Safety switch bypass
Does your home 'bypass' electrical safety?
Issued 03/2000
Safety switches, now compulsory in all new Queensland homes, prevent accidents and save lives by automatically shutting off the electricity supply in the event of current leaking from faulty switches, wiring or electrical appliances.
But safety switches only work if they're allowed to. In past years in some areas of Queensland, householders installing an electrical safety switch (then called RCDs) sometimes also had a bypass switch fitted to their switchboards - normally, adjacent to the safety switch.
This meant that if the occupants were away from home, electricity (by bypassing the safety switch) could continue to operate essential appliances such as refrigerators and freezers which might otherwise have tripped the safety switch and shut off the supply in the occupants' absence.
The practice was to activate the bypass switch when leaving the premises, and switch it off again when returning - in theory allowing the safety switch to function normally again while the premises are occupied.
Unfortunately, people sometimes forget to turn off such bypass switches when they return home, thereby creating a potentially hazardous situation. In the event of a fault occurring, the bypassed safety switch simply will not operate.
For this reason, Electrical Safety Office urgently advises that bypass switches be removed from homes as soon as possible (or at the very least not used) - especially when technological advances and higher safety standards in modern safety switches now render such bypass switches redundant.
If your home switchboard has a bypass switch fitted, make it a priority to have it removed - it's not only unnecessary, it's potentially dangerous.
Last updated October 17, 2005
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