A safety switch (RCD) cuts the power within about 30 milliseconds when it senses electricity leaking to earth, fast enough to stop a shock becoming fatal. LCK Electrical installs, tests and certifies RCDs across Geelong, and traces the fault when a safety switch keeps tripping. Victorian law requires them on every power and lighting circuit. Fixed written quote before we start, same-week bookings, and a Certificate of Electrical Safety on every job.
Safety Switch Installation Geelong
A safety switch, also called an RCD (residual current device), constantly compares the current flowing out to your circuits with the current flowing back. The moment it detects electricity leaking to earth, the kind that flows through a person during a shock, it cuts the power in around 30 milliseconds. A circuit breaker will not do this. It only trips on overload or short circuit, so it protects your wiring, not your family. We break the two apart in our guide to safety switches versus circuit breakers.
Under Victorian regulations, RCDs are required on all power and lighting circuits. Homes built or rewired before 1991 often have none, and many rental properties across Geelong still fall short of current compliance rules. An old board with ceramic fuses and no safety switch is a genuine electrocution and fire risk.
The other half of our safety switch work is the opposite problem: a switch that trips constantly, or one that will not reset at all. That is almost never a faulty switch. It is the RCD doing its job on a real earth-leakage fault, and it needs tracing rather than resetting. We find the circuit or appliance causing it and fix the cause.
LCK Electrical is a family-run business, fully licensed and insured, serving Geelong, the Bellarine and Melbourne’s west. We add single safety switches to existing boards, upgrade whole homes to full RCD protection, and handle every residential electrical job in between. Every install finishes with a Certificate of Electrical Safety lodged with Energy Safe Victoria. If your board is too old or full to take RCDs, we can upgrade the switchboard in the same visit. Upfront pricing, no hidden charges.
What We Do
From a switch that keeps tripping to full whole-home protection, we handle every safety switch job across Geelong and the Bellarine.
If your safety switch keeps tripping, something is genuinely wrong, and resetting it over and over is dangerous. We trace the faulty circuit or appliance with proper insulation and leakage testing, then fix the cause rather than the symptom. For a dead board after hours, see our emergency electrician service.
Add an RCD to an existing, compliant switchboard. The most common job we do, and usually finished in under an hour. Ideal when your board is modern but missing protection on one or two circuits.
Victorian regulations require safety switches on both power and lighting circuits. Plenty of Geelong homes have an RCD on the power points and nothing on the lights. We fit RCDs across both so every part of the house is covered.
Full residual-current protection on every circuit, from the kitchen to the shed. We check your board’s capacity first and fit individual RCBOs where it makes sense, so a single fault does not black out the whole house.
An RCBO combines a safety switch and a circuit breaker in one module, protecting against both earth leakage and overload on a single circuit. We replace faulty or aged units with quality Australian-standard RCBOs.
Victorian rental providers must have safety switches installed and tested at set intervals. We install where needed, test every RCD with a calibrated tester, and give you a written compliance report for your records.
Get a fixed quote before we start, no surprises and no hidden fees. Book online or call us directly.
How It Works
Most safety switch jobs are done in a single visit. Here is the full process.
Call us or fill out the form. Tell us whether you need protection added or you have a switch that keeps tripping. We’ll lock in a time that suits you, usually within the same week.
We check your switchboard, count the circuits, and see what protection is already there. On a tripping fault we test each circuit to isolate the leakage first. You get a fixed written quote before any work starts.
Power is safely isolated and verified, the safety switches fitted and wired correctly to avoid false tripping, then the supply restored. Most jobs take one to three hours.
We trip-test every RCD to confirm it operates within the required time, then issue your Certificate of Electrical Safety, lodged with Energy Safe Victoria as required by law.
Our Work
Safety switch, RCD, and switchboard work across Geelong and Melbourne’s west.
Our Reviews
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FAQs
What Geelong homeowners ask us most about safety switches and RCDs.
Repeated tripping almost always means a real earth-leakage fault, not a faulty switch. The usual causes are a failing appliance, moisture in an outdoor or bathroom circuit, a damaged cable, or too many loads sharing one protected circuit. To narrow it down, unplug everything on the affected circuit, reset the switch, then reconnect them in halves rather than one at a time to find the culprit in far fewer trips to the switchboard. If it still trips with everything unplugged, the fault is in the fixed wiring and needs a licensed electrician. Do not keep resetting a switch that trips repeatedly. It is protecting you from a live fault. Our full guide to a safety switch that keeps tripping walks through every cause and how to isolate each one.
A safety switch that will not reset is still detecting a fault on the circuit. Turn off every individual circuit breaker, reset the safety switch, then switch the breakers back on one at a time. The breaker that trips it again is on the faulty circuit, so leave that one off and call an electrician. If the safety switch will not reset even with every breaker off, the fault sits on the supply side of the board and needs attention straight away. For no power after hours we run a 24/7 emergency electrician service across Geelong and the Bellarine.
There is no flat rate, because the price is driven by what is already in your switchboard rather than by the safety switch itself. The things that move it are how many circuits need protecting, whether the board has spare space on the DIN rail, whether it still runs ceramic fuses or sits on an asbestos backing panel, and whether the existing wiring will hold RCD protection without nuisance tripping. As a rough budgeting guide only, published Victorian pricing for this work generally starts around a couple of hundred dollars to add a single safety switch to a modern, compliant board, and runs into the high hundreds for whole-home RCD protection across a full board. Those are indicative market figures rather than a quote from us. We assess your board on site and give you a fixed written price before any work starts, so you know the real number before you commit. If the board is too old or too full to take RCDs, a switchboard upgrade may be needed first, and our switchboard upgrade cost guide breaks that down.
A safety switch (RCD) protects people; a circuit breaker protects wiring. The RCD cuts power within about 30 milliseconds when it detects current leaking to earth through a person or a fault. A circuit breaker only trips on overload or short circuit, and will not react fast enough to prevent a fatal shock. Most modern homes need both, which is why combined RCBOs are now common. For a full side-by-side, read our guide to safety switches versus circuit breakers.
Yes. Victorian regulations require RCDs on all final sub-circuits supplying power points and lighting. Homes built or rewired before 1991 frequently have none, and rental providers have extra obligations to install and regularly test them. According to Energy Safe Victoria, you should test each safety switch every three months by pressing its test button.
Press the test button marked T on the front of the RCD. It should trip immediately and cut power to those circuits, and you then switch it back on. Energy Safe Victoria recommends doing this every three months. If it does not trip when tested, the device has failed and needs replacing by a licensed electrician. A push-button test confirms the mechanism works but not the trip time, so rental compliance testing uses a calibrated tester instead.
Yes. Victorian rental providers must ensure safety switches are installed on power and lighting circuits and have them tested at the required intervals by a licensed electrician. We handle both the installation and the testing, and provide the written records you need to show compliance.
No. Installing a safety switch means working inside a live switchboard, which is illegal for unlicensed people in Victoria and extremely dangerous. DIY electrical work also voids most home insurance. Only a licensed electrician can install an RCD and issue the Certificate of Electrical Safety that proves the work is compliant.
A single safety switch takes under an hour; a whole-home upgrade is usually one to three hours. Your power is off only while we work. Every job finishes with a Certificate of Electrical Safety, lodged with Energy Safe Victoria, confirming the installation meets the AS/NZS 3000 wiring rules. Call 0413 655 446 or send us a message to book.
Get In Touch
Give us a call or fill out the form here and we’ll get back to you fast. No obligation, just friendly advice and honest pricing.
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