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Start hereQueensland Smoke Alarm Laws 2027

Smoke Alarms

Lighting

EV Charging

Hot Water

Switchboards & Safety

House Rewiring

VIR Cabling & “Green Goo”

Air Conditioning

Security

PoE / IP Security Cameras

General

Guides

Straight answers, before you call anyone.

25 guides on the work Brisbane homes actually need — what the law requires, what each job involves, and what decides the price. No jargon, no sales pitch.

Smoke Alarms

A weatherboard Queenslander home in Brisbane

Queensland Smoke Alarm Laws 2027From 1 January 2027, every existing private home, townhouse and unit in Queensland must have interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms. Here is what that actually requires, in plain terms.

A sealed 10-year lithium smoke alarm beside a hardwired unit

10-Year Lithium vs HardwiredBoth meet the Queensland requirement. The difference is what installing them does to your house, and how much of your attention they need afterwards.

Two interconnected smoke alarms on the same ceiling

Interconnected Smoke Alarms ExplainedInterconnected means every alarm in the house sounds when any one of them detects smoke. It is the part of the Queensland requirement that catches most people out, because a house can be full of working alarms and still not comply.

A hand pressing the test button on a flush-mounted smoke alarm

Testing & Compliance CertificatesInstalling the alarms is half the job. Proving they work, and holding the paperwork that says so, is the half people forget until they need it.

Lighting

LED downlights recessed into a freshly finished ceiling

Halogen to LED Downlight UpgradeHalogen downlights were in nearly every Brisbane home built or renovated through the 2000s. Replacing them is one of the most noticeable changes you can make to a house in a single visit.

A living room with an even run of LED downlights

Why Upgrade the Whole House to LEDMost homes end up with LED gradually, a fitting at a time, as things fail. The result is a house where no two rooms match. Doing the lot in one visit avoids that, and costs less per fitting than six separate callouts.

A ceiling fan with timber blades mounted on a white ceiling

DC vs AC Ceiling FansThe motor type changes how a fan sounds, how slowly it will run, and how you control it. DC is the gold standard and what we recommend. We still install AC where that is specifically what you want.

A sensor floodlight mounted under the eave of a brick home

Outdoor & Sensor LightingMost outdoor lighting problems are aim and placement rather than brightness. More lumens pointed the wrong way just annoys more people.

EV Charging

A Tesla wall connector installed beside an isolator on a home wall

Home EV Charger InstallationMounting the charger is the quick part. What determines the job is the distance from the switchboard, and whether the board can carry the load in the first place.

A slim white EV wall connector mounted on an interior wall

Tesla Wall Charger Requirements (QLD)The wall connector is one of the units we install most often. What it needs from your house is the same as any serious home charger: a suitable supply, a board that can carry it, and its own circuit.

A switchboard labelled with a dedicated EV charger circuit beside the main switch

Does My Switchboard Need Upgrading?Often, in an older home — and it is better to know before the charger is ordered. Here is what an electrician is actually looking at when they answer that question.

An open meter box showing the electricity meters and main switch

Single-Phase vs Three-PhaseYour supply type sets the maximum rate a home charger can deliver, whatever unit you buy. Most Brisbane homes are single-phase, and for most drivers that is entirely sufficient.

A supply and switchboard enclosure mounted on the exterior wall of a home

Energex QECM V4 RulesQECM Version 4 is the rulebook Energex and Ergon apply to home EV chargers, and it decides how fast you are allowed to charge before extra equipment is involved. This is what it means for an ordinary Brisbane house.

Hot Water

A corroded heating element removed from an electric hot water cylinder

Element vs ThermostatOn an electric hot water system these are the two parts that fail most, they produce different symptoms, and neither is something to open up yourself.

An electric hot water cylinder with the element access plate open

No Hot Water — What To Do NextA few of these you can check safely in a couple of minutes, and one of them fixes the problem often enough to be worth trying. The rest tell us what we are walking into.

Switchboards & Safety

An ageing switchboard with old ceramic rewireable fuses

Signs Your Switchboard Needs UpgradingBoards rarely fail all at once. They give you a run of small signals first, and most of them are visible from the outside if you know what you are looking at.

An old switchboard fitted with ceramic rewireable fuses

Old Fuses vs Modern RCBOsThese protect against different things, and the difference is the reason older boards get upgraded. One protects the wiring. The other protects the person touching it. The gold standard is an RCBO on every final sub-circuit.

An open switchboard showing rows of circuit breakers and wiring

What's in a Switchboard Health ScanIt is a practical once-over of the board while we are already at your place for paid work. Useful, free, and deliberately not a full electrical audit.

House Rewiring

Perished rubber-insulated cable running through roof-space insulation

VIR Cabling & “Green Goo”If your house was wired before the 1960s and has never been rewired, there is a good chance this is what is sitting above your ceiling. It does not get better with time.

Air Conditioning

A split-system head unit mounted on a living room wall

Split System Sizing GuideUndersized and it runs flat out and never quite gets there. Oversized and it cools fast, shuts off, and leaves the room clammy. Both are common, and both are avoidable.

An old split-system indoor unit wrapped and ready to come off the wall

Replacing an Old Split SystemSometimes it is a straight swap in a morning. Sometimes the pipework, the circuit or the wall behind the old unit has other ideas. Here is what decides which one you get.

Refrigerant gauges connected to a split-system condenser

R32 Refrigerant & Safe DegassingAn old air conditioner cannot legally or safely be cut off the wall and taken to the tip. The refrigerant inside it has to be recovered by someone licensed to do it.

Security

A security camera mounted under the eave of a home

PoE / IP Security CamerasThe difference between a camera system you rely on and one you stop checking usually comes down to how it is powered and where the footage goes.

General

An open residential switchboard showing a row of labelled circuit breakers

How the Free Health Scan WorksWhile we are already at your place for paid work, your switchboard, lighting and smoke alarms get a practical once-over. It is included, it is valued at $297, and it has clear limits.

A single-storey brick Brisbane home with a split-system condenser beside the wall

Fixed Price vs Hourly RatesAn hourly rate makes the tradesperson's time your risk. A fixed price moves that risk back where it belongs — onto the person who is supposed to know how long the job takes.

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