not like we weren't earning but soul-destroying to say the least.
Another TN vid worth the wait. Very brave and generous of you to put your life "out there" for the help and support of others. When the trolls find you, as they surely must, remember many more of us are hugely grateful for the advice and encouragement.
Couldn't agree more.
Keep these videos up Tom. Your doing a brave thing by putting your life online, especially your figures. Top marks to you.
Ignore the many trolls you must be getting elsewhere. Your the one making the fucking effort, not them; and we all appreciate it on here.
The coffee thing was hilarious, pissed myself when i saw that!
Thanks for the encouragement guys! Glad to know its helps you guys out.
have a good week both of you!
I work out my business costs over 5 years to include a new regs upgrade, new meter and power tools.
NicEic, insurance, tools, meter calibration, van service and tax, clothing, tools, accountant.
I then divide it down to 200 working days a year, allowing the other days for pricing jobs, attending to van, office, Nic assessment and other work related stuff.
As an Electrician my costs are around £25 for every day i charge for work (200 per year), NOT including fuel and parking which i charge to the job.
Knowing your costs are so important
I love learning from this guy. Really intelligent guy. Really happy that he is doing VLOGs about his life
What a brilliant and honest video!!! Wow! Thanks pal.
Excellent work, Thomas! I'm on the DI scheme and this has been very useful when thinking about costings. So grateful that you've laid it out there about how much we spend just trying to do a job! Love the videos, mate. Keep 'em coming!
Everyone in London walks/RUNS around like they haven’t got a minute to live. Hate the place. Tube stations in the morning are like cattle markets.
Try living in NYC 😆 its the worst and transit subway is terrible
You are so helpful, nearly qualified but gunna end up watching most of your videos as always helpful to learn more. Thanks mate :)
Hi Tom when do you reckon you can upload part 2 of this Video? On how much to charged for work around London. You are doing a great job on here keep it up mate!
Goes to show how bloody awesome honesty is. Absolutely fascinating watching these videos on costs and running a business etc and I am not even a tradesman of any kind. As a northerner, very interesting to see what working in London is like. So good, bravo
Very insightful video mate. I've decided to go self-employed as from next year and found this video very interesting, obviously I'm aware the cost aren't exhaustive but it was still very helpful.
Absolutely love the Van Vlog videos mate. New subscriber. Warm regards. D/P
Hope to see more of your vids buddy I like the content. You do good work mate.
That’s awesome. French press coffee maker in your truck!!! I wish I had that! I should have been an electrician in London. Love your videos I just got a kick out of the coffee maker in your truck.
Your rent could get you a 6 bedroom detached house up north. Nothing wrong with that just shows the costs of London. Keep up the grind mate
+ a garage :P
Yeah I honest can't think of a worse place to live...love from North Wales
Im going to visit snowdonia 🙏⛰️
I worked as a field engineer in London 40 years ago, it was bad enough then, this looks a total nightmare! Moved to Dorset when I was 55 and not regretted it for a moment. Maybe make some money this way when you are young, but surely this amount of aggravation has got to burn you out after a while.
your right i feel burnt out already, its draining living in london
Explained well the living and working costs .Thanks mate
Didn’t realise you were from Devon! That’s where I live! Really enjoying watching your videos, I might be going into electrical :)
This sure drives home the point about London being a large city with all of the costs and headaches of a huge metropolis. I don't think I would have the patience.
Scaffolding vehicles have special parking exemptions in London. They can even double park.
fuel is one of my biggest expenses, travel from Birmingham into London every day in a vw crafter so my fuel is about £1500-£2000 a month
This video captures the exact reason I turn down all but the best paying jobs in London. That & the general "make life difficult" attitude of London & those in it. I mean a parking permit? You already have the right to park on the road, its called road tax, and fuel type when parking doesnt matter....£8 an hour to park & they dont want you to stay longer, what a pisstake. Big sign on London as I see it "DONT COME HERE WE DONT WANT YOU" is its vibe.
The best things about London are the roads leading out of it.
London isn't the only thing place that has on street parking permits. Most large towns/cities do, to stop strangers parking where residents need to outside/near there homes.
For a car in Zone 2/3 your only paying around £100/year anyway, vans pay more obviously.
Road tax was abolished in 1937.
jimthing1 yeh but in other towns the resident supplies the parking where required.
Londoners are conditioned rats ....
Flee the ship there is a wider better life, we just let londers think they are the centre of the world cos most of them are wankers and the ines that aren't reaalise and leave and are welcomed by the rest of the UK.
@eric solskjar Many tradespeople use the underground where feasible, it is not unusual to see workers with a small trolley full of their stuff. Also, where I am, I can give any workers I have visit a visitors' permit and they can stay all day.
Hope to see more video's, you do good work buddy.
cheers for the like mate. means a lot.
Great explanation 😊 It does make your eyes water but as you say it’s relevant to working in the capital 👍
Hats off to you Thomas, I wouldn't want to do it now, I started off myself on the domestic side of things in my twenties, all around London and the surrounding counties, the M25 beat me in the end, I also moved to Cumbria 15 years ago, now work more with plc's and automation within industry, never looked back, if I'd have stayed in London I probably wouldn't have made it to my fifties. Your personal parking charge is bigger than my mortgage.
All the best fella, good honest videos.
Fancy a move to Leeds upcoming city with so much modernisation, you could be raking it.
Great vid
Back in 1975 when i worked in Islington as an electrician, it was so much better to get around
and park your van.
£1100 a year to join the NIC... That is absolutely nuts. I thought it was £450 for domestic installers?
Came from London to go further south and in London I got dirty looks for even thinking of disturbing someone's day and it was very much a you go in the shop purchase your item and leave, moved into Kent and it's such a friendly environment, used to know the local shopkeepers, when I worked in retail I got to know our regulars and it was great however we are very much going the unfriendly way of London quite quickly
Great video
Really interesting & educational video; I wish I had a more relevant question to ask, but is the coffee really nice with milk!!!
I didn't like the fact i moved further north when i was younger, But now i'm older (early 20s) I'm so happy it happened
I love the fact the reason you said scaffolders don’t park in car parks because they have big vans and park outside customers house instead rather than it being something to do with all the scaffold in the back of the van they need to throw up 😂 great video though
Fair play to you Thomas but you would not get me swapping Devon for London ever! Very interesting videos, we're in Essex, although we are close to London we have never worked in the city, looks like a totally different kettle of fish!
The video is very professional
Where abouts is Devon are you from? :)
Really helpful interesting videos! !! Love it!
£1450 per month to rent a shoebox & not even a parking space! No thanks. For £650 I can rent a 2 bed apartment with balcony & garage in best leafy part of town up t'north.
Maybe people here earn a little less but relatively speaking standard of living (pace, services, living day to day) is higher up here & people seem a little happier.
Holy hell.. you're up to about £30k in standing expenses before you start making any profit (aka money to buy nice things)..
You would be a perfect candidate for the new, not yet released plugin hybrid transit custom... sod driving a diesel manual in stop/go traffic.
I'm on the case already son ;-)
Renault are releasing the E-Master,
Ford are doing the E-Transit
and LDV are doing the EV80
Renault and LDV both release their vans in January so I will keep everyone posted.
thomas nagy good to hear. I recently got rid of my mk7 transit and got back into a car (didn't need a van anymore) and got a vauxhall plug-in hybrid. It really is a fantastic type of drivetrain and is totally effortless to drive. Diesel is just horrible in comparison
thomas nagy I'd put my money on the new 40kWh Nissan e-Nv200 if it has enough space. I would take the ldv's claimed range with a pinch of salt...
Have a V8 cummings generator on the roof rack for unlimited range,
> I would take the ldv's claimed range with a pinch of salt...
Likewise with Nissan's...
Real world tests have the Nv200 24kWh as getting less than 50 mile range in cold weather on a combined cycle and a relatively empty van. Nissan claim double that.
Urban only with a van loaded with kit and I'd expect those figures to fall further.
---
Unless you're going to be charging outside customer's houses using their leccy (good luck with that) I think even the 40kWh version will struggle to last a full day, especially if you add-in emergency callouts into the mix.
Good job
Thanks Tom
The growing population in the UK has destroyed London I'm an Electrician living in Surrey and traveling into town in the 90s was bad but now it's beyond a joke.
These costs seem mad to me! Im a sparky down in devon and my out goings cost me somewhere around the £1400 a month. But then again I suppose my hourly rate down here is much less
Have a look at sumup.co.uk for your chip and pin device they don't charge a monthly fee just a transaction fee of 1.69% (as of the 1/1/2018) which might save you money depending on how often you get payed using chip and pin the chip and pin device accepts magnetic, chip and NFC cards
Hi Thomas, have you published your earnings video yet?
Love the content!
London - great place to work (lots of money) not a great place to live. And i say this as a London Taxi Driver.
Fantastic channel and vids!, all my work is site based commercial.
Have to say, some of the costs here are beyond a joke , I gotta be honest , I'd prefer my £18 an hour 45hrs a week to live where I am. Than £30ph to pay those prices simply to live in the capital.
Surprised at £250 for utilities though, seems rather low actually.
Glad I found your channel, thoroughly enjoying your vids!
All the best!
Where are you only charging £18 p/h for commercial?
It's around double that near me (E.Mids).
Travelling Cafetiere - brilliant!
To be fair I pay £750 for accounts now outside the capital but was paying £4500 so I think yours is reasonable as most work on a percentage of turnover.
Can you get a non diesel van in the U.K.? It frustrates me that as tradesmen we’re getting hammered for having to own diesel vehicles and the cost of bloody parking is a joke.
You'd think tradesmen could pay a monthly "park anywhere" permit wouldn't you!
in kensington because there is not enough parking even for the residents they don't offer trade permits or even visitor permits
Have you made the video about earnings and the way of bringing work in? I can’t find it on your channel. I assume you have because this video is July 17 or am I wrong?
Hi just wanted to know how can i do an on going accuracy check for test equipment?
Great video to refer customers too who are outraged by how much people charge to work in their 4 million pound flat.
Harvey Smith just to be clear, as a Londoner, while there are lots of multimillion pound flats in London, mostly they're not, but rather in the 350-750k range; even in Zone 1.
Thank you
I used to be an electrician in London 12 years ago. I do miss London....
Why used to? Retired?
@Johan, I used to be an electrician in London in the 1970's, miss working in London and the electrical trade like i miss toothache.Retired now in Australia thank fuck.
hi mate interesting video, whats your day rate and call out charge in London?
Pretty sure the yellow boxes in London require all 4 wheels of your vehicle to be in the box for 5 seconds.
I have stopped in yellow boxes in London countless times because it’s almost impossible not to but I’ve not ever received any fines for it.
Maybe I just got lucky and none of them had cameras on it but that seems like too much of a coincidence...
I also assume the card machine wouldn't be for council clients and regular clients?
Instead of constantly renting, wouldn’t you be better off buying a house outside of London?
George Austers 1450 a month to live in a flat in shithole London.😭 then trying to raise kids in the crime infested dump. Good luck
So apart from the cost of parking driving, and rent. The costs are the same. I used to work in events and we have found its achually cheaper to park on the street all day than it is to park and even then its almost 5050 if we ended up achually getting a ticket. Bar far the cheapest way to park
Any good books you recommend getting Thomas? Was considering getting the IET Electricians guide to Emergency Lighting, maybe a video on that too for extra learning? 😁😁
a vid on emergency lighting - noted. I'll put it in the pipeline.
Still boxing? lol ;-)
thomas nagy Yep haha, I have done a bit of wiring since, wired a bedroom, bathroom, low volts, and a cupboard (which had quite a lot of stuff in it to be fair).
I'm in the Electricians forum group on Facebook and was going to put a post up basically looking for weekend work just for experience - no pay. I forgot to mention I have had a fair bit of second fixing experience in the past so I know what I'm doing with the basic new build stuff which we do like 2way switching, 3way, etc. I actually forgot that last year I second fixed a ccu! But that's cause we was on dayrate for one day, not job and knock lol. It's just if I saw a junction box like that wiring hub in one of your previous videos it'll take ages to get my head around it. Especially if it had the old colours lol.
I'm thinking about posting on an Electricians Forum page on Facebook which I'm in asking for weekend work, not expecting to be paid, just looking to further my knowledge and that. I only live like 20minutes walking distance from an m20 junction so I wouldn't mind walking there + a lot of people pass through so hopefully there's someone willing. Not sure if this is the best way to do it but if it helps then I don't mind giving up my weekends!
Still feel like my future carer of being an electrical is pretty fucked tho, you gave me hope, but going back to work and releasing I'm still basically doing labouring work put me down again. 😂😂
Everytime I post a comment it always turns into me writing a bloody novel 😂😂
Im a Electrician from New Zealand. I worked in London for a couple of years. Best years of my working life! Ive never had it so sweet! Good times
EDIT - Mind you, I didn't have to drive around. It was either on Big Construction Sites or Commercial Facilities Management in Central London. So just Bussed / Overland or Underground to sites. I don't think Native Londoners realise how good there transport system is. I never had to drive a car for the 2 years I lived there
When you get issued a ticket some normally tow you though after about an hour 🤔
What about road tax and the cost of a new van, new tools, clothing ; battery for tools, stationary, cleaning products. Also do you charge for running about doing quotes?
Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing. I came to your YT channel via the channel of Peter Millard, a woodworker. You probably do not know him. But somebody wrote a
reaction to his videos and referred to your channel.
By the way, your family name is not very English. From the video I understood you live whole your life in England. So you were born there.
Are your (grand)parents from Hungary (or Slovakia)?
I like your video's I have been watching a lot of them lately, you must spend a lot of time making and editing them I am very impressed, I am interested in your videos because I am a electrician who serve my time working all over London in the 1970s but moved to Ireland in 1983 and have been working like you as a self-employed electrician in Tipperary ever since, its a lot less stressful no problem with parking or traffic most of the time, I love London but could not cope with the traffic and parking, I was over there last year and it was hard enough driving around London in a little Nissan Micra I don't know how you do it every day in a Renault Trafic, the regulations have changed a lot since I work in England are ring mains still generally used for socket circuits and can you still used 1mm twin& earth for lighting circuits in domestic on a 5amp fuse or 6 amp mcb, twin & earth has been banned in Ireland since last September its a real pain in the a**e and causing a lot of problems the earth has to be the same size as the live conductors and be insulated I don't think that is the case in Britain, anyway keep up the good work and don't burn your self out I will enjoy watching more of your videos.
I’m a builder in London, like you I’ll often just accept a parking ticket because it’s cheaper and less stressful than moving the van each time. I used to get angry about them, but I would see the the parking wardens pleasure at my discomfort. So I’m very zen like now about them.
The thing that upsets me is that the parking ticket/pcn revenue goes straight into someone else’s pension.
When are you doing the earnings video Tom?
What about van hire purchase, servicing and depreciation?
I get a total estimated cost of work or the burden of work at $15,886/yr, is that about right? If you can work 2400 hours per year that would be $6.62 as the burden of work cost, I would guess that to be a minimum.. That's 6 days /week at 8 hours per day, optimistic I would say, but that's how I got to 2400 hours 50 weeks of work at 6 days per week and 8 hours per day.
every time you said you alexa you set my echo dot off
I make your list add upto nearly £38,000 and thats not including tax or food or the capital cost of van and tools. By your own calculations you would have to be earning around £150,000 before tax to pay for that, including your apprentice. Sounds nuts to me.
Get yourself a smaller plug in hybrid van/car fella,why such a big van for carrying fuseboards/cable,then parking in Westminster is £1 for 4 hours + free con.charge.
Good vid but don't agree with adding a vehicle maintenance charge to the bill. That's your overhead like fuel, tools etc. Parking charges fair enough...
Do the NICEIC charge more in London? Sparks local to me pay nowhere near £1116!
Not quite as costly as working in Sydney but getting up there...
greetings from Florence
Wow my head hurts with all the talk about parking.. You guys really get screwed with parking! I would hate absolutely hate working in the field in the UK. I feel so bad for you people over there!
Bearing in mind this is a video specific to working in inner London, you have to be aware of the differences between London & less dense areas of the U.K.
Inner London really isn't like the rest of the UK. Like he says you just bill these costs out
Cost of living in UK is 29% higher then US and the average brit makes $1432usd less per month.
That tells me britton has lots of cheap immigrant labor living like sardines in council flats.
No we have a welfare state that pays just enough for people not to bother to work, so people pay as little as possible for anything they need doing. Hence the low average wage.
Except london
London wasn't built for cars. And now there are loads of them. Parking fines and expensive parking is a way to reduce amount of them. Ideally, in towns like London, amount of personal cars should be half of what it is.
Hi Thomas. I am a sparky myself but If I had a van in London i wouldnt park it on the street especially if its full of tools, they get broken into all the time.
unfortunately no choice mate. most people dont have any parking in zone 1 or 2 off road. just the way it is.
getting broken into is a risk but not alot i can do about it.
my van insurance covers all my tools in the back and gives me a hire van etc etc so at least if it does happen im covered .
but a pain in the arse granted.
New to your videos and have enjoyed them, however, feel you missed your biggest expense off the list....COFFEE 😃
Poshest Sparky I've ever heard :D
Exactly a posh sparky doesn't fit the image of a sparky.
hello thomas i am from india, i am electrician,solar grid engineer and industrial automation engineer(p.l.c,scada,h.m.i,v.f.d,etc) maintenance,installation,programing what salary this job
Great idea, chip n pin and the parking ticket,
How the hell do U get into this trade? I am newly qualified level 3. Every single job says 1 years experience minimum and no one wants to give me a chance. I wasted like £4k getting qualified, and now I can't get work.
Is that list relative to the potential earnings?
I worked in London and love the place but it’s so expensive you can’t take time off as it’s so expensive unless you get a room in a dump and then you are out constantly haha counter productive
No thanks I'll stay in Yorkshire my only job in London fitted 5 air con units in st Mary's collage had 2 congestion charges in 2 days 120 quid and never Evan new I'd drove in to it bloke said did you not see the big red C on floor errrrrrr no . Not for me fella also met a sparky at city electric on a push bike fitting 1 socket in customers house said bill will be 300 quid wow your rite about 1 thing it's expensive...
Seeing a big red C on the floor is like making love to a beautiful woman...
Then she nicks your wallet 😂
What are you charging per hour? Them costs must warrant 100 quid an hour charges...cheers
Thomas Nagy is my favourite tradesmen.
Excellent video (hubby is an electrician) but very interested to see the earnings video - did you do it?
Laura Bentley. Ask your hubby.
1450pound a month for rent......fucking hell. Thats OVER $2000usd/mo. You can buy a massive home on ACRES of land here in the US for that money and still have money left over. Thats crazy. Even in Chicago thats a ton. Though like you said, there is more and there is less. Same here. As you said, horses for courses.
Could you not class yourself as a micro company if only you work there. I'm sure the accounts for that are really basic less than one page, it would save on having fees from accountants.
no ltd is ltd, everything needs a receipt. including a £3 breakfast coffee. Which increases you accountancy cost.
If your revenue/turnover is more than £80k, legally you have to be a private limited company. It also secures you as an individual from any business failure costs associated with the business: those can often be serious, wiping out personal assets you may have, like a home. Hence why govt impose the rule, otherwise many people would end up penniless when the sh!t hits the fan in their business.
Utter rubbish. You have to register for VAT when (or if you predict) you hit/will hit the VAT threshold. However you do not have to be a LTD ever. Whether that is sensible is a different matter, but no requirement to be so.
Btw.. Probably not the best idea to reveal where you keep your chip machine.. It can be lucrative to snap it and get some nice refunds from it...
What ever happened to the earnings video as promised?
Dont residents give you a visitor scratchcard or anything? In my borough we buy visitor scratchcards at £1 each and grants the car up to 6 hours parking in residents spots.
Grimshaw Grummage Usually the home owner/renter is at work. So not there to give you anything. Most boroughs charge for visitor permits 1-3/hr, in my experience, anyway.
Get a "nanopresso" coffee on the go.
I was wondering how to get in a trade. How did you become an Electrician?
i will do a video soon covering this topic. stay tuned buddy
Make sure you are not colour blind first as you cant be a sparky if you are !
Just do a course in electrcian and get alot of experience with people in trade business and you will good to go!
U DO A RELLY GOOD JOB MATE HOVE A GOOD DAY MATE FORM GREG BOUCHARD