Ring immediately for these
- A burning smell, or smoke, from a socket, switch or the fuse board
- Scorch marks or discolouration around any fitting
- Water coming into or near the consumer unit
- A shock, however mild, from an appliance, tap or switch
- A breaker that trips again immediately every time you reset it
- Visible damaged or exposed cable within reach of anyone
Switch off at the board if you can do so safely, and do not reset a breaker repeatedly to see if it holds. It is protecting you from something.
Check this first: is it your house or the network?
If the whole house is dead, look outside before you ring an electrician. If the neighbours are out too, or the street lights are off, it is a network fault and an electrician cannot fix it. ESB Networks runs a 24-hour emergency line and publishes live fault information, including restoration estimates, on esbnetworks.ie. The number is also on your bill.
If it is only your house, check the main switch and the RCD on your board. An RCD that has tripped will be visibly in a different position to the others. If resetting it holds, something on that circuit caused it, and it is worth finding out what. If it trips again straight away, leave it off and ring.
This one check saves a lot of people an out-of-hours call-out charge.
What out-of-hours costs
Evening, weekend and bank holiday call-outs are charged above the standard €90 to €150 daytime rate, typically half again or double depending on the hour. That is normal and reasonable: somebody is leaving their house at eleven at night.
What is not reasonable is a rate you only discover afterwards. Ask on the phone what the call-out is and what the hourly rate becomes after it, before anyone travels.
Worth knowing: a genuine emergency visit is usually about making the installation safe rather than completing the repair. Making safe happens that night; the permanent fix often happens in daylight with parts. Two visits is normal and is usually cheaper than trying to do everything at midnight.
What can wait until morning
One dead socket with nothing else affected. A light fitting that has stopped working. An outside light that trips when it rains. A breaker that tripped once and has held since. None of these is dangerous if you leave the circuit off, and all of them cost substantially less on a Tuesday than a Saturday night.
If in doubt, ring and describe it. A straight answer about whether it can wait is worth more than a call-out.
Faults that keep coming back
An intermittent fault is the most expensive kind, because the diagnosis is the work and the repair at the end is often trivial. Tracing takes time and cannot be rushed.
Near the coast and on exposed sites it is very often moisture reaching an outdoor fitting, a garage board or a shed supply, rather than an appliance. If your tripping happens mostly in wet weather, say so. It narrows the search considerably.
Emergencies and certification
Emergency work is still controlled electrical work. Whatever gets replaced or rewired has to be done and certified by a registered contractor, even at two in the morning. How to check registration. If something failed badly enough to be an emergency, it is also worth booking a full inspection afterwards to find out why.
Get this priced
Send your eircode, a photo of the fuse board, and a line about what you need. Most jobs can be quoted without a call-out.