Power Outages: What It Means and What to Do
No power at your address and you can't work out why? It's either a fault on the network or something inside your own home, and telling the two apart takes about thirty seconds.
We'll walk you through it, then sort whichever one it turns out to be. Call (02) 9538 7444 if you'd rather skip straight to the fix.
Power Outages, Explained in Plain English
A power outage is simply the loss of electricity supply to your property.
That can happen two ways. Either the supply coming into your street has failed somewhere outside your control, or a fault at your own switchboard or on a circuit has cut the power itself.
The second kind is what we handle. A tripped main switch, a failed connection inside the board, or a fault on a circuit can all drop power to part or all of a house while the street around it stays lit.
Telling the two apart is the first job, and it's simpler than most people expect.
Is a Power Outage Dangerous?
Most outages are inconvenient rather than dangerous. Losing power to a fridge or a few lights is an annoyance, not a hazard.
It becomes urgent in specific situations. Any burning smell, visible scorching at the switchboard, sparking, or a burning smell, or power that keeps cutting out and returning on its own all point to a fault that needs attention now, not tomorrow.
So does a total loss of power at your switchboard's main switch, where flicking it back on doesn't hold.
If you notice any of these, switch off the main and call us straight away. A clean outage with no smell or heat is fine to book in as a standard visit.
What Usually Causes It
Six things account for most of the outages we're called out for, roughly in order of how often we see them:
- A tripped safety switch or circuit breaker at your own switchboard, often set off by a faulty appliance
- A blown fuse on an older board still running ceramic fuses instead of modern breakers
- A termination that's worked loose inside the board, a problem that tends to worsen with heat and vibration
- A circuit under more load than it's rated to carry, especially during periods of high demand
- Storm or wind damage to the lines feeding your street
- A genuine network fault, which sits with the distributor rather than us
The first four are switchboard and wiring issues we fix directly.
Three Safe Steps To Take Now
- Check next door. If neighbouring homes still have power, the fault is almost certainly inside your own property.
- Look at your switchboard. Check for a main switch or an individual breaker sitting at "off" rather than "on".
- Reset it once. Flick it back on. If it holds, note which circuit it was. If it trips straight away again, leave it off and call us.
Never keep resetting a switch that won't hold. That's a fault telling you something, not a nuisance to work around.
How We Fix It, Step by Step
Testing runs methodically through the switchboard, circuit by circuit, until the fault is pinned down to one point.
That might mean an ageing fuse that needs replacing with a modern breaker, a loose termination that's arced and needs remaking, or a circuit that's simply drawing beyond its rated load.
Once we've found it, we repair or replace to AS/NZS 3000 and issue a Certificate of Compliance if the work is notifiable. You get a plain-language rundown of the cause before we close anything back up.
Keeping It From Coming Back
Most repeat outages trace back to a board that was never really up to the job.
- Fit a safety switch to each circuit if your board doesn't already have them, so a fault trips just that switch rather than the whole board
- Upgrade an old ceramic-fuse board to modern circuit breakers, which reset safely instead of needing a replacement fuse
- Spread heavy appliances like air conditioning or ovens across separate circuits rather than one already-busy line
- Book a switchboard check every few years, particularly on an older property, so a weak connection is caught before it fails
If your board keeps tripping under normal use, it's telling you it's due for an upgrade rather than another reset.
Why This Is Common in Ashfield Homes
Ashfield's mix of pre-war cottages and older walk-up flats means a fair few switchboards here are still running the original ceramic fuses rather than modern breakers.
A fuse board runs with far less headroom than a modern one.
A fault a newer breaker would isolate cleanly can instead take out the whole circuit, or trip the main switch entirely. It's a common reason an outage turns out to be entirely inside the house.
Related Faults and Surrounding Areas
Sometimes what looks like an outage is really a breaker that trips and won't hold, or a board that's been buzzing or clicking for a while before it finally cut out. Where lights dim rather than die completely, our page on flickering covers that pattern instead.
We work this same fault across Summer Hill, Croydon and Haberfield as much as we do in Ashfield itself.
Call Now About Your Power Outage
Lost power and not sure why? Ring (02) 9538 7444 and we'll talk you through the quick check before booking a visit if it's needed.
Often same or next day, with a fixed price agreed before any work starts.
Common questions
Ashfield Power Outages FAQs
Is a power outage an emergency?
A street-wide loss of power generally isn't ours to fix. Power gone at your address alone, particularly with any burning smell, is worth an urgent call.
How do I know if it's just my house?
Glance next door. A lit-up house beside a dark one of yours means the problem sits inside your own wiring, not the wider supply.
Can a power outage damage my appliances?
Not usually from the loss of supply itself. It's the moment power comes back, especially as a jolt rather than a smooth restart, that puts gear at risk.
Will my safety switch protect me?
It guards against shock while the circuit is live. A tripped safety switch is also often the reason power dropped in the first place.
How do you find the fault?
Each circuit gets tested in turn from the board until the exact point of failure is isolated, rather than swapping parts on a guess.
How quickly can you reach an Ashfield property?
Standard bookings run often same or next day, and anything that sounds urgent when you call (02) 9538 7444 gets moved ahead of the queue.