Switchboard Upgrade:
What Happens On The Day

Most people agree to a switchboard upgrade without much idea of what the day involves. They know the old board is a problem, they have a price, and they have been told it takes a day. The questions come later, usually the night before: how long is the power off, do I need to be home, what about the fridge, and what exactly am I getting for the money.

Here is the whole job, start to finish.

Before the day

The assessment

We open the board, photograph it, count the circuits and check what the existing wiring looks like where it enters the board. This is also where we work out whether the board can stay in place or needs relocating, and whether the main supply cable from the street is adequate.

That last point is the one that catches people. If the service cable or the main switch is undersized for what you are adding, the board is only part of the job. Better to know at quoting stage than on the day. The six signs your switchboard needs upgrading covers what we are looking for.

The quote

You get a fixed price listing the enclosure, the protective devices, the number of circuits, any additional circuits you have asked for, and the testing and certification. If there is a realistic chance of finding something behind the board, we say so in the quote rather than discovering it later and asking for more money.

Notifying the network

Where the work involves the metering or the service connection, we arrange the network authority side of it. You do not need to call anyone.

What you do

• Clear access to the board — move the bikes, the shelving or the pot plants
• Decide whether you want extra circuits while the board is open, because this is the cheapest it will ever be
• Plan around three to six hours without power, more if the board is being relocated
• Someone should be home, or we need access arranged

On the fridge and freezer: don't open them, and they will be fine for the day. If you have a medical device, a home office you cannot take offline, or a server, tell us when booking and we will either work around it or arrange temporary supply.

On the day

Isolation and strip out

We isolate the supply at the main, confirm it is dead, then disconnect and remove the old board. Every existing circuit is identified and tagged as it comes out, because the labels on a sixty year old board are frequently wrong and we would rather test than trust them.

Installing the new board

The new enclosure goes in with a main switch, and each circuit gets its own protective device. On a modern board that generally means an RCBO per circuit, which combines overload protection for the wiring with residual current protection for you in one device.

A board with one RCD shared across six circuits means a fault anywhere kills all six. A board with an RCBO per circuit means a fault takes out one circuit and the rest of the house keeps working. It costs a little more and it is worth it every time.

Our explainer on safety switches versus circuit breakers covers why that distinction matters.

Extra circuits and provisions

If you have asked for them, this is when they go in: a dedicated circuit for the kitchen, a circuit for a future EV charger, capacity for solar or air conditioning, or a generator changeover switch. Adding a spare way and a circuit now costs a fraction of coming back for it in two years.

It is also the natural point to fit surge protection. The device mounts in the board, so the labour is already paid for.

Testing

Every circuit is tested — insulation resistance, earth continuity, polarity, loop impedance — and every RCD is tripped and timed to confirm it operates within the required window. This is the part you cannot see and the part that actually determines whether the board does its job.

Labelling and handover

Each circuit is labelled as it is tested, so the labels are correct rather than copied across from the old board. Power goes back on, we walk you through the board, show you which switch does what and how to test the RCDs yourself, and issue your certificate of testing and compliance. Keep it with your property records — it is the document a buyer, insurer or property manager will ask for.

How long, and what can go wrong

A straightforward single phase domestic board is a one day job, often done by mid afternoon. Three phase boards, relocations, meter panel replacements and commercial boards take longer and are quoted that way.

The two things that extend a job are both about what is behind the board rather than the board itself:

• Deteriorated wiring at the board. Old rubber or VIR insulation can be brittle enough that the conductors will not take being re-terminated. We will show you, and if the cable is that far gone the honest answer is often a partial rewire rather than modern protection in front of sixty year old cable
• An existing fault the old board was masking. New RCBOs are far more sensitive than ceramic fuses. Occasionally switching the board on reveals a leaky circuit that has been quietly faulty for years. Finding it is the system working correctly, but it means fault finding on the day

We flag both as risks in the quote where the assessment suggests they are likely.

What you actually get

A compliant board, residual current protection on every circuit, correct labelling, documented test results and a certificate. Less obviously, you get a board with spare capacity, so the next thing you want to add — aircon, a charger, a pool pump, solar — is a straightforward job instead of another full upgrade.

See our switchboard upgrade service for what is included, or browse all of our electrical services. If you are weighing up quotes from a few electricians, our six questions worth asking first will tell you what the cheap quote has left out.