{"id":96474,"date":"2026-01-27T08:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T23:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=96474"},"modified":"2026-01-27T08:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T23:05:15","slug":"safety-switch-trap-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/safety-switch-trap-battery\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware The Safety Switch Trap Burning Battery Budgets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Unless your house was built in the last couple of years, installing a house battery will likely require at least some switchboard upgrades.<\/p>\n

It’s a basic electrical regulation so why are some solar battery salespeople ignoring the need and setting expensive traps in the process?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Does Your Switchboard Require An Upgrade?<\/h2>\n

At the heart of this problem is the humble safety switch. They’ve been around for decades but since 2023 the AS3000 rules mandate they shall<\/strong> be updated to the latest type if any significant work is done on your wiring.<\/p>\n

Installing a solar battery means you are changing the supply<\/strong>, so every<\/em> downstream circuit needs a compliant Type A residual current device. No ifs or buts.<\/p>\n

Of course this can be expensive. Switchboard rebuilds start at $1000 and that’s a significant price differential when your competition is quoting on a power system without including all the required work.<\/p>\n

So customers are rightly upset when there’s a hidden premium to pay on install day, because the sales team conveniently forgot and the electrician is obliged by law to do the work.<\/p>\n

Make sure to confirm with your installer whether an upgrade is needed before you sign on the dotted line.<\/p>\n

Safety Through Balance<\/h2>\n

Say you have a toaster that’s using 8 amps of current. What flows out to the appliance on the active wire must come back via the neutral wire. If you drop that toaster in the bath, some of the current will “leak” out of the circuit.<\/p>\n

The imbalance, measured between active and neutral by the current transformer, will throw the safety switch open, disconnecting the supply.<\/p>\n

\"RCD

Thanks to electricaltechnology.org for the image<\/p><\/div>\n

It doesn’t take much to stop your heart, so RCDs will trigger at only 30 milli<\/em>amps.1<\/a><\/sup> So whether it’s the toaster using 8 amps, or my Dad’s welder using 28 amps, the circuit only has to leak a tiny 0.03amps to trip the RCD.<\/p>\n

Name Calling Begins Here<\/h2>\n

“Safety switches” do pretty much the same thing. They go under a few different names, like earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB), residual current circuit breaker (RCCB) residual current device (RCD) or residual current breaker with overload (RCBO), so the names are often confused.<\/p>\n

\"Clipsal

At 40 odd years not the oldest I’ve seen, but this outlet gave earth leakage protection to several others in the house.<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course “pretty much” isn’t a term covered in the rules and there’s nothing like a room full of pedants<\/del> electricians to start quoting chapter and verse from “the good book” or more precisely AS\/NZS 3000:2018 Amendment 2.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The difference is in how<\/em> they detect a fault:<\/p>\n