Faults we're called for most
- Safety switch (RCD) trips, immediately or at random. Usually 1 appliance, 1 damp outdoor fitting or 1 deteriorated cable. Occasionally the RCD itself.
- Dead circuit or dead outlets with nothing tripped at the board. Often a failed connection somewhere along the run.
- Flickering or dimming lights, particularly when a big load starts. Loose neutrals and overloaded circuits, and sometimes a supply problem to hand to SA Power Networks.
- Burning smells or warm switch plates. Treated as urgent. See emergency electrician.
- Breakers tripping under load on a commercial or industrial board. Load has grown past the circuit, or a motor is drawing more than it should.
How we find it
Isolate the circuit, split it, test each half, and keep narrowing until the fault is in 1 place. For intermittent faults we load the circuit deliberately and watch it with a meter rather than waiting for it to fail on its own. On old homes across the western suburbs, it's often the original wiring or a junction that was never meant to be buried in a ceiling; on commercial sites it's often a board that's had circuits added for 20 years without anyone checking the total.
What happens after
You get the fault fixed, and a straight answer on whether the rest of the installation is fine or whether this was a warning. If it's the board, we'll say so and point you at switchboard upgrades. If it's a site that keeps generating faults, a maintenance arrangement is usually cheaper than the call-outs.