You know, conduit is less than $3.50 for a 10 ft section last I bought some. Fittings are another dollar or so each, and I can't see 30 ft of copper wire costing 2 grand. So you are paying mostly for the electrification's time. If there is a lot more work involved, and if I lived in an area where I wasn't allowed to do my own electrical work, I'd at least dig the trench myself and take care of pounding a whole through the foundation wall if needed.

There’s no question I was paying for his time. I’ll do my own electrical, mostly, but not 240. That stuff will kill you.

That's a bit paranoid; plenty of Europeans with our 220V lines do our own electrical, and there are very few domestic deaths by electrocution.

Nitpicking: 230V +-10%, so on a good day it can be as high as 253V.

But yes most people will work on it for their own, but shy away from 400V outlets.

I think that's just familiarity.

I've used 400V outlets, as they're the standard outlet in a European datacentre (for the UPS or PDU). Most people don't use them, and can be a bit uncomfortable even touching them.

I can understand Americans also being fairly unfamiliar with a 240V outlet, taking more care with it, and preferring to employ a professional to install one.

It's just 3 phases with 230V each, which gives you 400V across individual phases. Same safety rules apply as on standard outlets, so yes, it really is just familiarity. Also lots of European households do have 400V outlets (we have 2 in our house, basement and garage). I even installed one temporarily in my living room for construction/remodeling and working with the required thick wires they are unconfortable to work with.

"very few".

Well, that's a comfort.