You have picked your tiles. You have chosen your benchtops. You have argued about tapware for three weekends straight. But have you thought about the electrical wiring?
Most people do not. Not until the plaster goes up. And by then, any change costs a small fortune.
I have been working as a residential electrician in Adelaide for long enough to see the same mistakes happen over and over. Let me walk you through what the law says you must have in a new home and what you should ask for even if the builder says it is not standard.
The stuff you cannot skip
South Australia follows the National Construction Code. Your builder has to comply. Your electrician has to sign off on it. Here is what every single new home in Adelaide must include by law.
Safety switches on every power point and lighting circuit. Not just one for the whole house. Modern homes have multiple RCDs. That way a fault in the shed does not leave your fridge off all night.
Hardwired smoke alarms that are all connected to each other. If one goes off, they all scream. And the rules now say you need them in every bedroom and in the hallway outside. Not just near the kitchen.
Energy-efficient lighting across the board. No more cheap halogen downlights. LED only.
Earth bonding for anything metal that could carry a current. Your pool fence. Your gas pipe. Your TV antenna mount. All of it needs a proper earth.
A decent home wiring electrician will know all of this without flipping through a rule book. But the code only keeps you safe. It does not make your life easier.
What the rules do not tell you
I did a new build in Craigmore a couple of years back. The owners, Lisa and Pete, were lovely people. But they almost made a classic mistake. They wanted to save money on the electrical package. The builder’s standard plan had one double power point in the living room and a single light in the middle of each bedroom.
I sat down with them and said, “Look, you are spending six hundred grand on this house. ” Do not save two grand on the wiring. You will regret it every single day.
They listened. We added extra points. We put a dedicated circuit for the fridge. We ran Cat6 to the home office and the TV wall.
Six months after they moved in, their neighbor had a blackout in their kitchen because the fridge tripped the safety switch and took out the microwave and the toaster at the same time. Though they referred us to fix their neighbor problem, at the same time, realize the right decision they took months back during their build-up.
That is the difference between the minimum standard and a home that actually works.
The extras you will use every week
You only wire a new house once. Spending a little more at the start saves a lot of headaches later. Here is what I tell everyone building in Adelaide.
Power points: Builders put in the bare minimum. One double point per wall used to be normal. Now I suggest two doubles in the living areas and a quad in the kitchen. Bedrooms need points on both sides of the bed. Even if you are single today, that changes.
Data cables: A proper home wiring an Adelaide electrician can run Cat6 cable to your home office, the lounge, and the kids’ study. Hardwired internet is faster, making your Zoom calls run without any edge case of interruption.
Ceiling fans: Always ask for a wall switch that controls the light and the fan separately. Otherwise, you are pulling cords every single night forever.
Outside power and light: This covers the front porch, back deck, and side gate. One weatherproof power point is needed at least in this section. You will use it for the hedge trimmer, the fairy lights at Christmas, and charging the ride-on mower if you ever buy one.
Electric vehicle charging: No doubt, at present, if you don’t own an EV today, you still will in the future. So, ask for a dedicated circuit and conduit run to your garage. Doing it later means cutting concrete or crawling through insulation. So, it’s better to do it now (during the new build-up) while the walls are open.
The lighting trap people fall into every time
Lighting is a little complicated concept, especially when you want your home to feel warm, but you also need to see what you are doing.
A good lighting installer near me will walk you through layers of light. This involves task lighting over your kitchen bench and bathroom vanity and accent lighting to highlight a feature wall or a piece of art.
Here is the mistake I see most often. Downlights everywhere and in every room. Your home/place ends up feeling like a commercial office.
Mix in pendants over the dining table. Put wall lights in the hallway. Run wiring for floor lamps even if you do not buy them straight away. And do ask them to install dimmer light switches in the living and dining areas. This might cost you a bit more in the initial stage, but they make your room ambience feel changed at night.
One more real example
A few months back I was out at a West Lakes property doing a site visit. Not unusual for us. We cover a lot of ground across Adelaide’s metro area, and West Lakes is one of those suburbs where new builds are going up fast right now.
The homeowners were a young couple with two kids under seven. They had just moved into a four-bedroom home; they had spent over a year planning. Smart people. Did their research on almost everything: the floor plan, insulation, landscaping, and the lot. But when it came to the electrical fitout, they ticked the builder’s standard package box (most people do) and moved on.
By the time I walked through the front door (during my initial inspection), they had already worked out something on their own, and that seems off.
I noticed the following issues:
1) The master bedroom had only one power point, and it is located behind their bed.
2) Their five-year-old’s room had a single ceiling light/fan on a wall switch that she could not reach without dragging a chair over first.
3) There were no dimmers anywhere in the house, which sounds like a small thing until you’ve a toddler.
4) The garage had no outdoor power supply, so every time they wanted to vacuum the car or use the pressure washer, they were running an extension lead through the laundry window. And they told me during our conversation that their youngest tripped over it twice in the first fortnight.
The wiring of their house was safe. The switchboard was compliant. Everything had passed inspection. But the layout made their everyday life harder, and that is something no inspection notice can fix.
As part of my process, I did the inspection of the complete house to understand the current issue in lieu of the setup available, and then I shared my FREE quote explaining the desired solution to their problem and the cost involved.
So, I have to fix:
1) Need to lay down new power points throughout the house,
2) additional lighting circuits,
3) dimmer switches in the main living areas and bedrooms,
4) an outdoor power outlet for the garage.
The total landed in four figures. Not because the work is complicated. Our team handles home rewiring and electrical upgrades across Adelaide. The cost came down to one thing: the walls were already plastered and painted. That means cutting into finished surfaces, running new cable through tight spaces, patching plaster, repainting affected areas, and dealing with construction dust that works its way into everything.
Had they involved the electrician during the planning stage, before the slab was even poured, it would have added a fraction of that cost to the original build. Instead, now they were paying for it all twice over, the second time with the added hassle of living in the house while we worked through it.
How to find the right electrician for your new home
Your builder will have someone they usually use. That is fine. But you are allowed to ask questions. Do not just accept the first name you are given.
Look for a home wiring electrician who has done new builds before, not just repairs and switchboard upgrades. Ask them how many new homes they have wired in the last twelve months. A good residential electrician based in Adelaide will be happy to tell you.
Check if they are licensed with Consumer and Business Services, SA. And get a fixed-price contract before they run a single meter of cable.
If you are still searching, type “electrician near me” into your phone and read the Google reviews. Look for local names who actually answer the phone and show up when they say they will.
One last thought
Building a new home is stressful enough without living with bad electrical decisions for the next twenty years. Talk to your builder early. Ask for what you actually need, not just what the standard package offers. And bring in an electrician who listens.
Arena Electrical Group works with homeowners and builders across Adelaide and all the metro areas (CBD & inner cities, Eastern Suburbs, Southern Suburbs, Western Suburbs, Northern Suburbs, Port & Coastal, and Hills Edge/Metro Fringe). We have done more new home wiring jobs than I can count.
If you are planning a new build-up of your house or a major renovation, give us a call. We will walk you through your options. Quote you a fair price. And make sure your home is wired right from day one. No cut corners. No surprises.
Call Arena Electrical Group on 0434126416 or click the button below for a free consultation and fixed price quote.