AS/NZS 3000 electrical plan: what your drawing should show

What AS/NZS 3000 actually is

AS/NZS 3000, known as the Wiring Rules, is the joint Australian and New Zealand standard for electrical installations, published by Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand. The current edition is AS/NZS 3000:2018, with amendments.

In New Zealand, the Electricity (Safety) Regulations cite it as a means of compliance: the 2018 edition with Amendments 1 to 3 becomes the reference for work starting after 12 November 2026, and design work can count as the start of a project.

Although it is a joint standard, several clauses are marked Australia only or New Zealand only. They matter as soon as you plan RCDs, cooking appliances or an EV charger.

What the drawing should show

An electrician quoting from a vague sketch will price defensively, and the variations will arrive later. A drawing that answers the following six questions removes most of that risk.

Typical final subcircuits in a New Zealand home

These are the arrangements you will see on most home jobs. Ratings and cable sizes below are common starting points — the actual design depends on the load, the cable route, grouping, insulation and the length of the run, which is the electrician's calculation under AS/NZS 3008, not a lookup.

RCD and RCBO protection

In New Zealand, additional protection by a 30 mA RCD is required on the final subcircuits of a home that supply power points, lighting points or directly connected hand-held equipment, with the RCD installed at the switchboard where the circuit starts (clause 2.6.3.3.1). RCDs must switch both active and neutral and trip on alternating and pulsating DC residual current — Type A or better (clause 2.6.2.2.3).

Clause 2.6.2.4 then shapes the switchboard on both sides of the Tasman: in a home, no more than three final subcircuits on any one RCD, at least two RCDs as soon as there is more than one circuit, and lighting circuits shared between RCDs so that one trip does not leave the house in the dark.

A board with several RCDs is the cheaper arrangement; a full RCBO board gives each circuit its own combined overcurrent and residual-current device, so a fault isolates a single circuit. State which you want before quotes come in. Arc fault detection devices are required in New Zealand only in particular locations listed in clause 2.9.7, such as historic buildings or barns — not in a typical house.

Bathrooms and other special locations

Section 6 of AS/NZS 3000 divides bathrooms, showers and other fixed water containers into zones 0 to 3measured from the bath or shower, and restricts what may be installed in each, along with the IP rating equipment must achieve. Power points are not allowed in zones 0 and 1, and are restricted in zone 2 — a shaver outlet, for example.

Cooktops have their own clearance: no power point or switch within 150 mm of the edge of the cooking surface, up to the rangehood or 2.5 m (clause 4.7.3). Outdoor power points need IP33 at least where they are exposed to the weather (clause 4.1.3). Mark these areas clearly on the plan: they change the positions, the equipment and often the price.

Certification and paperwork

In New Zealand, the electrical worker records the completed work on a Certificate of Compliance (CoC), and an Electrical Safety Certificate (ESC) confirms the installation is safe to connect. Higher-risk work is also inspected before it is connected.

Keep these certificates with the property documents: they are what a buyer or insurer will ask for.

Drawing the layout in Planelico

Planelico works on top of the PDF you already have. You are not redrawing the building — you are annotating it with the electrical layout, then exporting something an electrician can price.

1. 1

   Import your floor plan as a PDF

   An architect’s or builder’s drawing, a real-estate plan or a clean scan. It becomes a background layer you annotate without altering the original.

2. 2

   Place fittings room by room

   Drag power points, switches, lighting points, data outlets and appliance supplies onto the plan, using the IEC 60617 symbol set.

3. 3

   Group them into circuits

   Let Planelico propose the circuits and the switchboard, or assign each fitting yourself, so the drawing shows the intended circuit split.

4. 4

   Mark the special locations

   Draw zones for bathrooms, shower rooms and outdoor areas so the constraints are visible at a glance.

5. 5

   Export the PDF for pricing

   A clean document with legend, per-room summary and switchboard design pack — the thing an electrician can actually quote from.

The symbol library follows IEC 60617, the international set the Australian and New Zealand drawing conventions are based on. See the electrical symbols reference, the switchboard and RCD layout guide, or the guide to preparing a plan for a quote.

Frequently asked questions