Your electrical questions, answered in plain English

They protect against different things. A circuit breaker protects your wiring: it switches off when too much current flows, like when too many appliances run on one circuit or there's a short circuit. That stops cables overheating and causing a fire.

A safety switch (also called an RCD) protects people. It watches for electricity leaking out of the circuit, for example through someone touching a faulty appliance, and cuts the power in a fraction of a second. You can usually spot safety switches on your switchboard by their "TEST" button. Every home should have both.

The most common causes are:

• Overload: too many high-power appliances (kettle, heater, microwave) on one circuit.
• A faulty appliance: unplug everything on that circuit, reset the breaker, then plug things back in one at a time. If it trips when one item goes in, that's your culprit.
• Water: moisture in an outdoor power point or light, often after rain.
• A wiring fault: damaged or ageing cable, or a loose connection.

If it trips again with nothing plugged in, or you smell burning, stop resetting it and call an electrician. A breaker that keeps tripping is doing its job: telling you something is wrong.

Call us any time, day or night, if you have sparks, smoke or a burning smell from a power point, switch or switchboard; no power to the house when the neighbours have it; a safety switch that trips and won't reset; water near electrical fittings; or a power point or switch that's hot to touch.

If it's safe, switch off at the main switch first. If there's a fire or someone has had an electric shock, call 000 first, then call us on 0433 192 502.

Press the "TEST" button on each safety switch every three months. It should switch off straight away. Flick it back on and you're done. It takes about a minute, and a good reminder is to do it when the seasons change.

If a safety switch doesn't trip when you press the button, it may not protect you when it matters. Call us to check and replace it.

No. In Queensland, as in the rest of Australia, electrical work on your home's fixed wiring has to be done by a licensed electrician, even something as small as swapping a power point or light switch. As well as the shock and fire risk, unlicensed work can void your home insurance.

You can safely change light globes, reset breakers and test your safety switches yourself.

Yes. For planned work, we give you a fixed price in writing before we start. If we find something unexpected once we're in the roof or walls, we stop and talk to you before doing anything extra. The price only changes if you say yes.

For emergencies and fault finding, we'll tell you our call-out and hourly rate on the phone before we come out, so there are no surprises on the invoice.