Electrical Services Dubai
A breaker that trips is not a nuisance. It is a safety device telling you something is wrong, and the two worst things you can do are reset it repeatedly or replace it with a larger one.
We cover fault finding, distribution boards, sockets and lighting, new circuits, rewiring and testing, for villas, apartments, offices and whole buildings across Dubai.
- Faults traced with test equipment
- Work to the wiring regulations
- Emergency line answered 24 hours
- Homes, offices and buildings
The calls we get most
Electrical faults are rarely mysterious once someone has put a meter on them. They are only mysterious from the outside.
The board keeps tripping
An RCD trips on earth leakage and an MCB trips on overload. Which one went tells you a great deal before anything is opened. We isolate circuit by circuit until the fault shows itself rather than guessing at appliances.
UsuallyEarth leakage or overload
Sockets that have stopped
A whole ring dead is usually one loose connection somewhere on it, and heat cycling in this climate loosens terminals faster than most places. Found with a meter, not by opening every socket in the room.
UsuallyA loose terminal on the circuit
Lights flickering or dimming
Flicker when a large appliance starts is a supply or a connection issue. Flicker on its own is often a dimmer that does not suit the lamp, which is a five minute answer that plenty of people have paid a lot for.
UsuallyConnection, or the wrong dimmer
A burning smell or scorch marks
Switch that circuit off at the board and call. Discolouration around a socket or a smell from the board means something is arcing, and arcing does not improve on its own.
UsuallyIsolate and call, same day
New circuits and capacity
An air conditioner, a water heater or a cooker needs its own circuit sized for it. Running one off an existing socket circuit is how boards start tripping, and it is a fire risk long before it is an inconvenience.
UsuallyIts own circuit, correctly sized
If it is for a new AC unitRewiring and older properties
Villas from the eighties and nineties often have boards with no residual current protection at all. That is not a code question, it is the device that stops a shock becoming an electrocution.
UsuallyRCD protection is not optional
How a fault gets found
Testing, in a sequence, until the fault has nowhere left to hide. It is slower than guessing for the first twenty minutes and much faster after that.
If you can, note what was running when it tripped and whether it trips immediately on reset or after a while. Both narrow it down considerably.
- 1
Read the board
Which device operated, and what it protects. An RCD and an MCB fail for completely different reasons and point at different halves of the system.
- 2
Split the circuit
Loads disconnected in sections and insulation resistance measured, until the fault sits in one identifiable stretch of cable or one appliance.
- 3
Quote the repair
What it is, what it needs and what that costs, agreed before anything is replaced. Sometimes the answer is a five dirham part and we will say so.
- 4
Repair and test
The circuit is repaired, tested under load, and the board labelled properly on the way out. A board nobody can read is its own hazard in an emergency.
Safe things to check yourself
None of this involves opening anything. If the answer is not on this list, stop and call.
- Note which switch on the board moved
- Unplug everything on that circuit, then reset once
- Check whether neighbours have lost power too
- Look for a scorch mark or smell at any socket
- Try a different lamp before blaming the fitting
- Never replace a breaker with a larger one
Why the breaker is on your side
People come to us having reset the same breaker every evening for a month. It is an understandable habit and a genuinely dangerous one. A breaker trips because current is going somewhere it should not, and every reset sends it there again.
Earth leakage in particular is worth taking seriously in Dubai, because the two most common sources are a water heater element failing and moisture reaching a circuit in a bathroom or on a balcony. Both put current into something a person can touch.
A fault that trips a device is a fault the system caught. The ones that hurt people are the ones nothing catches, which is exactly what happens when protection is bypassed or upsized to stop the nuisance.
What people book with this
Plumbing
Leaks, blocked drains, water heaters, pipework and bathroom fittings.
Handyman
The small jobs. Shelves, doors, curtain rails, TV mounts, locks and hinges.
AC Repair
Not cooling, leaking water, tripping the breaker or making a noise. We find the fault before we quote it.
Renovation
Bathrooms, kitchens and whole flats, run by one team from strip-out to handover.
We also cover plumbing, electrical, handyman, painting, carpentry, tiling and renovation. An annual maintenance contract puts the lot on one schedule, or see everything we do.
Where our technicians go
Across the whole city, from the Marina and Downtown out to Mirdif, Al Barsha and the newer communities. If your building is not listed it does not mean we do not come.
New Dubai
- Dubai Marina
- Jumeirah Lakes Towers
- Palm Jumeirah
- Jumeirah Beach Residence
- Emirates Hills
- The Greens and The Views
- Discovery Gardens
- Dubai Media City
Central Dubai
- Downtown Dubai
- Business Bay
- DIFC
- Al Barsha
- Jumeirah
- Umm Suqeim
- Al Quoz
- Trade Centre
Old Dubai
- Deira
- Bur Dubai
- Al Karama
- Al Nahda
- Mirdif
- Al Qusais
- Oud Metha
- Garhoud
Outer communities
- Arabian Ranches
- Jumeirah Village Circle
- Dubai Silicon Oasis
- Dubai Sports City
- Damac Hills
- Motor City
- Dubai Hills Estate
- International City
Questions we get asked on the phone
Why does my AC trip the breaker every time it starts?
Because start-up is when the compressor draws hardest, so a marginal circuit or a failing component shows itself then and not at any other time. It can be a failing capacitor, a compressor drawing more than it should, damaged cable, or an AC sharing a circuit that was never sized for it. All four are found with a meter and none of them get better with resetting.
Is it safe to keep resetting a tripped breaker?
No, and this is the one thing on this page worth taking literally. Reset once. If it holds, watch what you switch on next. If it trips again, leave it off and call. A device that operates repeatedly is telling you there is a fault on that circuit, and current is finding a path it should not have.
Do older villas need rewiring?
Not always, and a full rewire is a big job that gets recommended far more often than it is needed. What genuinely matters is protection: many older boards in Dubai have no RCD at all, and adding it is a fraction of the cost of rewiring while removing most of the actual risk. We will tell you which of the two your property needs.
Can you add a circuit for a cooker or a water heater?
Yes, and it is the right way to do it. Each of those needs a dedicated circuit sized for the load, with cable to match and its own protective device. Where the board has no spare way we will fit one that does, and if that means the incoming supply needs checking we will say so before committing you to anything.
Do you do electrical work in offices and shops?
Yes, including fit out changes, lighting alterations and additional power for equipment. Most of it is done outside trading hours so the space is usable during the day, and that costs the same as working through the middle of it.
Can you fix light fittings I bought myself?
Yes. Fit only is normal for lighting, and for chandeliers and heavy fittings it is worth having somebody look at what they are being fixed into as well as what they are being wired to.
Describe what the board did
Which switch moved, what was running at the time, and whether it holds on a reset. Those three answers usually tell us what to bring.