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If a socket has burnt, a circuit has died or a breaker will not stay on, you have reached a 24-hour emergency electrician. We make the danger safe first, test to find exactly what has failed, then repair it — most on the same visit. Call now and we will tell you what to switch off while we are on our way.
HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
If there is smoke, flame or anyone has had an electric shock, call 999 first, then call us.
THE SERVICE EXPLAINED
An emergency repair is the physical work that puts a failed part of your installation right, once testing has proved what is wrong with it. Fault finding locates the problem; the repair is what happens next — the accessory changed, the joint remade, the cable renewed, the protective device replaced, the circuit re-tested and put back into service.
The order of work never changes: remove the danger, restore power to everything that can safely be energised, then discuss any larger job that may follow. That is why a repair often ends with more of the property working than you expected, even when one circuit is still off. People call at emergency rates when a fault has made part of the property unusable or unsafe — no power to a freezer, no light on a staircase, no hot water, a business unable to trade, or a burning smell nobody can locate. Every callout includes a visual inspection and circuit testing, so you are not paying for a guess.
COMMON REPAIRS
Installations fail in a fairly small number of ways. These are the repairs that make up the bulk of emergency work.
The most common serious fault. A screw terminal that was never quite tight, or loosened by years of heating and cooling, develops resistance; resistance under load makes heat, and the joint worsens the hotter it gets. Repair means cutting back to clean copper, replacing the damaged accessory and remaking the joint — then checking its neighbours, because a loose termination is rarely alone.
Cracked faceplates, sockets pulled from the wall, contacts too worn to grip a plug, switches that arc every time they are used. The accessory is replaced like for like — but if the back box, the tails or the earthing are damaged too, those are put right at the same time. A new faceplate on a broken connection fixes nothing.
A nail through a joist, a screw into a stud wall, a spade through a buried garden supply. Damage may trip a circuit instantly or cause an intermittent fault for weeks. The repair is either a joint in an accessible, maintenance-free enclosure or replacement of the damaged length — which one depends on where it is and what the testing shows.
MCBs that no longer hold, RCDs that will not reset or will not trip when tested, RCBOs that have failed mechanically. A device that trips for no fault is as much of a problem as one that fails to trip when there is one. Replacements must be the correct type and rating and compatible with your particular consumer unit.
A leak onto a ceiling rose, a flooded outdoor socket, a shed supply that trips whenever it rains. Water bridges live conductors to earth and the RCD does what it was designed to do. Repair means drying and isolating the wet section, replacing what has been soaked, correcting the enclosure that let water in, and re-energising only once insulation resistance testing proves the circuit is dry.
A whole floor of lights out, downlights failing one after another, or a circuit that trips on a particular switch. Faults commonly sit at a ceiling rose, a switch, a failed transformer or LED driver, or in heat-damaged wiring above a recessed fitting. Repairs range from a new lamp holder and heat-resistant flex to renewing wiring that has been running too hot.
Showers, cookers and immersion heaters draw heavy current for long periods — exactly the condition that finds a weak connection or a failing element. A shower element that has broken down internally leaks current to earth and trips the RCD; a cooker switch with a burnt terminal overheats. The repair may be at the switch, the connection unit or the circuit cable.
A ring final circuit feeds sockets from both directions. When one leg breaks it becomes a long radial and the cable can carry more current than intended — often while everything still appears to work, which is what makes it dangerous. Missing bonding, a broken circuit protective conductor or a corroded earth are the same kind of hidden fault: nothing stops working, but the protection has gone.
KNOW THE SIGNS
"There's a brown mark round the socket and it smells like hot plastic."
"I flicked the switch, there was a bang, and now half the house is dead."
"The trip switch goes off the second I push it back up."
"I put a screw in the wall to hang a shelf and everything went off."
Other signs that point to a repair rather than a reset:
None of this identifies what is wrong with your particular installation — each sign may indicate several different faults, and only testing confirms which.
WHY FAULTS HAPPEN
Emergencies feel random. They very rarely are. Nearly everything we repair traces back to one of these.
A poor connection has resistance; resistance under current makes heat; heat oxidises the copper and raises the resistance further. It is a slow, self-accelerating failure that ends in a burnt accessory, and it starts with a screw that was a quarter-turn short.
The plastic around conductors ages, and heat, sunlight, vibration and pressure age it faster. Once it breaks down, current leaks between conductors or to earth. Small leakage causes nuisance RCD tripping; large leakage causes a dead short and an instant trip.
The fastest route to an earth fault there is. Roof leaks onto lighting, condensation inside outdoor enclosures, flooded external sockets and disturbed garden cable all end the same way: current finds a path to earth and the RCD disconnects.
Nails, screws, drills, staples, spades and crushing under floorboards. The damage takes a second and the consequences may not show for months, because a partly damaged cable will carry on working until moisture or movement finishes the job.
Socket contacts lose their grip, switch mechanisms wear, and rubber-insulated cable in older properties goes brittle. Add heavy appliances on extension leads or too much load on one circuit and the terminations bake. Cable and accessories have a rated capacity for a reason.
Undersized cable, joints buried where they cannot be inspected, missing earths, spurs added onto spurs. Equally, a failing washing machine element or a faulty extension lead can trip an RCD and look exactly like an electrical wiring fault, so part of the job is separating the fixed installation from what is plugged into it.
TESTED NOT GUESSED
With 25 years of fault-finding experience behind it, this sequence is what separates a proper electrical fault repair from a guess and a new faceplate.
MAKE SAFE FIRST
Not every fault can be finished at 2am, and pretending otherwise is how people get hurt. There are two honest outcomes to a callout, and you are always told which one you are getting.
The purpose is to remove the immediate risk of fire or shock — disconnecting a burnt accessory and terminating the cable safely, removing a damaged fitting, isolating one circuit, or in a severe case isolating the whole installation. A make safe is deliberately not a repair: it is a controlled, temporary state that leaves a clearly defined job to complete afterwards.
This returns the circuit to the condition it should be in: correct cable, correct accessory, correct protective device, correct earthing, joints accessible or made in maintenance-free enclosures, and test results that confirm all of it. Most callouts end here on the first visit — the company resolves 85% of them on the spot.
Occasionally testing proves the fault is somewhere that cannot responsibly be reached that night: a cable buried in a wall or under a fitted floor, a fault above a ceiling that has to come down, an outdoor circuit in the dark and the rain, or an obsolete protective device that must be ordered. The correct answer is to isolate that one circuit, not to gamble on it.
In practice: the circuit is switched off and secured at the consumer unit, the device is labelled so nobody switches it back on, every other circuit is tested and returned to service, and you are told plainly which sockets, lights or appliances are dead. Before we leave you will know what the fault is, what completing it involves, and when we are coming back. Losing one circuit overnight is a nuisance. Energising a faulty one is a fire.
STOCKED ON THE VAN
First-visit fixes are not luck. They come from carrying the parts that actually fail, so a repair does not stall for the sake of a small component at midnight.
The honest limit: consumer units are made by many manufacturers and their protective devices are not interchangeable. If your board is unusual, discontinued or very old, the exact device may have to be ordered — in which case the circuit is isolated safely and we return with the right part, rather than forcing in something that does not belong there and creating a new hazard.
24/7 EMERGENCY LINE
Lines are open 24 hours a day across Bexhill, Hastings, Eastbourne and all of East Sussex. Tell us what happened and we will tell you what to switch off before we arrive.
STEP BY STEP
WHILE YOU WAIT
There is fire or smoke, you can see flames or sparking inside a wall or accessory, or anyone has received an electric shock or been burnt. Never use water on an electrical fire, and if someone has had a shock, do not touch them until the supply is off.
REPAIR OPTIONS
The right repair depends entirely on what inspection and testing find, so nothing below can be promised in advance. These are the realistic outcomes.
Where a termination has loosened or overheated, the conductor is cut back to sound copper, the accessory replaced if heat-damaged, and the joint remade correctly. Other terminations on the circuit are checked, because whatever loosened one usually applied to its neighbours.
A failed socket, switch, connection unit, ceiling rose or pull cord is replaced like for like with an item to the correct standard, and the connections and earthing behind it checked before the new one goes on.
Damaged cable is either jointed in an accessible, maintenance-free enclosure or — more often and more properly — replaced over the damaged length. Where the existing route is inaccessible, a new cable on a different route is sometimes less disruptive than opening a wall.
A failed MCB, RCD or RCBO is replaced with a device of the correct type and rating, compatible with your consumer unit. In some cases moving a circuit to an RCBO gives better discrimination, so one fault no longer takes out half the property.
Reinstating a broken circuit protective conductor, replacing a corroded connection, or fitting main protective bonding where it is missing or inadequate. This is usually found during a repair rather than reported as the original complaint.
Where the fault cannot be safely reached at that hour, the circuit is isolated and labelled, everything else returned to service, and a return visit arranged. Occasionally a repair alone will not make the installation safe; we will say so, explain what the testing showed, and quote that work separately.
A RECENT JOB
Location: Old Town, Eastbourne
Customer's problem: A bang from a socket followed by a burning smell. The family had switched everything off at the board.
Initial symptoms: Scorched socket front, blackening around the pins, and that circuit dead.
Tests performed: Safe isolation and proving dead, visual inspection of the back box, then insulation resistance on the affected ring.
Fault discovered: A loose terminal had been arcing at the socket for some time, and both the back box and the conductor tails were heat-damaged.
Repair: Socket and back box replaced, and damaged conductor cut back to sound copper and re-terminated.
Final testing: Ring continuity, insulation resistance, polarity and loop impedance.
Outcome: Circuit back in service the same visit. Adjacent sockets were opened and re-torqued as a precaution.
Replace this block with a genuine job carried out by Power Pros, with the customer's permission and no identifying details.
CALLOUT PRICING
The callout is a fixed price, set by the time of day. You are told the figure before anybody sets off, and it covers attendance, the visual inspection and circuit testing.
| Callout type | Price |
|---|---|
| Basic callout, 9:30am–3pm (not guaranteed within the hour) | £110 |
| Day callout | £130 |
| Early evening callout | £180 |
| Overnight callout | £250 |
Any additional work is quoted and agreed with you before it begins. Nothing appears on the bill without a conversation first.
The figures above are the published callout charges. Repair costs vary with the work required and are always quoted and agreed before starting. Hourly, labour and parts rates: [INSERT REAL PRICE].
WHY POWER PROS
A repair is only as good as the diagnosis behind it. Long experience of finding faults is what stops you paying for a replacement part that was never the problem.
Most emergency callouts are finished on the spot — the result of carrying the parts that actually fail and testing properly rather than swapping components hopefully.
Faults do not wait for office hours. Bexhill, Hastings, Eastbourne and all of East Sussex, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a stated 1 hour response.
Repairs are carried out by City & Guilds qualified electricians for an NICEIC Part P scheme member, and tested to BS 7671 and current Building Regulations — which matters when work must be shown to a landlord, insurer or buyer.
The attendance charge is set by time of day and told to you up front, anything beyond it is agreed before work begins, and the business is fully insured while working in your home or premises.
A 100% satisfaction guarantee applies to all services. If something is not right, say so.
CUSTOMER REVIEWS
“Aaron arrived quickly and was very methodical in his approach. He made sure a safe temporary fix was in place before leaving. He was honest about the issue being outside his scope and clearly explained the next steps to resolve it.”— Vickki Loverage, Google review
“Fast, reliable and genuinely professional service. The emergency electrician Harry diagnosed the issue straight away, explained everything clearly, and carried out the repair safely and efficiently. Pricing was fair with no hidden surprises, and the work was left neat and tidy.”— Steve, Google review
“I had a sudden electrical fault late in the evening and Power Pros came to the rescue. From the first call they were professional, calm and very reassuring. The electrician arrived quickly, clearly explained what the issue was, and got everything safely sorted without any hassle.”— Jane Baker, Google review
Reviews from our Google Business Profile, rated 5.0 from 10 reviews. Read them on Google.
YOUR QUESTIONS
Fault finding is the testing that locates the problem. The repair is the work that puts it right: a new accessory, a remade joint, a renewed length of cable, a replacement protective device. On a real callout the two run together — we test to find it, then repair it while we are there.
Usually. Power Pros resolves 85% of emergency callouts on the first visit, because the parts that fail most often are carried on the van. What cannot always be finished the same night is a cable buried in a wall, an obsolete device that must be ordered, or outdoor work needing daylight.
Removing the immediate risk of fire or shock: disconnecting a burnt accessory, terminating a damaged cable safely, or isolating one circuit at the consumer unit. A make safe is deliberately not a repair — it is a controlled temporary state that leaves a clearly defined job to complete properly afterwards.
Because it is safer to lose one circuit than to energise a faulty one. If testing shows failed insulation or a damaged cable we cannot reach at that hour, switching it back on risks a fire or a shock. We label the device, tell you what is dead, and agree a return visit.
The common failure items: socket outlets and back boxes, switches, fused connection units, cooker switches, shower pull cords, ceiling roses and lamp holders, maintenance-free junction boxes, twin and earth cable, flex, bonding clamps, and a range of MCBs, RCBOs and RCDs. Obsolete devices sometimes have to be ordered.
No. Resetting once is reasonable. If it trips again immediately, the device is doing its job and telling you there is a real fault. Forcing it back on keeps current flowing through a damaged cable or a wet connection, which is a genuine fire and shock risk. Leave it off and call us.
Do not use it, do not plug anything else in and do not remove the faceplate. Switch that circuit off at the consumer unit if you can identify and reach it safely, then call 0333 360 8583. If there is smoke, flame or anyone has had a shock, call 999 first.
No. We repair wherever a repair is the correct and safe answer, and most emergency work is a repair. A replacement board is only the honest recommendation when the existing one cannot be made safe — no compatible devices available, or damage to the enclosure or busbar. If so, it is quoted separately.
The callout is a fixed price set by the time of day: £110 for a basic callout between 9:30am and 3pm, not guaranteed within the hour; £130 day; £180 early evening; £250 overnight. That covers attendance, the visual inspection and circuit testing. Any additional work is quoted and agreed before it begins.
Yes. Every callout includes a visual inspection and circuit testing, and work is tested to BS 7671 and complies with current British Standards and Building Regulations. You are told what was found, what was repaired and the test results afterwards. Power Pros are NICEIC Part P scheme members.
Only if the fault is genuinely in the buried part of the installation, and you will be told before anything starts. Most emergency faults sit at an accessory, a joint or a protective device. Where a cable really is damaged in a wall, replacing that length or running a new route are both options.
Yes — homeowners, landlords, letting agents and businesses across Bexhill, Hastings, Eastbourne and East Sussex, 24 hours a day. For rented property we attend, make safe, repair and report what was found. For commercial premises we discuss which circuits can be isolated and when, to limit disruption to trading.
Call 0333 360 8583. The line is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we cover Bexhill-on-Sea, Hastings, Eastbourne and the whole of East Sussex, and the stated response is 1 hour. Tell us the postcode and what has happened, and you will be told what to switch off while we are on our way and what the callout costs before anybody sets off.
Repeat faults usually come from connections that were never tight enough, moisture reaching wiring not meant to get wet, or cable and accessories at the end of their life. A repair fixes the point that failed; a periodic inspection recorded on an EICR finds the others heading the same way.
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AREAS WE COVER
Power Pros cover Bexhill-on-Sea, Hastings, Eastbourne and the whole of East Sussex, 24 hours a day. Choose your town for local detail, or call 0333 360 8583 and tell us the postcode.
CALL ANYTIME
NICEIC Part P, City & Guilds qualified, insured to £2,000,000, and 85% of emergency callouts resolved on the first visit. Covering Bexhill-on-Sea, Hastings, Eastbourne and all of East Sussex, 24 hours a day.
