Switchboard Upgrades
Ceramic fuses out, safety switches in, on a board you can actually read.
Switchboard Upgrades
If your board still has ceramic fuses and fuse wire, it was built for a house with a fridge, a kettle and a telly. It was not built for induction cooktops, ducted heating, a home office and a car on charge. Rewirable fuses protect the wiring. They do nothing to protect the person touching it.
An upgrade swaps those fuses for circuit breakers and RCDs (safety switches) that cut power in about 30 milliseconds when current starts flowing somewhere it shouldn't. We split your circuits sensibly, label everything clearly, and leave room on the board for whatever you add next.
Most upgrades are a same day job. We'll tell you beforehand roughly how long you'll be without power, and we work to keep the fridge and the wifi up as long as we can.
What a switchboard upgrade includes.
Quoted as one price before we start. Nothing gets added at the end.
- Full inspection of your existing board and main switch
- RCD safety switches on every power and lighting circuit
- Individual circuit breakers, correctly rated
- Neat, clearly labelled circuit directory
- Surge protection fitted if you want it
- Certificate of Electrical Safety issued on completion
- Compliance with AS/NZS 3000 wiring rules
- Old board removed and the site left spotless
Switchboard questions we get weekly.
There's no law forcing you to replace an existing board that's working. But safety switches are mandatory on new and modified circuits, and most insurers now expect them. If your board still has rewirable fuses, an upgrade is the single biggest safety improvement you can make to the house.
A typical domestic upgrade takes four to six hours including testing. Larger homes, or boards needing a new main switch and meter work, can run to a full day. You'll have a fixed price and a realistic time frame before we start.
No. Power is only off while we transfer circuits across, usually two to three hours. We'll tell you when the outage starts so you can plan around the fridge, the freezer and anyone working from home.
Get a price on your board.
Send a photo of your existing board if you can. We can usually quote from that alone.
The rest of what we do.
Still got fuse wire in the hallway?
Send through a photo of the board and we'll tell you what it needs.