This is what a safety switch does 99.9% of the time. It sits quietly in your switchboard doing maths until the day that the amount of electricity going in doesn’t match the amount of electricity coming out.

In the unlikely event that some electricity doesn’t come back after doing its job, the safety switch assumes that it has been lost in a dangerous way and cuts off further supply to that area.

In most cases the electricity is lost within an appliance or in faulty cables and no threat to life is present, however on the off chance it is lost to your hand or foot you will be glad that you had the safety switch installed.

A safety switch recognises the difference between power in and power out and “trips”, stopping the flow of current into your body. In the event of a fault like the example above, a safety switch will cut the power within 30 milliseconds. This prevents electric shock, serious injury and death. Safety switches are now a legal requirement in rental properties (along with smoke alarms) in NSW.