Category Archives: Electrical Contractors

Assume you’re a landlord or real estate agent. In that event, you should be aware of health and safety requirements concerning your rental property. These can be for fire alarms, gas safety, and electrical safety. As electrical work is a highly specialised discipline and professional gas and electrical services are the best way to guarantee that all equipment and wiring are appropriately installed, these five tips provide a sound basis for getting started.

1. Smoke Alarms

Landlords are obligated to ensure that all properties are provided with smoke alarms. The number of alarms must be appropriate for the property size, as directed under the Building Code of Australia (‘the Code’). The alarms must also be operating by Australian Standard 3786-1993 and correctly placed under the Code.

Each alarm is required to be tested and cleaned within 30 days before the commencement of a tenancy (including renewals).
Batteries that are empty or known to be almost spent should be reinstated within 30 days before starting a new tenancy or a tenancy renewal term.

Alarms should be replaced before entering the end of their service life, usually designated by the warranty.

2. Safety Switches

Some states and territories require a duty on the landowner or landlord to install safety switches for power outlets, lighting and power circuits. These laws apply in different forms in Queensland and Western Australia. At the same time, other states and territories have their own specific guidance or requirements. Fines may apply if safety switches are not installed. If in doubt, ask a local licensed electrician about your responsibilities.

3. Electrical Safety

While residential tenancy requirements can differ from state to state or territory. Generally, landlords must take steps to assure a level of electrical safety on rental property.

All electrical work should be completed by only licensed persons.

Before leasing the property and taking new tenancies, the landlord should guarantee all the appliances are in good, safe working order. Dirty appliances should be cleaned by the manufacturer’s directions. Faulty devices should be replaced.

Appliances and wiring should be inspected to ensure that there is no damage to the wiring or casing.

For residents, the following may apply:

Tenants should utilise appliances according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
If repairs or maintenance is needed, the tenant should allow the landlord’s electrician to take out the repairs.
Tenants should notify any faults to the landlord or straight to the agent and avoid installing or transferring any faulty appliances.

4. Fire Safety

Landlords also have responsibilities concerning fire safety and protection. While these may differ depending on the state/territory legislation, regularly, they are as follows.

Furnishings should be fire resistant and smoke alarms fitted and installed by regulations as described above.
To body corporates or apartments with multiple occupancies, landlords may need to give extra fire safety standards. These may include fire blankets, fire emergency exits, extinguishers, fire doors, and smoke detectors in communal spaces.

5. Gas Safety

While these may vary from state to state or territory, landlords must maintain a sufficient level of gas safety. This can incorporate keeping gas fittings, flues, and chimneys well controlled. In Victoria, gas appliances must be maintained at least every two years.

Maintenance and installations should be taken out by licensed gas-fitters. Any repairs should be performed quickly, and appliances made safe to use before re-letting the premises.

6. Blinds and Cords

It’s advised that blind and curtain cords are covered as part of your property check. Landlords must ensure that any window covers with cords or similar hazards are in line with existing obligations. For instance, in NSW, all blind cords can’t be within the range of children due to the risk of strangulation. These rules concern whether the residents have children or not.

7. Pool Barriers

Landlords must guarantee that a pool or spa is fenced correctly according to regional government building laws and residential tenancy laws. Different state laws outline requirements for pool fences. In WA, for instance, pools that are deeper than 30cm are obligated to have safety barriers.

8. Window & Balcony Safety

Balcony windows must be outfitted with window safety devices that can endure up to 25kg of force and be provided with a child safety lock or mechanism. There is no responsibility for landlords to monitor or enforce the application of window safety devices, so it’s up to the tenant to have a physical examination of the window safety devices and the status of the balcony.

9. Security and Locks

The landlord is accountable for the property to have a sensible state of security in place. What’s considered reasonable varies in different situations; however, the landlord must ensure the property meets the minimum security standards defined in the regulations. Tenants can seek approval from the landlord for any locks or security mechanisms that need to be added or modified.

10. Provide a Property Condition Report To All New Tenants

Before the commencement and completion of the tenancy, the landlord must provide a property condition report describing the safety and standard of every room in the rental property. The report must further include information on the fixed electrical appliances in the home. The report will notify the tenant that you are meeting safety and inspection requirements and maintaining the property as it should happen.

Routine electrical maintenance isn’t only crucial for safety and stopping potential accidents; it could also enhance your office’s energy efficiency and help you save on your power charges. While possessing a regular maintenance schedule is seemingly the best approach, it’s also important to know the signs that your office requires professional electrical maintenance. Here, we’ve listed the five key pointers that suggest your office should reach out to an electrician for maintenance work.

1. Circuit Breaker Keeps Tripping Regularly

A tripped circuit breaker is a regular occurrence. Still, if it’s occurring reasonably frequently in your office, you’ll probably want to discover the underlying cause(s). While you might choose to reset your circuit breaker each time it trips, this indicates you won’t be addressing the underlying problem.

In most cases, circuit breakers trip from both a circuit shorted to the ground or a circuit overload. Shorted circuits might be caused by electrical conductors like wires or winding within the motor touching ground. Alternatively, the problem could have its origins in a specific component.

A licensed, experienced electrician can thoroughly review the relevant wiring and connections to distinguish the source of the case and repair the problem, so your office encounters minimal interruptions.

Overloaded circuits can be more complicated. An experienced electrician will have the proper equipment to test for overloading and recognise the source of the overload. Your electrician can also connect grounding wires to outlets and devices. This minimises the risk of serious injury in a short circuit, protect against electrical overload and stabilise voltage levels.

2. Office Lights That Are Flickering

Flickering office lights seem like a minor disruption. Still, when it’s a regular experience, it becomes a significant nuisance and cause of distraction for your office workers. Persistent flickering lights could be correlated with headaches, vision problems, and decreased morale and energy levels. It could also raise your electricity costs.

A licensed electrician can diagnose the origin of the issue. For instance, is it an issue with the light bulb itself or something more critical like an overloaded circuit? With the latter, many devices and appliances rammed into the same line can lead to a power deficiency. Alternatively, your circuit wires could be old and no longer in line with the most modern standards.

If your flickering lights include more than one room or circuit, your office likely has a more severe problem. This could be a predicament with your cable connections or some other power origin. In this instance, it’s even more critical to advise a licensed electrician for maintenance work right away.

3. Warm Electrical Outlets and Power Points

Are your office’s electrical outlets heated to the touch? If so, you’re probably late for a maintenance appointment from your electrician. Outlets that are warm or heated after you unplug a device, or when you have nothing plugged in, are a sign that you might have an issue. Broken, worn, cracked, and chipped outlets should also be reviewed by your electrician and replaced if required.

Electrical outlets can warm up during changing AC to DC power, transforming the voltage input (AC) to a usable, storable yield (DC). Unplug the appliance and check back the following one hour. The outlet should be at room temperature.

Avoid plugging too many appliances into the same circuit. Nevertheless, it’s not easy to tell which outlets are connected to the same circuit-wire series without talking to your local electrician. Furthermore, in older properties, you might have an older breaker replaced with a high ampacity breaker, leading to higher current levels than the circuit was produced for. In this example, a warm outlet could be a sign of this mismatched wiring, and your electrician can correct this for you.

4. Sparks when plugging/unplugging appliances from Power Points

When you plug and unplug your devices, sparks are another possible sign you should have an experienced electrician in to perform a check on your office power points. Sometimes this is a regular event – a brief spark due to a rapid draw on the usable power – with no serious underlying problems.

But, at other times, the sparks can be a sign of a dangerous fault. The sparks, for instance, could be due to extreme heat building up in your outlets. This could point to other issues like melting insulation covering your wires, which in turn could set off an electrical fire and cause loss and severe injury.

Alternatively, the sparks could be caused by water exposure, which could short out the circuit. The life of the outlet could be a different issue, where an older, worn-out outlet with slackened connections heightens the danger of short circuits and electrical fire. Older appliance cords and bad repair jobs could be other possible causes.

5. You are in an older building.

Older buildings may need regular and more routine maintenance, checks, and assessments. Assume your office is placed in an older building. In that case, your electrical wiring could be decades older than that in a new office building. The insulation encompassing the wiring could be far older and, consequently, at a higher risk of being worn out.

As such, it’s an excellent plan to have more frequent, regularly scheduled maintenance inspections by a trusted, experienced electrician. Your electrician can check your older wiring and insulation, repair or replace it as needed, and take steps like installing a safety switch for extra protection. They can conduct the proper tests to examine the wiring in your older build can safely bear the load you’re plugging in.

Without a regular electrical maintenance program, your company could incur the unnecessary time and costs in the form of delays, repairs, and wasted energy charges, particularly if you’re in an older building. You could be at a greater risk of worker injury or even death.

Regular Electrical Maintenance Reduces Coast and Provides Greater Safety

A total electrical maintenance plan can enable your business to reduce risks, improve safety, and reduce costs. By hiring an experienced, licensed electrician, you could reduce energy and overhead wasters and possible causes of business interference. In the process, give your employees a safe, efficient work atmosphere.

Are you searching for an experienced electrician for your office or building electrical maintenance? Get in touch with your local electrician at OnElectrical Contractors in North Brisbane

Are you presently a home-based worker? If so, do you believe you’re as productive as you presume to be or as you can be? Several of us see the quality of our productivity as tied to whether or not we’ll be compelled to return to the old office at some time.

Showing excellent productivity while working at home just supports our assertion that we’re doing a better job at the home office than we ever did previously.

Nevertheless, do your home office hardware, and infrastructure maintain your maximum potency? If not, we have a few approaches for your home office that have worked well for thousands of other home operators.

Extra Power Point Installations In The Home Office

First, let’s look at the straightforward adjustments that we can make right away, such as making sure your office has sufficient outlets so you don’t need to utilise extension cords. Extension cords are an indication that you need a wiring upgrade. They’re not really secure, they’re ugly, and they’re irrelevant when you have the infrastructure you require.

You can tackle a lack of outlets by calling an electrician. At the same time, you expand the number of outlets, you can also add some USB sockets. Extra power point installations help with decluttering your home office and business space and generate organisation and tidiness.

Rather than clogging up the power points when you’re charging USB devices, simply get an electrician to install power points with USB outlets and maintain functionality. In many circumstances, replacing the old power points with USB outlets truly doubles the number of useable outlets. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!

Dedicated Computer Circuit Installation

Another easy renovation is adding a dedicated computer circuit for the office/computer devices. Because computers use more complex elements and are more sensitive to electrical signal variations, a dedicated circuit is needed.

This circuit quarantines your computer equipment from other devices on separate circuits, such as heaters and refrigerators that intermittently pull more power. Whatever happens outside in the home’s electrical system is separate from your workstations.

Surge Protector Installation In The Home Office

Another upgrade is a surge suppressor. You’re presumably familiar with the variant that plugs into your powerpoint. Similar but far more useful is a whole-house surge suppressor installed close to the fusebox and guards the entire home against damaging electrical surges.

Power Conditioner Installation for Reduced Line Noise

Accompanying a surge suppressor, a power conditioner is cheap insurance. It helps to produce a steady and reliable current to your home devices. New electronic gadgets are processed and sophisticated tools, and a power conditioner gives them better fuel. Electricity is complicated, and a power conditioner helps to preserve your most sensitive equipment.

Hard-Wired Internet Connection Installation for Better Speed

Finally, substituting Wi-Fi with a hard-wired internet connection can give a more stable connection that’s more suitable for high-bandwidth tasks like videoconferencing. Suppose you ever notice that your Wi-Fi is a bit sketchy or unstable. In that case, a hard-wired connection will resolve that dilemma. It’s also an advantage when you have multiple users contending for bandwidth.

Although you may begin with just a few upgrades, you may find your home office could further benefit from more reliable lighting, security cameras, and additional electrical upgrades that all need more energy. Contact the electrician specialists at OnElectrical Contractors to discover more about these and other home improvements that will boost your productivity and improve your home office energy needs and security. OnElectrical is one of the best electricians in North Brisbane and loves to build customer to business trust and value through exceptional workmanship.

You probably know what electricity is, but did you know that electricity faults and downtime can affect you at any given time, day or night. Causes can be electrical storms, severe weather such as cyclones, downed powerlines, breakdown of home and business appliances, corroded electrical wiring and many other reasons. An electrical emergency can occur at any time. Here are some things to remember when you encounter an electrical emergency:

Electrical emergencies

24-hour electrical contractors. A qualified residential electrical contractor is always available to assist you with electrical emergencies and other electrical problems. It’s easy to select a well-qualified electrician, but you need to pay special attention to some important details. Hopefully, you never experience an actual electrical emergency, but simply to be on the safe side, here are some other situations when you really should call an electrical engineer.

Response time.

Never try to fix the problem yourself when the problem may be too extensive or dangerous for you to fix without assistance. 24-hour electricians will respond to your call straight away, whether you call during office hours or after dark. If your problem is particularly serious, 24-hour emergency electricians will even come to your home or business after hours so that they can evaluate the problem properly before they begin installing or repairing parts.

Call 0416 879 324 or contact your local emergency electrician for North Brisbane

Qualified electricians.

Some electrical professionals are actually certified in various fields, such as HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, and Home Repair. You might want to ask your potential residential electrician if he or she is licensed for certain trades, such as HVAC or plumbing. Also, some states require commercial electricians to obtain a certain number of licenses each calendar year. If your residential electrician has been approved for a particular trade, make sure you ask what type of license they have. It’s very important that you have a licensed electrician with you in case of an emergency.

Safety and Body Equipment

A good electrical engineer will arrive on the scene in a professional outfit. He or she might even have on a safety suit if the electrical emergency has exposed electricity.  As long as the electrical engineer arrives in time and is wearing protective gear, however, he or she should be able to successfully handle any situation that presents itself while tackling electrical emergencies in your home or office. They will also have numerous electrical tools and equipment either on a belt or in their emergency vehicle.

Emergency phone numbers.

Many electrical professionals offer 24-hour emergency electrician services. Make sure your emergency electricians understand your specific needs before allowing them to tackle your electrical problems. Find out what kind of response time you should expect from your emergency electricians. How will you get in touch with them if you have a specific question? Ask plenty of questions so that you know exactly what to expect when dealing with an emergency electrical services provider.

Circuit breaker switches and fuses.

Every house or office should have a working circuit breaker system that prevents hazardous electrical currents from leaking into other areas. Most home and office buildings have either a gas circuit breaker or a circuit breaker switch. These should be examined before use to ensure they are in good condition and in working order.

When To Get Your Smoke Alarm Tested By An Electrician

Many people think that it is not important when to get your smoke alarm tested. However, this is not the case. You may find that the value of a smoke alarm can increase if you get it periodically tested. This is because some fires will be able to spread very quickly and you do not want to find that you have lost everything in your home due to smoke or carbon monoxide poisoning.

You should not assume when to get your smoke alarm tested either. Even if you live in a safe place, you never know when a fire will break out. You should get your smoke alarm tested regularly. In fact, you should get it tested when you change the batteries, every year, or when the alarm goes off by itself. If you forget to test it periodically, though, you will be surprised to learn that it does not work as well as it did when you did test it.

Smoke Alarms Need Regular Testing To Comply With Laws

Many real estate businesses hire regular smoke alarm maintenance testing on all their rental properties by licensed electricians. This helps to comply with national and state laws in health and safety and also minimises the injury and death rate form house and business fires.

The first thing you should remember when you are thinking about when to get your smoke alarm tested is that it is not necessary to have someone else do it for you. You can do it yourself. You can also save money by doing this on your own. It is not difficult to do and it will not take a long time to put together. However, if you are worried about not knowing how to operate the equipment, you should contact a local electrical company to help you out.

A Fire Extinguisher Is Not A Substitute For A Smoke Alarm

Some people may worry about when to get their smoke alarm tested if they have a fire extinguisher. This is something that many people think is important but that is not true. An activated fire extinguisher is no substitute for a smoke alarm. The fire extinguisher will not automatically activate when you have a fire. You will have to manually activate it yourself using the button that goes on the detector.

Smoke alarms have a lot of benefits, including protecting your home from fire. Your smoke alarm will also protect your family members from breathing in any type of smoke that is in your home. Smoke inhalation is one of the leading causes of serious lung injury and death in fires, and can actually be more dangerous than the fire itself.

There is no time frame that should be thought about when to get your smoke alarm tested. However, you should have it checked at least once every 3 months just to be sure that it is working properly. Sometimes smoke alarms will not work correctly because of a battery or other reason. There are also some fire codes that need to be followed in certain areas of the country when it comes to smoke detection.

You should know that smoke alarms are easy to install and maintain. The electrician company that installed it for you should be able to help you out with maintenance as well. The company can change the batteries in your smoke alarm when needed as well. They will also test the alarm with professional testing equipment.

Replacement of a Smoke Alarm

When a smoke alarm is not working or needs to be replaced and installed, the installation process needs to be performed by a professional electrician in your local area. Especially in large property blocks such as investment properties and shopping centres. These areas have a much higher danger rate of fires breaking out than in single homes. The electrician will install and test every smoke alarm in your house or business individually and also comply with state regulations.

OnElectrical Contractors North Brisbane offers a professional and experienced smoke alarm installation, replacement and maintenance service for homes, businesses and real estate properties.