Grovedale switchboard upgrade
We recently went to a house in Grovedale to add in a couple of power points and change over a couple of single power points to doubles and came across this switchboard that looked like it hadn’t been touched for many years.
Although the switchboard was legal and the time it was last modified, which means it is still currently legal, this doesn’t mean it’s right and more importantly safe.
Switchboards like this one are very common around Geeelong, the Surfcoast and the Bellarine and over time they will hopefully become obsolete as houses are renovated, extended or even demolished.
The one positive with this switchboard is that it did have a safety switch installed, but instead or protecting the sub-circuits, which simply means the circuits going off the power points, lights etc, it was used as the main switch which was common practice many years ago but certainly not acceptable today.
The reasons why this is not a practice we follow today is that while there is some protection for people, it offers no protection to the incoming consumers mains and if there was one a fault with an appliance for example, you would loose power to the entire house.
Under today’s rules, the main switch must be a circuit breaker which protects the consumers mains but also used to protect the cable throughout the house from being overloaded which causes excessive heat and could melt the insulation around the cable leading to the copper conductors touching which could leads to fires.
All switchboard upgrades by us have circuit breakers protecting everything, but also every sub-circuit has built-in safety switches (combination circuit breakers and safety switches or RCBO’s as they are often referred to in the industry) so every circuit is protected by it’s very own safety switch so if there is ever a problem only that circuit will ‘trip’ and at least there would still be power to most of the house.
So not only is this electrical installation much safer, it also looks a lot neater and less likely to lose power to the entire house if there is ever a problem.
If you have a switchboard that looks anything like this, please contact us for a free quote to upgrade.
