Cost guide
How much does emergency electrician cost?
An out of hours electrician charges £80 to £160 for the first hour on a weekday evening and £120 to £250 overnight, at a weekend or on a bank holiday. Parts are extra, and the same visit booked in working hours is roughly half.
Typical prices
Ranges, not quotes. A quote depends on your room.
| Work | Typical UK price |
|---|---|
| Weekday evening, first hour | £80 to £160 |
| Overnight, weekend or bank holiday, first hour | £120 to £250 |
| Each additional hour | £55 to £110 |
| Same day booking in working hours | £45 to £85 an hour |
| Fault traced and circuit made safe | £120 to £300 |
| Consumer unit made safe after water ingress | £200 to £500 |
Call 105 before calling anybody else if the whole property is dead. It is free, it is answered around the clock, and network faults are repaired at no charge to you.
What moves the price
- The hour. Evening, overnight, weekend and bank holiday rates all differ and some firms change rate at midnight.
- Whether the first hour is a call out fee with time charged on top or a minimum charge that includes an hour of work.
- Parts carried on the van against parts fetched from a wholesaler the following morning.
- Travel, where a firm covers a wide area and the property is at the edge of it.
- Whether the visit makes the installation safe or completes the repair. Isolate now and repair tomorrow is usually the cheaper sequence.
- Whether the work is notifiable, because a board change at midnight still needs certifying and registering.
Who quotes for it
71 of the 133 electricians listed on this site take on emergency electrician.
Most of them in one place: Glasgow (6), Liverpool (6), Manchester (6), Bristol (6), Coventry (6).
Questions about emergency electrician
What does an emergency electrician charge at night?
The first hour carries the charge, and the rest is time. Expect roughly double the daytime rate after six in the evening and closer to triple overnight or on a bank holiday, plus parts. The question that actually changes the bill is whether that first hour is a minimum charge including work, or a call out fee with the clock starting on arrival.
There is a burning smell but nothing has tripped.
Switch off the circuit you think it is coming from, or the main switch if you cannot tell, and call somebody out. A loose connection heats up long before it draws enough current to operate a breaker, which is exactly why a smell is taken more seriously than a trip.