I need to put in a subpanel for my upcoming kitchen renovation and am going to do it with an electrician from my work.

He gave me the type of wire I need so I can start buying materials and the run plus some slack is about 35 feet.

He tells me to get 4/3 NMB wire for the main run.

Holy shit, this stuff is like $12 a FOOT and the shipping puts it at like $450 just for the wire

This is crazy, I know this stuff was probably 4-5 bucks a foot not too long ago. How much longer can the market take these insane price increases?

Wait till you need lumber!!

Copper in general right now.
Years ago my business was robbed of all the copper piping used for refrigeration. Thieves got on the roof of my building and just ripped pipes off. Installed motion sensors on the roof and I personally caught someone.
Keep that wire somewhere safe and locked up PA.

Another consequence of the stolen election.

Just stopped buy the supply house to pick up a dimmer. Been two years since I've been doing electrical for a living. My dimmer was 50% more than it was precovid my buddy at the counter told me to guess how much a roll of 14-2 was. I guessed $102, it was $130. It was $70 last time I remember buying some ~2 two years ago.

Home Depot here has it locked up like the Jheri Curl at CVS.

You need a dude to unlock and remove the fence to even look at it.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
Home Depot here has it locked up like the Jheri Curl at CVS.

You need a dude to unlock and remove the fence to even look at it.

Are you in a city or suburbs?

Try a local Electrical Supplier like Rexel. It will still be expensive as that's just where copper is right now, but they'll cut it to length you won't pay for anything you don't need, and you can pick it up so NO shipping charge! It will DEFINITELY be cheaper than Home Depot or Lowes, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Try a local Electrical Supplier like Rexel. It will still be expensive as that's just where copper is right now, but they'll cut it to length you won't pay for anything you don't need, and you can pick it up so NO shipping charge! It will DEFINITELY be cheaper than Home Depot or Lowes, etc.

Rexel is super expensive and I don't think they sell to people without an account at the counter. Even as an account holder they never gave me good pricing because I didn't do enough volume. I would only use them when it was closer than going to HD or Lowe's.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
Home Depot here has it locked up like the Jheri Curl at CVS.

You need a dude to unlock and remove the fence to even look at it.

Are you in a city or suburbs?

Suburbs…

In the spring of 2020, just after Covid lockdowns began, I decided to wire up my whole house generator. I needed 150’ of 4/3. It was a little less than $3/foot, and I was fussing that it cost me $400 in wire. I also bought a bunch of 12/2 & 14/2 for a rewire of one of my rentals. They were $54 for the 14/2, and $67 for the 12/2.

I feel like I dodged a bullet. I don’t think I could afford the materials now.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Wait till you need lumber!!

Yep. $7 for a 2x4 and $70 for a 4x8 sheet of plywood.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Try a local Electrical Supplier like Rexel. It will still be expensive as that's just where copper is right now, but they'll cut it to length you won't pay for anything you don't need, and you can pick it up so NO shipping charge! It will DEFINITELY be cheaper than Home Depot or Lowes, etc.

Rexel is super expensive and I don't think they sell to people without an account at the counter. Even as an account holder they never gave me good pricing because I didn't do enough volume. I would only use them when it was closer than going to HD or Lowe's.

Well, maybe location makes a difference, or maybe they just liked me, I don't know. I recently (3 months ago) purchased 40 ft. of 10/3 Romex at my local Rexel (cash sale at the counter - Paid w/ VISA) for a generator project at my home. I also purchased a 2-Pole 30A Breaker for the same project, and some non-stock Leviton items for a Bathroom project as well. They transferred the Leviton in from a regional warehouse and had the Romex cut to length & transferred in the next day! I paid $64.05 for the Romex (just over $1.61/ft) vs buying a 50 ft. at HD/Lowes for a lot more! The price seems to have increased a bit since then, but I saved over $100.00 at the time!

Obviously, 4/3 NM-B is by the ft anyway, so maybe not that type of savings, but it's might be worth stopping in at the counter mid-afternoon when they're not busy.

It's not just copper. I bought a sheet of Baltic Birch plywood. Two months ago it was $90. Today it was $160 FOR ONE FUCKING SHEET!

Anything copper is way up. Gas checks for cast lead bullets have jumped in price quite a bit. I heard supply and demand issues along w/ increased use in electric vehicles and since most of our copper comes from overseas. How much of that is true I don’t know.

I've been bitching about that for awhile.

I'm not an electrician or home remodeling guy, I'm just a ham radio operator who enjoys building my own antennas.

I need a lot of wire for radials for a vertical antenna and a few other things.

14 AWG is outrageous, let alone 12. I need probably 500 feet or maybe 750 feet.

I was poking around and found underground invisible dog fence coated solid copper wire. It's only 20 gauge but that will work. Cost was $31.00 for a 500 foot roll. It'll work but doesn't have the physical strength thicker wire has.

Y'all be careful and don't buy that copper coated aluminum crap wire, especially chinese made crap, unless you know darn well what you're doing.

Half our copper got stolen by an organized retail crime gang last year. It was so bad that all the box stores in the area plus a group of guys in the business worked with the feds to take them down.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Wait till you need lumber!!

I'm building a chicken coop. $12.45 for a 2x4x8. $7.35 for a 1x4x8. $60 for a sheet of 1/2 plywood. It's fucking ridiculous.

I'm going to have the most expensive eggs in the county.

You aint seen nothing yet, just wait until electric vehicles are only offered by specialty makers like Ferrari. Expanding the electric grid in this country for a fully electric vehicle fleet will require most of the available copper on the planet.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
Expanding the electric grid in this country for a fully electric vehicle fleet will require most of the available copper on the planet.

Except for transformer windings , most of the grid is aluminum .