Where to purchase electrical components
Hello All
I am about to wire a house around St. Paul, MN.
Does anyone know where to get the lowest cost quality electrical components (i.e. wire, outlets) around St. Paul or on the internet?
Is there an internet site that sells electrical components for cheap without sales tax?
Thank you all for making this forum awesome.
Ryan
Replies
Greetings rellings,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again.
Perhaps it will catch someones attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
"Live Free,
not Die"
Depending on what you want, Lowes carries Square D service panels and breakers and were quite a bit cheaper than my local electrical suppliers for the same exact stuff. For example, a 40/40 200 amp Square D QO service panel is about $200 at our local Lowes and Menards. Electrical supply house in town wanted $300.
I have looked at recessed cans and stuff online but they were just as cheap locally (not counting the sales tax). As for the wire, I would think that any savings you might get from no sales tax would be far outweighed by the shipping costs. A single 250' roll of 12/2 wire weighs 20 or 30 pounds.
Regards,
Dennis
DJJ's right,for the bread and butter componets the big box stores are going to be cheaper than the supply house.There are light fixtures,thermostats, voice/data/video stuff that you are better off shopping the net,but,for boxes and wire go to Lowe's or Home Depot.
The big box stores were 130 miles away when I built my house. I went to a local electrical supply house and told them I was building a house. They gave me a substantial contractor's discount and a line of credit. And if I needed something at the last minute they would drop it off at the house. That made it worth while to buy there. Even though a few commodity items, such as plastic switchboxes, were cheaper at the big box, I gave nearly all my electrical business to the local house.
Probably too late now, you would have needed to start looking about 4 years ago. The below is Seattle area, probably similar in St.P.
Got a Sq D 200A 40 breaker panel chuck full of breakers for $20 (alcohol wipe on breakers, pressure wash out box and like new)
Leviton and bryant spec grade (dont even consider the 49cent outlets) outlets for 10 to 30 cents each, most new .
Just about your choice of any type of light fixtures for <10 cents on the dollar, often fluorescent fixtures free, just don't count on more than 2 of the same kind.
150 to 200 ft of wire still on roll typically $5
etc, etc.