Your home’s electrical system’s switchboard is the core element connecting and distributing power throughout your house. It’s an essential element of any home and does a lot of hard work in order to keep your lights on, your water heated, your communication and entertainment systems switched on, and your appliances running! Unfortunately, like any piece of equipment, even one that was of very high quality when new, can degrade with age, and over time your switchboard can quietly turn from a helper into a hazard. Outdated, damaged switchboards can be quite dangerous due to incorrectly seated fuses that can cause hotspots, and produce electrical arcing that can spread throughout your entire system, creating both fire and shock hazards!
For some arcane reason, switchboards are usually hidden away in the darkest, most inaccessible nether regions of your home, perhaps to prevent children and the unwary from coming into contact with them. In any case, they can be hard to find and even harder to work with! If your switchboard is five years old or older your best course of action is to engage the services of your trusted local electrician in Cranbourne who can come run a check on its health and make professional recommendations as to when it might be best to install a replacement. A decrepit switchboard is truly dangerous and can even cause electrocution to occur, so it’s vital to ensure your home and family’s safety and make repairs or upgrades! Let’s take a closer look at the reasons why this is so important:
Safety – Old electrical switchboards can be highly hazardous due to deficiencies in their outdated wiring, most of which wouldn’t be approved by today’s inspectors because of their high risk of shorting out, sparking, and even possibly starting fires! These inadequate connections allow heat to build up in the fuse and switch terminals, a major fire risk. An obsolete switchboard will also contain old insulation that can deteriorate and dangerously expose wires to the air where they can be accidentally brushed against and cause potentially life-threatening electric shocks! The new, improved switchboards feature a built-in safety switch that can sense unwanted contacts and shut off before any harm is done to life or property.
Money Savings – The older your switchboard is the less efficiently it will run which means wasted energy and high-cost power bills! These days conserving electricity has become more important than ever, so consider investing in a new energy-efficient switchboard that will save you money in the long run!
Increased Power Demands – Today’s many technological advances have created even more electrical appliances and devices to draw power in our homes. This has greatly increased the demand for electricity, placing new burdens upon our switchboards. If your switchboard is outdated or damaged this can cause an overload to take place which can ruin your expensive electronic devices and appliances, and cause dangerous electrical fires to break out! Today’s modern switchboards are outfitted with circuit breakers that can prevent power from surging beyond the proper limits.
The Australian Government’s Your Home website has some useful suggestions for planning major home repairs and appliance replacements. We hope you will have your switchboard checked soon, and replaced if needed!!