Switchboards in Brighton
Brighton's housing runs from substantial Victorian and Edwardian homes through to comprehensive modern rebuilds, often on the same street. The period homes have the wiring problems you'd expect of their age. The rebuilds and major renovations have the opposite problem: modern switchgear, modern cable, and a demand profile that a single-phase service simply cannot carry.
The recurring theme in Brighton is maximum demand. A large home here can be running ducted refrigerated cooling across multiple zones, an induction kitchen, a pool pump and heater, underfloor heating, a home cinema, a substantial solar array with battery storage, and one or two EV chargers. Individually all fine. Together, that's a load calculation, not a guess — and it's the calculation that determines whether you need a board, a supply upgrade, or both.
What we usually find in Brighton boards
In the period homes we find the standard older-board problems: ceramic fuses, asbestos backing panels, no RCD protection, and consumer mains that are original. In the renovated homes we find boards that are perfectly good and completely full, because each addition over fifteen years took another way until there were none left.
The distinctly Brighton finding is single-phase supply on a house that has outgrown it. Upgrading to three-phase is a significant piece of work involving the distributor, not just a bigger board, and it's the honest answer for some Brighton homes and unnecessary for others. We do the maximum demand calculation properly and tell you which one you are, because it's an expensive thing to be sold without a reason.
What the upgrade actually involves
The old board comes out and a modern enclosure goes in, with a circuit breaker and an RCD protecting every circuit, and every one of them labelled so the next person can read it. In older properties the consumer mains and the main earth often have to be replaced at the same time, because the incoming cable was sized for a house with a stove, a fridge and a few lights. If the backing board is asbestos it has to be removed and disposed of properly, which is a licensed job in its own right and not something to cut corners on. Most domestic upgrades are a single day on site. Your power will be off for a decent part of it, so we agree a day that suits you and we tell you honestly what time we expect to be back on — including if the distributor has to attend to pull the service fuse.
What usually triggers it in Brighton
EV charging is the most common trigger now, and often for two vehicles rather than one. Close behind it are battery storage retrofits, pool heat pumps, and full-house refrigerated cooling. All of them are dedicated circuits, all of them are substantial loads, and all of them run into the same wall: a full board and a supply that was sized decades ago.
The other half is renovation. Brighton renovates comprehensively, and a board and supply assessment belongs at design stage — before the electrical plan is finalised, not after. If the home is a period property and the circuits are original, rewiring is frequently in scope at the same time, and doing both together is far cheaper than sequencing them.
Working in Brighton
Brighton is outside our home patch in the inner west, but we've worked there for years and it's a straightforward run. Practically, the properties are larger, which means more circuits, longer cable runs and a bigger board — a full day is often optimistic on a large home. Parts of Brighton sit within heritage overlays that affect street-facing meter boxes, and where a supply upgrade to three-phase is required, the distributor's lead time is usually the longest single item in the schedule.
Free Quote in Brighton
No obligation. We'll come out, look at it properly, and give you a straight answer.
Request a Quote →Switchboard Upgrades in Brighton — Common Questions
Do I need three-phase power?
Some Brighton homes genuinely do; many don't. It depends on your actual maximum demand — refrigerated cooling, induction, pool plant, battery and EV charging together will often push a large home past single-phase. We calculate it rather than guessing, because three-phase is a substantial cost and shouldn't be recommended without a reason.
Can my board handle two EV chargers?
That's the question we get most in Brighton. Two chargers is a serious load, and the answer usually depends on whether load management is acceptable to you — sharing capacity between the two rather than running both at full output. That's often cheaper than a supply upgrade and works fine in practice. We'll set out both options.
How much does a switchboard upgrade cost in Brighton?
More than a standard cottage, because the homes are larger, there are more circuits and the runs are longer. If a three-phase supply upgrade is involved, that's a separate and significant cost with the distributor. Our what drives the cost gives a starting point; the quote is free and itemised.
I'm installing solar and a battery — does the board need doing first?
Usually the board needs to be compliant and have capacity before the installer will connect, so it's worth assessing early. Getting this checked before you sign a solar contract avoids the common situation where the install is booked and then held up by switchboard work nobody costed.
How long will my power be off?
A full day on most Brighton homes, and occasionally longer where there are a lot of circuits or the mains are being replaced. We'll give you a realistic figure at quote rather than an optimistic one.