r/ElectriciansUK

Hi, I am looking to have an outdoor plug installed to power a Lay-Z Spa hot tub. I already have power in my garden via a 3 core 1.5mm cable which I was hoping to feed off, however my electrician says that this cable isn’t suitable to power a hot tub and I need new cabling installed from my house. Is this true or is he creating unnecessary work?

For further context I had another electrician round beforehand and he didn’t mention anything about the cable causing problems. Any advice appreciated, I’m very much a novice when it comes to electrics.

I've been working on an app specifically for managing emergency lighting tests, rather than just another general trade management app.

I've just got the beta ready and I'm looking for a few electricians who do larger tests to give it a proper go, it's totally free to use.

If anyone does a lot of emergency lighting work and fancies having a play, let me know. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Hi everyone. I'm currently looking to start a Ltd business and was wondering how do those of you who are directors taking a tax efficient salary are living off that money (just over a grand a month), since COL being so high. Are you living off savings until there's enough capital to take dividends or a directors loan?

Im 22 and desperate to start working in the industry, I have a level 3 diploma in electrical and an ecs card and will be getting my 18th edition in a few months. I was just looking for advice on potentially working with an agency with pretty much no real world experience (I’m assuming not) or do the sensible thing and become a full time improver. Any advice is greatly appreciated!! :)

I’ve had a new consumer unit fitted last year after an EICR deemed it unsatisfactory.

After paying for the new consumer unit I was issued a new EICR calling it satisfactory, but haven’t received any EIC or Part P documentation, is this normal?

I have chased up asking for a EIC but have only been sent the EICR again. The electrician is NAPIT and CPS registered so I would assume they’d have done the necessary documents.

We are planning to sell the house soon so need everything to be in order

Just received an estimate (I’m in Northern Ireland for reference) and always found Reddit great for genuine advice.

Is £7.5k + vat acceptable for the following?

All of this is being done while garden landscaping/walls being done for the first time.

x2 Ground uplighters at garden room wall
Removal of PIR flood light above door
x2 power sockets to patio sitting area

X12 LED retaining wall lights (about 50m of wall)

x3 spike lights at front 1 at tree, 2 at rockery
Manhole and duct by landscape company

x6 spike lights to rear flower beds

Smart wifi controlled switch
Armoured cable, wiska boxes, magic gel,
Consumer materials etc

Septic tank repositioning pump and alteration to
wiring. extend air feed piping MAX 10m

Have decided to go EV, octopus initially said it would likely be about 6 weeks to get a home charging point installed so delayed picking up the car for about a month to minimise having to use public charging.

Now the grid operator wants to upgrade the house supply - we are looped - at no cost so thats fine - but its going to be at least another 12 weeks before that will happen and then time after that for the home charger.

Im lucky i have hybrid working so the car can be at home for a couple of days at a time (usual household errands still).

As a stop gap ive been looking at granny chargers - and the advice is its possible but limit it to 10 amps for safety and use an EV rated single gang outlet.

the question is can i change one double outlet in my garage to this EV rated single with no other changes?

the home supply has a 100A fuse and the wiring from the CU into the garage is about 15 years old, there will be no other concurrent consumers on the garage loop/circuit if the car is charging.

Also as it can be as simple as a faceplate swap must an electrician do the change?

thanks,

Heard the pay isn’t good anymore. What would you do instead?

Hey guys, just looking for a bit of advice and to see if anyone else has been in the same position.

I’ve been working as an electrician for around 2 years now. I know that’s not a huge amount of experience, especially in this industry, but I’ve done a bit of domestic and commercial work. My last contract was 6 months doing BMS installations, which I actually really enjoyed.

Unfortunately, I ended up leaving because my boss was becoming unbearable to deal with. Since then, I’ve been struggling to find work and I’ve now been out of work for almost a month.

I’m still quite green in the industry, and I’m always completely upfront with people about that. The problem I keep finding is that I’ll tell them I’m still learning and not confident with certain things, but they’ll still put me on jobs doing work I’m not comfortable with. Then if I make a mistake, I end up getting let go.

I’m not going to sit here and blame everyone else because I know sometimes the mistakes are mine. I’m also very dyslexic and I’ve recently been diagnosed with ADHD at 35, so I’m still trying to understand how that affects the way I learn and work.

Honestly, part of me is starting to think about giving up on the electrical industry altogether. But the thing is, I genuinely don’t want to do anything else. I worked my arse off to get where I am, and it’s frustrating because I feel like I’m struggling so much with my confidence.

So I guess my question is: has anyone else been in a similar position? Am I the only one who feels like this? Am I just not cut out for the industry, or is this just part of being relatively new and needing the right environment to learn?

I’ve also been thinking about going down the testing route and eventually working for myself. but obviously I know I need more experience before I can confidently go down that road.

Any advice from people who have been through something similar would genuinely be appreciated. I’m not looking for sympathy, just some honest advice because I really don’t want to give up after everything I’ve put into this. Thanks guys.

As the title suggests we’ve been asked to complete a site after the developers electrician passed away.

The site is 3 houses which are very nearly finished. We’ve had alterations and additions to make in 2 of the plots so we have had some wiring accessories off.

We have tested one of the plots so far and everything was fine.

Would you put anything on the EIC to describe the situation and cover your arse?

All set up, qualified, ltd co. Uniform, admin, napit, testers, simple website, non gmail email address etc. just no van yet.

My customers love my work, reveiws 5* on google etc.

But I can't make the jump fully yet as I just have 'no work'. Have I gone about it wrong?

Lads who made thr jump from cards in to successfully self employed, how long was the ramp up?

I want to do domestic and small commercial. I ha e customer service experience and I like dealing with people. The on site paperwork for industrial does my fucking head in.

Hi everyone,

I'm a software engineer from the UK looking to build software that solves a genuine problem for trades rather than creating another app nobody needs.

I'm not an electrician, so I thought I'd ask the people who actually do the job every day.

Ignoring accounting software and the obvious things like WhatsApp, what are the most frustrating admin or paperwork tasks you deal with?

For example:

Jobs you still manage in Excel or on paper.

Reports that take ages to write.

Certificates.

Quoting.

Customer communication.

Chasing payments.

Scheduling.

Compliance.

Anything you wish someone would automate.

I'm not selling anything and I don't have a product. I'm just trying to understand where the real pain points are before I build anything.

I'd really appreciate any thoughts, even if it's just "I hate doing X every week."

Thanks!