Why This Matters to You
Induction cooktops are the thing people most often get wrong when planning a kitchen, and it's almost never the cooktop's fault. It's that everyone treats it as an appliance swap when it's actually a new circuit.
This was a full kitchen renovation in Golden Grove. Smeg appliances throughout, an induction cooktop, an oven and a built-in microwave, new powerpoints and LED lighting as part of the same job. Here's what the appliance side actually involves.
Induction isn't a Like-for-Like Swap
If you're coming from gas, your cooktop currently has a gas connection and no meaningful electrical supply at all. Nothing behind it's capable of running an induction unit, so the job includes a new circuit run from the switchboard to the cooktop position.
Induction also draws considerably more than most people assume. It isn't a powerpoint appliance. These generally need a dedicated circuit sized specifically for that model, and plenty of them are hardwired rather than plugged in. The important detail is that the requirement varies genuinely between models, sometimes substantially, so the number that matters is the one on the spec sheet of the cooktop you're actually buying.
Which leads to the one piece of advice worth more than anything else here: get the model number to your electrician before you buy, not after it arrives. It takes a minute and it's the difference between a booked-in circuit and a kitchen you can't cook in while you wait for one.
It May Also Be a Switchboard Question
A new dedicated circuit needs somewhere to land, and that means a spare way in the board with capacity to match.
On plenty of Golden Grove homes there isn't one. When the board is full, adding an induction cooktop quietly becomes a cooktop plus board work, and finding that out during planning is very different from finding it out on installation day with a bench full of new appliances. It's worth having the board looked at while you're still choosing appliances rather than after. Our page on switchboard upgrades covers what that involves.
Integrated Appliances and Getting to Them Later
The oven and microwave here sit in a cabinet tower, which is a different problem to a freestanding appliance.
Each needs its supply positioned where the cabinetmaker has left room for it, which means the cabinetry drawings and the electrical rough-in have to agree before either is built. And it has to be somewhere a person can actually reach. An outlet sealed behind a fixed oven with no access panel technically works, right up until the appliance needs isolating for a repair and the only way to reach the plug is to pull the oven out of the joinery.
The same applies to the microwave. It's inside the cabinetry, so its outlet has to be hidden but serviceable. That's a decision made on the plan, not on the day.
The Order These Decisions Happen In
Kitchens go wrong on sequence more than on any technical detail. The order that works is:
- Choose the appliances, or at least confirm their electrical requirements and physical sizes
- Cabinetry designed around those
- Electrical rough-in to match the cabinetry, before the plasterer and before any splashback
- Cabinetry and benchtops installed
- Appliances connected and tested
Every step depends on the one above it. Skip ahead and you get the classic outcomes: a cooktop that needs a circuit nobody allowed for, an outlet in the wrong place behind finished joinery, or a splashback that needs cutting after it's installed.
It's the same reasoning as any other room, just less forgiving because a kitchen has more fixed, expensive, made-to-measure parts than anywhere else in a house. More on how this sequences with the other trades is on our renovation electrician page.
If You're Doing a Kitchen
Two things and you avoid most of the trouble. Send the appliance model numbers to your electrician early, and ask whether the switchboard has the capacity for what you have chosen.
If you're going gas to induction, assume a new circuit and budget for it rather than hoping. And if lighting is part of the same job, do it in the same run of work while the ceilings and walls are already open. Our oven and cooktop installation page has more on the connection side, and there's more on what we do locally on our Golden Grove electrician page.
