Emergency Electrician Christchurch

An electrical emergency is a fault that could injure someone or start a fire if it sits overnight. A switch that crackles, a socket that is hot to touch, a plastic smell drifting from the switchboard, water dripping through a light fitting or a breaker that drops out the instant you push it back up all belong in that group. Below you will find what to do in the first few minutes, when 111 comes before us, and what our electrician does on arrival anywhere from Rangiora to Lyttelton.

Plenty of faults are a nuisance rather than a danger: one dead socket in the spare room, or a hallway light that flickers now and then. Those can usually wait for a booked visit, and our electrical repairs page explains how we track them down.

Pricing: a free quote and a fixed price agreed before we start. You get a written, itemised quote, and small jobs can be quoted from photos.

Fault annoying but not dangerous, like a dead socket or a light that will not work? See electrical repairs.

Signs that will not wait until morning

Ring us straight away if you notice a burning or hot plastic smell near a socket, switch, light or the board, or hear buzzing or crackling inside a wall. Sparks when something is plugged in, brown marks around an outlet and a faceplate that feels warm are all warnings too. So is water reaching light fittings, a ceiling or the switchboard.

When a breaker or RCD trips again the moment you reset it, the protection is doing its job and the fault is still there. Leave it off. Never hold, tape or wedge a breaker in the on position to get the heaters going again.

• Hot plastic smell or scorching
• Crackling, sparking or warm sockets and switches
• Water in light fittings, ceilings or the board
• A breaker or RCD that will not stay on
• Wiring damaged by a fallen tree, a vehicle or a renovation slip

Shock or fire: dial 111 before anything else

If a person is still touching a live source, WorkSafe advises against grabbing them, because the current can pass to you. Turn the power off at the appliance or the main switch. If that is not possible, move them clear with something dry that does not conduct, such as a broom with a dry wooden handle, and call 111 for an ambulance. WorkSafe recommends medical advice after any shock, even when the person seems fine.

Do not use water on an electrical fire. Cut the power if it is safe to reach and call 111. Once everyone is out of danger, WorkSafe says to keep the power off after a shock, however small, until an electrician has checked the installation. That is the call we take.

How It Works

While you wait for us

If you can reach the switchboard safely, switch off the circuit causing the trouble, or the main switch if you cannot tell which one it is. Unplug appliances on that circuit, keep children and pets out of the room, and leave covers and faceplates where they are.

A photo of the board and the problem spot, taken from a safe distance, helps us bring the right parts and often lets us tell you on the phone whether it can wait until daylight. If you smell gas as well, which in Christchurch means LPG from bottles, a bulk tank or a piped LPG line, get everyone outside and call 111 or your gas supplier from there.

Is it your house or the street?

Look next door before you ring anyone. If the neighbours are dark too, it is a network outage and your lines company deals with it: Orion for Christchurch, Selwyn and Banks Peninsula, and MainPower north of the Waimakariri River, which takes in Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Pegasus. Keep well away from any fallen line and treat it as live.

If only your home, or part of it, has gone off, the fault is on your side of the meter and that is our job. During an outage WorkSafe suggests switching off lights and unplugging appliances, so they are not hit by a surge when supply returns. Orion's busiest times are very cold winter mornings and evenings, so a frosty night is when a tired circuit is most likely to give up.

Nor'westers, flooding and wet wiring

Christchurch weather tests outdoor wiring in its own way. Te Ara describes the nor'wester as a hot, dry wind that can reach storm force and cause widespread minor damage to property, and southerlies can bring snow to the plains. In July 2017, Canterbury's wettest July on record, the Avon and Heathcote rivers overflowed, and suburbs such as Beckenham and Woolston on the Heathcote, or Burwood near the lower Avon, sit close to those rivers.

WorkSafe's advice after a flood or storm is the same everywhere: anything electrical that has been wet, including plugs, sockets and chargers, needs an electrician to check it. If water has come inside, turn the power off at the main switch and keep it off until the wiring has been tested. Do not reset tripped breakers or RCDs after flooding until they are checked, and do not use an EV charger that has been under water.

What we do when we arrive

Making the installation safe comes first. We find the fault, isolate it and restore power to the rest of the house where it is safe to do so, so the heat pump and the hot water are back on as soon as possible. You pay the fixed call-out fee we quoted on the phone, not an open hourly meter.

Many faults are fixed on the spot. If the proper repair needs parts or a larger job, such as replacing a scorched switchboard, we leave the house safe and give you a written, itemised price before anything more happens. Any fixed wiring work comes with a Certificate of Compliance. We cover every part of the city, including East and Coastal Christchurch and the Selwyn and Waimakariri towns.

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Related Electrical Services

• Electrical Repairs
• Switchboard Upgrades
• Rewiring

Emergency Electrician Guides

• Power Out in Christchurch? Orion, MainPower and What to Check First

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