How to hire
Start by naming the job in plain words, because smart home work sits across three trades. A smart home installer joins the kit together: heating controls, video doorbells, cameras, alarms, lighting scenes and voice assistants, usually including the wiring, the network setup and the app on your phone. Pure electrical work such as new circuits and consumer units belongs to an electrician, and monitored alarms for insurance purposes often need a certificated security firm. When you first enquire, list the rooms, the devices you already own and what you want them to do together.
Expect a proper survey before any firm price. The installer should visit or at least ask for photos, check your boiler controls and consumer unit, test the Wi-Fi signal where cameras and doorbells will sit, and ask how your household uses heating and hot water. Stone cottages around Madeley and Ironbridge and older terraces in Wellington and Dawley often have thick walls that weaken wireless signals, while new-builds in Lawley usually have tidy wiring and strong coverage but little spare room in the consumer unit. A firm that quotes a full system without seeing the property or asking about any of this is guessing.
Check competence on the registers before you book. For anything wired into the mains, look the business up on the NICEIC or NAPIT online registers and confirm the name that comes back matches the firm you are hiring [1] [2]. Solar panels and battery storage should come from an MCS certified installer you can find through the MCS installer search [3]. Car chargers should be fitted by an OZEV-authorised installer, which also keeps grant-funded jobs valid, using the government's installer finder [7]. For alarms and cameras, SSAIB certification marks a firm independently assessed for security work, and its directory lists certificated companies [8]. A logo on a van proves nothing on its own.
Telford and Wrekin has eight conservation areas, including Wellington, Newport, Horsehay and the Severn Gorge, and the council publishes an appraisal for each one [9]. Inside the Severn Gorge conservation area, which covers much of Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale and Jackfield, an Article 4 Direction removes some permitted development rights, so external changes such as cameras, external cabling and panels can need planning permission where elsewhere they would not [11]. Listed buildings need listed building consent for works affecting their character. If your home sits in the Gorge, read the council's World Heritage Site residents guide and ask its planning team before anything is fixed to the outside of the building [11].
New circuits, consumer unit changes and most work in bathrooms count as notifiable electrical work, which must meet the Building Regulations and be certified or notified [5]. A firm belonging to a competent person scheme can self-certify and notify on your behalf, which avoids a separate building control fee [4]. Otherwise Telford and Wrekin building control must be told before work starts [10]. Ask every bidder who will certify and notify the electrical side, and get the answer in writing. Whatever the job, do not pay the balance until you hold the certificates described below.
Get two or three itemised written quotes on the same written scope so you compare like with like. Each quote should name every device with its model, separate hardware from labour, state cable runs and any drilling or making-good, give a start date and a testing and handover step, and say whether VAT is included. Ask about running costs too: monitored alarms carry an annual charge, cameras can need cloud subscriptions, and maintenance plans renew yearly [12] [15]. A deposit for ordered kit is normal, while full payment before completion is not.
On the day, the installer should mount and wire the kit, prove the network reaches every device, then set up the apps with you rather than for you. Expect your accounts created in your name, devices named by room, heating schedules and away modes demonstrated, and camera detection zones tuned to avoid the pavement and your neighbours' gardens. Agree passwords and admin access before they leave, and ask what happens when the Wi-Fi drops: locks, heating and alarms should keep working safely rather than fail open.
Before you pay the balance, collect the paperwork. Electrical additions need an installation certificate or Minor Works certificate plus the Building Regulations notification where the work was notifiable [4] [5]. Solar and battery jobs should come with the MCS certificate, and any grant-funded charger needs its OZEV paperwork through the installer [3] [6]. Keep alarm codes, warranties, maintenance plan terms and every quote and invoice with your house papers. If anything stops working in the first weeks, report it in writing straight away and give the firm one clear chance to fix its own work.
Pricing
As of summer 2026, a smart thermostat supplied and fitted typically costs around £265, with most jobs falling between £160 and £370 depending on brand and wiring [14]. The device itself usually accounts for £80 to £220, and fitters commonly charge a fixed fee of £80 to £150 for the hour or two the swap takes [14]. Older boilers and multi-zone systems with extra radiator valves sit at the top of that range. Ask whether the quote assumes your current programmer wiring can stay.
Burglar alarms start from around £525 supplied and fitted for a standard bell-only wireless system with a couple of sensors, rising to about £650 for a smart system with app control [12]. A two-camera CCTV setup averages £300 to £800 and a four-camera setup £500 to £1,500, with video doorbells adding £100 to £300 fitted [15]. Monitored alarms add an annual charge of roughly £120 to £360 a year [15]. More sensors, longer cable runs and outbuildings push every one of those figures upward.
A home car charger typically costs around £1,000 fitted, falling to about £500 if a grant applies, though long cable runs, consumer unit upgrades and trenching all add to the bill [13]. Renters and flat owners can claim up to £500 toward a charger through the government's chargepoint grant, while most owners of houses cannot [6]. Solar is a bigger ticket: a typical four-and-a-half kilowatt system costs around £7,600 to install [16] [17]. Batteries, scaffolding and awkward roofs move that figure. Bundle deals from one installer for panels, battery and charger together can trim the combined ticket, so ask exactly what the package price covers.
Access and signal move smart-home prices more than the devices do. Chasing cables into solid walls, boosting weak Wi-Fi to reach a garage camera, and joining mixed brands into one app all add labour. Ask whether each quote includes VAT on top or inside the total, since published guides mix the two [12] [13]. Get the scope in writing before work starts: exact models, what is excluded, what changes the price if the wiring proves worse than expected, and which certificates and warranties you will receive.
Red flags
Quotes a full alarm or camera system without visiting or asking for photos, room layouts and Wi-Fi coverage.
Starts electrical work without saying who will certify it and how building control will be notified [4] [5].
Cannot give a scheme name you can check yourself when asked, whether NICEIC, NAPIT, MCS or SSAIB [1] [2] [3] [8].
Fixes cameras or external cabling to a Gorge cottage or listed building without mentioning permission first [9] [11].
Sets up every app and account in their own name, leaving you locked out of your own heating and cameras.
Leaves default passwords on cameras, hubs and routers instead of setting unique ones with you.
Asks for full payment in cash before the kit is even mounted, with no written quote or terms.
Gives one fixed price for a multi-device system with no split between hardware, labour and VAT.
Disappears after the fitting with no demonstration, no certificates and no maintenance terms in writing.