Induction Cooktop Installation in Melbourne

Induction generates a magnetic field that heats the pan directly rather than heating an element and passing that heat through. It is fast and controllable, and it is also a heavy, spiky load. Demand jumps as zones boost and drops as they cycle, and on a full width cooktop it is beyond what a general purpose kitchen circuit was designed to carry alongside a kettle and a dishwasher.

So the cooktop gets a dedicated final subcircuit in cable sized for the appliance, protected by a breaker matched to it and RCD protected, back to the switchboard. It does not share with power points, it does not share with the oven, and it does not get spurred off whatever fed the old rangehood.

This is prescribed electrical work, so it has to be carried out by a licensed electrician under a Registered Electrical Contractor, and a Certificate of Electrical Safety is issued at the end. Keep it with your house records. Manufacturers ask for proof of compliant installation on a warranty claim, and so do insurers.

For a standard full width four zone induction cooktop, a 32A dedicated circuit is the usual answer on single phase. Compact two zone units sit below that. Large cooktops, high output models and units with a bridging zone need more, and some manufacturers specify three phase. The number comes off the appliance connection data, which is why we ask for the model before quoting.

For your house that is a question of capacity, not just a spare slot. Adding a substantial circuit to a board already at its limit is not solved by finding room for one more breaker. We check whether the main switch and consumer mains can carry the load, whether there is RCD protection on final subcircuits, and whether there is space in the enclosure.

Older homes in Yarraville, Newport, Footscray and Braybrook regularly still run boards from the 1970s and 80s, sometimes with ceramic rewireable fuses and no safety switches. Those need work first. A switchboard upgrade runs $800 to $3,500 or more depending on how much of the board, panel and mains has to be replaced, and the switchboard upgrade cost guide explains what sits at each end of that range.

If the kitchen is being rewired anyway, do it once. Running the cooktop, oven and kitchen circuits at the same time as board work is cheaper than opening the same enclosure three times. Our rewiring cost guide and electrician cost guide set out how that pricing works.

Almost every induction cooktop sold in Australia is hardwired. It comes with a short tail or terminal block rather than a plug, and connects into a fixed wiring point behind or below the cabinetry. That is deliberate. The load is too high for a standard 10A outlet and the connection is meant to be permanent.

A small number of low output units come with a plug and are designed to run from a suitable outlet. If that is what you have bought, it still needs the right outlet on a circuit someone has confirmed can carry it. What it does not need, ever, is an extension lead or a double adaptor.

The connection point has to be accessible for isolation and service, clear of the cooktop body and its ventilation, and clear of anything that gets hot. On most jobs we put it in the adjacent cabinet with an isolating switch within reach, so the cooktop can come out without a trip back to the board.

The cut out is not our trade and we say so up front. The template comes with the appliance, and the cut out is done by a cabinetmaker in timber or laminate, or a stonemason in stone or granite. Cutting stone is specialist work with its own dust controls.

What we do care about is whether the appliance will fit and function once it is in. Manufacturers specify a minimum depth below the cooktop, clearances to the side and rear, and ventilation for the electronics underneath. Induction cooktops have a cooling fan and need air. Sitting one on a drawer full of tea towels, or hard against a splashback, produces heat faults that get blamed on the appliance.

Two clashes come up repeatedly. An existing gas cut out that is a different size to the new unit, so the benchtop needs enlarging or occasionally replacing. And an oven directly beneath, where the combined clearances leave less room than either specification suggests alone. Both are cheaper to find at quote stage than on installation day.

When induction replaces gas, the old cooktop comes out and the gas point behind it has to be dealt with properly. Capping a redundant gas point is gasfitting work, and gas requires a licensed gasfitter, a different licence class to electrical. We are a licensed electrical, solar and HVAC contractor. We do not do gasfitting and will not pretend otherwise.

What we do is coordinate it. On changeover jobs we arrange a licensed gasfitter to isolate and cap the point, and it appears on your quote as a separate line so you can see the cost and who is doing the work. A single blended figure hides which licence covered what, and that matters if the installation is ever queried.

If the cooktop was your last gas appliance, this is also the point to think about the connection itself. A house with no gas appliances still pays a daily supply charge, and abolishing it is a separate conversation with your distributor. Households doing this properly deal with the cooktop and the hot water together, and the timing sits in our gas hot water rules guide, alongside what an electric heat pump replacement involves.

Induction only heats cookware a magnet sticks to. Cast iron and most stainless steel work. Aluminium, copper and glass do not, unless the maker has bonded a magnetic base on. The test takes ten seconds: hold a fridge magnet against the base of the pan, and if it grips firmly the pan will work. Do that before buying the cooktop, because replacing every pot is a real cost nobody mentions in the showroom. Pan base diameter also needs to roughly match the zone.

On the incentive, Victorian Energy Upgrades added induction cooktops as activity 46 on 30 June 2026. The support arrives as a discount applied directly to your installation invoice, not a rebate you claim afterwards. There is no income test, the property must be at least two years old, and the minimum customer contribution is $200 including GST.

We do not publish a dollar figure for the cooktop discount, and you should be sceptical of anyone who does. It is not a fixed government payment. It is funded by certificates created for the specific activity at the specific property and sold into a live market, so the value moves with that market and the product. We confirm the current figure in writing on your quote with the net amount payable underneath. The wider picture sits in the Victorian energy rebates guide, dated changes in the deadlines guide, and the program at energy.vic.gov.au.

Program values, eligibility criteria and product lists change, sometimes at short notice. Confirm the current position with the program administrator when you commit, and treat your written quote as the accurate figure rather than a website, including this one.