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I live in a pre 1920s building in the inner city and as you can imagine, it has a pretty retrofitted setup when it comes to plumbing, wiring etc.
I’m investigating doing a kitchen reno and had a builder come around with his electrician to check it out for a quote. The kitchen is very basic right now (no oven, 2 burner electric plug-in stovetop) which is why I’m keen to upgrade.
The electrician checked out the fuse box and said my 60sqm apartment only has 32amps total. He’s advised a new sub main cable would need to be run into the apartment and that it would likely be an expensive job but suggested that strata really should be upgrading as 32amp isn’t sufficient for a comfortable standard of living. He’s basically said without an upgrade I can’t have an oven, or a regular stovetop, at all, as they’ll draw too much power.
So I guess my dilemma is that my power works but it’s not really to an adequate standard if I want to have a proper kitchen (or even run a heater in the winter – I purchased mid-July and didn’t bother but I’ll want one next winter). I know that other units in the building have ovens, so I’ve asked strata your let me know if anyone else has upgraded – (or if they’re living on the wild side!).
I’m fairly reasonable and would be willing to shoulder some of the costs but I’m keen to hear from anyone who might have run into this issue and whether there is a precedent (given nothing is “broken”).
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My advice is to talk to the OC, not Strata.
We had a similar problem in an Eastern suburbs 1940’s block. A mix of old wiring (VIR Cotton), new (PVC) and a non-compliant board.
Here is what we done as an OC.
1. Got an electrical report done
2. Tendered to 2 different contractors
3. Passed the quotes back to the company who done the report and asked for a recommendation
4. Approved quote and carried out the work.The work took around 6 months, which allowed for some of the apartments to replace VIR Cotton cabling with PVC.
Internal apartment wiring was owner responsibility. Everything else was “Strata”.
My advice is to talk to the OC, not Strata.
And by “Strata” you mean … the strata manager? The strata committee? The strata chair?
Whatever, your intent, this is something that needs to be agreed by a majority of the owners and unless your committee is solidly behind you, go directly to the other owners.
I also wonder if there may be a fire safety element in all of this. Too many, too powerful appliances loading up an ancient wiring system sounds like you are one portable a/c unit away from either a black-out or a blaze.
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Talk to anyone to get the ball rolling. i.e; SM, OC and/or Chair.
Will likely need an AGM/EGM to get the work done.
Yes, of course it’s a safety issues – hence a report would be a critical element in the remediation.
Most ovens and air conditioners need phase three power which is a bigger cable that needs to be separately wired. In my building circa 1965 we did not have such wiring.
Fortunately owner’s voted, after years of disagreement, to rewire. The issue of safety, however, wasn’t an issue. As it is impossible to install most ovens and air conditioners without the higher capacity cables.
OK. Let me state I have a NSW electricians and was a certified practicing engineer.
Lets get over the safety issue in this case. If it’s old VIR cable then it could be perished and need replacement.
A 32 amp capacity is adequate for such a small apartment. The Australian standard for wiring says exactly how to calculate what we call the maximum demand. Having done a number of such calculations and have seen larger apartments work ok with 32A.
If the installation is currently done correctly, then the fuses or circuit breakers will prevent fire etc in the installation.
Unless you have someone on the committee who has a building background and takes an interest in the infrastructure of the building, I doubt anyone will know the state of the electrical system.
The approach suggested by nemesis is reasonable. If you can’t interest other owners or the committee, you may have to go this yourself. You never know, the engineer may say it all needs replacing and the OC may pay.
With my qualifications I did a report at my daughters complex regarding an old switchboard. On the basis of my report the OC agreed to replace part of the switchboard.
What you propose is something that owners of old buildings should consider. As living styles change, people expect lots of power to be available. Convince the other owners that it will improve their lots value and get them on board.
It might be possible to get the owners corp to agree to “backbone” the building for three-phase and then leave it up to individuals as whether they want to run the cables into their flats. Having said that, why would anyone pay for an upgrade to common property wiring that they didn’t want to use? Future-proofing, perhaps?
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