Switchboards: - upgrades, rebuilds and faults
Your switchboard is the most important electrical component in your house, if the switchboard is not up to standard then the potential of electrocution is higher.
A large number of houses were built before earth leakage was introduced and also a large number were built before earth leakage was enforced. In the older style houses the final sub circuits were protected by fuses or later on circuit breakers, the fuses and circuit breakers were designed to blow or trip out at a determined current rating (e.g. 16amps for power points and 10amps for light circuits). The problem is that it takes 0.03 of an amp to send you into cardiac arrest in an electrocution situation.
This is an example of a switchboard with fuses or circuit breakers...................
Earth leakage or residual current devices measure what current goes out on the active cable then also what comes back on the return neutral cable and if there is a difference of 30 milliamps the residual current devices will trip out. So in an electrocution situation the residual current devices would shut of the supply of power to that circuit before the current can reach a dangerous level.
Residual current devices are enforced now on all new homes for power & light circuits so they must be installed when homes are built. The authorities have also enforced that all work carried out by electricians must be protected to the standard of today, this means that if you would like a power point or a light installed in a house that circuit must be upgraded to Earth leakage if not already installed.
In most situations where no Earth leakage is installed in the switchboard it works out cheaper to upgrade all circuits at one time. I don’t usually advise getting one residual current device as the main switch because when there is a fault in one circuit you will lose power to all the circuits rather than just the one with the fault on it.
This is an example of a switchboard that has been upgraded............
I always suggest upgrading the switchboard because it improves the safety of all people using power in the house.
Please contact us if you would like a free quote.