Not everything electrical that goes wrong is an emergency, and treating every issue as one either costs you unnecessarily or just adds noise that makes it harder to recognise when something actually is urgent. Here's the honest line.
Genuinely Urgent — Call Now
- Sparking from a power point, switch, or the switchboard itself
- A burning smell with no obvious other source
- A safety switch that won't reset and has cut power to part or all of the property
- Exposed or damaged wiring, especially after storm damage
- Total loss of power isolated to your property — not a wider outage
Any of these is worth calling about regardless of the hour. None of them get better by waiting.
Worth a Call, Not Necessarily Tonight
- A single flickering light with no other symptoms
- A power point that's stopped working but isn't warm, sparking, or smelling of anything
- A breaker that's tripped once and reset fine
These are worth booking in properly rather than ignoring, but they're not the kind of thing that needs someone out at 1am.
The Test That Actually Works
Ask yourself: is there an immediate risk of fire, shock, or total loss of power right now? If yes, that's an emergency. If it's "this seems off but nothing's actively happening," it's worth a proper appointment rather than an emergency rate.
When You're Genuinely Not Sure
Call and describe exactly what you're seeing or smelling. A good electrician can usually tell from the description whether it needs someone out immediately or can wait for a normal booking — and would rather answer that question for free than have you guess wrong in either direction.
If something on this list is happening right now, our Emergency Electrical page has what we cover, or just call us directly rather than reading further.