Ceramic fuses and unprotected boards replaced with modern, individually labelled RCBO protection. It's what a sale or lease requires, and it's usually what stands between an older house and everything else you want to add to it.
Why It Matters
A switchboard does two jobs. It protects the wiring from overload, and it protects people from electric shock. Older boards mostly do the first and not the second: ceramic rewireable fuses, or circuit breakers with no residual current device behind them, will stop a cable overheating but will not disconnect quickly enough to prevent a shock injury. That gap is the reason at least two RCDs covering all socket outlet and lighting final subcircuits are required before a property is sold or leased.
The second problem is capacity. Boards from the sixties, seventies and eighties were built for a household with far fewer circuits: no ducted air conditioning, no induction cooktop, no EV charger, no ceiling full of downlights. Adding any of those to a board with no spare ways and no RCD protection usually means the board has to be dealt with first. Doing it as one planned job rather than discovering it halfway through another is almost always cheaper.
Recent Work
The breakers kept tripping. Behind the panel, nine power circuits were sharing three 16A breakers, and the board had no room for the two air-conditioning circuits the client wanted.
It was rebuilt in a Clipsal MAX9 with an individual RCBO for every circuit, plus two RCBOs wired and ready for the air conditioners. The original earth stake could not be found, so a new main earth and earth stake went in, and the whole installation was tested.
What’s Included
A full upgrade rather than a device swap, because that is usually what an older board needs:
Why Dextel
Licensed Electrical Contractor EC12377 | Security Agent SA54405. $10 million public liability insurance.
Licensed since 1995, so ceramic fuses and asbestos backing boards are familiar territory.
A reply the same day, and a time that fits between jobs already committed.
The board is opened and looked at before it is priced. Nothing to pay under $1,000; above that it is 20% on acceptance.
Prices
Prices include GST and are for a standard home in the Perth metro area. A replaced smoke alarm goes in the same position on the existing mains wiring; a new position assumes access through the roof space. RCD prices assume the switchboard is in good condition and has room. Anything else is quoted after a look. Fixing any fault found during testing is a service job, not part of the fixed price above. Service jobs are charged at our standard service rate rather than quoted at a fixed price, because the time a fault takes to find cannot be known beforehand. We confirm the rate with you before we attend. See our terms →
Common Questions
The clearest signs are ceramic rewireable fuses, no test buttons anywhere on the board, a board that is completely full with no spare ways, circuit breakers of several different brands and ages sitting side by side, or scorching and discolouration around the fuse carriers. Any one of those is worth having looked at.
Replacing the enclosure and all the protection with modern devices, identifying and labelling every circuit properly, and testing the result. One thing to know: when all the circuit protection on a board is replaced, every final sub-circuit on that board then needs RCD protection, including hard-wired appliance circuits that may never have had it.
Two RCDs covering all circuits meets the minimum requirement. Individual RCBOs cost more and are usually worth it: with a shared RCD, one nuisance trip takes out every circuit behind it, which is how you end up with no lights and a defrosting freezer over a fault in one appliance.
Yes, and that is the sensible order. An older board rarely has the capacity or the circuit space for a charger on its own, so quoting and booking the two as one job costs less than doing them as two separate visits.
Most domestic switchboard upgrades are a one-day job, with the power off for part of it. The timing is confirmed in the quote so you can plan around it. Freezers and anyone working from home are the usual things to think about.
At sale or lease you need at least two RCDs covering all socket outlet and lighting final subcircuits, plus mains-powered smoke alarms. On an original fused board that usually means an upgrade rather than an add-on, because there is often no room and no modern earthing arrangement to work with.
Where We Work
Dextel is based in Spearwood and works across Perth metro. Where we work →
Most service work needs nothing up front: jobs under $1,000 carry no deposit, and quoted work above that takes a 20% deposit on acceptance, as set out in our terms →
Related Reading
Send a photo of the board, or call and describe it. Either way you get an answer today, not next week.