When You Need an Emergency Electrician in Worthing

Published September 2026 | When you need an emergency electrician

This guide covers how to recognise a genuine electrical emergency, what to do in the minutes before a qualified electrician arrives, and how to tell the difference between a fault that needs attention tonight and one that can wait until morning. It is written for homeowners and tenants in Worthing who are dealing with an unexpected electrical problem and need clear, practical guidance fast.

Before You Start - Safety First

Electrical emergencies are not the same as a tripped circuit or a blown fuse. Sparking sockets, a persistent burning smell, smoke from a fitting, or flooding near electrical points can put you and everyone in the property at serious risk if you approach them carelessly.

Before you do anything else:

• Do not touch any exposed wiring, scorched sockets, or anything that is still sparking or warm to the touch.
• If you can smell burning or see smoke coming from an electrical point, get everyone out of the affected room. If the smell is strong or widespread, evacuate the property and call 999 before you call an electrician.
• Switch off the main isolator at your consumer unit (fuse box) if it is safe to reach. This single switch cuts power to the whole property.
• Never use water on an electrical fire. Use a dry powder or CO2 extinguisher only.
• Keep children and pets away from the problem area until a qualified electrician has checked it.

If there is any doubt about whether it is safe to remain in the building, leave and call from outside.

What You Will Need

You do not need tools to handle an electrical emergency - that is entirely the electrician's job. What you do need is the right information to hand so you can act quickly and get help without delays.

Have these ready before you call:

• A torch - useful if the power is off and it is dark indoors
• Your consumer unit location noted: typically under the stairs, in a hallway cupboard, or in a kitchen
• A mental note of what happened just before the problem started - a loud pop, a flash, flickering lights, or the smell of burning
• Your full address, including postcode - it is easy to stumble over details when you are stressed and on the phone
• Contact details for a registered emergency electrician covering Worthing

Time estimate: Response times for emergency electricians in West Sussex typically range from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the time of day and how many jobs are already in the queue. Out-of-hours callouts - evenings, weekends, and bank holidays - may take longer. Call early, describe the problem clearly, and ask for an estimated arrival time before you hang up.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Work Out What Type of Fault You Have

Electrical faults fall into three broad categories: a localised fault affecting one socket or one circuit, a whole-property fault with no power anywhere, or a dangerous fault involving sparking, burning, smoke, or water near electrics. Identifying which category you are in will shape every decision you make from here.

Ask yourself quickly:

• Is the problem on one socket, one room, or the whole property?
• Can you see or smell anything burning?
• Has water come into contact with any electrics?
• Did something happen just before - a loud bang, a flash, an appliance suddenly dying?

Your answers will tell you how urgent the situation is and what information to give the electrician when you call.

Step 2: Turn Off Power at the Consumer Unit

If it is safe to do so, go to your consumer unit and flip the main switch to the off position. This is usually a large rocker switch at the top of the unit. Turning it off isolates the entire property from the mains supply.

If the fault appears to be on one circuit only - say the kitchen ring main has tripped - you may only need to switch off that individual circuit breaker (MCB). MCBs are the smaller switches inside the consumer unit. Do not try to reset any MCB that immediately trips again after being switched back on. Repeated tripping is the circuit telling you there is a fault on that line, and overriding it creates a fire risk.

Step 3: Check for Visible Physical Damage

With the power off, take a careful look around the area of the fault. Are there scorch marks on socket faceplates or switch plates? Is there a smell of burning that lingers even now the power is off? Is there any water near electrical outlets, light fittings, the consumer unit, or appliances?

Scorch marks are a serious sign. They indicate that arcing has occurred or that components inside the socket have overheated and possibly melted. Do not touch scorched sockets - leave them for the electrician to assess. If water is involved, do not restore power under any circumstances until a qualified electrician has confirmed the installation is safe and dry.

Step 4: Decide Whether This Is a Genuine Emergency

Not every electrical fault justifies an emergency callout at double the normal rate. Here is a practical way to decide:

Call an emergency electrician right now if:

• You can see sparking, scorch marks, or smoke
• There is a burning smell that will not clear
• Water has got into any part of your electrical installation
• You have a total loss of power that is not a wider area outage (check with your energy supplier or National Grid Electricity Distribution)
• A breaker trips immediately every time you reset it
• Someone in the property relies on electrically powered medical equipment

It can usually wait until normal hours if:

• A single socket has stopped working but there are no other symptoms
• A light fitting has failed but the rest of that circuit is working fine
• You overloaded a circuit, the breaker tripped, you unplugged the overloading appliance, and the breaker has not tripped again

Step 5: Call a Registered Emergency Electrician in Worthing

When you call, have your information ready. Give your full address in Worthing including the postcode, describe what you saw or heard and when, confirm whether you have already isolated the power, and mention if anyone in the property has a medical or safety need that depends on the electricity being restored quickly.

Before they attend, ask whether they are registered with NICEIC, NAPIT, or another approved scheme. In the UK, electrical work must be carried out by a competent person - that registration is how you verify they meet the standard. An unregistered electrician working on your installation can create problems with your insurance and building compliance.

Emergency callout fees in Worthing typically start between 80 and 120 pounds, with labour charged on top at rates that commonly run between 100 and 180 pounds per hour for out-of-hours work. A full fault-finding and repair job will typically come to between 150 and 500 pounds depending on the complexity and how long it takes to diagnose. Ask for a written estimate before any work starts.

Step 6: Keep the Property Safe While You Wait

Keep the power off to the affected area - or to the whole property if you are unsure where the fault is. If it is dark, use battery-powered torches rather than candles near any electrical fault. Open windows if there is a lingering burning smell so the space ventilates while you wait.

If you have no heating and it is cold, check whether your boiler has a battery-backed display that allows it to run without mains power - some do, many do not. Never use portable petrol or gas generators indoors. Keep the area around the fault clear so the electrician can get straight to work on arrival.

Step 7: Walk the Electrician Through What Happened

When the electrician arrives, take a couple of minutes to walk them through the sequence of events: what you noticed first, what happened next, what you did, and what you have observed since. The more detail you can give, the faster they can pinpoint the fault.

Our engineers use the Voltrade GoFIX diagnostic approach to work through faults methodically - beginning with the consumer unit, then isolating and testing each circuit in turn. If your property has a modern consumer unit fitted with arc fault detection devices (AFDDs), or if you have a smart meter, mention this - both can provide useful diagnostic information before any physical testing begins.

What to Do if This Does Not Fix It

If an emergency repair has been made but the same fault returns within days or weeks, do not ignore it. Recurring electrical problems - breakers that keep tripping, sockets that keep dying, lights that flicker unpredictably - are typically symptoms of a deeper issue: an overloaded circuit, degraded wiring, a loose connection somewhere in the system, or in older properties in Worthing, ageing wiring that has reached the end of its serviceable life and needs a full rewire.

In some cases the problem originates outside your property entirely. If your immediate neighbours are also without power, contact your Distribution Network Operator - National Grid Electricity Distribution covers the West Sussex area. A fault on the supply cable or a local substation is their responsibility to fix, not yours or your landlord's, and there is no charge for reporting it.

If recurring faults are diagnosed as a wiring problem, get a full electrical installation condition report (EICR) carried out. This gives you a complete picture of the state of your installation and identifies any further work needed, so you are not firefighting one fault at a time.

When to Stop and Call a Professional

The short answer is: for any electrical emergency, always call a professional. There are no safe DIY workarounds when a fault involves burning smells, sparking, water damage, or breakers that will not stay reset. Resetting a tripped breaker or replacing a fuse in an older fuse box is within most homeowners' capabilities - everything beyond that requires a qualified, registered electrician.

Electrical installation work that falls under Part P of the Building Regulations - including replacing a consumer unit, adding new circuits, or doing any electrical work in a kitchen or bathroom - must be either carried out by a registered competent person or formally notified to your local authority building control. Ignoring this requirement creates problems with your insurance, your mortgage, and any future property sale.

If you are a tenant in Worthing and your landlord is slow to act on a genuine electrical emergency, be aware that under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, landlords have a legal duty to keep the electrical installation safe and to act on any identified hazards. If they are not responding, contact your local authority's private sector housing team.

Questions About This Process

How much does an emergency electrician cost in Worthing?

Emergency electrician callout fees in Worthing typically start between 80 and 120 pounds for the callout itself. Hourly labour rates for out-of-hours work - evenings, weekends, and bank holidays - commonly run between 100 and 180 pounds per hour. The total cost of diagnosing and repairing a fault will depend on complexity, but most emergency callouts in this area come to between 150 and 500 pounds all-in. Always ask for a written estimate or a fixed-price quote before work begins, and check the electrician is registered with NICEIC or NAPIT before they start.

How do I know if my electrical problem is a genuine emergency?

Treat any electrical problem as an emergency if you can see sparking, smell burning, notice scorch marks around outlets or fittings, or if water has come into contact with any part of the electrical installation. A complete loss of power that is not related to a wider street or area outage also warrants an urgent call, especially if anyone in the property depends on electrically powered medical equipment. A single failed socket with no other symptoms, or a breaker that trips once and stays reset, is usually not an emergency and can wait for a daytime appointment.

Can I reset my fuse box myself during an electrical emergency?

You can safely reset a tripped MCB once - switch it back to the on position after identifying and unplugging whatever caused the overload. But if it trips again immediately, or continues tripping over the following hours, stop resetting it and call an electrician. Forcing or repeatedly resetting a breaker that keeps tripping is dangerous and can cause a fire. In older Worthing properties with rewireable fuse carriers rather than MCBs, do not attempt to refit or substitute a blown fuse if the circuit keeps blowing - the fault causing the blowing needs to be found and fixed first.