CK Emergency Electricians 247

Emergency Electrician Call-Outs Across Sussex and the South East

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Emergency call-outs

Made Safe First, Then Repaired and Tested

An electrical emergency rarely waits for office hours. Sockets stop working in the middle of the night, a breaker trips and refuses to reset, or a burning smell comes from a fitting on a Sunday afternoon. Our engineers take call-outs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across Sussex and the South East, for homes, rented properties and business premises.

The first job on any emergency visit is to make the installation safe. That usually means isolating the circuit at fault so the rest of the property can stay live, rather than leaving you in the dark while the repair is worked out. Only then does the engineer look properly at what has failed and why.

Once the cause is clear you are told what needs doing and what it will cost before anything is repaired, even at three in the morning. Work is carried out to the current wiring regulations, BS 7671, by Part P registered and fully insured engineers, then tested and certified so you have a record of what was done.

Emergency Call-Outs by CK Electrical

About this service

What an Emergency Call-Out Involves

Signs You Should Not Wait Until Morning

Call straight away if you can smell burning or hot plastic, see scorch marks around a socket or switch, hear buzzing or crackling from a fuse board, or notice sparks when something is plugged in. The same applies to exposed or damaged cable, and to any water that has reached wiring, a light fitting or the consumer unit.

Total power loss, a breaker that trips again as soon as it is reset, or a shock felt from an appliance or a tap are all worth an out of hours visit rather than a wait. A fault that has already tripped once has told you something, and repeated resetting does not make it safer.

What to Do Before the Engineer Arrives

If it is safe to reach, turn the installation off at the main switch on the fuse board and leave it off. Keep away from anything scorched, wet or sparking, unplug appliances on the affected circuit if you can do so safely, and stop resetting a breaker that will not stay in.

It also helps to look outside. If the whole street is dark the fault is on the network rather than in your property, and that is one for the regional distribution network operator, which can be reported free on 105. If your neighbours have power and you do not, the problem is almost certainly inside the installation.

What Happens on the Call-Out

Tell us on the phone what has happened, what you can see or smell and whether anything is still live. That lets the engineer arrive with a sensible idea of the job. On site the installation is made safe, then the fault is traced by systematic testing rather than by guesswork, so the repair holds.

Many emergency repairs are finished on the first visit. Where a part has to be ordered or the work is larger than a call-out allows, the property is left in a safe condition, the affected circuit is isolated, and a return visit is arranged. Nothing chargeable happens before you have agreed to it.

Homeowners, Landlords and Businesses

Emergency call-outs go to houses and flats, rented properties, shops, offices, pubs and industrial units. For landlords and letting agents we can speak to the tenant directly, arrange access and report back on what was found, which saves a chain of phone calls when the property is not where you are.

For businesses the priority is usually getting trading again. Where a single circuit or item of equipment has failed, the rest of the premises can often be kept running while the repair is sorted out, so the whole site is not shut down for one fault.

Response times

What Governs the Wait, and How a Fault Spreads

The honest answer is that it depends, and it is fairer to tell you what it depends on. Where the property sits in Sussex or the wider South East matters, as does the time of day, whether anyone can be there to let an engineer in, and how dangerous the symptoms you describe sound. You are told plainly where things stand when you call, rather than handed a figure that might not hold.

The phone is answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year, nights, weekends and bank holidays included, and the call itself does real work. Describing what you can see, hear and smell lets us sort a genuine hazard from work that is better booked in. A burning smell, scorching, sparking, a shock felt from a tap, or water that has reached wiring is treated ahead of a single dead socket.

Some faults are not ours to fix, and saying so on the phone saves a wasted visit. If the whole street is dark, the fault sits on the supply side and belongs to the distribution network operator, reported free on 105. Where it is yours, turn the installation off at the main switch if it is safe to reach, leave anything scorched or wet alone, and stop resetting a breaker that will not hold.

None of that is caution for its own sake. A loose or high resistance connection gives off heat whenever the circuit is loaded, and that heat carbonises the terminal and the insulation around it, which raises the resistance further, which makes more heat again. An MCB does not see it, because it protects the cable against overload and short circuit rather than the quality of a termination. What starts at one accessory can end as cable to replace and a wall to make good.

A shock works differently. Insulation that has failed can put metalwork at a voltage it should not be at, and a circuit protective conductor that is no longer continuous is what leaves it there, because fault current has no path back to operate the protective device. Completing that path takes a person, which is why what seems harmless in a dry room is another matter in your bathroom or outdoors. Equipment suffers too, since a lost neutral can leave appliances seeing an abnormal voltage.

Inside a modern consumer unit

Our process

How We Work, from First Visit to Final Certificate

  1. 01

    Your Call, Day or Night

    You can call us at any hour, every day of the year, including bank holidays. In an emergency we ask what has stopped working and whether anything is hot, sparking or smelling of burning, and tell you what to switch off until we arrive. Booked work, from a landlord certificate to solar panels or EV charging, starts on the same call.

  2. 02

    Arrival & Making Safe

    A Part P registered and fully insured engineer attends and makes the installation safe before anything else. Where there is a risk, the affected circuit or your fuse board is isolated, and anything that cannot be put right straight away is left in a safe condition. Planned work follows the same rule: circuits are proved dead before they are worked on.

  3. 03

    Diagnosis by Testing, Not Guesswork

    We work from readings rather than assumptions. Testing can include continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, earth fault loop impedance and RCD testing. The results show where a fault sits, what an installation can safely take, and whether a problem is inside your property or on the incoming supply, which belongs to the distribution network operator and is reported free on 105.

  4. 04

    Your Options & the Cost

    Before any repair or installation begins, we explain the options: what needs doing now, what can safely wait, and whether repair or replacement is the sensible choice. Quotes are free and carry no obligation, and nothing goes ahead until you agree the price, so there are no call-out surprises. If parts or a return visit are needed, we tell you then.

  5. 05

    Carrying Out the Work

    The same qualified engineers who took your call carry out the work, whether that is an overnight repair, a fuse board replacement, new lighting, smoke and heat alarms, a rewire, an inspection, solar panels or an EV charging point. It is done to the current wiring regulations, with cables and accessories fixed securely and neatly, and disruption kept to a minimum.

  6. 06

    Final Testing & Certification

    Before we leave, the work is tested and checked in operation, and the working area is left tidy. You are told plainly what was done and anything worth keeping an eye on. Certification is supplied where the work calls for it, so you hold a written record of what was carried out and the results of the testing.

Cornering the fault

How a Fault Is Found and Put Right

Most call-outs resolve into a handful of fault families. Water in an outside light or a shower, or a failed immersion heater element, causes earth leakage that trips an RCD. An overload or a short circuit trips an MCB. A loose or burnt terminal at a socket, a switch or in the fuse board produces heat, scorching and a burning smell. A nail through a buried cable, perished older wiring and a faulty appliance rather than the installation make up much of the rest.

Which fault you have is settled by elimination, not by swapping parts. The installation is split at the fuse board and brought back circuit by circuit, so the one carrying the fault usually shows itself. Appliances come out one at a time with the circuit dead, which separates a failing machine from the fixed wiring. The suspect circuit is then halved at a convenient point and each half tested, then halved again, until the fault sits in one length of cable or one accessory.

The readings do the narrowing. Insulation resistance testing applies a test voltage to see how well the insulation holds, so damp or damaged cable reads low before anything is opened up. Continuity testing proves a conductor is unbroken end to end, and earth fault loop impedance testing confirms enough fault current would flow to disconnect the circuit in time. Clean readings narrow the field rather than clear the wiring: a loose terminal can read well, so accessories are opened and checked for heat damage.

What follows depends on the finding. A failed socket, switch or light fitting is usually a short job once located, and so is remaking a burnt termination, unless the accessory and the cable behind it need cutting back to sound copper. Replacing a damaged buried cable is driven by access and by making good. A fuse board replacement is commonly most of a day, longer where earthing and bonding need bringing up to standard. With an intermittent fault, the search often outlasts the repair.

Test leads clipped into a consumer unit during fault finding

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What counts as an electrical emergency?

Anything that has made the installation unsafe or unusable. Burning smells, scorching, sparking, buzzing from the fuse board, exposed cable, water in wiring, shocks, total power loss and a breaker that trips straight back off all warrant a call-out. If you are unsure, ring and describe it.

Do you come out at night, at weekends and on bank holidays?

Yes. Emergency call-outs run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week across Sussex and the South East, including nights, weekends and bank holidays. Urgent work is not held over until the next working day.

My power has gone off completely. What should I check first?

Look at whether your neighbours are affected. A whole street without power is a network fault for the regional distribution network operator, which can be reported free on 105. If only your property is out, check the fuse board for a tripped switch, and if it trips again, leave it off and call us.

Will the fault be repaired on the same visit?

Often, yes. Common faults such as failed switches, sockets, fittings and protective devices are usually put right there and then. If a part has to be ordered, or the fault turns out to need larger work, the installation is left safe and a return visit is booked with you.

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