Emergency
After-Hours Emergency Electrician in Metro Vancouver: What It Costs and When to Call
Electrical emergencies do not keep business hours. Here is exactly what an after-hours call costs with Electric Hero, including the $295 dispatch surcharge, which situations genuinely warrant a night call, and which ones are safer and cheaper to handle in the morning.
The after-hours surcharge, stated up front
Emergency electrical work after hours carries a $295 dispatch surcharge, and we confirm your agreement to it before a van is dispatched. That is deliberate. Nobody should discover a surcharge on an invoice at two in the morning, and nobody should be talked into a night call they did not need.
The surcharge covers what it actually costs to bring a licensed electrician out of their home, into a van, and to your address outside of normal working hours with the parts and instruments needed to make a fault safe. Diagnostic and repair labour and materials are additional and are explained to you on site before work proceeds.
If your situation can safely wait until the next working day, we will tell you that on the phone and book you first thing instead. We would rather give you free advice at midnight and earn the daytime job than sell you a call you did not need.
Situations that justify an after-hours call
A burning smell, scorch marks, discoloured or melted plastic at a panel, outlet, or switch. A panel or breaker that is hot to the touch, buzzing loudly, arcing, or visibly sparking. Any of these is a live fire risk and should not wait.
Water contacting electrical equipment: a burst pipe or roof leak over a panel, a flooded basement with energized circuits or submerged receptacles, or storm water in a parkade electrical room.
A downed or damaged service conductor at the property, damage from a vehicle strike or fallen tree, or exposed live conductors anywhere a person or animal can reach. Call BC Hydro first for anything on the utility side of the meter, then call us for everything past it.
Loss of power to something that cannot lose power: a commercial refrigeration or freezer line with inventory at risk, a medical or life-safety device, a server or security system, a building fire alarm or emergency lighting fault, or heat in the middle of a cold snap for a household with an infant or an elderly resident.
Situations that are usually safe to book for the morning
A single breaker that has tripped once, reset cleanly, and has stayed on. One dead receptacle or a set of kitchen counter outlets that have gone out with no smell or heat, which is very often a tripped GFCI that has done exactly its job. One light fixture out. A flickering bulb.
Half the house losing power is worth a phone call: if it is a lost neutral or an open service leg it needs attention quickly, and we will walk through a few questions with you to determine which it is. If the rest of the home is stable and there is no heat or smell, it usually becomes a first-thing-tomorrow booking.
In all of these cases, leave the affected circuit off, avoid resetting a breaker repeatedly, and call us. A breaker that trips again immediately after a reset is telling you something, and forcing it is the one thing that turns a repair into a fire.
What to do before the electrician arrives
If it is safe to reach the panel, switch off the affected circuit, or the main if the panel itself is the problem. Do not stand in water to reach a panel and do not touch a panel that is hot, wet, or arcing. If there is active smoke or fire, leave the building and call 911 first.
Unplug sensitive electronics on the affected circuits so they are not damaged when power is restored. Clear a path to the panel and turn on a light or grab a flashlight for the area we will be working in. Note what happened immediately before the fault, since a load that was switched on at that moment is often the fastest route to the cause.
Have your address, unit or suite number, and building access details ready. For commercial and strata sites, arrange after-hours entry and let security or the on-call manager know we are coming.
Call Electric Hero 24/7
Electric Hero answers emergency calls around the clock across Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Langley, Delta, and Maple Ridge. Every emergency call is attended by a licensed electrician, made safe first, then repaired properly and permitted where the code requires it.
You will be told the $295 after-hours surcharge and the diagnostic rate before we dispatch, and you will be told the repair price before we start the repair. No surprises at the bottom of the invoice.
Call 604-779-HERO (4376) any hour, any day.
Talk to a Certified BC Master Electrician
Every quote is a fixed price, every job is pulled under permit, and every visit is on time. Serving Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Langley, and Delta.
