Independent journal · Est. 2004
Written for licensed contractors in Australia
Australia
The independent journal for licensed electrical contractors in Australia
29 long-form pieces, filed by topic hub. Every article is also linked from its hub and from the home page or footer so nothing sits as an orphan.
Inspectors keep finding the same rooftop defects because the same shortcuts keep surviving handover. Missing labels, poor DC string work, roof penetrations, unprotected generation on old boards, and undocumented batteries are not bad luck — they are a sales-versus-licence problem.
Read Solar compliance inspections and the defects that keep turning up
A Mode 3 charger is a fixed electrical installation, not a 15 A convenience outlet with a prettier faceplate. This article covers dedicated circuits, load management, outdoor IP rating, MEN and earthing, strata politics, and when the DNSP has to hear about the job before you energise.
Read Residential EV charger installations without the guesswork
Live work is prohibited unless a narrow statutory exception applies, and work near exposed live parts is not a loophole. This article separates installation work from network-operator rules, and explains why PPE is a last control, not a method.
Read Working near live parts: when it is permitted and when it is theatre
The quote that wins is often the quote that forgot attendance, isolation and the board you have not opened yet. Preliminaries, prime-cost items and a refusal to lump-sum a renovation you cannot see are how a contracting business stays solvent.
Read Pricing electrical jobs without going broke on the variations
A rooftop array does not make a 1960s fuse box solar-ready. This article covers the main switch, inverter isolators, generation labelling, busbar limits, meter isolation, and the point at which a PV job is honestly a board upgrade.
Read Inverter and switchboard changes when PV lands on an old board
Australia does not have one smoke-alarm rule, and electricians who install the same pack in every state leave rental providers and owner-occupiers exposed. This article sets out hard-wired versus battery work, interconnection, photoelectric versus ionisation, and what a licence holder should refuse to leave undocumented.
Read Smoke alarms: photoelectric, interconnected, and the rules that differ by state
Most contractors who lose a ticket do not lose it on a difficult fault-find. They lose it because the nominated supervisor left, the public liability did not name the company, or the Facebook ad offered electrical contracting without a contractor licence. The conditions are ordinary. The trouble is not.
Read Insurance and licence conditions that actually get contractors in trouble
A contractor licence, a van and a phone will take work. They will not, by themselves, make a business that can pay super, replace a stolen tester and still say no to a live board. This is the operating picture for a sole electrical contractor who wants to still like the trade in five years.
A safe work method statement is not a PDF you email on Sunday night. It is the isolation and test sequence for this board, on this day, written so the people on the tools can follow it and an inspector can see that they did.
A cheap monthly fee looks like steady work until the first after-hours isolation, the first missing spare, and the first argument about who locked the board. Read the contract as an electrician, not as an optimist, and decide what you are actually selling.
Read Industrial maintenance contracts: what to watch before you sign
An Australian electrical licence is not one national ticket, and a contractor card is not the same thing as a worker's licence. This guide walks through who can do the work, who can sell it, what mutual recognition actually covers, and where to check the public register before you start.
Read How an electrical licence actually works, state by state
A household battery is a second source of energy with fire, isolation and competence rules that a PV-only job does not teach. This article covers AS/NZS 5139 location, backup loads, inverter categories, DC versus AC coupling, and what a restricted licence holder cannot do.
A café, a workshop or a two-tenancy shopfront is still a three-phase installation, and it will punish a contractor who treats it like a big house. Load balance, isolation, the MEN, motors, kitchens and the moment you must call the DNSP are the difference between a clean job and a week of brownout complaints.
A restricted electrical licence is a defined slice of electrical work tied to another trade, not a junior electrician's ticket. This article sets out what disconnect/reconnect actually covers, what remains licensed electrical work, and the illegal extras contractors keep finding in other people's boards.
Read Restricted electrical work: what other trades can legally touch
Tape on a breaker is not isolation, and neither is a handwritten note under a magnet. This piece walks through prove-dead, personal locks, hasps, group isolation and return-to-service the way AS/NZS 4836 and the model WHS electrical code actually require it on Australian sites.
Buried cables, weatherproof accessories and SELV garden lights fail in ordinary Australian yards when they are treated as indoor wiring that happens to be outside. This article covers RCD protection, pool-adjacent work, landscape crews who cut feeders, and the labelling that keeps the next electrician alive.
Shared trays, PoE cameras and access-control cables are now ordinary on commercial jobs, and so are the defects they leave in a live board. Segregation, fire-rated penetrations, licensing boundaries and a hard rule about who may terminate in a switchboard will keep a data job from becoming an electrical incident.
A push-button click is not a test record, and a Type AC device is no longer what you put on a new final sub-circuit. This article covers 30 mA socket-outlet protection, Type A versus Type AC, workplace and dwelling duties, and the results you can still defend a year later.
Read RCD testing that will still look respectable in the file
Wet-area electrical work fails on zones, IP ratings, range circuits and the bonding argument the builder started in the smoko shed. This piece sets out what AS/NZS 3000 actually asks for in kitchens and bathrooms, and the requests a licensed electrician should refuse.
Read Kitchen and bathroom electrical renovations that survive the inspector
An apprentice is not cheap labour with a training contract stapled to them. Supervision, a record of work, capstone, and a host employer who actually teaches are how you produce a licensed electrician — and how you keep one past third year.
Read Hiring and supervising electrical apprentices without losing the plot
The Wiring Rules are not a textbook you revise before a test. They are the document a contractor opens on a job when the board is older than the standard, the client wants it energised this afternoon, and the certificate has to stand up later.
The array is the visible part of a solar job. Isolation, labelling, switchboard capacity, earthing, CEC paperwork and a handover pack are the part that remains when the sales company has changed its phone number. This article is for the licence holder who still owns the defects.
Read Rooftop solar: the contractor's job after the panels go on
A van that can earn is a calibration date, a spare RCD, a documentation kit and the discipline not to buy a gadget because an ad said “true RMS”. Testers, PPE, consumables and theft are the kit list that still matters after the unboxing video ends.
Read Tools of the trade: what a modern electrical van actually needs
People still say CEC accredited when they mean they can claim STCs. The installer and designer scheme is now Solar Accreditation Australia, the Clean Energy Council still lists products, and none of it replaces an electrical licence. This is the working version.
A cheap LED batten swap can still fail a certifier, an inspector and the people who have to live under the lights. This piece walks through NCC Section J in broad terms, emergency lighting, leftover fluorescent gear, and the paperwork a lighting job actually has to carry.
Read Commercial lighting upgrades and the energy rules that travel with them
A tag is not a personality, and AS/NZS 3760 is not a licence to skip the look. This field guide covers in-service inspection, hostile environments, construction versus office intervals, competence, hire gear, and the difference between a tag and a residual current device.
Older Australian switchboards fail in predictable ways, and a fuse swap is rarely the whole job. This piece walks licensed electricians through asbestos panels, MEN, meter isolation, load assessment and the conversation with the DNSP before anything is left live in the old box.
Construction wiring is a different installation from the permanent one that will replace it, and AS/NZS 3012 is the book that says so. Site sheds, RCDs, generators and the question of who owns the board when the builder moves it are where temporary supplies fail — usually in the rain.
Read Temporary construction-site power that will not fail the first wet week
Remote power is a power station in a paddock, not a cabin fantasy. Generator integration, earthing in dry soil, array oversizing, maintenance contracts, and who actually certifies work in remote NT, WA and Queensland are the parts that decide whether the lights stay on.
Read Off-grid and remote-area power systems, without the romance