24/7 emergency electrician in New Orleans
If something is burning, sparking, or hot to the touch, stop reading and call. The rest of this page is for deciding whether what you are looking at is an emergency, and what to do in the meantime.
- Answered
- 24 hours, including holidays
- Call or text
- (504) 514-8224
- Service area
- New Orleans & surrounding parishes
- Licensed
- LA #03LEL16537
Call now, do not wait for morning
- A burning smell, or a smell like fish or hot plastic, from an outlet, switch or the panel.
- Sparking, arcing, or a visible flash from an outlet or fixture.
- An outlet, switch plate or breaker that is hot to the touch.
- Scorch marks or discoloration around a receptacle.
- Buzzing, humming or crackling coming from the panel.
- A breaker that trips immediately every time you reset it. It is doing its job. Something is wrong on that circuit.
- Water reaching any electrical equipment — a flooded panel, a leak into a fixture, standing water near outlets.
- Losing power in part of the house while the rest stays on and the neighbors are fine. That pattern often means a failing service connection or a lost neutral, which can damage everything plugged in.
- A shock from an appliance, a switch, or anything metal.
- A downed or damaged service line at your house.
What to do while you wait
Turn off the breaker for the affected circuit, if you can reach the panel safely and there is no smoke or water at the panel itself. If you cannot identify the circuit and the situation is bad, shut off the main.
Do not touch standing water that might be in contact with electrical equipment, and do not enter a flooded room with live power. Shut off the main first, from a dry position, or wait for us.
Unplug what you can reach safely on the affected circuit, especially if you suspect a lost neutral — that is the failure that sends high voltage to half your appliances.
If there is active fire or smoke, leave and call 911 first. We are the call after the fire department, not before.
Whose problem is it — ours or Entergy's
This confuses almost everyone, and calling the wrong one costs hours during an outage.
Entergy owns the line from the pole to the point where it attaches to your house, and the meter itself. Downed lines in the street, a transformer out, no power on the whole block: Entergy.
You own the weatherhead, the mast, the service entrance conductors, the meter can, and everything inward. If wind or a tree pulled the mast off your wall, Entergy will not reconnect until a licensed electrician repairs it — and they will not do that repair. That is our call, and it is one of the most common ones we get after a storm.
If you are not sure which you are looking at, call and describe it. Sorting that out on the phone in two minutes is free and it saves you a day.
After a storm
Common in the days following weather here: a panel or meter that took water and needs to be evaluated before it is re-energized, a service mast pulled loose, a generator that will not start or will not carry the load, and homes needing temporary power to get essential circuits running while a full repair is scheduled.
A panel that has been submerged does not dry out and return to normal. The corrosion is inside the breakers and on the bus. It gets evaluated, and usually replaced, before power goes back on it.
What emergency service costs
After-hours and weekend calls carry a higher rate than scheduled work — that is true of every trade and we would rather say so plainly here than surprise you at the door. What you get told on the phone is what it costs. If it turns out the safe answer is to kill one breaker and have us out first thing in the morning at the normal rate, we will tell you that too.
Recent work
Every photo below is a TK Electric job in the New Orleans area, not stock photography.
Get a straight answer on your emergency electrician
Tell us what is going on and we will give you an honest assessment and a fair price. Family owned, licensed and insured, serving New Orleans for over 20 years.
Request a free estimateOr call or text (504) 514-8224
Common questions
What counts as an electrical emergency?
A burning or fishy smell, sparking or arcing, anything hot to the touch, scorch marks, buzzing from the panel, a breaker that trips instantly on every reset, water reaching electrical equipment, a shock from an appliance or fixture, or losing power to part of the house while the rest stays on. Any of those, kill the breaker if you safely can and call.
Is TK Electric really available 24/7?
Emergency calls are answered 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays, at (504) 514-8224. Office hours for scheduled work are Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm.
Half my house lost power but the neighbors are fine. What is that?
That pattern often points to a failing service connection or a lost neutral rather than a utility outage. A lost neutral can send excessive voltage to appliances and damage them, so it should be treated urgently rather than waited out. Unplug what you can safely reach and call.
My service mast was pulled off the house by a storm. Who fixes it?
You do, through a licensed electrician. Entergy owns the line to the attachment point and the meter; the weatherhead, mast, service entrance conductors and meter can are the homeowner's. Entergy will not reconnect power until that damage is repaired, and they do not perform the repair.
My panel flooded. Can it just dry out?
No. Submerged panels retain corrosion on the bus bar and inside the breakers, which does not reverse as it dries. The panel needs evaluation before being re-energized and in most cases needs replacement.
Does emergency service cost more?
Yes. After-hours, weekend and holiday calls are billed at a higher rate than scheduled work. You will be told the rate on the phone before anyone is dispatched, and if the situation can safely wait until morning at the standard rate, we will say so.
Why does my circuit breaker keep tripping?
A breaker that trips is doing its job; the question is what it is protecting you from. Usually one of three things: too much load on one circuit, a failing appliance drawing more current than it should, or a short circuit or ground fault in the wiring. The distinction that matters is timing. If it resets and holds for a while, that is normally overload, and moving something to another circuit fixes it. If it trips instantly every time you reset it, stop resetting it and call — that pattern points at a short, and forcing a breaker closed on a short is how fires start.
Why do my lights flicker?
One fixture flickering is usually a loose bulb or a failing fixture, and it is not urgent. The whole house flickering, or lights dimming hard every time the air conditioner or refrigerator kicks on, is a different problem — it points at a loose connection at the panel, a service that is undersized for the house, or a failing neutral at the service connection. Whole-house flicker is worth a call this week. Flicker with a burning smell or buzzing at the panel is a call today.
One outlet stopped working but the rest are fine. What is that?
Check for a tripped GFCI first. Outlets in kitchens, baths, garages, laundry rooms and outdoors are often protected by a GFCI somewhere else on the circuit — sometimes in another room entirely — and resetting that one device restores several outlets at once. If no GFCI is tripped and the breaker is on, the usual cause is a failed receptacle or a loose connection at a push-in back-stab terminal, a real failure point in older New Orleans houses. A loose connection makes heat before it makes an outage, so if the plate is warm or discolored, stop using it and call.
My GFCI outlet will not reset. What now?
Either the device has failed, or it is working correctly and there is a real ground fault on the circuit. Unplug everything on that circuit and try again. If it resets with nothing plugged in, one of your appliances is the fault — plug them back one at a time to find it. If it still will not reset with the circuit empty, the fault is in the wiring and needs an electrician. Separately, a GFCI that does not cut power when you press TEST has failed and should be replaced whether or not it resets.