Old fuses in a Padstow house: what it means
If your board has ceramic fuses you pull out and rewire, it was built before safety switches were common. Those fuses protect the wiring, but they don't protect people from a shock the way a safety switch does. NSW Fair Trading strongly recommends that homes built before 2000 have a licensed electrician check whether safety switches are fitted.
Boards from that era may also sit on dark bituminous backing. Boards like that made before 1987 can contain asbestos, and some old Federal fuses can have asbestos inside the carrier. That's a reason to leave the board closed and get it assessed, not a reason to panic.
Padstow's housing and network
Mostly houses
At the 2021 Census, 67.6% of Padstow's 4,777 occupied homes were separate houses and 26.0% were semis, townhouses or duplexes. Only 6.1% were units.
A third rented
32.4% were rented and 32.1% were owned outright.
Creek on one side, motorway on the other
Padstow is bounded by Salt Pan Creek to the east and Bankstown to the north, with light industry where the M5 crosses its northern end.
Hot days, heavy loads
Bankstown, next door, averages 8.8 days a year above 35 °C, and hot north-westerlies can push it to 40 °C. That's when old boards trip and air conditioners work hardest.
On Ausgrid
Padstow is inside Ausgrid's network area. Street-wide outages go to Ausgrid on 13 13 88.
What you can do, and what's licensed work
You can
- Note which circuit trips on hot days and what was running.
- Look through the meter box door for fuses or a dark backing board, without touching anything inside.
- Test your safety switches with the test button, if you have them. NSW Fair Trading suggests twice a year.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Replacing fuses with circuit breakers and adding safety switches.
- A dedicated circuit for a new split system or ducted unit.
- Assessing whether a backing board contains asbestos and arranging a licensed removalist if it does.
What we'd do first
If a Padstow house still has fuses, we'd upgrade the switchboard before installing a new air conditioner, not after. The new unit needs its own protected circuit anyway, so doing both together means one job and one compliance certificate. Tell us your postcode and we'll match you with one licence-checked local electrician who does switchboard upgrades.
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.