Switchboard upgrades in Adelaide
East Arc Group upgrades and replaces domestic switchboards across Adelaide. George and Arie design the board and install it themselves, and the work is tested and certified on completion. Most changeovers are a single day.
East Arc Group Pty Ltd · ABN 20 694 108 328
Licensed Electrical Contractor · Lic. No. BLD 356143
Book a site visit
Tell us what your board is doing and we will arrange a time to come and look at it.
The short version.
- An RCBO on every final subcircuit, rather than one shared safety switch covering the house.
- A comb busbar linking the devices, every device from the same brand family.
- A main switch correctly rated, and a new enclosure where the existing one cannot properly take the devices.
- Every circuit identified and labelled at the board in plain words.
- Full testing recorded circuit by circuit: earth continuity, insulation resistance, polarity and RCD trip times.
- A Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work, issued to you.
Most domestic changeovers are done in a day. None of the above is an extra.
What the old board does not protect.
Most Adelaide homes built before the mid nineties have a board full of circuit breakers, or older still, ceramic fuses. Both do the same single job. They watch the current flowing in the cable and cut it off before the cable overheats. That is protection for the house.
Neither of them notices a person. If current leaves the circuit through somebody holding a faulty appliance, a frayed lead or a wet fitting, the current in the cable barely changes. The breaker sees nothing wrong and stays closed.
An RCBO does both jobs in one device. It protects the cable the way a circuit breaker does, and it also compares the current going out with the current coming back. The moment those two stop matching, which is exactly what happens when current is passing through a person, it disconnects the circuit in a fraction of a second.
A circuit breaker protects the cable. An RCBO protects the person using it as well.
That is why we fit an RCBO to every circuit rather than one shared safety switch covering several. A shared device protects the same people, but when it trips it takes half the house with it and tells you nothing about where the fault is. One device per circuit isolates the fault to the circuit that caused it, and leaves the rest of the house running.
Room in the board for what comes next.
An older board is usually full. Not electrically full, physically full. There is no spare position left on the rail, and every new circuit a house needs now has to go somewhere. That is the practical reason most upgrades happen: an EV charger needs its own circuit and its own protection, and so does a new oven, a ducted air conditioner, a studio out the back, a pool. On a board with no spare poles, none of those can be added until the board itself is dealt with.
An upgraded board is laid out with space left in it deliberately. We fit the circuits you have, each on its own device, and leave clear poles on the rail for the ones you have not asked for yet. It is the difference between paying for a board once and paying an electrician to work around it every time something changes.
To be straight about what an upgrade does not do. It does not increase the amount of power available to your house. That is set by the supply coming in from the street and it does not change because the board is new. What changes is the room in the board, the protection on each circuit, and your ability to add to it later. Anyone selling you a new board on the promise of more power is selling you something else.
Signs your board needs attention.
You do not need to know what you are looking at to spot most of these. Open the cover and look, or send us a photograph and we will tell you what you have.
Ceramic fuses
If you have ever pulled out a carrier and rewound fuse wire, that board predates every safety requirement in the current wiring rules.
No safety switches
Nothing on the board is marked RCD, RCBO or safety switch, which means nothing in the house is protecting a person, only the cables.
No spare space
Every position on the rail is occupied, so nothing can be added until the board is rebuilt.
Something keeps tripping
Repeated tripping is a fault reporting itself, and it is worth finding rather than resetting.
Nothing is labelled
No circuit identification, or labels that no longer match what is connected, so whoever is at the board in a fault is guessing.
Heat, buzzing or scorching
Any discolouration, smell or noise at the board is a loose or failing connection and should be looked at now.
What happens, step by step.
Site visit
We come and look at the board, the supply, the earthing and the circuits you actually have. Nothing here is quoted off a photograph, because what is behind the cover decides the job.
Written quote
You get the scope in plain words, with every device and every circuit listed. If anything we find on the day changes it, we tell you before we do it, not afterwards.
Install day
Most changeovers are a single day. We agree a start time with you in advance and tell you before the power goes off, so you can plan around it.
Tested and certified
The board is tested circuit by circuit, labelled, and the Certificate of Compliance is issued to you. The results are recorded against each circuit rather than signed off as a whole.
The detail.
Changeover or full replacement, and which one you need
Often it is a changeover rather than a full replacement. If the enclosure is sound and correctly sized, the devices inside it can be replaced and rearranged without rebuilding the whole board. That is a smaller job. Which one yours is depends on the enclosure, the supply and the earthing, and it is decided at the site visit rather than off a photograph.
Licensed, and on site ourselves.
East Arc Group Pty Ltd is a licensed electrical contractor in South Australia, licence number BLD 356143, ABN 20 694 108 328. George Pappas and Arie Minenko are the two directors and both of them are on site for the work. There is no crew sent in our place and no subcontractor you have not met.
Common questions.
How long does a switchboard upgrade take?
Most domestic changeovers are done in a day. A board that also needs a new enclosure, a new main switch, or work on the supply side takes longer. We tell you which one yours is when we quote it, not on the day.
Do I lose power for the whole day?
No. The power is off while the old devices come out and the new ones go in, not for the entire visit. We agree a start time with you beforehand and tell you before we pull the main switch, so you can shut things down properly.
Do I need council approval?
No. A switchboard upgrade is electrical work, not building work. What it needs is a licensed electrical contractor and a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work, and that is what you get.
Will you certify the work?
Yes. Every board we install is tested on completion and certified. You are issued a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work recording the test results circuit by circuit. Ask for it if it does not arrive, from us or from anyone else.
Can you install an EV charger at the same time?
Yes, and it is usually the sensible order to do it in. An EV charger needs its own circuit and its own protection at the board, so doing both in one visit means one lot of access, one lot of testing, and one certificate covering the work.
My board is not old, it is just full. Is that still an upgrade?
Often it is a changeover rather than a full replacement. If the enclosure is sound and correctly sized, the devices inside it can be replaced and rearranged without rebuilding the whole board. That is a smaller job and we work out which one you need at the site visit.
Start with a look at the board.
Tell us what your board is doing, or send a photograph of it. We will arrange a time to come and look properly, and you will get the scope in writing before anything is booked.