What does cost to become a UL 508A Industrial Control Panel Manufacturer?

A common question I get is how much does it cost to become a UL 508A Industrial Control Panel Building shop. The quick and incomplete answer from 2022 is $5,268 for the first year and $4,322 each year after. Now let’s break that number down and talk about some of the costs that are often overlooked.

Your first year you are going to incur two costs. Your UL Site Training which is $2,800 and your Annual Certification Service Fee which is $2,468. Also, I used the UL Site Training cost of $2,800 but there is also an option of Onsite Training for $5,500 plus meals and travel expenses for the trainer. I highly recommend you do the UL Site Training because not only is it less expensive, you will have an opportunity to visit one of UL’s test laboratories which is a great experience. Your Annual Certification Service Fee covers your site visits by your UL inspector.

After the first year, you will have an Annual Maintenance Fee of $1,854 and continue to pay your Annual Certification Service Fee of $2,468.

That gets you set up to apply UL stickers, however there are some more expenses. Tools. UL doesn’t specify the specifics of tools but they do say that components must be installed using the manufacturer's recommended method. So if you are installing a wire ferrule, you must use the wire ferrule manufacturer’s tool. If you are installing a contactor and the manufacturer says that the screws must be torqued to 11 inch pounds then you must use a torque wrench or a torque driver to tighten that screw. Which brings us to the next expense which is calibration. If the manufacturer specifies a torque of 11 in-lb then the tool you use to torque it must be calibrated once a year.

Next we have components and this is one that I disagree with much of the information that you hear from non-UL 508A panel builders. They will tell you that UL components add unnecessary expenses to a control panel. If you look at most of the components that you are using in your control panels, chances are they are already UL listed or UL recognized.