Emergency Electrician
Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire & Cambridgeshire
Emergency electricians across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The line is answered by a person, not a message service. Call 01462 506 374.
If it is happening right now, read this first
Some electrical faults need you to act before anyone arrives, and the right action is almost always to isolate and step back rather than investigate.
Switch off at the consumer unit if it is safe to reach, do not touch the fitting, and ring us. If there is smoke or visible fire, get everybody out and ring 999 first.
, from a leak, a burst pipe or a flood. Do not touch any electrical equipment that is wet or standing in water, and do not stand in the water. Switch off at the consumer unit only if it is dry and you can reach it without crossing standing water. If you cannot, leave it and call.
Stop using it, isolate the circuit and get it looked at the same day. A shock is never a one off quirk. It means a fault exists.
Isolate and ring.
A damaged cable, an exposed conductor, or a fitting pulled out of a wall or ceiling. Isolate the circuit, keep people away from it, and do not attempt a temporary repair with tape.
What not to do: do not keep resetting a breaker that keeps tripping, do not remove a consumer unit cover, and do not replace a fuse with anything other than the correct rating. A protective device that keeps operating is doing its job. Forcing it to stay on removes the protection while leaving the fault.
What actually counts as an emergency
Not every electrical problem is one, and we would rather tell you that on the phone than charge you for a night call.
burning smells, smoke or scorching, water in contact with electrics, an electric shock, sparking or arcing, exposed live conductors, total loss of power to a property, and loss of power to something that cannot wait, such as a medical device or, in winter, the heating.
a single light not working, one dead socket on an otherwise healthy circuit, a failed extractor fan, a doorbell, or an outside light. Those are next available appointment jobs and we will book them as such.
a tripping RCD. If it trips once, resets and holds, that is worth investigating soon but it is not tonight. If it trips repeatedly and will not reset, that is a fault present now and it needs attention.
Two checks worth making before you ring
Is it only you? If the street is dark, or neighbours have no power either, this is a network fault and not your installation. Ring 105, the national power cut number, which routes you free of charge to your local distribution operator. No electrician can fix a supply fault on the network and you should not be paying one to attend and tell you so.
Is it a prepayment or credit issue? Sounds obvious and it accounts for more late night calls than you would think, particularly at the change of a tenancy.
If either applies, we will say so on the phone rather than sending somebody out.
What we do when we get there
The first job is to make the installation safe, which sometimes means isolating a circuit and restoring the rest of the property rather than completing a full repair at two in the morning. Getting the lights and the heating back on and the fault contained is usually the right call, with the permanent repair done properly in daylight with the right parts.
Typical night work: fault finding on a circuit that keeps tripping, replacing a failed RCD or MCB, making safe after water ingress, dealing with a burnt out socket or switch, tracing a fault to an appliance rather than the installation, and restoring power to part of a property.
We will tell you what we have made safe, what is still outstanding, and what it will cost to finish. You should never be left unclear about which of the three you are in.
Older installations, and what tends to fail
Across our patch the housing runs from Victorian terraces to 2020s new build, and the failures follow the era.
and installations that have never had an RCD. These are still out there, and they do not provide the protection a modern installation does. If yours has ceramic fuse carriers rather than breakers, it predates several editions of the wiring regulations.
in properties wired in the 1960s and 70s, where insulation has hardened and cracks when disturbed. Very often the emergency is caused by somebody moving a fitting on a circuit that was fine while nobody touched it.
in houses that gained an extension, a loft conversion or a garden office without the board being upgraded to match.
that were never properly protected or have taken water. This is a common summer callout and a common cause of a tripping RCD.
If we find something structural rather than a one off failure, we will tell you and recommend an inspection rather than fixing the symptom and leaving.
Landlords and managed property
We hold direct access arrangements with tenants so you are not the intermediary at midnight, and we report back with what was found, what was done and what remains. If the callout reveals a wider problem we will say so, because a property producing repeated emergency calls usually needs an EICR rather than another night visit.
Call an emergency electrician
Ring 01462 506 374. Somebody answers, at any hour, and will tell you honestly whether this needs an engineer tonight or whether it can safely wait until morning. Across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
If the whole street is out, ring 105 first.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as an electrical emergency?
Burning smells, scorch marks or heat around a socket or consumer unit, a breaker that trips again the moment you reset it, exposed live conductors, water reaching electrics, or a total loss of power that is not the supplier and not a coin meter. Those need somebody out. A single dead socket usually does not.
My power has gone off completely. Is that you or the network operator?
Check whether your neighbours have power and whether your main fuse is intact. If the whole street is dark it is the distribution network operator, not your installation, and they have their own emergency number. If it is only your property, it is on your side of the cut out and that is our job.
What should I do before you arrive?
Turn off and unplug whatever was in use when it happened. If it is safe to reach, switch off at the consumer unit. Do not touch anything wet and do not attempt to open the main fuse or the meter, which belong to the supplier and are sealed for a reason.
Are you really available at night and at weekends?
Yes. We run a genuine 24 hour service, 365 days a year, and you speak to a person rather than an answering service. Ring 01462 506374.
Will you fix it on the first visit?
Usually. The vans carry the common parts, so most faults are made safe and repaired the same visit. Where a part has to be ordered we make the installation safe, tell you exactly what is needed, and come back with it.
Do you charge a call out fee?
We tell you the cost before we set off. In hours we do not add a separate call out charge on top of the work, and out of hours there is a £50 + VAT call-out which we tell you about on the phone. What we quote on the phone is what you pay unless the job turns out to be something different, in which case we tell you before we carry on.
Areas we cover
We run emergency electrical cover right across our area, day and night.
- Hitchin
- Stevenage
- Letchworth
- Baldock
- Royston
- Biggleswade
- Sandy
- St Neots
- Bedford
- Luton
- Dunstable
- Harpenden
- St Albans
- Welwyn Garden City
- Hertford
- Ware
- Hemel Hempstead
- Hatfield
- Potters Bar
- Cambridge
- Shefford
- Stotfold
- Arlesey
- Knebworth
- Flitwick
- Ampthill
We work across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire from our base in Stevenage. If your village is not listed, ring 01462 506374 and we will tell you honestly whether we reach you.
Related: electrical services, EICR and electrical safety certificates and emergency plumbing.
Need help today?
Call and speak to a person, any hour, any day of the year, or get a fixed price quote online.
Get a fixed price quote Call 01462 506 374Trusted & Accredited Professionals
What our customers say
Speak to a local engineer
Vantage Plumbing and Heating covers Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas. Call and talk to an engineer, or send us the details and we will come back to you with a price.
Gas Safe registered, number 956889. Emergency line answered 24/7.