Switchboards and meter boards

Switchboard upgrades in St Marys Bay

The switchboard is where every circuit in your home or business starts, and in an older St Marys Bay house it is often the oldest electrical equipment on the property. We replace worn fuse boards with modern boards and circuit breakers, with space for the circuits you will add next.

What a switchboard does, and why fuses give way to breakers

Your switchboard holds the main switch and a fuse or circuit breaker for each part of the wiring. When something goes wrong on a circuit, its fuse blows or its breaker trips and cuts the power to that area, which is what stops a fault from overloading the cable or starting a fire. A breaker can simply be reset once the cause is fixed; a rewireable fuse has to be rebuilt with fuse wire, and the danger is that someone fits a heavier wire to stop it blowing, which removes the protection altogether.

That is why WorkSafe suggests replacing fuses with plug-in circuit breakers where possible. An upgrade goes further: a new board with breakers for every circuit, residual current protection where it is needed, clear labels so you know which switch does what, and spare ways for future circuits. If you are adding a heat pump, a new kitchen or an outdoor circuit, the board is usually where that planning starts.

Signs your board is due for replacement

Rewireable fuses

Porcelain fuse carriers and spools of fuse wire are a sure sign the board predates modern protection.

Fuses blowing or breakers tripping

Repeated trips with no obvious cause point to an overloaded circuit or a fault worth finding before it gets worse.

No room to grow

A full board with no spare ways makes every new circuit, from a heat pump to an outdoor socket, harder than it needs to be.

Nobody knows which switch is which

An unlabelled board slows down every repair and every emergency. A new board is labelled circuit by circuit.

When switchboard work has to be inspected

Some switchboard work is high-risk under the electrical safety regulations and must be checked by a licensed electrical inspector before it is finished. The Electrical Workers Registration Board's guide to high-risk work spells out the common cases: installing a higher capacity board to cope with more demand is an alteration classed as high-risk, and so is relocating a board where the mains have to be extended, jointed or rerouted. Repairing or replacing a damaged fitting on existing mains work is low-risk and needs no inspection. When an inspection applies, we can arrange the inspector, so you are not left organising it yourself.

It also helps to know who owns what. On Vector's network, which serves central Auckland, Vector generally owns the equipment up to the point of supply, usually an isolating fuse at your boundary or on the nearest pole. The service line from there to your meter is the property owner's, and the meter itself is your electricity retailer's responsibility. So a job that moves the meter involves your retailer as well as us.

Apartments, shared buildings and character houses

Not every switchboard is on the wall of a house. In an apartment or townhouse with a body corporate, the meters and main switches for several units can be grouped together in a shared space, so the job starts with knowing who holds the keys and what the body corporate needs before work begins. Tell us when you book and we will plan the access with you.

In the oldest streets, houses were often built close to the road boundary, sometimes only one to three metres back, and parts of St Marys Bay are in the Unitary Plan's special character overlay, where changes to the outside of a house can need resource consent. If an upgrade means moving a meter box onto a wall the street can see, check with Auckland Council first. A board that stays where it is, or moves indoors, avoids the question. For houses where the board is only the start, see our house rewiring service.

A multi-storey apartment building with glass balconies and large windows, seen from below against a blue sky

Switchboard questions

Will the power be off while the board is replaced?

Yes, for part of the day, because the whole installation runs through the board. We will tell you beforehand, so that freezers, alarms and anyone working from home can be planned around it.

What certificates will I get?

A Certificate of Compliance for the work, and where the job is high-risk, such as a higher capacity board, the record of the licensed electrical inspector's inspection as well. Keep both with your house documents.

My fuse keeps blowing. Should I just upgrade?

Find the cause first. A blowing fuse is doing its job, and a new board will trip on the same fault. Our fault finding service tracks down why, and then you can decide on the board.

Do I need a new board to add a heat pump?

Not always. A heat pump can go on an existing circuit with enough spare capacity, or on a new circuit, and only a new circuit needs a free way on the board. If yours has none, or still runs on fuses, that is when an upgrade makes sense.

Can you move my meter?

We can do the wiring, but the meter is your electricity retailer's responsibility, so they need to be involved. We will explain who does what before anything is booked.

Power off, a breaker tripping, or a job to plan?

Call 021 156 4005 at any hour, or send us the details and we will get back to you.

Contact us

Call 021 156 4005 - our electricians are available for call-outs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - or leave a message below.

021 156 4005

Auckland
Call-outs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week