Electrical Repairs in Orange County, CA

Every electrical repair visit is $149 for the first hour, which covers the diagnosis or the first hour of repair labor; parts and materials are extra. If the job needs more time, you get a flat price for the rest before any work continues, not an hourly meter. Typical examples: replacing a standard circuit breaker from $275, replacing a GFCI outlet from $250, installing or replacing a ceiling fan from $400 depending on the fan and ceiling height. All repairs are covered by our 100% labor warranty.

Per hour, yes. In total, often not. California requires a licensed contractor for any job over $1,000 and for any electrical work that needs a permit — new circuits, panel work, rewiring — so a handyman doing that work is operating illegally, and most home insurers will deny a claim for a fire traced to unpermitted electrical work. A licensed electrician also carries a bond and insurance.

Some things, with the power off at the breaker: swapping a light fixture, a switch or a like-for-like outlet. Things to leave alone: anything inside the panel, adding circuits, aluminum wiring (common in homes built 1965–73), a breaker that keeps tripping, or any outlet or switch that’s warm, discolored or buzzing. Those are symptoms of a problem upstream, and the fix is rarely where the symptom is.

A breaker that trips once did its job — too much load on the circuit. One that trips repeatedly points to a short, a ground fault, a failing breaker, or a motor pulling too much current. If the panel is warm, smells hot or the breaker won’t reset, turn off the main and call us. A common Orange County case: the AC trips its breaker every afternoon. That can be the breaker, the wiring or the compressor — and we’re one of the few contractors licensed to diagnose all three. See breaker repair and replacement.

Yes. Call before noon and we can usually have a licensed electrician at your Orange County home the same day. We’re open Monday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 9 am to 4 pm; we don’t currently run an after-hours emergency service. If you smell burning or see scorching at an outlet or the panel, turn off the breaker or the main and call us first thing — those calls go to the front of the schedule.

Like-for-like replacements — an outlet, a switch, a light fixture, a failed breaker of the same rating — generally don’t. New circuits, panel upgrades or replacements, EV charger circuits, and rewiring do. When a permit is required we pull it, schedule the inspection and include the fee in your quote, so the work is on record for your insurer and for the day you sell the house.

Yes. Smartchoice holds a California C-10 Electrical Contractor license (#1120145) and a C-20 HVAC license (#1120994), and we’re bonded and insured. Every repair is backed by our 100% labor warranty. Holding both licenses is rare in Orange County, and it means one company is accountable when the problem crosses between the electrical panel and the equipment it powers.