Been quoted for solar, then told your switchboard needs upgrading before it can go in? It’s one of the most common surprises in the whole solar process, and it catches people at exactly the wrong moment.
Advoltage Electrical upgrades switchboards across Brisbane, including as a standalone job ahead of a solar, battery or EV charger installation. Fixed price, agreed before we start, and no obligation to use anyone in particular for the solar itself.
A solar system doesn’t just sit on the roof. It has to be connected into your home’s electrical system through the switchboard, with its own protection, correct labelling and enough physical room to do it safely.
Plenty of Brisbane boards can’t accommodate that. Common reasons a solar installer will stop and ask for an upgrade:
None of this is the solar company being difficult. They can’t sign off an installation into a board that isn’t up to it.
Here’s the practical problem. Most people find out about the switchboard on the day the installers arrive, or in a variation to a quote they’d already accepted. At that point you’re making a decision under pressure, often at whatever price is put in front of you.
It’s much better handled the other way around. Have the board assessed before you sign anything, know the cost, and go into the solar quote with the full picture.
We’re happy to look at your board first and tell you plainly whether it needs work — including telling you it doesn’t, if that’s the answer.
Current best practice, and the single biggest safety improvement available to most older Brisbane homes regardless of what you do about solar.
A battery, an EV charger, ducted air conditioning, an induction cooktop — all of it wants space and capacity at the board. Doing the upgrade once with headroom built in is far cheaper than doing it three times.
Correct labelling matters more than people think. When something goes wrong at 10pm, the difference between a labelled board and an unlabelled one is real.
We often find heat-damaged terminations, undersized or perished main wiring, and asbestos backing panels during these jobs. Better found now than during a solar install with a crew standing around on the clock.
The same conversation applies to storage and vehicle charging. Adding a battery to existing solar, or putting in a home EV charger, both depend on what your board and supply can carry.
If you’re planning any of it in the next few years, tell us — we’d rather size the upgrade for where you’re heading than for where you are today.
We upgrade switchboards across Brisbane’s southside, eastern suburbs, bayside and Redlands, including Carindale, Camp Hill, Coorparoo, Capalaba and Wynnum.
For switchboard work unrelated to solar, see our main switchboard upgrades page.
Helpful guides
Not always. If your board already has circuit breakers, safety switch protection and spare capacity, it may be fine as is. If it has ceramic fuses, no spare space, or an asbestos backing panel, an upgrade is very likely. We can tell you before you commit to a solar quote.
It depends on the size of the board, the condition of the existing wiring and whether asbestos is involved. We inspect and quote a fixed price rather than giving a number over the phone that we’d have to change later.
Absolutely. That’s a large part of what this page exists for. We’re not a solar retailer and we’re not tied to one.
Most residential upgrades are a day, with the power off for part of it. We’ll tell you what to expect and roughly how long you’ll be without supply.
It’s common in older Brisbane homes and it’s manageable — it just has to be handled correctly rather than drilled or cut into. We’ll explain how we deal with it as part of the quote.
Yes, provided we size it with that in mind. Tell us what you’re planning and we’ll build the headroom in now.
Send us a photo of your switchboard and meter box and we’ll give you an honest read on whether it needs work — then a fixed price if it does.
Solar Switchboard Upgrades
