What changes this year regarding the requirements for your distribution board?
More and more vacation rental owners, B&B operators and chalet owners are noticing this year that their distribution board is becoming too small. Not because a new law has suddenly appeared, but simply because more is being connected: a charging station for the guest's car, air conditioning in every bedroom, sometimes a sauna or hot tub added. For those it affects: everyone who is adding something this year that requires a lot of power, and therefore having their distribution board checked.
Short answer: there is no separate new law that specifically applies to the distribution board of vacation rentals. What does change is the practice. Due to the increase in high-power appliances, electricians are increasingly pointing to the current version of the standard they use for electrical installations, known as NEN 1010. This standard is updated periodically by the standards committee, and covers among other things how many circuits and residual current devices a distribution board needs as more is connected. For you this mainly means: if you are adding a charging station, air conditioning or sauna this year, it is advisable to have it included in a single inspection of the distribution board, rather than having it connected separately by the first electrician available.
What is a distribution board actually, and why does it get full?
The distribution board is the place where all electricity enters the house and is distributed across separate lines, called circuits. Think of a living room on one circuit, the kitchen on another, and the bathroom separate again. Each circuit has its own fuse that switches off if too much current flows through it, so the entire house does not immediately go out if something goes wrong in one room.
An average vacation rental has enough circuits for normal use: lighting, kitchen appliances, some outlets. The problem arises when appliances that require a lot of power are added. A charging station alone can draw as much current as a small household in its entirety. An air conditioning unit running all day, or a sauna that needs to warm up in a few hours, also counts heavily. All these appliances together on circuits that were never designed for them is exactly what electricians are raising concerns about more often this year.
What is a residual current device, and what changes regarding it?
The residual current device is the protection that activates if current leaks, for example through a damaged cable or an appliance that has gotten damp. It then switches off extremely quickly, before anyone feels a shock. In many older distribution boards there is one residual current device for multiple circuits at the same time. If it trips, a large part of the house goes out at once, including circuits that had nothing to do with the problem.
Recent insights in the standard cover, among other things, distributing circuits across multiple residual current devices, precisely to prevent one fault from knocking out the entire dwelling. For a vacation rental this becomes relevant as soon as more is connected than before: one fault in the charging station should not also take down the guest's refrigerator. What this concretely means in your specific distribution board is something only a certified electrician who inspects the installation on site can determine; Staywatt does not inspect distribution boards and therefore makes no statement on this matter.
For the electrician: the technical core
Standard practice is that each circuit in a distribution board can handle a maximum of 16 amperes, and a residual current device of 30 milliamperes is typically used for circuits with sockets. For heavier loads, such as a charging station or heat pump, a separate circuit with its own residual current device is often installed, sometimes even a separate connection with its own phase. Whether this is necessary in your situation depends on the number of circuits already in place, the type of connection (single phase or three phase) and the total load you are adding. This is precisely the kind of assessment that a qualified electrician makes, not something that can be determined from a distance.
Anyone who wants to install a charging station at a holiday home this year often finds themselves facing this assessment anyway, because the installer will review the distribution board again. the knowledge base with explanations for each situation sets out which questions typically come up in the process, without you needing an account first.
What does this mean for you as a lessor
The most important thing to remember: you don't need to know which version of which standard applies. That is the electrician's job. What does fall within your remit is choosing the moment to have the distribution board checked: preferably before you order a charging station, air conditioning unit or sauna, not after. This prevents an appliance being connected to a circuit it wasn't actually intended for.
If, in addition to the distribution board, you also want to know how to pass on the use of these appliances to your guests, see in a few questions which approach suits your property provides a first direction for this. And if you want to know exactly how measurement and billing work technically at Staywatt, read how the system keeps track of the meter reading and the balance.
If you're unsure whether your distribution board is ready for what you want to add this year, do the free quick-scan or browse through the knowledge base; both can be consulted without an account and provide initial guidance before you call the electrician.