The residential streets on Alexandria’s northern and western edges carry Victorian-era terrace housing that is typical of the inner south’s built heritage. Properties around Fountain Street, Coulson Street and the surrounding residential blocks house a mix of long-term owner-occupiers, professionals who have renovated to a high standard and rental properties that cycle through tenants without regular electrical attention. Many of Alexandria’s terrace homes still have original or partially updated electrical systems that have never been formally reviewed as a whole. When a kitchen renovation, a home office setup or a new split system air conditioner is added to a board that was never assessed for those loads, the system absorbs it without complaint until it does not.

We approach electrical upgrades in Alexandria terraces by looking at the complete system before recommending any scope. A switchboard assessment tells us what is in the board, what protection is in place and what the circuits are actually carrying. For Alexandria’s terrace homes being renovated by professional households who work from home and need reliable, adequate power for home office equipment, we assess the electrical infrastructure before the renovation starts and plan the upgrades as part of the overall project scope. A safety switch installation across all circuits and smoke alarm compliance are the baseline requirements for any Alexandria rental terrace, and we complete both in a single organised visit.

The concentration of technology companies, creative agencies, architecture and design studios, fashion showrooms and hospitality venues that now occupies Alexandria’s former industrial buildings along Mitchell Road, Bourke Road and the surrounding commercial corridor represents one of the inner city’s most distinctive commercial electrical environments. These are businesses operating in buildings that were built for manufacturing and warehousing, with electrical infrastructure that reflects that original purpose rather than the demands of a contemporary knowledge business. A tech company running server infrastructure, multiple display screens, standing workstations for forty employees and a commercial kitchen all from a distribution board that was originally designed for a manufacturing operation is placing demands on that infrastructure that nobody planned for when the building was constructed.

Brian Brothers Electrical provides commercial electrical services for Alexandria’s tech and creative precinct with an understanding of what these businesses actually need. We carry out electrical capacity assessments for new tenants moving into former industrial spaces to confirm the existing distribution infrastructure can carry their operational load before the fitout begins. We install structured data and network cabling for office environments that need reliable, high-speed connectivity rather than consumer-grade solutions. We design and install LED lighting systems for the open-plan warehouse environments that characterise Alexandria’s commercial tenancies. And we handle 3-phase power installations for commercial kitchen and production facilities throughout the precinct.