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01 - Overview
What We Actually Do
Most people do not ring an electrician about their switchboard. They ring about something else, and the board turns out to be the reason it cannot happen yet.
A board installed thirty years ago was sized for the house as it was then. Since then the same house has usually gained an air conditioner, an induction cooktop, a second oven, more points in every room, and increasingly a car that wants charging overnight. The board has not changed, and at some point there is no way left to add a circuit to.
So the work splits four ways, and most jobs involve at least two.
We find out what is protected. Opening the board and reading the devices tells you whether there is RCD protection at all, and if so which circuits sit behind it. A board with one safety switch covering the power points and nothing covering the lights is extremely common and reads, from the hallway, as a board with a safety switch.
We add protection where it is needed. Sometimes that is a device or two in a board with room. Often it is a board replacement, because a board built for rewireable fuses has neither the space nor the arrangement for modern protective devices.
We make room. Where the board has capacity, a new circuit is a small job. Where it does not, a replacement is what makes the kitchen, the air conditioner or the car charger possible at all, and it is usually cheaper done once than approached twice.
We label it. A board where every way is marked with what it feeds is worth more than most people expect. It turns the next fault from an afternoon of guessing into ten minutes.
The short version
- Work out whether the board can take what you want to add
- Find out which circuits actually have RCD protection today
- Add safety switches where the wiring rules require them
- Replace boards that have no room or no arrangement for modern devices
- Label every way so the next fault is quicker to isolate
- Test what is already installed rather than assuming it works
02 - What's included
Everything We Cover on the Job
01
Safety Switch Installation
Residual current devices fitted to the circuits that need them, on a board with the physical room and the arrangement to take them.
02
Switchboard Replacement
Where the existing board cannot be extended. Rewireable fuses and early breakers out, current devices in, and spare ways left for what comes next.
03
Adding Circuits to an Existing Board
Where there are spare ways and the board is in condition to use them. A new circuit for a cooktop, an air conditioner or a car charger, without replacing anything that does not need replacing.
04
Three Phase Boards
Workshops, shops and sites running plant or large air conditioning. Three phase boards are a different build and a different quote, and we do them.
05
Switchboard Labelling
Every way marked with what it feeds. Cheap while the board is open, tedious afterwards, and worth it at the next fault.
06
Testing What Is There
Push-button testing confirms a device operates. Trip-time testing confirms it operates fast enough. They are different tests and only one gets done by most people.
07
Nuisance Tripping
A safety switch that keeps going is usually detecting a real fault, not misbehaving. We find the cause rather than replacing the device.
08
Compliance Certificates
Issued for the work, and for rented premises the record that the check happened at all.
03 - Why it matters
Why an Old Board Is a Compliance Question, Not Just an Old Board
Under the Victorian wiring rules, new and altered circuits have to carry residual current protection. That means the moment you add a circuit for an induction cooktop, a heat pump or a car charger, the protection question arrives whether you were thinking about it or not.
It is also why so many switchboard upgrades happen alongside something else. The cheapest time to bring a board up to standard is when an electrician is already in front of it for another reason, and the most expensive time is when a circuit has failed and you need it back today.
For rented premises there is a further layer: the property has to have safety switch protection and the owner has to be able to produce a record that it was checked. The work and the paperwork are the same job.
‘A board with one safety switch on the power points is not a protected house. It is a half-protected house, and nobody can tell which half without opening it.’
Peter, licensed electrician & owner
Sources AS/NZS 3000Energy Safe Victoria
