Project: A Hot Water Unit Repair and Switchboard Upgrade in Clontarf

The team at Plateau Electrical was orginially called out to Jenny’s property in Clontarf in relation to an ongoing issue with their hot water unit.

After waking up with no hot water for 3 days in a row, they decided it was time to call in some help. We were able to attend within 90 minutes and got straight into the diagnostics and fault-finding on the circuit. This can include carrying out insulation-resistance testing on the circuit, a visual inspection of the connections and testing the existing safety switch and/or circuit breaker.

The hot water unit had been continuously blowing the safety switch which was taking out power to half the house. Plateau Electrical was able to identify a burnt-out cable/connection at the hot water unit during the above inspection. This was a relatively straightforward fix and luckily we were able to get the hot water back up and running within half an hour. To put it simply, one of our technicians, cut away the burnt section of cabling, extended it with a new length of cable and re-terminated it into the Hot Water Unit.

During the investigation, the team noted some sub-standard wiring at the switchboard. In addition to this, it was found that the hot water system was on a common safety switch with the rest of the house. This meant that every time the power tripped out at the hot water unit, it was taking out power to the rest of the house (including the fridge!)

Given that we had fixed the immediate issue of no hot water and there was no other imminent electrical issue, we were able to provide a quote on what was required at the switchboard to meet current regulations.   The quote was sent through with a full explanation of what was found and 4 separate options on rectifying the issues.

Our senior electrician, Nick, had a chat with Jenny on the phone and explained a few key points of each option before a decision was made. Given that the power to the property would have to be disconnected for a few hours while the upgrades were made, we scheduled a time that was most convenient for everyone in the house.

We attended with 3 of our team and with as much preparation made to the switchboard as possible so that we could minimize the time that power was lost for the upgrade.

The existing asbestos metering panel was safely removed, packaged, and disposed safely off-site. A new panel was installed, with a new enclosure. After thorough testing of all the circuits, we installed individual safety switches on each circuit and upgraded the older circuits from fuses and circuit breakers to safety switches too. Some upgrades were necessary to the main earthing system to ensure the safety system of the house was still functioning to code.

Jenny was so pleased with the work carried out that we went on to fix up numerous issues around the house that had been bugging them for some time. These ranged from LED Downlights that were flickering to pool lights that had stopped working.

Are you having issues with your hot water system in Clontarf? Or perhaps you’re worried your switchboard isn’t up to scratch?

Our helpful team would be more than happy to give you free advice on upgrading your switchboard in Clontarf

Give us a call on (02) 9982 8668 or contact us online.

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