Do I need to be home for a switchboard upgrade?

The board itself, with a clear path to it and room to work. Inside, circuits are tested before and after the changeover, which means getting to power points, lights and fixed appliances in each room, including bedrooms and the garage. Sometimes the roof space or under-floor area is needed to trace or run a cable. Sort out gates, keys, alarm codes and pets before the day.

At the start, walk through what the house runs: anything that can't lose power for long, such as medical equipment, a full freezer, an aquarium or a home office, and where the garage door motor, pool pump and solar inverter are. It's also the time to mention any quirks, like a power point that has never worked or a room that trips in the rain.

At the end, someone should see the new board, how the circuits are labelled, which devices are safety switches and how to test and reset them. It's when anything found during testing is explained. You get a Certificate of Electrical Safety for the work, and for a new main switchboard it follows the inspection.

Plan for the power being off for most of the working day. The garage door won't open on its motor, so park outside the night before or find the manual release. The modem and NBN connection will be down, so charge phones and laptops. Security systems switch to battery and may beep or report a fault, so let your monitoring company know if you have one.

Unplug computers and other sensitive electronics before work starts, and think about the fridge and freezer ahead of time. Most food is fine with a little preparation.