Switchboard

Switchboard Upgrade and Repair
Older style buildings and homes have old electrical switchboards which run the risk of having an electrical fire occur, as well as increase the risk of electrical shock. Modern switchboard installations have mandatory electrical safety switches installed, under the Queensland law. Safety Switches act when an electrical fault occurs and will isolate the circuit immediately.

Do You Need An Upgrade?
Older style switchboards with ceramic rewire-able fuses are designed to cater for a couple of household appliances. When these fuse boxes were installed homes had a fridge, washing machine and oven. Modern houses have so many more appliances in use every day that the old switchboards are now potential fire hazards due to overloading. Because of this overburdening of the switchboards these homes and businesses experience frequent power outs and tripping.

Rewiring
Another possible reason for unreliable or intermittent power supply could be older wiring in your home. We can assess the reliability of your current wiring and perform any rewiring work to bring your home up to a reliable and safe working standard, reducing the risk of fire and electrocution.

Safety Switches
A Safety Switch (also sometimes called an Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker) is your protection against Electric Shock.
It monitors the current flowing through the active and neutral conductors, which in normal circumstances should be exactly equal.

When a fault occurs, electricity may start to flow to earth (via your body). The Safety Switch detects that the current flowing through the active and neutral conductors is now out of balance and trips – disconnecting the circuit and protecting you from potential electric shock.

The Safety Switch is located in your switchboard.  There is a test button on the unit.
I have been to several jobs where the Safety Switch was installed, but not working.
A Safety Switch is useless if it is not working . . . So test it – push the test button!

Australian Standards (AS/NZS 3760:2010) say that in a residential situation, a Safety Switch should be tested every 6 months. This can be by the owner pushing the Trip button.
Hermes Electrical offers a Safety Switch Testing service to their clients.

How Many Safety Switches Should I Have?

You can never have too many!
The older way of thinking was to put 1 safety switch to protect all of the plugs in a house.
A more modern approach is to install individual safety switches for each power (plug) circuit and also for each lighting circuit.  This means that a fault or incident on one circuit will not cause everything in the house to trip off.

Surge Protection

Lightning strikes, electrical faults or switching operations on the main supply network, even branches falling onto power lines during a storm can all cause damaging electrical surges. A Surge is a voltage spike (or surge) that can measure many thousands of volts that travel down through power lines, through an electrical switchboard and into the home or office.

Surge Arrester
This can affect electronic devices such as large screen televisions, computers, printers, fax machines, computer network equipment (like routers, ADSL modems etc) and even things like alarm systems, washers / dryers, and microwave ovens. The result can cause failure or permanent damage to equipment. Overvoltage peaks need to only last a few millionths of a second before they can cause failure in electronic components. A switchboard surge arrester is a device designed to help stop surges from entering the switchboard and prevent them entering your home. The surge arrester is a relatively small investment and the best way to protect your assets and property. Surge protectors have ratings – these ratings indicate how much energy they can absorb and how fast they react. We can fit a Surge Arrester (Surge Protector) into your switchboard for your peace of mind.