Smoke, sparks or someone hurt? Stop here
Don't reset anything. If someone's hurt, or there's smoke or fire, call 111. If you can reach the main switch safely, turn it off. Leave everything off until a licensed electrician has found the cause.
The questions, in order
Is it just you? If the neighbours are dark too, it's an outage, and the troubleshooter sends you to your lines company instead.
Which switch dropped? One with a test button is an RCD, which reacts to current leaking to earth. One without is a circuit breaker, which reacts to too much load or a short circuit. Old ceramic fuses get their own answer: ENA says a blown fuse at the switchboard is a job for an electrician.
When does it happen? Straight away when you reset it, when something big switches on, after rain, or at random.
Does it hold with everything unplugged? And if so, which appliance sets it off as you plug things back in one at a time.
What the answer can and can't tell you
If the switch holds until one appliance goes back in, the answer points at that appliance. If it only drops when several heavy things run together, it points to an overload. If it trips with nothing plugged in, after rain, or won't reset at all, it tells you to stop and call an electrician who does fault finding.
The troubleshooter can't test your wiring or see inside the walls. An answer that says "appliance" is a strong lead, not proof that the circuit is sound. If the tripping comes back after the suspect's gone, treat it as a wiring question.
Yours to do, and the electrician's
You can
- Reset a tripped switch once, with the circuit unplugged.
- Plug appliances back in one at a time to find the culprit.
- Write down when it trips and what was running.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Anything inside the switchboard, including RCDs, breakers and fuses.
- Tracing damaged cable or water in a fitting.
- Checking hard-wired appliances like ovens and hot water cylinders.
Our tip
Do the unplug part properly, every plug out, not just switched off. It's the step that solves most tripping on its own, and if it doesn't, the notes you made will save the electrician time when they arrive.
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.