24/7 EMERGENCY SERVICE · HAMILTON, ON
24 Hour Electrician in Hamilton, ON
The phone is answered at any hour, every day of the year, by a licensed contractor with over 30 years in Hamilton.
ECRA/ESA 7009372
WSIB compliant · 30+ years · Top 3 in Hamilton
Quick answer
Apollo Electric Inc. is a 24 hour electrician serving Hamilton, Ontario. Licensed under ECRA/ESA 7009372 with over 30 years in the trade, we answer emergency calls at 905-921-5487 at any hour, every day. Non-emergency booking runs 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, including evenings and weekends.
Power failures do not keep business hours. A breaker that will not reset at 11pm, a burning smell at a panel on a Sunday, a tenant with no heat in February: those are the calls a 24 hour electrician takes. Apollo Electric Inc. has operated out of 83 Ferndale Ave in Hamilton for over three decades under Master Electrician Zvonko Lipovac, and the number below reaches a licensed contractor rather than a call centre.
What Apollo Covers Around the Clock
A 24 hour electrician is not a general handyman with a van. Emergency dispatch is for faults that get worse if they wait. The list below is what gets a same-night visit across Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, Waterdown, Stoney Creek, Grimsby, Burlington, Oakville, Milton, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and the surrounding GTA.
- Partial power outage, where half the house is dark and one leg of the service is reading low or nothing
- A breaker that trips the instant it is reset, or a main that will not hold
- Burning smell, scorch marks, buzzing or heat at a panel, receptacle or switch
- Water contact with a panel, meter base or basement circuit after a flood or a burst line
- A damaged service mast, weatherhead or overhead service drop after wind or ice
- Total loss of power to one property while the neighbours are still lit
- A dead furnace, sump pump or well pump circuit in winter or during heavy rain
- Commercial loss of refrigeration, three phase equipment or emergency and exit lighting
The following are real work, but a 24 hour electrician books them between 9:00 am and 8:00 pm rather than dispatching them overnight, because they need an ESA notification, a planned shutdown or a parts order:
- Panel upgrades and fuse panel to breaker conversions
- EV charger installation and the load calculation behind it
- Knob and tube removal and aluminum wiring remediation
- Pot lights, fixture swaps, renovation rough-ins and generator installs
- Any job that needs a permit and an inspection booked on the same visit
If you are not sure which side of that line you are on, call anyway. Describing the smell, the sound and which circuits are dead usually settles it inside two minutes, and there is no charge for that conversation.
When Should You Call a 24 Hour Electrician in Hamilton?
Call a 24 hour electrician the moment the fault involves heat, smoke, water or a complete loss of power to an occupied building. Those four conditions do not improve while you sleep, and three of them are fire or shock risks that grow with every hour the circuit stays energised.
Heat and smell. A warm breaker, a hot cover plate or the sharp plastic smell of overheating insulation means a connection is failing under load. Loose terminations at a bus bar arc, and arcing carbonises the surrounding material until it conducts on its own. This is the single most common cause of panel fires in older Hamilton housing stock, and it is why a 24 hour electrician treats a smell call as urgent even when nothing has tripped yet.
Water. Ask for a 24 hour electrician immediately here. Any water that has reached a panel, a meter base or a service entrance conductor makes the enclosure live and unpredictable. Do not open the door and do not attempt to dry it. The service needs to be isolated before anything else happens.
Repeat tripping. A breaker that trips once on a kettle and a space heater is doing its job. A breaker that trips immediately with everything unplugged is reporting a short or a ground fault on the branch circuit, and resetting it repeatedly is the wrong response.
Total darkness with lit neighbours. If the street has power and one property does not, the fault is on the property side of the connection point and the utility will not attend it. That is a call for a 24 hour electrician, not for the distributor.
None of the four needs a second opinion first. What can reasonably wait for a 24 hour electrician to attend in the morning instead: a single dead receptacle, a flickering fixture on one circuit, a tripped GFCI that resets and holds, or a light switch that has stopped working. Those are booked at the 9:00 am to 8:00 pm rate. More detail on the diagnostic side of outages is on our partial power outage guide for Hamilton, and the wider urgent-call picture is covered on our emergency electrician page.
How an After Hours Call Runs, Step by Step
Every overnight job follows the same order, because skipping a step in the dark is how people get hurt.
- Phone triage. You describe the symptom, the smell, the sound and which circuits are dead. That determines whether this is a dispatch, a distributor call or a morning booking, and it is done on the phone before anyone drives anywhere.
- Make safe. On arrival the affected circuit or the whole service is isolated. Nothing is diagnosed while a faulted conductor is energised.
- Diagnosis. Voltage and continuity readings at the service entrance, the bus bar and the affected branch circuit, plus a check of the main lugs, the neutral and ground bonding, and a load calculation where the panel is at or near its ampacity.
- Repair or temporary isolation. Where the part is on the van, the repair is completed the same visit. Where it is not, the faulted circuit is isolated and the property is left safe and partly powered, with a return booked.
- Notification and certificate. Where the Ontario Electrical Safety Code requires it, notification is filed with the Electrical Safety Authority and the work is closed out with a certificate of inspection. Emergency timing does not remove that obligation.
What a 24 Hour Electrician Costs After Hours
The honest answer is that it depends on the fault, and any 24 hour electrician who says otherwise before seeing the panel is guessing. Apollo does not publish a flat overnight rate, because a twenty minute breaker replacement and a rebuilt service mast are not the same job and pricing them the same would mean overcharging one customer to cover the other. You get a number in CAD before any work begins, and it is held to the satisfaction guarantee, with a lifetime warranty on select parts and components.
| What moves the price | Why |
|---|---|
| Hour and day of the call | An 11pm Saturday callout carries a different cost base than a Tuesday evening inside the 9:00 am to 8:00 pm window |
| Diagnosis time | An obvious tripped main is minutes. An intermittent fault across three branch circuits is an hour of readings before anything is replaced |
| Panel type and age | Obsolete breakers, fuse panels and discontinued Federal Pioneer style equipment often have no drop-in replacement, which changes the scope from a swap to a partial rebuild |
| Aluminum branch wiring | Copper tailing and approved connectors add labour at every device, and the work has to be done properly rather than quickly |
| Parts availability overnight | Anything not on the van is a return visit, which is quoted separately and never billed twice |
| Whether ESA notification is required | Notification and inspection are real costs and they are stated up front, not added afterwards |
Anyone quoting a firm price for an unseen electrical fault over the phone is guessing. Ask instead what the diagnostic fee is, whether it is credited against the repair, and whether the contractor is licensed. Ours is ECRA/ESA 7009372, which you can verify independently, and the reasoning behind that check is set out on our licensed electrician in Hamilton page.
Whose Equipment Is It, Alectra or Yours
Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster and Stoney Creek are served by Alectra Utilities. Burlington is served by Burlington Hydro. Knowing which side of the connection point has failed saves an hour on a cold night, because each side is fixed by a different organisation.
| Utility side | Property owner side |
|---|---|
| Street transformer and distribution lines | Service mast and weatherhead |
| Overhead service drop up to the connection point | Service entrance conductors after the connection point |
| The revenue meter itself | The meter base the meter sits in |
| Area outages affecting the whole street | Main breaker, panel, bus bar, every branch circuit and device |
| Alectra emergency line: 1-833-253-2872 | Apollo Electric: 905-921-5487 |
Burlington customers report outages to Burlington Hydro on 1-877-310-4937. If the whole street is dark, report it to the distributor first. If it is one property, or half of one property, the fault is almost always on your side and the distributor will tell you the same thing after a long wait. A 24 hour electrician is the faster first call on a single property outage.
Hamilton Housing Stock and Why It Fails at Night
The overnight calls a 24 hour electrician takes in this city cluster around a handful of predictable causes, and those causes are geographic.
Durand and Corktown carry a large stock of pre-1950 homes, many still with runs of knob and tube in the walls and ceilings behind later renovations. Those conductors were never designed for the connected load of a modern household, and they fail under winter heating demand rather than in July.
East Hamilton and Stoney Creek are dense with 1960s and 1970s builds wired with aluminum branch circuits. Aluminum expands and contracts more than copper, terminations loosen over decades, and a loose termination under load is exactly the heat and arcing scenario described earlier. Full remediation is daytime work, described on our residential electrical services page, and detailed for older homes on the home rewiring guide.
Mountain bungalows built on 100 amp services are now running heat pumps, EV chargers, hot tubs and finished basements on a panel sized for a different era. Those services trip on the coldest nights of the year, when everything runs at once. Ancaster village homes predating 1930 and the older Aldershot and Roseland pockets of Burlington show the same pattern.
Commercial buildings fail differently. Three phase equipment, walk-in refrigeration and emergency lighting have compliance and inventory consequences the moment they stop, which is covered on our commercial electrical services page. Safety obligations for landlords and building owners are set out on our electrical safety page.
What Hamilton Customers Say
What Hamilton customers say
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Every quote below is from a real Apollo customer. More feedback on our work as a 24 hour electrician is collected on our reviews page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a 24 hour electrician available in Hamilton tonight?
Yes. Apollo Electric Inc. answers 905-921-5487 at any hour, every day of the year, for genuine electrical emergencies in Hamilton and the surrounding area. Non-emergency appointments are booked between 9:00 am and 8:00 pm, and evening and weekend service is available for work that does not need overnight dispatch.
What counts as a real electrical emergency?
Heat, smoke or a burning smell at a panel or outlet, water contact with electrical equipment, a breaker that trips immediately on reset, a damaged service mast, or a total loss of power to one property while the street stays lit. Single dead outlets and flickering fixtures can safely wait for morning.
Does a 24 hour electrician charge more at night?
After hours attendance carries a different cost base than daytime work, so overnight calls generally cost more than the same repair booked between 9:00 am and 8:00 pm. Apollo quotes the figure in CAD before work begins rather than after, and no firm price is given over the phone for an unseen fault.
Should I call Alectra Utilities or an electrician?
If the whole street is dark, call Alectra Utilities on 1-833-253-2872, or Burlington Hydro on 1-877-310-4937. If only your property is affected, or only part of it, the fault is on the property side of the connection point and needs a licensed electrician instead.
Can I reset a tripped breaker myself?
Resetting a breaker once is reasonable if there is no smell, no heat at the panel and no water present. If it trips again immediately, stop. Repeated resetting drives an existing fault further and removes the protection the breaker was installed to provide. Call instead.
Does emergency work still need an ESA certificate?
Where the Ontario Electrical Safety Code requires notification, yes. Urgency changes the sequence, not the obligation. Apollo files notification with the Electrical Safety Authority and closes the job with a certificate of inspection where the scope of work calls for one.
References
- Electrical Safety Authority, licensing, notification and the Ontario Electrical Safety Code
- Alectra Utilities, distributor for Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster and Stoney Creek
- Burlington Hydro, distributor for Burlington
- Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, contractor coverage
- Skilled Trades Ontario, electrician certification in Ontario
- City of Hamilton, building and permit information
Apollo Electric Inc.
Apollo Electric Inc.
83 Ferndale Ave, Hamilton, ON L8K 4L7
Phone: 905-921-5487 (24/7 emergency)
Email: zvonkoapollo@gmail.com
Non-emergency hours: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, evening and weekend service available
ECRA/ESA 7009372 · WSIB compliant · Fully licensed and bonded · Over 30 years
Apollo Electric Inc. is the 24 hour electrician on call for Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, Waterdown, Stoney Creek, Grimsby, Burlington, Oakville, Milton, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and surrounding areas including the GTA. To book non-urgent work, use our contact page.
Reviewed by Zvonko Lipovac, Master Electrician, ECRA/ESA 7009372. Last updated 9 September 2026.