Power Point Installation in Melbourne

The cheapest way to add a power point is to extend from a nearby outlet on the same circuit. That is fine for a lamp, a phone charger or a television. It is not fine for a second fridge, a bar heater, a dryer or a workshop.

The question we ask is what is going to be plugged in and what else is already on that circuit. A typical power circuit is protected at 16 or 20 amps and shared across a whole area of the house. Adding a high draw appliance to a circuit that already runs the kitchen bench is how you end up with a breaker that trips every time the toaster and the kettle overlap. When the load justifies it, a dedicated circuit from the board is the correct answer and it is not much more expensive at the time.

There is more regulation around outlet position than people expect. The Wiring Rules set minimum separation between socket outlets and sinks, basins and cooktops, generally 400mm horizontally from the edge of a sink or basin, and outlets cannot be positioned where a lead would drape across a cooking surface. That is why we sometimes have to move a proposed kitchen outlet 200mm along the wall.

Bathrooms and laundries have defined zones around baths, showers and troughs where outlets are prohibited or restricted. Outdoors, outlets need weatherproof enclosures rated for exposure. None of this is us being difficult. It is the difference between an installation that passes and one that does not.

The mechanism inside a socket is where quality shows up. Cheap outlets lose grip on the pins over a few years, which causes heating at the connection. In a rental or a house you plan to keep, spending a few dollars more per outlet on a known brand is worth it.

USB outlets are now standard in bedrooms and kitchens, but they date faster than the socket does. USB-C with power delivery is the current sensible choice, and there is little point installing USB-A only outlets in 2026. Some outlets include a small night light or an integrated switch for a specific appliance, which is useful for things like a dishwasher hidden behind a cupboard.

Socket outlets require RCD protection under AS/NZS 3000. If your house has no safety switches, adding a new outlet means the circuit it lands on has to be brought up to that standard, which usually means fitting an RCD or RCBO at the switchboard.

This surprises people, but it is the single most valuable thing that comes out of a small job like this. A safety switch on a power circuit is what stops a faulty appliance, a cut extension lead or a child with a screwdriver becoming an electrocution. If the board has no room or is too old to take the device, we will tell you what the board needs before quoting the outlet.

For a standard cavity wall, the cable is fished down from the ceiling space and the outlet cut in with a hole saw, which leaves no patching to do. Solid brick, rendered or tiled walls are the ones that take longer, and in those cases surface conduit or a skirting duct is sometimes the sensible answer.

We test every circuit we touch and issue a Certificate of Electrical Safety for the work. If you are having several outlets done at once, tell us the whole list up front. Doing five in one visit is far cheaper per outlet than five separate call outs, and the same access we make for one is usually most of the work for the rest.