Your crew hourly wage, payroll burden, overhead on direct cost and target net margin are the same on every job you bid. Save them once and every trade bid calculator here opens with your numbers instead of a stranger’s ballpark.
Kept in this browser only, on this site’s own storage. Nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data clears it. Forgetting them leaves the numbers already on this bid alone.
Keep this bid so it is still here when the customer calls back. Every number on this form is saved together, under a name you choose, along with the figure it gave you, and restoring one puts the whole job back exactly as you priced it. Mark each one won or lost when you hear — the ones you have not heard back on stay listed as waiting, with how long they have been out. Once a few have come back, this panel says how long yours actually take, and how many are still out past that. Once enough of them have been decided, it also says whether the bids you save here have been landing differently lately than they used to. Once a few here are decided, this panel says what the ones you won averaged against the ones you lost, so you can see where your price tips. On a lost bid you can also note what the job went for, if you heard — then it says how far off you actually were, which is the part guessing gets wrong in both directions. On a won one, note what the job came to once it was done and this panel says what those jobs actually kept, so you can see whether the ones you are winning are worth winning — and it tells you how many of your won jobs are still missing that figure, rather than going quiet about it. Restoring a bid also pins the figure it was saved at above this panel, so when the customer asks what it costs without the tear-off, the new number is shown against the one they already have — and by how much, in money and in percent.
Kept in this browser only, on this site’s own storage. Nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data clears it — download a backup to keep a copy or open your bids on another device. Bids are kept per tool, so these are the ones you saved here.
FOR ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS AND GENERATOR DEALERS
Price the run, the switch, and the fuel — not a flat $8,000 hang.
Homeowners search “how much to install a standby generator” and come back with one number. A 22 kW natural-gas hang beside the house is not a far-yard propane set with a 400 A automatic transfer switch. Enter the machine, the service, the pad, and the setback. You get the installed price, dollars per kW, and how many times a typical hang this house really is.
The feeder follows the generator nameplate. The transfer switch follows the service. Mixing those two is how a 200 A bid fails on a 400 A house.
Your rates
Starting hours and material dollars are takeoff points, not a standard. Replace them with the truck’s last invoice.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the customer — your details, their details, the scope, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
YOUR BID
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installed price
Walk-away (total cost)
Profit at target margin
Labor hours
Loaded wage
Labor cost
Materials
Overhead
Effective billing rate
Dollars per kW
Nameplate / feeder breaker
Copper
Vs a typical 22 kW NG hang
Labor split
Common questions
How much should I charge to install a standby generator?
There is no flat installed price. A typical 22 kW natural-gas hang beside the house is a different job from a far-yard propane set with a 400 A automatic transfer switch. This calculator prices the feeder, the ATS, the pad, the fuel line, and the setback from your own wage and material inputs.
Is this a load calculation or a code ruling?
No. Outputs are arithmetic on the numbers you enter. The recommended-kW hint is a starting point, not a NEC 220 or manufacturer load calculation you can stamp or submit.
How much more does propane cost than natural gas for a standby install?
On a 15-foot fuel line at this calculator's default wage, burden, overhead, and margin, switching from natural gas to propane adds about 2.1 labor hours and $475 in materials (the LP regulator kit, the tank hookup, and pricier pipe) -- roughly $974 more on the bid ($6,106.00 to $7,080.12). That is on top of the tank itself, which this calculator does not price.
Want the margin, walk-away price and overrun headroom as well, or pricing a different trade? Price this job in the Bid Price Engine, one calculator for 121 trades.