I bought a 200A CH panel complete with main breakers, a twin 30A
breaker, and 5 or 6 20A breakers for less than $150 at Lowe's.
Additional single breakers are $7 each, twins are $17 each.

I haven't done the job yet, but I'm guessing it might take me a day (8
hours): I'm simply replacing an existing panel by one with more spaces,
with a view to splitting some circuits and maybe adding some new ones
*later*. I don't know what an electrician might charge: in NY we paid
$90 an hour for car repairs; would it be more anywhere for an
electrician? Let's say $800 for labor -- but I don't know how complex
your job is.

On 08/06/05 04:32 pm tossed the following ingredients
into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

I figure roughly $500 worth of materials and one weekend worth of time.
Somehow electricians manage to earn $1000/day on such jobs. I don't
get it. What is badly needed is a service for homeowners where a
qualified individual will come in and tell the homeowner exactly what
to do (in this case) to upgrade his or her own service. They would
then come back in advance of the inspector and tell the homeowner about
anything that they did wrong so that it could be corrected. The
homeowner would also get a 24-hour hotline in case they have some
"stupid questions". Specialized tools would be loaned to the
homeowner for the duration of the activity (such as a large SDS
hammer-drill to make a hole through the foundation for the service
entrance cable). This would not work for all homeowners but would
significantly reduce the cost for many.