I’m getting solar installed soon and my electrician suggested upgrading my meter box so all circuits have individual RCBO protection.
Has anyone done this? Is it worth doing at the same time as the solar install?
Cheers,
Worth Upgrading to RCBOs When Installing Solar?
drhip on 14/08/2025 - 14:54
Comments
Asbestos is not a problem if it isn't disturbed. Touching it is zero risk. Breathing in loose fibres is where the risk is.
And all those holes have loose fibres in them, when they drill through the asbestos to install new equipment all the dust is going somewhere, each time you open the switch box you disturb the air.
Just kicking the can down the road
I built a house 28 years ago and put them in for every circuit.
When electrician turned up to certify and report he asked a HUGE WHY!! NOT required then so he refused pass. Next sparky passed it, first one lost in court suing me but who cares?Told him for his wages I can do it safer then required. He had an ego fit and ran.
Worth on any outlet that has water in the same room.
Washing machine kept on tripping it at random. So wired a seperate circuit with a ceramic fuse instead.
Only thing to improve solar is an inverter that can handle a battery. Once you are back in the money chuck on a battery and get earplugs for the whingers who are paranoid about fires.
I'm curious. What in particular did the 1st sparky say was unsafe?
Did he actually document any faults, or was he just frustrated that he didn't earn the income?
He charged me 4k for the initial power pole
2nd sparky reckoned he could have done for 2k
So I bought 10 rcd's wholesale and paid the second one to finish the job.
Sparky 1 got very cranky because he made my application to supply and then had to hand over ticket to sparky2 without getting any more money from me.
Don't mind paying a fair price but No1 thought he had me by my balls…
Not saying this will happen to you, but had a friend put in solar and electrician said a similar thing but they didn't do it.
A few years later and friend kinda regrets saying no, as they feel like it would be good to do now that its getting old and they don't trust it as much. But now they have to pay the call out cost plus extra time for the electrician to understand how the current wiring works with the Solar they have in place.
Yes have done it and yes worth doing at the same time
We dont have solar, but upgraded. If you get trips from current leaks, it's worth doing. A bunch of devices will have small current leaks, and combined it's enough to trigger the RCD.
The old standard* was just to have one for the entire house, now you put 1 on each circuit.
[*my understanding]
If your house has old wiring the RCDs may constantly trip. This might mean you get rid of the RCDs or re-wire the house. Ask the electrician for an opinion on the condition of the wiring.
If it's ok, RCDs are definitely worth it as they can save lives and prevent fires.Yes, it is a law when doing work on the switchboard to upgrade it.
If it’s like mine you’ll need the extra space so worth doing
will you though? RCBO is single pole and combines RCD and circuit breaker.
Op probably has to install a smart meter and various isolators for the solar, so it might require an upgrade anyway.
true, in my case I had RCDs and breakers separate so we got back enough room by switching to RCBOs for each circuit and ditching the RCDs
I agree its a good idea, but don't put one on your fridge or freezer circuit, or you may end up with a bin full of spoilt food.
…and if you don't,
you might end up being electrocuted next time you reach up the back of the freezer,
and touch the evaporator coil/plate which is live ???If an appliance trips an RCBO (or RCD) then one of them is defective and NEEDS REPAIRING/REPLACING
(Probably the old freezer that is in the garage, that has had its cable crushed against the wall a few times)
being electrocuted
Nothing better than grossly exaggerating danger to magnify fear for electricity …
Are you saying electricity doesn't kill people?????
"drhip" might have a pacemaker,
and while reaching over a the drawer full of bags of peas while feeling around for the mint ice cubes for his mojito,
he might touch the metal cooling element which is connected to the compressor,
which has become live due to pests living in the fridge wiring terminal block.Unlikely, but equipment faults are why we have appliance earthing, and RCDs/RCBOs.
(and why, in future, we might have arc detection safety devices)
Unlikely
You said it.
Fearing electricity is the worse of all evils.
Respect, not fear.
a freezer should have an RCD.
Even more so, a laundry/garage fridge/freezer. Way more likely to plug in a device like a power tool to the same circuit and electrocute yourself.
As the post before from ozbargainold, you do NOT want other power-points around the house (or outside) to be on the same circuit as your fridge/freezer. Nor other ones like CCTVs or TV recorders.
Frankly, individual RCDs on each power-point will be ideal. Or a separate circuit for each power-point/room.
Bit to unpack there.
People are probably suggesting keeping a fridge/freezer on a separate circuit to reduce your risk of accidental trips - causing your food to defrost. However OP already runs the house on one RCD, so it's kind of redundant.
imo RCD + Circuit breaker are similar sizes to old circuit breakers, so generally it's a pretty easy upgrade.
(RCBO or RCD = 10x more than a circuit breaker)
You should do it, just make sure they remove the asbestos board at the same time.