Frequently Asked Questions

Australian law is very clear: all electrical work beyond changing light globes or resetting safety switches must be performed by a licensed electrician. This isn't industry protectionism, it's life-safety legislation. DIY electrical work causes deaths, house fires, and serious injuries every year. It also voids your home insurance, creates problems when selling your property, and can result in significant fines. Even seemingly simple tasks like installing a ceiling fan or adding a powerpoint involve work inside walls and switchboards where mistakes prove fatal. Always use a licensed electrician. The small cost of proper installation is nothing compared to the consequences of getting it wrong.

Every licensed electrician in NSW must hold a current licence issued by NSW Fair Trading. Ask to see their licence card before work begins, and verify the licence number on the Fair Trading website. Licensed electricians also carry public liability insurance and provide Certificates of Compliance for work completed. Our team members carry photo ID, display licence numbers on quotes, and happily provide verification when requested. If an electrician hesitates to show credentials or claims they "don't need to" for small jobs, walk away immediately.

We don't charge callout fees for providing quotes on planned electrical work. If your project requires a site visit to assess properly (like switchboard upgrades or complex installations), we'll attend and provide a detailed written quote at no cost. For emergency callouts or troubleshooting where the fault needs diagnosis before we can quote, there is a service call fee, but this is explained upfront when you book. We believe you should understand your costs before committing to work, and we're happy to provide quotes without obligation for planned projects.

Electrical inspections aren't legally required for existing homes unless you're selling or have experienced specific issues, but they're strongly recommended every 10 years as preventative maintenance. You should definitely arrange an inspection if: your property is over 25 years old and hasn't been checked recently, you're buying an older home, you've noticed warning signs like flickering lights or frequent breaker trips, you're planning major renovations, or your insurance company requests it. Inspections identify deteriorating wiring, outdated safety protection, and potential fire hazards before they cause emergencies. For the relatively small cost, electrical inspections provide significant peace of mind and often prevent expensive emergency callouts.

For most Sydney homes, a layered setup works best: a few well-positioned CCTV cameras covering entry points, driveway and side access, paired with an alarm system on doors and ground-floor windows. The exact mix depends on your property layout, neighbourhood, whether you have pets, and how often the home is empty during the day. We walk the property with you, talk through what you actually want to monitor, and recommend something proportionate — not a 16-camera fortress for a two-bedroom unit, and not a single door sensor for a sprawling block.

Both — and we usually recommend they work together. CCTV records what happens; an alarm reacts in the moment. For Sydney homes we install camera systems, intrusion alarms, smart sensors, sirens, and home automation that ties them together. For businesses and strata buildings we also handle access control, intercoms, and integrated CCTV across multiple zones. One installer, one warranty, one number to call if anything plays up.

Both are industry-leading commercial-grade brands and we install both regularly. Hikvision tends to have the edge for very high-resolution analytics and large multi-camera enterprise sites. Dahua's apps and ColorVu low-light cameras suit residential and small-business use really well. For a typical home you genuinely won't notice the difference in day-to-day footage — we'll recommend whichever has the right camera form-factor and sensor for your specific install, and we'll explain why.

Yes. Every system we install includes mobile app access — live view, playback of recorded footage, motion alerts, and the ability to share access with family or staff. We configure the app on your phone before we leave the site and walk you through how to use it. If you're holidaying overseas, the apps work over any internet connection, no special VPN needed.

It depends on the storage drive size and how many cameras are recording. A standard 4-camera home setup with a 2TB drive typically holds 2 to 4 weeks of continuous footage before older recordings are overwritten. We can size the storage to whatever retention period you need — most homeowners settle on 2–4 weeks, while businesses with insurance or compliance obligations often want 30–90 days. Larger drives or cloud backup are both options we can discuss.

For 24/7 critical coverage, wired cameras (typically PoE — Power-over-Ethernet) are still the gold standard. They don't drop off your Wi-Fi, they don't run out of battery, and the image quality is consistently higher. Wireless cameras have come a long way and are great for retrofit jobs, rentals, or spots where running cable isn't practical — but for new installs in homes you own, we recommend wired wherever it's feasible.

Often, yes — most Sydney insurers offer modest premium discounts for monitored alarms and professionally installed CCTV, particularly on contents cover. The savings vary by insurer and policy, so it's worth checking with yours specifically. Even where there's no discount, a documented system installed by a licensed installer makes claims after a break-in much smoother because you have actual footage and a compliance record.

Yes. We work with strata committees and building managers across Sydney to install CCTV in lobbies, car parks, lifts, bin rooms and entry points. We coordinate with your strata manager on access, scheduled outages, and the sign-off process. We can also tie cameras into existing access control and intercom systems, so a single building manager view shows everything at once.

Access control replaces traditional keys with electronic credentials — swipe fobs, PIN keypads, smartphone unlocks, or video intercoms. We install systems for homes, apartment buildings, offices and small commercial sites. The benefits are simple: no more re-keying after lost keys, full audit logs of who entered when, and the ability to instantly revoke access for an ex-tenant, contractor, or staff member without changing locks.

Yes. Every install we do comes with our standard workmanship warranty on the labour and cabling, plus the manufacturer's hardware warranty (typically 2–3 years for cameras and recorders, longer on some commercial-grade gear). If anything fails inside the warranty period, we attend, diagnose, and replace at no charge.

Yes. For shops, restaurants, offices, kitchens, warehouses and any site where electrical work would interfere with trading, we schedule the work after-hours, overnight, or on weekends. We coordinate the timing with you so power isolations happen when it costs you the least. After-hours rates apply for purely-elective scheduling, but we'll quote upfront so there are no surprises.

Yes. For retail chains, restaurants, strata buildings and office tenancies we set up scheduled maintenance — switchboard inspections, exit-and-emergency light testing, test-and-tag, RCD compliance checks, and CCTV servicing. We keep the records, we book the next visit before we leave the current one, and we send a single point of contact for any reactive work in between.

Level 2 ASPs (Accredited Service Providers) are licensed to work on the section of the electrical network between the street and your meter box — overhead lines, underground service mains, point-of-attachment work, metering changes, and disconnects/reconnects. Regular electricians can't legally do this work. You'll need a Level 2 for new service connections, capacity upgrades, storm damage to service lines, or any meter relocation. We're accredited Level 2 ASPs, so it's all done in-house — no waiting on a separate contractor.

Yes. Commercial kitchens, warehouses with larger machinery, restaurants, EV charging at scale, and increasingly serious home setups all need three-phase supply. We assess the existing service, coordinate the Level 2 upgrade with Ausgrid where needed, install the new switchboard, and certify the work. Most upgrades take a single day on-site once the network approval is in place.

Yes — strata is a big part of what we do. We work directly with strata managers and committees on common-area lighting, lift cabinet electrics, intercoms and access control, emergency lighting compliance, switchboard upgrades, and after-hours faults. We can also help determine whether an issue inside a lot is the owner's responsibility or the body corporate's, which often saves disputes before they start.

For pre-sale, pre-lease, or end-of-lease inspections we cover safety switches and RCDs, switchboard condition, smoke alarm compliance, visible wiring, powerpoints and switches, hot water and oven circuits, and any obvious non-compliance. You get a written report your agent or solicitor can use. For older properties we strongly recommend the inspection before listing — it's cheaper to fix issues on your terms than during contract negotiations.

Always. Every job we complete is signed off with a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work (CCEW) where required by NSW regulation, plus a tax invoice that itemises labour, materials and any compliance work. For commercial clients we can also provide additional documentation for insurance, audits, or building manager records.

Test-and-tag is the inspection and electrical-safety testing of portable appliances and leads in workplaces. It's required under Australian Standard AS/NZS 3760 and is increasingly checked by insurers and WHS auditors. Frequency depends on the environment — offices are typically every 12 months, while construction, kitchens and workshops are 3–6 months. We provide test-and-tag as a standalone service or bundled into a maintenance contract.

Yes. Commercial CCTV systems we install run over standard IP networking — we can deploy on a dedicated security VLAN, integrate with your existing IT infrastructure, or run a standalone network depending on your security policy. We coordinate with your IT team on switch ports, PoE budgets, and any cloud-storage requirements.

Yes. Our 24 hour line covers commercial as well as residential — and businesses on a maintenance contract get priority dispatch. Whether it's a refrigeration circuit dropping out at 2am, a three-phase failure in a kitchen, or a switchboard fault during weekend trading, we respond fast and get you operational again with minimal downtime.