Switchboard Upgrade in Punchbowl

The clearest signs are ceramic (rewireable) fuses instead of circuit breakers, no RCD safety switches on the power and lighting circuits, a main switch that trips when two big appliances run together, a board that visibly runs hot or smells warm, or asbestos-backed panels on very old boards. If your home was built before about 1980 and the board has never been touched, it is very likely due. On the other hand, a board that trips one specific circuit is usually a fault on that circuit, not a full-board problem.

On a standard single-storey home in Bankstown, Revesby, Padstow, Panania or Greenacre, a full upgrade is typically a single-day job — power off around 8:30am, board back on and everything tested by mid-to-late afternoon. Homes with a separate granny flat, three-phase supply, or a consumer mains upgrade at the same time run into a second day. We give you a firm timeframe as part of the written quote before any work starts.

The switchboard itself and everything downstream is our work. If your job also needs consumer mains upgraded, the meter panel relocated or the service line to the pole altered, that portion is Level 2 (network-side) work — we are not a Level 2 ASP, so we coordinate one to do that part. You still get one point of contact and one project managed through to sign-off; you just have a licensed Level 2 sparky doing the network-side work rather than us pretending we can.

Individual RCBOs on every final subcircuit is our standard. It is a small amount extra on parts compared to sharing two RCDs across the whole board, and it means a tripped RCD from a wet outdoor GPO does not take out your fridge, your oven and half the lights at the same time. We only recommend the shared-RCD approach if the budget genuinely will not stretch — and we will tell you what you are giving up.

No — a switchboard upgrade inside your existing meter box does not need council approval. It does need to be done by a licensed electrician (and if consumer mains are being replaced, a licensed Level 2 ASP for that portion), it must comply with AS/NZS 3000, and compliance paperwork must be provided on completion. We handle all of that as part of the quote.

Yes. A lot of older Bankstown-area boards are mounted on asbestos-cement backing panels. We are trained to handle small quantities of ACM safely, will bag and dispose of it correctly, and replace it with a new modern back panel. If the whole meter box enclosure is asbestos and needs to come out (rather than just the internal panel), we will scope that in writing before starting.