The nearest emergency electrician in Istanbul

Burning smell, smoke or a hot panel

A smell of burning plastic from a panel, socket or switch points to a loose terminal, an overheating contactor or melting cable insulation. There is only one correct move: drop the main breaker, keep the cover closed and do not try to re-energise the line. Even if the smell fades, the fault has not; the hot spot becomes a fire risk the next time the circuit is loaded.

A breaker or RCD that keeps tripping

A breaker tripping once is normal; it did its job. The same breaker tripping again and again says the circuit has a leak, an overload or a short. A residual current device (RCD) tripping means current is flowing to earth somewhere it should not. Holding the device up by force, taping it, or fitting a higher-rated breaker is not a fix; it disables the protection.

Phase loss and partial outages

Power in half of the home but not the other half, or motors humming without starting in a three-phase business, strongly suggests phase loss. It is especially dangerous for compressors, pumps and lift motors: a motor forced to run on two phases can burn its winding within minutes. If the neighbours have power, the problem is after the meter and needs on-site measurement.

The power is out: only you, or the whole building?

Look at the stair light first, then at the light on the neighbour's doorbell. If the building is dark and the street lamps are off too, the outage is on the grid; you call the distribution company's fault line, and an electrician does not touch the grid. If the building is lit and only your flat is dark, the fault is after the meter: the main switch, the residual-current device, or a connection in the flat panel. If no breaker in the panel is down and there is still no power, the cable leaving the meter or the main switch itself may have burnt. That is not said without a measurement. On the phone the two pictures are separated.

• If there is a smell, smoke, heat or sparking, drop the main breaker. If you do not know which breaker, drop them all.
• Touch nothing with wet hands, on a wet floor, or with an open panel cover.
• If water and electricity meet at the same point, shut off the water first, then the power.
• Reset a tripped breaker only once. If it trips a second time, leave it; the problem is independent of you.
• Note or photograph from the outside what you saw: which breaker, which room, which appliance was running. This speeds up the diagnosis.
• If the breaker tripped while the oven, hob, washing machine or a heater was running, unplug or switch off that appliance, then raise the breaker once.

The only purpose of this order is to protect people and the building. Touching cables, terminals or the inside of a socket, bridging a breaker with wire or tape, or disabling the residual-current device is not on this list and never will be.

Panels and breaker groups

Old buildings still have cartridge fuses and unearthed wiring. In these panels the fault is usually a loose neutral bar, an overheated fuse base or aged insulation. In modern distribution boards, the choice of RCD, the correct split of circuits and labelling are decisive. Panel renewal is not a repair; it is planned work quoted after a site survey.

Sockets, switches and lighting

Dead sockets, hot plugs, flickering lights and chandeliers that will not light are the most common calls. A hot socket must be taken seriously; there is almost always a loose terminal. Flickering light can point to a weak neutral connection and will not go away by changing the bulb.

Earth leakage, earthing and measurement

Finding a leak requires an insulation resistance test; it cannot be seen on lines running inside walls. Earthing measurement should not be skipped in homes where a tingle is felt on appliance bodies. Both tests are done on site with calibrated instruments and the result is reported.

Common areas of buildings and estates

Lift supply lines, booster pump panels, caretaker flats and car park lighting are the management's responsibility. Faults at these points usually involve three-phase loads and show up as phase imbalance, a welded contactor or an overload trip.

A socket burnt, blackened or melted

A burnt socket is almost always the same story: the terminal screw has loosened, the contact surface has shrunk, and the heat collects there. It shows most on sockets that carry an electric heater, a kettle, an iron or a washing machine. The cover of a blackened socket is not swapped and left. The circuit is switched off, the burnt cable end is cut back to clean copper, an earthed socket of the same duty is fitted, and the voltage is measured. Done without opening the wall, this job sits inside the chandelier, spot and socket band of 650–2,800 TRY. If the burn mark has walked into the junction box, or a second socket on the same circuit is warm too, that is said on site and written separately.

The main breaker tripped at night and will not stay up

After midnight the top call is the main switch or the residual-current device. You raise it and it falls at once. That is a question for a measurement, not for luck. On the phone the request is to drop every group breaker, raise the main switch, then raise the groups one at a time. The group that makes it fall holds the fault; you can leave that group off and keep the rest of the home on until morning. If the main switch falls even with every group off, or its body is warm or blackened, do not wait. That picture is a night call.

A kitchen short circuit: oven, hob, dishwasher

A built-in oven, an induction hob and a dishwasher are the three biggest loads in a home. The short is usually not inside the appliance but in the connection behind it: a crushed cable, a heat-stained terminal box, or two appliances piled on one socket. If the breaker trips when the oven comes on, the oven is switched off and tested with another load. If it holds, the fault is in the appliance and belongs to the appliance service. If it trips, the fault is in the circuit and handled by the certified electrician team. A short that stays in a socket or junction box sits inside the chandelier, spot and socket band of 650–2,800 TRY. If the hob needs its own circuit and its own breaker, that is a new-circuit line and it is written before work starts.

Office and shop: an outage is lost business

In an office, when computers, the printer and the air conditioner pile onto one group, the breaker trips in the afternoon. In a shop, if the window lighting, the till and the fridge share one residual-current device, the device trips as the fridge compressor starts and the till goes dark. The first job here is to split the load into groups. Moving the till and the fridge to their own group is far cheaper and safer than bridging the device. If you do not want an outage in working hours, we move the measurement to after closing.

NYA inside the panel, NYM in the wall, NYY outside

The cable inside a flat's walls is NYM: multi-core, under plaster, a fixed installation. The single-core bridges inside the panel are NYA. A run to the garden, beyond the balcony or underground is NYY; burying NYM in a damp duct comes back a year later as a residual-current device that trips at night. In old Istanbul apartment blocks, aluminium risers and two-core circuits with no earth are still seen. An aluminium end that meets a copper terminal directly oxidises, heats and burns the socket. It is shown on site and the correction is written separately.

The cable size decides the breaker, not the other way round. A lighting circuit is usually 1.5 mm² on 10 amps. A socket circuit is 2.5 mm² on 16 amps. The oven and hob get their own run at a size that carries the load. Putting a 25 amp breaker on a 2.5 socket circuit stops the breaker tripping, but it does not stop the cable heating. A breaker is not upsized because it keeps tripping. The reason it trips is what gets found.

The residual-current device stays at 30 mA

In a home the device that protects a person is the 30 mA residual-current device. If it trips at night it is not bridged and it is not swapped for 300 mA. The groups are separated one by one and the guilty appliance or the wet circuit is found. The usual suspects are a balcony socket, a bathroom extractor fan, an old fridge, and a water heater with a cracked element. A device that does not trip when its test button is pressed is faulty, even if it looks as if it works.

Schneider and Siemens flat panels

A flat panel shows Schneider Acti9 or Easy9 breakers and residual-current devices on one side, and Siemens 5SL breakers with 5SV residual-current devices on the other. A replacement comes from the same family, the same curve and the same amp rating. A cheap body is not mixed into an expensive panel; if the busbar and comb do not match, the clamp loosens and heat starts. Moving from a fuse board to breakers is not a fault repair; it is a separate job written after a survey.

Estimate range versus binding quote

The tools on this site and the virtual engineer show you an estimate range. It is guidance derived from similar jobs, not a binding quote. The binding price is given in writing after the fault is seen and measured on site, before work starts. Any extra work revealed during the survey is not done without your approval.

Published labour bands, Istanbul

• The rows below are the same as the 2026 price table above. There is no second list.
• Fault diagnosis and measured survey: 750–1,500 TRY. If the repair is accepted, the survey fee is deducted.
• Breaker or residual-current device replacement: 1,250–3,200 TRY. 30 mA Type A, Schneider or Siemens.
• Chandelier, spot and socket installation: 650–2,800 TRY. Priced per unit.
• Dedicated air-conditioning circuit: 2,400–5,500 TRY. 3x2.5 or 3x4 mm² solid copper, C20–C25.
• Flat board renewal: 6,500–16,000 TRY. Internet and Cat6: 1,100–4,200 TRY.
• Factory and power-factor periodic maintenance: 4,500–18,000 TRY. Materials excluded. The night and public holiday difference is stated before departure.

The real variables behind the price

• Type of fault: tightening a socket terminal and renewing a panel busbar are not the same job.
• Access and measurement time: tracing a line inside a wall, reaching a floor panel, high-ceiling lighting.
• Materials: brand and class of the socket, breaker or residual-current device to be fitted.
• Time: night, weekend and public holiday calls have a separate tariff, stated in advance.
• Count: one socket and every socket in a flat are not the same row; as the count grows, the row changes.

All prices are in Turkish lira, invoiced, and paid on completion.

• A MYK-certified master, a real queue: the person who answers the phone is the person who does the work. No brokers, subcontractors or call centres.
• Safety first: in a dangerous situation the first answer is always to cut the power, even at the cost of losing the job.
• Decisions by measurement: insulation, continuity, earthing and current measurements instead of guessing by eye. Results reported on request.
• Transparent pricing: estimate range on the site, binding quote on site and in writing. No surprise items.
• Home, office and shop: a burnt socket, a tripping breaker and an outage are the network's daily work. A workshop panel is read with the same measuring discipline.
• Asian-side emergencies are taken 24/7. The European side is by appointment. Arrival time is confirmed on the call. The operations centre is Pendik, Sanayi Mahallesi, Hidayet Sokak No: 26.

• Call or WhatsApp: describe the fault in one sentence; if there is danger, the first instruction is given on the phone.
• Pre-diagnosis: photos and short questions establish the type and urgency of the fault; an estimate range is shared.
• On-site survey and measurement: the necessary tests are done, the findings are shown to you, a written quote is given.
• Repair: work is done with your approval; replaced parts are handed over to you.
• Close-out: test, labelling and a short usage note. Warranty scope and duration are stated in writing per job.