Instrument-tested trip times, licensed installation and a written report for every switchboard. Our electricians test and install safety switches across all Brisbane suburbs, and we put the results on paper.
RCD testing measures how fast your safety switch cuts power when current leaks to earth, and whether that speed still falls inside the safe window. The button on your switchboard can’t tell you that. It only proves the mechanism moves.
Our electricians run a calibrated trip-time test on every residual current device on the board, install safety switches on any circuit still unprotected, and hand you a written record of both. One visit covers testing, safety switch installation and certification for homes, rentals and commercial premises across Brisbane.
RCD Testing Requirements in Queensland: What the Regulation Asks Of You
Queensland’s Electrical Safety Regulation 2013 sets different testing duties for different properties. Homeowners should press the test button every three months, and that part you can do yourself. Workplaces carry a stricter duty: documented push-button and trip-time testing at set intervals, with records kept for inspection.
Construction sites sit at the sharp end, where portable RCDs need testing before each use and formal tests far more often. Rental properties fall somewhere in between, and this is where most landlords get caught short. If you’re unsure which schedule applies to your property, that’s exactly what we check first.
Safety switch (RCD)
Watches for current leaking to earth, through water, damaged cable, or a person, and cuts power in milliseconds. This is the device that saves lives.
Circuit breaker
Protects the wiring, not the person. A breaker trips on overload or short circuit, which stops cables overheating behind your walls but ignores current passing through you.
RCBO
Both jobs in one device, per circuit. RCBOs suit older Brisbane boards with no spare ways, and a fault on one circuit won’t drop power to the rest.
Tell us your suburb and switchboard age, and we’ll quote the job before we arrive. Fixed price, on time, tested and certified in a single visit.
or call now on 07 3324 1447
Three moments in a property’s life force the issue in Queensland. Buy a home without a safety switch on the power circuits, and you have three months from settlement to install one; the obligation transfers with the title, whether the contract mentioned it or not.
Landlords must have safety switch installation completed before a tenancy starts, and the fines for skipping it land on the owner personally. New builds and significant renovations need RCD protection across the circuits under current wiring rules. Selling? Sort it before the contract, because the buyer’s building inspector will find the gap anyway.
We map which circuits have RCD protection and which don't, and note the condition of the switchboard itself, including older ceramic-fuse boards.
Every residual current device gets tested with a calibrated tester, measuring actual milliseconds to trip. A pass is a number, never a guess.
Failed devices get replaced with Australian-made CLIPSAL units. Unprotected circuits get safety switches installed on the spot where the board allows.
Circuits labelled, results documented. You receive a report showing trip times, coverage and anything we recommend, ready for insurers, agents or auditors.
A written report, at minimum. Ours lists every device on the board, its measured trip time in milliseconds, a pass or fail against the standard, and which circuits carry protection. Keep it with your property records. Insurers ask for it after electrical fires, and selling agents increasingly ask before listing.
Nine times out of ten, a faulty appliance is leaking current, and the switch is doing its job by refusing to hold. Unplug everything on that circuit, reset, then plug items back one at a time until it trips again. If it trips with nothing plugged in, the fault sits in the wiring, and that's our job.
Depends on the board, honestly. A modern switchboard with spare ways is a quick, inexpensive job. An older board that's full, or still running ceramic fuses, may need an upgrade before new RCDs have anywhere to go, which changes the scope. We quote a fixed price after seeing the board, so the number you're given is the number you pay.
For workplaces and rental properties, yes, with records to prove it. Owner-occupiers aren't audited on the three-monthly button press, though the device requirements still bite when you sell or renovate. The gap between "required" and "enforced" is where most failed switches sit undiscovered for years, which is the real argument for testing.
Current wiring rules expect RCD protection on every final circuit: power, lights, oven, hot water, air conditioning. Plenty of pre-2000 Brisbane homes only have one, covering power points alone, which leaves the rest of the house bare. A quick board check tells you your coverage in about ten minutes.
A safety switch protects people; a circuit breaker protects cable. Breakers respond to overload and short circuits, so they'll stop your wiring cooking but won't react to current flowing through a person. Many Brisbane boards are full of breakers and hold not one true safety switch, and homeowners assume they're covered.
Book our electricians for RCD testing or safety switch installation anywhere in Brisbane. Fixed pricing, a written report on every job, and if we’re late, the first $250 is free.
