How to Choose an Electrician in Singapore

Most household trades leave it to you to decide how careful to be. Electrical work does not: Singapore law sets out who may do it, and puts an obligation on the person hiring as well as the person working. Knowing the shape of that is most of what you need to choose well.

EMA licenses individual Licensed Electrical Workers in three classes — Electrician, Electrical Technician and Electrical Engineer — distinguished by the size of installation they may work on. EMA states that electrical work in an HDB flat requires an electrician, while larger installations such as a food court need a technician or an engineer.

Section 82 of the Electricity Act 2001 sets out four things worth knowing. An individual must not carry out electrical work unless they are a licensed electrical worker or are working under the supervision of one. A business must not provide electrical work unless it ensures the work is carried out by, or supervised by, licensed electrical workers. A business must not hold itself out as authorised unless it does that. And an owner or occupier must not knowingly engage a person who is not permitted to carry out the work. Contravening any of these is an offence.

The practical consequence is that asking who the licensed worker is on your job is not an awkward question. It is the question the statute is built around, and a company providing electrical work should have a ready answer.

The Act lists narrow exceptions. A person may replace a lamp connected in their own electrical installation, and may replace a fuse in their own installation similar to that of a household. There are further exceptions for EMA’s own officers, for a tradesperson working on an appliance provided they do not work on any part or circuit connected to a supply of electricity, and for a trained person working to the written instructions of the licensed electrical worker in charge.

Every Licensed Electrical Worker is issued a licence card carrying a photograph, their name, identity card number and licence number. EMA advises verifying the card before any electrical work begins.

You can also search EMA’s e-Licence Information Services portal, ELISE, under "Search for Licensed Workers" and then "Electrical worker who offers services to consumers". It needs no account, and you can search by name, by licence number, by postal code or by street. Searching by the licence number exactly as it appears on the card is the most reliable. You will be asked to type a short security code before each search.

A separate EMA scheme licenses electrical installations — for non-domestic premises above 45kVA, for hazardous trades, and for certain supply installations. That licence is held by the owner or user of the installation, not by the contractor, and EMA states that the scheme does not apply to installations used exclusively for residential purposes. If a company mentions an installation licence, it is not telling you anything about your flat.

Electricians publish more pricing than plumbers do, which sounds like good news until you try to put two of them side by side. Among the companies we researched, one publishes per-item prices stated as inclusive of labour and transport. Another publishes a base service charge, a separate transport fee, and per-service rates on top. A third publishes a minimum charge, a fuel surcharge, an urgency fee and price ranges, plus out-of-hours percentages by time of night. A fourth publishes a transport fare and a labour-only rate.

All four are honest. None of them can be compared with the others as a single "from" figure, which is why this comparison does not try. Worth knowing too: of the companies we researched, not one published its prices together with a statement about GST.

Among the companies we researched, published terms ranged from a year on workmanship and supplied parts with the exclusions written down, to three months on parts only, to a workmanship warranty whose duration "varies by job type", to a warranty asserted with no duration or coverage at all. Several published nothing. One company’s own FAQ asks whether it provides a warranty and publishes no answer. "Warranty provided" on its own tells you very little.