An electrical contractor now receives three very different enquiries through one website: a charger in the double garage, a rooftop solar array with a battery, and a 1970s meter cabinet with no room for either. The market behind them is large: the public charging register listed 155,264 standard charging points and 54,341 fast charging points (Federal Network Agency), and at the end of 2025 Germany had nearly 6 million PV installations (Fraunhofer ISE). Collect all three through one form with name, phone and message, and you get three lines of free text. This article shows how an electrical website separates the branches, which mandatory details belong on each one, and why the grid notification is the shared node of all three paths.
Three job types, one workflow
Three separate developments sit behind the three branches, and they meet in the same workshop. Public charging points supply 9.04 GW of charging capacity at the same time (Federal Network Agency). The driver for the private job, however, sits in the driveway: at the end of 2025 there were 2.1 million battery-electric cars on the road (Fraunhofer ISE). In parallel, newly installed solar capacity in 2025 came to roughly 17,600 MW (Federal Environment Agency), with the installed base at just over 120,000 MW (Federal Environment Agency). For the website this means three customer groups on the same page, each with different details in mind that make a quotation calculable.
The shape of that base decides which enquiries realistically arrive through a form. Of the almost six million installations, about 67% are small systems below 10 kWp (Fraunhofer ISE) - roofs of single and two-family homes that are searched for rather than tendered. Storage adds a trade of its own: at the end of 2025 installed stationary battery capacity stood at 25 GWh of installed capacity (Fraunhofer ISE). And a fourth job type pushes into the free-text box: in the first half of 2026, 40% more heat pumps were sold than in the same period a year earlier (German Heat Pump Association), against an installed base of almost two million units in use (German Heat Pump Association).
The setting is small-scale. At the end of 2025 the German skilled crafts sector counted 1,038,126 businesses (ZDH); official statistics recorded around 564,000 craft enterprises for 2024 (Federal Statistical Office). What is scarce is not demand but time: capacity utilisation in the second quarter of 2026 was 76% (ZDH), and the average order backlog 8.7 weeks (ZDH). A business with that backlog loses twice over on an unsorted form. How to pre-sort enquiries instead of merely counting them is covered in the article on enquiries through a trades website; what it looks like in a layout is shown by the example pages from different trades.
The charging branch: power, route and controllability
A charger is quick to mount and quick to branch legally. Charging equipment must be notified to the network operator, and commissioning additionally requires prior consent where the aggregate rated capacity exceeds 12 kilovolt-amperes per electrical installation (NAV section 19). A single 11 kW box stays below that; two boxes or 22 kW do not - and that distinction decides whether an appointment in three weeks or in three months is realistic. Grid-oriented control comes on top: the rules for controllable consumption devices apply to installations with a grid connection capacity of more than 4.2 kW (Federal Network Agency).
The second question follows at once: what happens when the grid gets tight? The network operator may temporarily reduce the power draw of the controllable consumption device to 4.2 kW in order to avert an overload of the local grid (Federal Network Agency) - the car charges more slowly, but it charges. In return a reduced grid fee is available; the second module lowers the energy rate in low voltage without demand metering to 40% (Federal Network Agency). Those sentences belong on the page and save a phone call before every quotation - together with the matching selection field in the form.
Scroll table sideways
| Detail in the charging branch | Why it is needed before the site visit | What happens without it |
|---|---|---|
| Requested charging capacity in kW | Decides on the consent requirement above 12 kilovolt-amperes (NAV section 19) | A date is promised before the consent question is settled |
| Number of charging points | Several boxes add up to the rated capacity per installation | One enquiry turns into a second project at the site visit |
| Route from meter cabinet to parking space | Cable length and installation method drive the material share | The quoted price does not match the work on site |
| Condition of the distribution board | Shows whether the meter-cabinet branch runs along as a line item | The charger appointment ends as a survey of the distribution board |
| Controllable consumption device | The rules apply above more than 4.2 kW (Federal Network Agency) | The reduced grid fee only comes up after installation |
| Ownership or tenancy of the parking space | Determines who has to consent and how long that takes | The installation stands finished and may not be energised |
Six fields sound like a lot, yet they are fewer than a callback asks for anyway - and they arrive complete when the form collects them individually. The order matters: let the visitor pick the job type first, then show the fields of that branch. A form that displays every field at once reads like an application and gets abandoned. How an enquiry form has to be built so that it is answered is covered in the article on the contact form for small businesses. The service overview states alongside it what the business handles: installation, notification, commissioning, test report.
The solar branch: area, storage, feed-in tariff
In the solar branch the first question is rarely technical; it is economic. For building-mounted systems up to 10 kW with surplus feed-in, the Federal Network Agency lists 7.70 cents per kilowatt-hour for commissioning between 1 August 2026 and 31 January 2027 (EEG sections 21 and 53). A figure with a cut-off date ages: for commissioning up to 31 July 2026, Fraunhofer ISE states up to 7.78 cents per kilowatt-hour for 20 years - so such a figure belongs on the page with its reference date and scope, or not at all. Formally, registration follows commissioning: every renewable installation must be registered in the market master data register within one month (Federal Network Agency). Naming that step as a service takes the deadline off the customer's desk.
The second half of the branch separates suitable enquiries from unsuitable ones. Certain technical requirements do not apply to plug-in devices with a total installed capacity of up to 2 kilowatts and a total inverter capacity of up to 800 volt-amperes (EEG section 9). A business that does not list them still gets them - in the free-text box of an enquiry that looks like a full rooftop system. And for small installations without retrievable actual feed-in data, active power feed-in at the connection point must be limited to 60% of the installed capacity (EEG section 9). One sentence and one selection field cover that on the page.
Figures with a cut-off date age faster than the page
The meter cabinet branch: the job people rarely search for
Hardly anyone searches online for a new meter cabinet. People search for the charger, and the distribution board joins in at the site visit - which is exactly why the third branch pays off. The trigger is written into the law. Metering points are to be fitted with smart metering systems for final consumers with an annual electricity consumption of more than 6,000 kilowatt-hours (MsbG section 29) and for operators of installations with an installed capacity of more than 7 kilowatts (MsbG section 29). A household with a heat pump, a charger and solar reaches both thresholds in short order - and then needs space, a connection and a metering concept.
Job type first
Three tiles instead of a dropdown. Only after the choice do the fields of that branch appear - which halves the visible length of the form.
Mandatory details per branch
Four to six details without which no quotation exists. As separate fields with their own labels, not buried in free text.
A photo instead of a description
One picture of the meter cabinet and one of the parking space replace ten follow-up questions. One upload field with format and size is enough.
Make the grid notification visible
Who notifies whom, what has to be reported, which deadline runs. That takes the sting out of the date question.
A price range instead of a fixed price
A range with a reference quantity and a price date carries further than an amount without context.
State your availability
When you answer and through which channel. A commitment that also holds during the summer season.
The meter-cabinet branch also answers the running-cost question. At metering points with a controllable consumption device under section 14a of the Energy Industry Act, metering point operation may be charged at no more than 130 euros gross per metering point per year (MsbG section 30). For the installation and operation of a control device at the grid connection point, no more than 50 euros gross per year may be added (MsbG section 30). Two sentences on the page, and the cost question is answered. A business that also offers heating technology will find the structure in the article on the website for heating and heat pumps.
The grid notification is the shared node
All three branches converge at the same point. Charging equipment must be notified, generating installations registered, meter positions agreed. Where a charging installation requires the network operator's consent because its aggregate rated capacity exceeds 12 kilovolt-amperes, the operator is obliged in that case to respond within two months of receiving the notification (NAV section 19); for registering an own installation under subsection 3 and for agreeing the meter position the regulation sets no such deadline. That deadline is one of the most useful sentences on an electrical website, because it explains why an appointment does not depend on the contractor's calendar alone. The route is now meant to be digital: from 1 January 2024 the network operator has to ensure that the required notifications can also be made on its website (NAV section 19).
- Show the process in four steps. Enquiry, site visit, notification, installation - four lines with one sentence each.
- Name the deadline. Where the charging installation requires consent, the network operator has to respond within two months in that case (NAV section 19). Writing that down means being blamed less often for someone else's delay.
- Explain the consent threshold. Above 12 kilovolt-amperes of aggregate rated capacity, prior consent is required (NAV section 19); below it, notification suffices.
- Write down the registration deadline. Every renewable installation must be registered in the market master data register within one month (Federal Network Agency). Whether the business handles that belongs on the service page.
- Separate responsibilities. What the business does, what the customer provides, what the network operator decides. Three columns, no prose.
- Keep the status retrievable. One status message after the notification replaces three phone calls.
Commitments that survive a two-month deadline
Pricing that still holds two months later
Prices are awkward in the electrical trade because the material share fluctuates and the effort depends on the existing installation. A website without a single figure still gets enquiries - from people who ask about price first. What works is a range with a reference quantity: charger installation up to a given cable route, solar per installed kilowatt, meter cabinet as a line item with and without an additional meter position. What is not included belongs next to it. One argument many businesses give away: for craft services, income tax is reduced on application by 20% of the expenditure, capped at 1,200 euros (EStG section 35a) - applied to the labour share.
- Put the reference quantity before the figure. An amount without context becomes the expectation for every case. State what it covers and what is extra.
- Date the price. Every price gets a date and an entry in the maintenance routine - otherwise the same figure stands there unchanged in two years.
- Show the labour share. The tax reduction under EStG section 35a applies only there. Separating that share on the invoice saves the customer a follow-up question.
- Exclude subsidised measures. The reduction does not apply to publicly subsidised measures for which low-interest loans or tax-free grants are used (EStG section 35a).
- Pre-qualify the enquiry. A short estimate sorts better than any price list - see price calculators on a website. Your own terms belong on the pricing page.
Two questions regularly appear behind the price question. The first is your own: what does the website cost, and how is it treated for tax? See the separate article on website costs as expense or asset. The second comes from clients who are not private customers: municipal utilities, housing associations and public administrations check what a website says before awarding work. Which details they expect is covered in the article on public sector contracts and procurement buyers.
The tax reduction covers labour, not the equipment
What the page has to deliver technically
A branched form with mandatory fields makes demands that many pages fail. The analysis of the live web shows how common that is: 59% of mobile sites have inputs without labels (Web Almanac 2025), and 55% of mobile inputs rely on placeholder text alone for their accessible name (Web Almanac 2025). Both break where it counts: the placeholder disappears as soon as someone types. Machine-readable marking is improving - the attribute for required fields rose by one point in 2025 to 66% for mobile pages (Web Almanac 2025).
- Every field has a visible label that stays put while typing.
- Required fields are marked up machine-readably, not by an asterisk alone.
- Numeric fields open the number keypad on a phone; the unit is stated in the field.
- Text meets the minimum contrast - only 31% of mobile sites currently do (Web Almanac 2025).
- Error messages name the field and the reason instead of discarding the input.
- The photo upload states format and size and works on a weak connection.
On top of that comes what makes the page reachable at all. For mobile Core Web Vitals, 48% in 2025 of sites reached good scores (Web Almanac 2025) - a fast page thus remains a difference, not a standard. Structured data, with which a regionally operating business records location, opening hours and services in machine-readable form, reached 50% on both desktop and mobile home pages in 2025 (Web Almanac 2025). How a statically delivered page brings that along is covered in the article on static delivery; the process is described under how it works.
From the form to the job
The cleanest branching helps little if the enquiry then sits there. Decide for each branch who takes it and within what period an answer may be expected - and put that period on the page. Two topics belong in the same round: accessibility and data handling. The German Accessibility Strengthening Act describes a micro-enterprise as one employing fewer than ten people with an annual turnover or balance sheet total of at most 2 million euros (BFSG section 2); the details are covered in the article on when micro-enterprises are affected. Anyone with seasonal peaks will find the pattern in the article on season contracts through the website.
An electrical contractor rarely loses a job on price. It loses the job on an enquiry from which nobody can tell what the work actually is.
Getting started with your own electrical contractor website
- Name the three branches. Charger, solar, meter cabinet - and the heat pump at least as a fourth option.
- Define four to six mandatory details per branch. They are fixed before the first line of text is written.
- Explain the shared node. Grid notification, consent threshold, response deadline - one section linked from every branch page.
- Set a price range and a price date. Range, reference quantity, date, exclusions.
- Look at the execution first. The example pages show the structure, the features page the scope, the comparison of routes the classification.
- Take the first branch live and measure it. One branch with complete details beats three half-finished ones. For open questions, a short message helps.
Sources and studies