Lines down or trouble at the switchboard
If a power line is down, stay at least 10 metres away, treat it as live and call 111. If there are burn marks, a strange smell or a crackling sound at your switchboard, don't touch it. ENA's advice is to contact your local lines company straight away. If you rely on power for medical equipment and it's an emergency, call 111.
Work out how big the outage is
Walk the house
Note which rooms, lights and power points are dead and which still work. A pattern, like the kitchen and one bedroom, usually means one circuit.
Look outside
Are the neighbours' lights on? Are the street lights working? If they're dark too, it's almost certainly an outage on the network.
Check the switchboard
Look for a switch that's dropped. One with a test button is an RCD, which cuts power when current leaks. Push it back up once. If it drops again, leave it down.
Unplug, then try again
If the RCD or breaker won't stay up, unplug everything on that part of the house and try once more. If it holds now, an appliance is the likely cause.
Old fuses?
If your board has ceramic fuses and one has blown, ENA says to call an electrician.
Everything looks fine but it's still dark?
Contact your lines company. A problem with your supply can take out part of a house while the switchboard looks normal.
Why only part of the house goes off
Your switchboard splits the house into circuits, and each one is protected by its own breaker or fuse. One RCD often covers several circuits, so when it trips, a whole chunk of the house goes dark at once. That's the usual answer when half the house is out.
A loose connection or a damaged cable can also kill one circuit without tripping anything. That needs an electrician to find.
Some homes are supplied with more than one phase, and losing one of them can take out part of the house. The Power Company, in Southland, notes many older multi-phase homes on its network. Network Tasman asks people with partial power to check their switchboard for blown fuses or tripped breakers first, and call its fault line if everything there looks okay.
When it's the lines company's job
Your lines company owns the network up to your property boundary, and in an unplanned power cut ENA says to contact them. Your retailer is the company you pay your power bill to, and the Electricity Authority says you can contact either your power company or your lines company in a power cut.
It's worth checking with the lines company before booking an electrician. Unison, for example, suggests you check your switchboard and then contact Unison first, because an electrician can't check its network. In Rotorua and TaupÅ, Unison says your retailer is the first point of contact. Electra asks you to check the main switch is on, and notes that several nearby homes without power points to its network rather than your house.
If you can't get through to your power company in a power cut, the Electricity Authority says to call Utilities Disputes on 0800 22 33 40.
Some lines companies' faults lines
- Vector: 0508 VECTOR (0508 832 867)
- Wellington Electricity: 0800 248 148
- Orion: 0800 363 9898
- Powerco: 0800 27 27 27
- Unison: 0800 2 UNISON
- WEL Networks: 0800 800 935
- Network Tasman: 0800 508 100
- Not sure which is yours? The ENA lines company map at ena.org.nz shows your lines company's name and number when you enter your address.
One house, one fault: expect a wait
If the fault is on the network but only affects your property, it may take a while. Wellington Electricity says its crews fix the outages affecting the most customers first, so single-property faults are typically repaired last. If you depend on electricity for medical reasons, tell your power company now and apply for medically dependent consumer status, rather than waiting for the next outage.
When it's inside the house
If the neighbours have power, your switchboard shows nothing wrong, and the lines company finds no fault on its side, the problem is in your wiring. An electrician who does fault finding will test the dead circuit, find the loose connection, failed breaker or damaged cable, and get it back on safely.
Replacing a failed breaker or RCD is low-risk electrical work, and you should get an Electrical Safety Certificate for it.
What you can do, and what's licensed work
You can
- Check the neighbours and the street lights.
- Reset a dropped RCD or breaker once.
- Unplug appliances on the dead circuit and try again.
- Call your lines company or power company if the street is out, or if the board looks fine.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Blown fuses on an older switchboard.
- Finding a loose connection or damaged cable on a dead circuit.
- Replacing a failed breaker or RCD.
- Anything at the switchboard that's scorched, smells or crackles, after the lines company has made it safe.
Where we'd start
We'd look outside before we looked at the switchboard. If the street's dark, it's a call to the lines company and a wait. If it's just us, we'd reset the dropped switch once, do the unplug test, and if the circuit still won't come back, book an electrician who does fault finding. No point paying someone to stare at a network fault they can't touch.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.