Open your switchboard and look for small test buttons. If there are none, the board is protecting your wiring but nothing in the house is protecting you. That is the difference an upgrade actually buys.
Pricing agreed before we start. We usually reply the same day.
This is the distinction almost nobody is told, and it is the entire point of a switchboard upgrade.
A fuse or a circuit breaker exists to protect the cable in your walls. If a circuit draws more current than the wiring can safely carry, it disconnects before the cable overheats and starts a fire. That is genuinely important and it is all those devices do.
What they cannot do is notice that current is flowing somewhere it should not, such as through a person. A residual current device watches the current going out against the current coming back, and if a small amount goes missing it assumes it has found another path to earth and disconnects in a fraction of a second. Under AS/NZS 3000 that threshold is a maximum of 30 milliamps for a domestic installation, which is deliberately far below the level that stops a heart.
Plenty of Sydney homes still have boards where nothing performs that second function at all. Upgrading is not about tidiness or about having room for a new circuit, although you get both. It is about the house being able to tell the difference between a toaster and a person.
You can work out most of what you need to know in about ten seconds, without touching anything. Look at the row of devices protecting your circuits.
Scroll to see all three →
The short version: the test button is the tell. A device with a small test button on it contains a residual current device, and that is the part that protects a person. If there is not a single test button anywhere on your board, nothing in the house is watching for current going somewhere it should not.
Any one of these on its own is worth a look. Two or three together is not a maintenance issue, it is a board at the end of its working life.
Two of those deserve special mention. A tingle from an appliance or a tap is not a quirk, it is current finding a path through you, and it is the exact scenario an RCD exists to stop. And browning or warmth around a power point means heat is being generated at a connection, which is how electrical fires start.
Neither should wait for a convenient appointment.
A great many Sydney switchboards are mounted on a bituminous backing board, and those made before 1987 can contain asbestos. They are usually a black panel with a rough, fibrous, almost wood-like surface, they sometimes smell faintly of tar, and some carry a manufacturer stamp on the reverse. You may also find a warning sticker inside the meter box where a supply authority has flagged one.
The important part: this material is non-friable, so while it is intact and left alone it is not doing you any harm. The risk arrives when somebody drills it, cuts it, snaps it or rips a board off it, which is precisely what happens during a switchboard change done in a hurry.
So it changes how the job is approached rather than whether it can be done. It needs identifying before work starts, and where it has to come out, NSW guidance is to have it assessed and removed by licensed people rather than treated as part of the sparky’s afternoon.
If you have a black backing board, tell whoever quotes your upgrade. Anyone who shrugs at it is telling you something useful about how they work.
Most switchboard upgrades are not bought deliberately. They arrive attached to something else.
Under AS/NZS 3000, when a switchboard is altered or its circuit protection is replaced, RCD protection becomes mandatory for the final subcircuits it supplies. Adding socket outlets to an existing circuit can trigger the requirement too.
Which is why a renovation quote sometimes includes a board you were not planning on.
Induction cooktops, ducted air conditioning, heat pumps, pool equipment and car chargers all want a dedicated circuit, and older boards frequently have nowhere left to put one.
Space on the board is only half of it. Whether the consumer mains can carry the load is the other half.
A board full of ceramic fuses is one of the things a building inspection reliably flags, and it is a straightforward negotiating point against you. Landlords have their own reasons to want the safety side sorted.
Cheaper to fix before the report than to argue about after it.
Repeated tripping, a burnt smell, discoloured fuse carriers or an actual shock are not signs that an upgrade would be nice eventually.
We would rather look at it than have you live with it, and we will tell you honestly if it is a repair rather than a replacement.
We look at the existing board, what is behind it, the earthing, the state of the mains and how many circuits you actually need, including the ones you are planning rather than only the ones you have. You get a fixed price with materials and labour separated.
Supply is isolated for a good part of the day, so plan around anything that cannot lose power. Old protection comes out, RCBOs go in, the earthing system is brought up to standard where it needs to be, and every circuit is identified and labelled properly rather than guessed at.
Every circuit is tested, every RCD is tripped to prove it works, and you get a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work. Then we clean up. You should be left with a board you can read and a label list that means something.
On cost, the honest version: the board and the devices are a relatively predictable number, and the variables are what we find. An asbestos backing board, an earthing system that needs replacing, mains that turn out to be undersized, or a meter position that has to change all move the figure. That is exactly why we look first and quote second, and why we flag anything we suspect before the day rather than after.
Where the supply, the metering or the point of attachment are involved, that is Level 2 accredited work. We hold it, so it does not become a second trade and a second wait.
Open the door and look at what is protecting the circuits. Porcelain carriers with a length of fuse wire inside are the oldest, and they protect the wiring but do nothing at all to protect a person. Plain circuit breakers are better but still only protect the cable. What you want to see is RCBOs, which combine a breaker with a safety switch and carry a small test button. If you have no test buttons anywhere on the board, nothing in your house is protecting you against an electric shock.
Not on its own, but it is frequently triggered by other work. Under AS/NZS 3000 a domestic installation needs RCD protection with a maximum rated residual current of 30 mA on all final subcircuits, and when a switchboard is altered or its circuit protection replaced, RCD protection becomes mandatory for the circuits it supplies. Adding socket outlets to an existing circuit can trigger it too. So an upgrade often arrives attached to a renovation rather than as a decision on its own.
It might be. Bituminous electrical backing boards made before 1987 can contain asbestos, sold under names including Zelemite, Lebah, Miscolite and Ausbestos. They are typically a black panel with a rough fibrous or wood-like surface that can smell faintly of tar, and some are stamped on the back. It is non-friable, so it is not dangerous while it is left alone and undisturbed. It becomes a problem when someone drills, cuts or breaks it, which is exactly what happens during a careless switchboard change. Do not attack it yourself. It needs assessing, and removal should go to a licensed removalist.
For most domestic upgrades, a good part of a working day. The supply has to be isolated while the board is rebuilt, so it is worth planning around anything that matters, particularly a home office, medical equipment or a freezer full of food. We give you a realistic window before the day rather than an optimistic one on it.
It is usually part of the answer but rarely all of it. The board gives you space for the new circuit and proper protection for it, but whether the house can actually carry the load depends on the consumer mains and the supply, which is a separate question. We check both together, because there is no sense fitting a beautiful new board that still cannot run what you bought.
Attending your job is a chargeable callout. We confirm what it costs when you book, and the price for the work itself is agreed before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.
Based in Castlecrag, covering all of Sydney. A few of the suburbs we work in most:
Covering all 48 North Shore suburbs. See the full list of locations we service.
Upfront pricing, with the price agreed before we start. Call before 11am for same-day service.
