Who to hire for a switchboard that needs upgrading

Short answer

A licensed electrician. The three triggers are rewireable ceramic fuses instead of circuit breakers, an absence of safety switches on power and lighting circuits, and simply having no spare ways left for a new circuit — and the last one is why it usually comes up at the same time as an air conditioner, an EV charger or a solar system.

Plan itThere is time to get more than one quote, which is where the money is.

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Electrician.

  • your electricity distributor or meter provider

    the meter has to be moved or the service upgraded. That is a separate booking with its own lead time and the electrician cannot do it unilaterally.

What to do before anyone arrives

  1. Photograph the inside of the board with the cover on, and the labels. That tells an electrician most of what they need for a ballpark before attending.
  2. Write down what you are planning for the next few years — ducted air conditioning, induction cooking, solar, a battery, an EV charger. Doing the board once for all of it is much cheaper than three visits.
  3. Check whether the property has ever been rewired. Ceramic fuses and a board full of black rubber-sheathed cable is a different conversation from a 1990s board that is simply full.
  4. Ask whether any safety switches are already fitted and to which circuits. 'It has an RCD' often means one RCD on one circuit.

What to ask when you book

  • Does the quote include safety switches on all final subcircuits, or only the ones currently required to be protected?
  • Will the supply need upgrading, and does that involve the distributor?
  • How long will the power be off, and can you stage it?
  • Will you leave a schedule of circuits and a certificate of electrical safety?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

  • How many circuits, and whether each gets its own safety switch.
  • Whether the existing cable can be re-terminated or is too short or too brittle to reuse.
  • Whether the board has to move — for example off an internal wall to an accessible external position.
  • Asbestos backing board, which is common in older switchboards and requires specific handling.

Is this licensed work?

Licensed electrical work, and one of the jobs most likely to need the distributor involved as well if the main supply or the meter has to be touched. A certificate of electrical safety is required for the work in most states.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who should I hire for a switchboard that needs upgrading
A licensed electrician. The three triggers are rewireable ceramic fuses instead of circuit breakers, an absence of safety switches on power and lighting circuits, and simply having no spare ways left for a new circuit — and the last one is why it usually comes up at the same time as an air conditioner, an EV charger or a solar system.
Do I legally have to upgrade an old switchboard?
Generally there is no requirement to upgrade an installation simply because it is old. What triggers the requirement is new work: adding circuits, doing significant alterations, and in several states at the point a rental property changes hands or a safety check falls due. That is why the question usually arrives attached to another job.
What is the difference between a circuit breaker and a safety switch?
A circuit breaker protects the wiring from overload — it stops the cable overheating. A safety switch protects people: it detects current leaking to earth, which is what happens when someone becomes part of the circuit, and it disconnects in a fraction of a second. Having breakers does not mean you have safety switches, and only one of the two has ever saved a life.

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Who to hire for

General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.