We look inside a lot of switchboards. On the Sunshine Coast and through Brisbane's older northern suburbs, plenty of homes are still running boards installed in the seventies and eighties, quietly protecting a house full of appliances that did not exist when they were fitted.
A switchboard does not usually fail dramatically. It degrades. Fuses get replaced with heavier wire, circuits get added, and the protection slowly falls behind the load. These are the six things we tell homeowners to look for.
1. It still has ceramic fuses
Round white or brown ceramic fuse holders are the clearest sign of an old board. They protect the wiring from overload, which is useful, but they do nothing to protect you from electric shock. If you have them, your board predates modern safety requirements by decades.
2. There are no safety switches
A safety switch, or RCD, cuts power within milliseconds when it detects current leaking to earth, which is what happens when a person becomes part of the circuit. Circuit breakers protect wiring. RCDs protect people. They are not the same thing, and older boards often have neither.
If you can look at your board and not see a row of switches with test buttons, you almost certainly have no RCD protection at all.
3. Breakers trip when you run normal appliances
Nuisance tripping is your board telling you the circuit is carrying more than it was designed for. Kitchens are the usual culprit, because a modern kitchen runs a dishwasher, microwave, kettle, air fryer and coffee machine on wiring that was installed for a toaster and a fridge.
The fix is rarely a bigger breaker. It is usually dividing the load across additional circuits, which is part of a proper switchboard upgrade.
4. The board is full, or has been added to repeatedly
Every renovation, air conditioner, pool pump and solar system adds a circuit. If your board has no spare ways, piggybacked devices, or a second small board bolted next to the first, it has run out of capacity. Adding solar, air conditioning or an EV charger to a full board is not possible without addressing the board first.
5. You can smell it, hear it, or see marks on it
Warm covers, a burning or fishy smell, buzzing, discolouration or scorch marks around terminals all point to loose or overheating connections. This is the one item on this list that is genuinely urgent.
- A burning smell near the board — turn off the main switch and call an electrician immediately
- Visible scorching or melted plastic around any device
- Buzzing or crackling from inside the board
- A board cover that is warm to the touch
6. Nothing is labelled
If nobody in the house can find the right circuit in an emergency, the board is not fit for purpose regardless of its age. Proper labelling is part of every board we replace, and we test each circuit as we label it so the labels are actually right.
What an upgrade actually involves
For most homes it is a one day job. We isolate the supply, remove the old board, install a new enclosure with a main switch, RCBOs protecting each circuit, and any additional circuits you have asked for. Then every circuit is tested, labelled and documented, and you receive a certificate of testing and compliance.
Where the existing wiring is in poor condition, we will tell you before we start whether a partial rewire is the smarter spend. There is no point putting modern protection in front of sixty year old cable.
What it costs
The honest answer is that it depends on the number of circuits, whether the board needs relocating, and the condition of what we find behind it. We quote a fixed price before starting, and we would rather look at your board first than give you a number over the phone that changes on the day.
Not sure whether your board is due?
Send us a photo of the inside of your switchboard and we will tell you honestly whether it needs work now or can wait. No charge for the opinion.
Written by Scott Gross, licensed electrician and founder of PMU Electrical, servicing the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. Licence 146529.