r/ElectriciansUK

I’ve just finished a super small project, and was speaking to my wife about how I write up the invoice at the end.. most of my jobs aren’t ‘quoted’ and I haven’t had any problems so far..

I generally add up the time worked, or days, for example it would be something like this..

3 days of labour at X
Materials cost X but just bang on as much as I deem possible…

The salary pays me, the profit goes into my limited for growth…

It does all feel a little bit flakey, but then if I fix to a percentage on materials the numbers just aren’t really worth it… 10% profit on a £600 worth of bits is hardly worth approaching VAT thresholds for etc.

Has anyone actually found a sweet spot or is there always some ‘Umming & ahhing’ about what you actually need to earn?

With there being more regular heat waves and demand seemingly up for AC installs, what’s required both tool and qualification wise?

Evening all,

Moved into our house a little over 1 year ago now. I was sitting in the back garden looking at the exterior wall and thought I’ve never opened this junction box next to the utility door. Upon opening, there is a lighting tail curled up in the box, it’s obviously not water tight as it was also full of dead spiders. Checking the plans from the original builder, it looked like they were going to install a switched external light but never fitted the actual light fitting.

I would assume that the original house builder shouldn’t have left it like this, and my best course of action would be to make it water tight and fit a light?

About 6 years ago I replaced the shower pull switch in my bathroom with a British General 50A one, and unfortunately it seems to have failed recently, and the Neon died ages ago.

Given that it was a cheap sub £10 one I'm templed to spend a bit more on a decent brand this time. I'm seeing MK units available for £20 or so, but is MK worth the extra these days? Are there any other decent switch/accessories brands about?

Okay, so an issue that confuses me somewhat. This is happening with four electrical fittings, it's two metal light switches on the outside of my bathroom wall, and the two metal electric razor sockets inside the bathroom. They're new fittings, installed about 9 months ago with the bathroom installation. Similar fittings mere feet away don't exhibit any such issue.

When I touch the casing (hands bone-dry) I can feel a slightly painful prickling, kinda like the feeling you get with a static shock, but persistent rather than one-off. The funny thing is that I only feel this when I touch it with skin that has hairs on it (so I feel nothing with my fingertips, but the back of my finger will immediately pick up the sensation).

Considering the rather minor pain (and the fact that I'm posting on reddit rather than drooling in a hospital bed), I'd assume there can't be a live wire touching the casing. Can anyone enlighten me on what's happening and what, if anything, I should do about it?

I’ve had a sparks NAPIT compentenxy certificates, not a member number yet and can’t find them as a NAPIT member.

Can they legally install a new consumer unit/add circuits?

Thanks

Wondering if anyone has come across a similar issue as its a bit bewildering to me. I installed a new board around 3 years ago, all tested fine. Recently one section of the circuit lost power but didn't trip. There now seems to be a join between both ring socket circuits although continuity and insulation resistance tests okay between them(about 18 m ohms) if both rcbos are switched on they both trip off suggssting a link between the circuits. Testing with one rcbo on it seems i have 230v n-e on the other rcbo

I am running cat 6 across my house to have ubiquity access points in each area of my house + a network switch in my small server rack in the garage to have 1 gig ethernet from my NAS to all the computers and other stuff (xbox, TV, cameras ect...). I want to maintain a safe distance of about 8 inches from any twin n earth in my walls to avoid interference.

To maintain 7671 compliance i want to run them within conduit within the safe zones on the walls, my question is how would this go about when going between the ground floor to the first floor? Can I go up to 150mm out from a corner of a room straight up through the wall to the 1st floor as long as it is within the save zones in the room on the first floor?

Reason im doing it this way is because you cant access the wall cavity on one side of my house due to the design of the loft, so to keep it neat i want to use conduit buried in the walls

Hey guys, just looking for a bit of advice.

I've been an electrician for about two years now. For the last three months I've been doing BMS commercial installs – panels, tray, trunking, that sort of thing. I'd never done any of it before, so I came into it very green. I was honest and upfront with my boss about this and he took me on anyway.

Since starting, I've learnt a lot. I've made mistakes too, but that's how you learn – you fuck up, learn from it, and don't do it again. I've genuinely been enjoying it: learning how to put tray up, cut it properly, install trunking, connect panels, and just getting more confident.

The thing is, my boss has been giving me a lot of shit. I get that it's part of the industry and I can take criticism, but lately it's been a lot worse. He came up to me and said I haven't learnt shit and haven't learned fuck all in the last three months.

What confuses me is that he's left me on jobs by myself, I've got everything done, and afterwards he's told me, "Good job, well done." So hearing that I've apparently learnt nothing doesn't really make sense.

Then he said I should be on the same level as his other electrician who's been with him for six years... when I've only been doing BMS for three months. That really knocked me. I'm not saying I'm perfect - sometimes I can be a bit slow picking things up because of my dyslexia, and I know that can be frustrating. I take responsibility for that. But comparing me to someone with six years' experience feels like a bit of a low blow.

To top it all off, he's decided to reduce my pay significantly (I’ll be earning £1 above minimum wage). I honestly can't survive on what he's offering, especially living in London, so I've got no choice but to leave.

I'm just wondering what other people think. Am I expecting too much after only three months? Is it me not picking things up quickly enough? Or is he just being a bit of an arsehole? Maybe it's a bit of both.

Also, because I've been working for him, I've lost contact with a few agencies I used to work with. If anyone knows of any decent agencies or companies looking for electricians around SouthEast London, I'd really appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction.

Cheers everyone.

Evening everyone. After a bit of advice. I’m moving house next week and am getting everything ready to move.
I have a wooden shed that has power, it has a cable running from the consumer unit down the side of an outside wall and into a small garage consumer unit.
The buyers don’t want the shed so my father in law is coming to pick it up.

Question is, is he allowed to remove the cable from the consumer unit or does it have to be an electrician? I know there are laws around who can do what and thought I would ask.

To give some background he is very handy and was a gas engineer.