Hot smell, buzzing or scorch marks at the board?
Turn off the main switch if you can reach it without touching anything wet or damaged, and call 000 if there's smoke. Keep every cover on. NSW guidance warns that black or dark brown backing boards made before 1987 can contain asbestos, and we haven't found South Australian guidance specific to switchboards, so mention an old dark board when you book and let the electrician decide how it's handled.
What's behind the upgrade in Adelaide homes
Bluestone and early brick
By 1891, 68% of Adelaide's houses were stone. In a stone house, expect the electrician to bring new circuits through the roof space rather than into solid walls, and to look hard at whatever earlier owners added along the way.
Housing Trust homes from the 1940s and 50s
The Trust built semi-detached cottages at Seaton in the late 1940s and austerity housing through the 1950s, and Elizabeth followed from 1955. Unless someone has upgraded it since, a board from that era was never meant to run split systems in several rooms at once.
Brick veneer on slab
Later suburbs moved to brick veneer on a concrete slab to cope with Adelaide's reactive soils. These boards are more likely to have breakers already, so the question is usually spare space for solar, a battery or an EV charger.
The meter is your retailer's job
SA Power Networks says it can't help with meter alterations. If your upgrade means a new or moved meter, your electricity retailer arranges it, so ask the electrician early whether that's part of the plan.
Three-phase is a change to your connection
SA Power Networks treats going from single to three-phase as a connection modification. If you need more supply too, you only apply for the increase. It does a technical assessment, may inspect, then invites the electrician to book the work.
Solar rules that reach the board
Exporting solar installed since 1 July 2023 must work with Flexible Exports, which allows up to 10 kW per phase from an internet-connected inverter. New solar or a replacement inverter also needs a Relevant Agent who can switch it off remotely when lawfully directed.
Rentals, tingles and who pays for the fix
If someone gets a shock or tingle in a South Australian home, SA Power Networks sends a crew to inspect for free. When the fault is in the property's wiring, fixing it falls to the owner, or the landlord in a rental, and the power may stay off until it's done.
We haven't confirmed SA's rental rules on switchboards or safety switches at an official source. Landlords should check the current SA Government position before a lease starts. Electrical work for landlords covers what we know for other states.
What an Adelaide switchboard quote should spell out
- The contractor's CBS licence number, and who'll do the work as a registered electrical worker.
- What comes out, what goes in, and which circuits get safety switches.
- Whether the meter is affected, and that your retailer arranges that part.
- Whether SA Power Networks needs an application for three-phase or more supply, and who lodges it.
- Spare room for the solar, battery or charger you've mentioned.
- How an old dark backing board will be handled.
- Your eCoC within 30 days, signed off by everyone who worked on it.
Who to match with
Any licensed electrician can change a board. The one you want does it most weeks, has seen what Adelaide's stone and Trust homes hide behind the meter box door, and will plan for the next few years of appliances rather than just today's.
If it were our Adelaide house
We'd book the upgrade in autumn or winter, well before the first 40-degree week, and tell the electrician everything coming in the next few years: air con, solar, a battery, a car. That decides whether the board, the supply or both need work. Then we'd check the licence on the CBS register and make sure the eCoC arrives.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.