Who to hire when half the house has no power

Short answer

A licensed electrician. Power out in part of the house with the neighbours unaffected means one circuit has tripped or failed, and the switchboard will usually show you which — but a breaker or safety switch that trips again after you reset it is reporting a fault, not a nuisance, and it should be left off until someone qualified finds it.

Soon, not tonightIt will not usually get cheaper by waiting, and it is rarely worth an after-hours rate.

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Electrician.

  • your electricity distributor

    the whole house is dark and so are the neighbours. Distributors run 24-hour faults lines and attend network problems free; the number is on your bill.

What to do before anyone arrives

  1. Look at the switchboard. A tripped circuit breaker sits between on and off, or fully down. Note which one — the label tells the electrician where to start.
  2. Reset it once. If it holds, you had a nuisance trip. If it trips again immediately, turn it off and leave it off.
  3. If it trips again, unplug everything on that circuit, then reset. If it now holds, plug things back one at a time — a failing appliance is a very common cause and you have just found it for free.
  4. Check whether it is a circuit breaker or the safety switch (RCD). An RCD trip means current is leaking to earth, which is the fault type that electrocutes people, and it deserves more respect than a breaker.
  5. Check the meter box for a main switch that has tripped, and check whether the neighbours have power.

What to ask when you book

  • Do you carry a clamp meter and an insulation tester? Finding an intermittent earth leakage needs instruments, not guesses.
  • What is the after-hours rate and what is the minimum charge?
  • If it is the switchboard itself, can you make safe tonight and quote the upgrade separately?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

  • Whether the fault is in an appliance, in the wiring, or at the switchboard.
  • Intermittent faults, which cost time to reproduce.
  • Older wiring — rubber-insulated or early PVC cable that has gone brittle turns a repair into a rewire of that circuit.
  • Access to ceiling or subfloor spaces.

What you can do yourself

Is this licensed work?

Electrical work is licensed in every Australian state and territory, and unlike plumbing there is essentially no householder exemption: replacing a light fitting, a switch or a power point is licensed work everywhere. Changing a lamp and plugging in an appliance are the practical limits.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who should I hire when half the house has no power
A licensed electrician. Power out in part of the house with the neighbours unaffected means one circuit has tripped or failed, and the switchboard will usually show you which — but a breaker or safety switch that trips again after you reset it is reporting a fault, not a nuisance, and it should be left off until someone qualified finds it.
Why does my safety switch keep tripping?
A safety switch trips when current is leaking to earth, and the two ordinary causes are a faulty appliance and moisture in a circuit — an outdoor power point after rain, or water in a light fitting. The unplug-and-reconnect-one-at-a-time test finds the appliance case quickly. What it should never be treated as is a switch that has become oversensitive with age; that is a diagnosis an electrician makes with a tester, not an assumption you make with a reset.
Is losing power to half the house dangerous?
The loss itself, no. What caused it can be: a breaker that trips repeatedly is interrupting current it considers abnormal, and repeatedly forcing it back on is overriding the only thing standing between a fault and a fire.

Find a Electrician near you

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Who to hire for

General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.