Safety Switch Installation for Your Home, Investment Property or Rental

A safety switch, also called an RCD, monitors the current flowing through a circuit. If it detects current leaking to earth (which happens when someone touches a live wire or a faulty appliance shorts out), it cuts the power in milliseconds. Fast enough to prevent electrocution.

It’s not the same as a circuit breaker. Circuit breakers protect wiring from overloads. Safety switches protect people. Your switchboard might have circuit breakers but no RCDs, and that means your circuits are protected but you aren’t.

Depends on how your switchboard is set up. At a minimum, you want RCD protection on every power circuit and every lighting circuit. Most homes need two to four safety switches to cover the lot, but it varies based on how many circuits are on the board.

We check the switchboard and tell you exactly how many you need. If you’ve already got partial coverage, say, one RCD on the power circuits but nothing on the lights, we’ll quote for what’s missing rather than ripping out what’s already there.

Not necessarily. A safety switch that trips is doing its job, it’s detected a fault somewhere on the circuit. The problem usually isn’t the switch itself, it’s whatever is causing the current leak. Could be a dodgy appliance, damaged wiring, moisture in a fitting or a worn-out power point.

If the switch is tripping constantly or won’t reset at all, it could be faulty, especially if it’s old. We test the RCD first to make sure it’s operating within spec. If it’s the switch, we replace it. If it’s something else on the circuit, we find it and fix it.

Yes. WA regulations require RCD protection on all power and lighting circuits in rental properties. If the property doesn’t have safety switches, or only has partial coverage, it’s non-compliant and the landlord is liable.

Most property managers flag this during routine inspections or between tenancies. A safety switch installation gets the property up to standard, and we provide same-day certification so there’s no gap in your compliance documentation.

Depends on how many switches you need and whether the switchboard can accommodate them. A straightforward RCD installation on a modern board with spare capacity is the cheaper end. Older boards that need modifications or a full upgrade cost more.

Fixed quote upfront. No call-out fee. Tell us what board you’ve got and what coverage is currently in place, we’ll come back with a price. Usually within 24 hours.