Short answer
A licensed electrician if the flicker affects more than one fitting, changes when a big appliance starts, or has appeared recently across the house — that pattern points at a loose connection or a neutral problem rather than a lamp. A single LED downlight flickering on a dimmer is usually a mismatch between lamp and dimmer and is a much smaller job.
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 street flickers, or it started after network works nearby. Supply voltage problems are theirs and they will measure it.
What to do before anyone arrives
- Establish the pattern: one fitting, one room, or the whole house. Write it down before you ring.
- Note whether it coincides with something starting — an air conditioner, a pump, a kettle. A dip when a big load starts points at a supply or a connection issue.
- Try a different lamp in the affected fitting. If it stops, that was the whole fault.
- If the lights are LEDs on a dimmer, check whether the dimmer is rated for LED. A trailing-edge dimmer and a cheap LED lamp is the most common flicker complaint in modern houses and neither part is faulty.
What to ask when you book
- Will you check the neutral at the switchboard and the main connections?
- Is this a compatibility problem between the dimmer and the lamps, and if so which one are you replacing?
- Have you measured the supply voltage, and what was it?
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 it is lamp or dimmer compatibility, a loose termination, or something at the switchboard.
- How many fittings and dimmers need changing if it is compatibility.
- Time spent reproducing an intermittent fault.
What you can do yourself
Is this licensed work?
Licensed electrical work. Replacing a light fitting is licensed everywhere in Australia; replacing a lamp in an existing fitting is not.
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
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 for lights that flicker
- A licensed electrician if the flicker affects more than one fitting, changes when a big appliance starts, or has appeared recently across the house — that pattern points at a loose connection or a neutral problem rather than a lamp. A single LED downlight flickering on a dimmer is usually a mismatch between lamp and dimmer and is a much smaller job.
- Why do my LED downlights flicker when dimmed?
- Because most dimmers were designed for incandescent lamps drawing many times the current, and LED drivers do not behave the way that circuit expects at low output. The fix is usually a dimmer designed for LED loads matched to the lamps you have, and the two have to be chosen together.
- Are flickering lights a fire risk?
- The lamp-compatibility kind, no. The kind caused by a loose connection is exactly the same fault described on the burnt-power-point page, showing itself in a different way — which is why a flicker that appeared suddenly across several fittings is worth an electrician rather than a new lamp.
Find a Electrician near you
3,996 electricians in this directory, ranked on published evidence rather than on advertising.
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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.