We’ve been working on Melbourne homes long enough to know that the same handful of problems come up again and again. Different suburbs, different eras, same faults.
Here are the seven we’re called to most, what actually causes each one, and — the useful bit — which ones you can safely leave until Tuesday and which ones you can’t.
1. Circuit breakers that keep tripping
By far the most common call we get.
A breaker trips because it’s protecting you from something: too much current on the circuit, a short circuit, or an earth fault. It is not being temperamental. It’s doing exactly what it was installed to do.
What causes it: most often, too many high-draw appliances on one circuit — a heater, a kettle and a hairdryer on the same run. Sometimes a faulty appliance. Sometimes damaged cable behind a wall.
How urgent: if it trips once when you’ve obviously overloaded it, unplug something and move on. If it trips repeatedly, or trips with nothing unusual running, stop resetting it and call. Repeated resetting of a breaker that’s tripping for a real fault is genuinely dangerous.
The underlying fix is often a switchboard upgrade with the load properly distributed across more circuits.
2. Dead or intermittent power points
A power point that’s stopped working, or works when you wiggle the plug.
What causes it: loose terminal connections are the usual culprit, and they’re the reason this one matters more than it looks. A loose connection arcs. Arcing generates heat. Heat is how electrical fires start. Sometimes it’s a tripped RCD, sometimes a fault further up the circuit.
How urgent: if the outlet is warm, discoloured, or you’ve seen a spark — that’s today. If it’s simply dead and cold, it can book in normally. See power point installation and repair.
3. Flickering or dimming lights
Especially when a big appliance starts up.
What causes it: a loose connection somewhere in the circuit, an overloaded supply, or — in older homes — a genuinely undersized service that’s struggling with modern demand. Occasionally it’s just an incompatible LED and dimmer pairing, which is a cheap fix.
How urgent: a single flickering fitting is usually minor. Lights dimming across the whole house when the air conditioner starts is a capacity issue worth investigating. Flickering plus any smell or noise is urgent.
4. Ageing switchboards and ceramic fuses
If your board still has rewireable ceramic fuses, you’re running your home on 1960s protection technology.
What causes it: nothing — it’s simply age. But the consequence is that you don’t have RCD (safety switch) protection, which is what actually stops a person being electrocuted. Circuit breakers protect the wiring. RCDs protect people. They’re not the same thing.
How urgent: not an emergency, but it’s the single highest-value electrical upgrade most older Melbourne homes can make. If you’ve got kids in the house and no RCDs, we’d move it up the list.
This is common across the period housing in Hawthorn, Camberwell and Balwyn, where the houses are beautiful and the boards often haven’t been touched in decades.
5. Old or damaged wiring
Deteriorated insulation, rubber-sheathed cable, VIR wiring, or cable that pests have been at.
What causes it: age, mostly. Rubber insulation goes brittle and cracks after 40 or 50 years. And in Melbourne, possums in the roof and rats in the wall cavities chew cable more often than people realise.
How urgent: exposed conductors are urgent. Otherwise this usually surfaces during an inspection or a renovation. If your home hasn’t been rewired since the seventies, a house rewire is worth costing out — often it makes sense to do it while other work is happening.
6. Not enough power points
Not a fault, but it causes faults.
What causes it: homes built when a bedroom needed one outlet now need six. The workaround is double adaptors and daisy-chained power boards, which is how you overload a circuit and overheat an outlet.
How urgent: low, but easy to fix and worth doing. Adding outlets on properly-loaded circuits removes the risk entirely, and it’s one of the cheapest jobs we do.
7. Smoke alarms that beep, or don’t work at all
The chirp at 3am is a cliché for a reason.
What causes it: flat backup battery, or an alarm past its ten-year service life. Photoelectric alarms degrade — after a decade they’re genuinely less sensitive, whether they beep or not.
How urgent: replace the battery today. If the unit is over ten years old, replace the unit. Victorian rental properties have specific obligations here, and interconnected mains-powered alarms are the standard we’d recommend for any home with more than one bedroom. See smoke alarm installation.
The pattern behind all seven
Six of these seven come back to the same thing: Melbourne homes built for a smaller electrical life, now running a much bigger one. Air conditioning, home offices, induction cooktops, EV chargers, heat pumps. The wiring didn’t change; everything plugged into it did.
That’s not a reason to panic. It is a reason to have someone look at the switchboard properly rather than fixing each symptom as it appears.
When to call, and who
Call immediately for: burning smells, sparks, warm outlets, smoke, buzzing from the board, or exposed wiring. That’s emergency territory.
Book normally for: dead outlets, dodgy light fittings, adding circuits, LED upgrades, switchboard upgrades and smoke alarms.
And in Victoria, all of it has to be done by a licensed electrician. Not because of red tape — because DIY electrical work voids most home insurance policies and, more importantly, because electricity doesn’t give you a second attempt.
Who we are
Luno Electrical is based in Hawthorn and works across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Andrew is a Registered Master Electrician (REC 25989) and a Tesla Certified Installer. We’ve got over 200 five-star Google reviews, we turn up when we say we will, we clean up before we leave, and every job carries a lifetime workmanship warranty.
If any of the seven above sound familiar, get in touch and we’ll take a look.
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Fuse Box FAQs
Electrical surges can be caused by lightning strikes, damaged power lines, or faulty appliances. Using surge protectors can help safeguard your electronics.
Flickering lights can be due to poor connections, leading to potential sparking, overheating, and fire hazards. It's advisable to consult an electrician if flickering persists.
Yes, ungrounded outlets can increase the risk of electric shocks, damage to appliances, and even fire hazards. Upgrading to grounded outlets is recommended for safety.
Frequent tripping can indicate overloaded circuits or other electrical issues. Unplugging unused devices and spreading electrical loads can help, but persistent problems require professional inspection.
Signs of damaged wiring include frequent power outages, electrical shocks, and burning smells. Avoid DIY fixes and contact a licensed electrician for repairs.
Yes, sparking at power points can indicate serious electrical problems that might lead to fire hazards. Cease using the affected outlets and call us immediately.
