Long ago I had the pleasure of sharing an office with Paul, an EIT (engineer in training) the firm I worked for had hired. He was a recent graduate that had passed his EIT exam with his actual degree and specific discipline in "electrical engineering". His passion seemed to be computer and automated systems, but with employment difficult to find he decided to put in his experience time with a civil firm. And as expected he did great. Paul was also always interested in the fact that I was a licensed surveyor, but had taken the exam through "long established experience" with no formal education requirements.
The company had purchased a large blue-line machine for the office and had it delivered. I don't remember if it was 240vac or if the circuit was too small for the machine, but we had to call out an electrician to finish the install. As the electrician went about his business, Paul explained to me the ins and outs of basic AC wiring and building codes. Off-the-cuff I suggested that he find out about what it would take for an "electrical engineer" to obtain a commercial electrician's license. He quietly actually did just that. After about a month he announced he had maneuvered the system and was now a "licensed" electrician. I left there not long after that and lost contact with him. Out of the blue I got a chance to talk to him recently.
Paul was always a "blue collar" kind of guy and that seemed to me to set him apart from the other PEs I had known at the time. He finally wound up with a firm that designs and installs computerized manufacturing equipment systems, like automated feed mixing and packaging plants. He has overseen the construction and installation of some of the biggest, diverse and most innovative plants in the country. His career has done him well.
And he thanked me for originally suggesting he obtain his electrician's license. Apparently that was a big plus when he first went to work for the outfit and has continued to keep him abreast of a lot of changes in the industry. We laughed about how an off-the-cuff remark can turn into a career altering path.
Mark one up for the blue-collar team. B-)
I once had my electrician's license, just to prove that I could pass the test. It wasn't worth anything unless I became a bonded contractor or worked for a company that was. At $5/year to renew I kept it for "just in case". Then the county government was influenced to weed out the riff-raff and raised it to $75 so I dropped it.
I've always been amazed at the disparity of how tight the rules are versus the mistakes that don't get caught. You could have to rework something for spacing the staples too far or or putting receptacles one inch too far apart on the wall, but yet I have run into total fubars by licensed electricians. I guess it's the same whether it's surveyors, electricians, or (gasp) doctors. They aren't all equally competent and careful.
One example was at the arts center where I volunteer. It had an electrical upgrade by a contractor before I started helping there. We always had a lot of problems with lighting buzz being picked up by the sound system. I finally traced it to a quad receptacle box that one of the dimmers was plugged into. They had wired it black and white on one duplex receptacle, and red and green on the other. So all the dimmer's return current from that receptacle was returned on the green ground instead of the neutral, and got into everything on stage. We made a major improvement in buzz reduction when we fixed that. But it was done under license and the job supposedly inspected.
Then there was the egg factory. A couple very long chicken houses with augers and conveyors for feed, eggs, and manure. An electrician had added three phase to the wiring that had originally been just 120/240. He installed a meter to check the phase voltages, with switches to select. But somebody pushed two switches at once, and the switches blew up like a firecracker. He had run unfused #14 wire off the 400 amp disconnect to each switch and bussed together the common of the switches. It's a wonder the switches acted like a fuse instead of shorting out to something and burning up the wire.
And if you turned off the main power disconnects in the wrong order, you burned out small appliances in the nearby residence. He just added a third disconnect switch for the 3rd phase instead of putting in a 3-pole disconnect per code. Since it was high-leg delta (look it up if you are curious) that let excessive voltage go through conveyor motors and back into the supposedly disconnected house.
So licensing electricians doesn't stop all the problems there any more than licensing surveyors does.
Bill93, post: 359473, member: 87 wrote: ...Then the county government was influenced to weed out the riff-raff and raised it to $75 so I dropped it...
hmmm... about 20 snide remarks come to mind....but nevermind. 😉
In that arena, I was riff-raff, as I guess I am on this forum also, as I've never been employed as an electrician or surveyor. But you guys are polite enough to let me hang out with you.
Actually, what happened was a union guy got in a position of power on the board and it appeared they wanted to squeeze out the small shops, moonlighters, and weekenders. There were also rumors, which I was not in position to check, that they were inspecting work by the non-union shops much more carefully than the union ones. See nit-picking rules like mentioned above.
Bill93, post: 359563, member: 87 wrote: In that arena, I was riff-raff, as I guess I am on this forum also, as I've never been employed as an electrician or surveyor. But you guys are polite enough to let me hang out with you.
Aw, Bill, who can resist someone who looks at a Solar Compass with admiration like that?
Warren Smith, post: 359564, member: 9900 wrote: Aw, Bill, who can resist someone who looks at a Solar Compass with admiration like that?
...and solves the BeerLeg crypto quote of the day...
DDSM:beer::good:
