An electrical fault rarely picks a convenient time. Sockets stop working, a smell of burning drifts from the fuse board, or the power cuts out with no obvious cause. Before you search "emergency electrician near me," it helps to know what to do in the first few minutes, whether the problem can actually wait until morning, and what tends to drive the price of a call-out up or down.
Safety first: what to do right away
A few steps make the wait for an electrician safer, whatever time of day it is.
- Smell burning, or see scorching? Switch off at the main fuse board (the consumer unit) if you can reach it safely without touching anything wet or damaged. If you can't reach it safely, or the smell is strong, leave the property and call the fire brigade on 999 or 112.
- Sparking socket or switch? Stop using it immediately and don't touch it again. Switch off the circuit at the fuse board if you know which one it is.
- Total power loss? Check whether it's just your house or the whole street. If neighbours have power too, the fault is likely inside your home; if the whole area is dark, it's a network outage and you need ESB Networks, not an electrician.
- Water involved? Never touch a switch, socket or appliance with wet hands, or if there's water pooling near it. Switch off at the fuse board from a dry spot if you can, and stay well clear otherwise.
- Never open the fuse board or attempt a repair yourself. Beyond flicking a switch or a breaker back on once, electrical work behind the board is a job for a professional.
Is it a real emergency?
Not everything that feels urgent at 9pm needs someone out that night. As a rough guide:
Treat these as emergencies:
- A burning smell, scorch marks, or visible smoke from a socket, switch or the fuse board
- Sparking from a socket, switch or appliance
- A total loss of power with no network outage, especially with young children, older people or anyone unwell in the house, or in cold weather
- An exposed or damaged wire that's live or could become live
These can usually wait for normal hours:
- A single socket or light that's stopped working but shows no sign of heat, sparking or smell
- A tripped breaker that resets fine and stays on
- A flickering light that's been doing it for a while without getting worse
If in doubt, treat it as something to leave alone and wait out safely rather than investigate further yourself, and book someone as soon as you reasonably can.
Always check they're a registered contractor
Electrical work in Ireland should be carried out by a Registered Electrical Contractor (REC). Safe Electric is the official safety scheme for electrical contractors in the Republic of Ireland, operated by RECI (the Register of Electrical Contractors of Ireland) on behalf of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. You can search Safe Electric's own register by county to check whether someone is currently registered before you let them near a fuse board, emergency or not. Service Connect doesn't inspect or verify contractors' documents itself, so ask for a Safe Electric registration number in chat and check their registration yourself on safeelectric.ie before you book, the same way you would in person.
Questions to ask before you agree to a call-out
Panic makes it easy to agree to whatever's said on the phone. A few quick questions first save an argument later:
- Is there a separate call-out charge, on top of the work itself?
- Is the quote a flat price for the job, or an hourly rate plus parts?
- Roughly how long until they can actually get to you?
- Will the work come with a completion certificate, where that applies?
Get a straight answer to each before the electrician starts, not after.
What actually drives the cost of a call-out
We won't invent a price here, because emergency electrician pricing in Ireland varies a lot by contractor, time of day, and county, and there isn't a single published rate to point to. What consistently affects the price, based on how call-outs are generally structured:
- Time of day and day of the week. Evenings, nights, weekends and bank holidays typically cost more than a call during normal working hours.
- Distance and how urgently you need someone. A contractor already in your area on a quiet evening may charge less than one driving across the county on short notice.
- Whether it's diagnosis only or diagnosis plus repair. Some call-outs are just tracing the fault; parts and further work may be quoted separately once the cause is known.
- Whether the job needs a completion certificate. Notifiable work that needs to be certified can take longer and cost more than a quick fix.
Ask for the call-out charge and the likely total before you agree, and get it confirmed in chat or in writing rather than a verbal figure over the phone.
Finding an electrician through Service Connect
Posting a job on Service Connect is free, any time of day. Describe what's happened, add a photo if it's safe to take one, and choose a timeframe: flexible, this week, or a specific date, so electricians covering your county can see how urgent it is. It's worth being upfront that Service Connect is a marketplace connecting you with independent electricians, not a dispatch service with guaranteed response times, so how fast someone can come depends on who's available near you at that moment.
When an electrician sends an offer in chat, you'll see the full price, including the buyer protection fee, before you confirm anything. Your card isn't charged when you send the request, only once the electrician accepts, and the payment is held until the job is marked done, which is one less thing to worry about when you're calling a stranger out in an emergency.
Sorted the immediate danger and ready to book? Browse electricians in your county, check frequently asked questions, or get the Service Connect app to post your job.