Meter box electricians who handle the Ergon side as well

If the meter box is rusted at the hinges, painted shut, full of ants, or too small to take one more circuit, book it in before it turns into an outage. Meter boxes rarely fail politely. They fail on a Friday afternoon in February, with water in the top of the enclosure and a tenant ringing about no power.

We have done 424 metering jobs since 2020 and 1,006 switchboard jobs. The two almost always travel together. What sends people looking for a sparky is usually a board that has run out of room, a meter the reader cannot get to, or a unit that needs its own account before it can be leased.

Salt air is the main reason boxes fail early up here

On anything near the water around Port Douglas, Four Mile, Oak Beach and Cooya, the enclosure goes long before the equipment inside it does. Hinges rust off, the door stops sealing, and then wet season humidity gets in and stays in. Ants and geckos get into outdoor enclosures all the time. It is one of the most common causes of a nuisance trip we see. Fix the door seal properly rather than taping it up.

So the first thing we do is look at whether the existing box can be repaired. Sometimes it is a door, a seal and a fresh set of stainless fixings. Sometimes the enclosure is past it and the sensible move is a new box, a bigger switchboard and room left over for whatever gets added in the next ten years. We will tell you which one it is before we touch anything.

Sub-metering for units, tenancies and body corporates

There are two ways to split power on a multi occupancy property. Individually registered meters that a retailer bills against, or check meters that let a body corporate or landlord see real usage per unit, per shop or per tenancy. Which one suits you depends on how the property is titled and how billing is set up, so we work that out first rather than quoting a box of meters and hoping.

We do a lot of this work. Central Plaza and several of the larger resorts and apartment complexes are all long standing customers, and one of the town's real estate agencies sends us to managed properties right across town. Body corporate committees generally want the same three things: what it will involve, how long the power is off, and who is dealing with the energy retailer and Ergon Energy. We handle that coordination, book the outage for a time that does not gut a trading day, and keep the manager informed.

Storm damage and reconnection

If a meter box has been hit by a cyclone, a falling branch or flood water, the supply does not simply go back on. Verification testing is required before reconnection, and as the Electrical Safety Office puts it, "a licensed electrician will need to perform this task and a certificate of test will ensure your local electricity distribution entity can reconnect your service". We do that testing, issue the paperwork and deal with the distributor so you are not stuck in a queue explaining it yourself.

Who does the work

Brad and Leanne Sims run BH Electrics under QLD Electrical Contractor Licence 82270. Four electricians and two apprentices, fully insured, 24/7 emergency callout, and a Same Day Service Guarantee for commercial customers who ring by 2pm on a business day. Same crew that services the Low Isles lighthouse and QPWS ranger bases, so a meter box on an acreage block past Mossman is not a problem.

Source: Queensland Electrical Safety Office, electrical safety during storms.