Commercial Electrician Wellington

A business cannot close for a week while the electrician finishes. We work with offices, shops, cafes, clinics and light industrial units across Wellington, from Te Aro and Thorndon to Petone, Porirua and Paraparaumu, on fit-outs, maintenance, lighting upgrades and repairs, booked early, late or at weekends so the doors stay open.

Commercial work brings more paperwork than a house. Building warrants of fitness, emergency lighting records, appliance testing and certificates for every alteration land on the owner or tenant. We keep that side in order, and can combine it with workplace test and tag on the same visit.

Pricing: a free quote and a fixed price agreed before we start. You get a written, itemised quote, and small jobs can be quoted from photos.

Fit-outs in older and strengthened buildings

Plenty of Wellington tenancies sit in buildings that have been, or are being, seismically strengthened. Wellington City Council says a building below 34% of the New Building Standard is earthquake-prone, and in 2022 there were about 600 such buildings in the city on the national register, around a fifth of them heritage-listed or in heritage areas. Strengthening often means new walls, braces and ceilings, and the electrical layout has to work around them.

We plan power, data and lighting around how the space will be used: desks and meeting rooms, retail counters, kitchens and staff areas, or workshop machines on three-phase supply. We price from drawings, work alongside your builder or project manager, and flag clashes with structural work early. Every new circuit is certified with a Certificate of Compliance, and connections with an Electrical Safety Certificate.

• Office, retail and hospitality fit-outs
• Three-phase circuits for machinery and commercial kitchens
• Distribution board additions and upgrades
• Work coordinated with strengthening programmes
• Make-good work at the end of a lease

Securing equipment in an earthquake city

The Wellington Fault runs through the city and along the Hutt Valley, and GNS Science has identified around 50 active faults across the region. You cannot design out a large earthquake, but you can make sure electrical gear stays put. We fix distribution boards, cabinets and heavy light fittings to structure rather than linings, and leave enough slack at connections to framing that may move.

On the Hutt Valley floor, including Petone and Seaview, GNS studies have mapped ground that can amplify shaking or liquefy. For sites there, after a significant quake it is worth checking underground supplies and switchboard terminations before full trading resumes. We can include that in a maintenance plan.

How It Works

Emergency lighting and your building warrant of fitness

Under the Building Act, most buildings other than single houses that contain specified systems need a compliance schedule and an annual building warrant of fitness. Emergency lighting is one of those systems, listed as SS4. The compliance schedule sets out how it is inspected, tested and maintained, how often and by whom, and some of it must be signed off by an independent qualified person (IQP).

We install and repair emergency and exit lighting, carry out the routine tests the schedule calls for, and replace failed batteries and fittings. Where an IQP inspection is required, we work with the IQP your building uses and fix whatever they find.

LED upgrades and maintenance

Lighting is often one of the largest steady loads in an office or shop. Gen Less notes that LEDs last around 25,000 to 30,000 hours, against 1,000 to 2,000 hours for incandescent bulbs, which cuts both power use and the cost of changing tubes on ladders. EECA's efficiency checklists also recommend occupancy sensors so empty rooms go dark. For homes, see our LED lighting page.

A maintenance schedule catches problems before they stop trading: RCDs that no longer trip, hot terminations in a board, dead lights in a stairwell. We visit on a set cycle, test protection devices, check boards and keep a log for each site. For outages, burning smells or anything that looks unsafe, call our emergency electrician line straight away.

• Scheduled board and RCD checks
• Emergency and exit lighting tests
• Fault finding and repairs
• A maintenance log for each site

Bigger loads, EV chargers and the lines company

Adding chargers for fleet vehicles, staff or customers, or a new kitchen line, can push a site past its existing supply. Wellington Electricity, the lines company for Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Porirua, says it must be involved in any change to supply capacity, and on the Kāpiti Coast that role sits with Electra. We assess the board and supply first, then handle the request through your retailer if more capacity is needed.

WorkSafe says a wall-mounted charger at a workplace must be installed by a registered electrician. Several chargers on one site usually need load management so they share the supply rather than tripping the main protection when everyone plugs in at 8am.

Health and safety on your site

Every business has duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act, and so do we as contractors on your premises. We complete your induction, follow sign-in and permit processes, and isolate and lock out circuits before working on them.

WorkSafe's Energy Safety unit regulates electrical work and can audit installers. Our electricians are registered with the Electrical Workers Registration Board and hold current practising licences, which you are welcome to check.

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Related Electrical Services

• Test and Tag
• Data Cabling
• Emergency Electrician
• Electrical Repairs

See the electrician prices guide or every service we offer.