The Difference Between An Electrician And An Electrical Contractor

by | Jan 6, 2016 | Dodgy Installations, Keep Your Family Safe

There is an important distinction between an electrician and an electrical contractor.

An electrician is a person who has completed a 4 year apprenticeship, training alongside qualified tradespeople and regularly attending TAFE classes.  In order to become qualified, an apprentice must pass all their TAFE subjects and also the final exam, which is called the Capstone Test.

Once the apprenticeship is completed, the apprentice applies to the local regulator for an electrical practitioners licence.

When the license is granted the tradesperson is authorised to carry out electrical work in accordance with the AS/NZ3000 wiring rules.

Even though they are fully qualified and licenced there is one important restriction for a qualified tradesperson.

A tradesperson is not allowed to carry out electrical work on their own behalf, and charge clients for that work.  In order to conduct an electrical business the practitioner must obtain an electrical contractors license.

Gaining a contractors license requires further study, passing more exams and other requirements such as insurance cover and reporting obligations.

So your average tradesperson cannot set up in business for themselves.  They can only work for a licensed electrical contractor, unless they go through the process of obtaining a contractors license themselves.

Electrical contractors are required to submit paperwork to TasNetworks and the Electrical Inspectors for all but minor electrical works.  This results in their work being regularly inspected to ensure they are complying with the wiring rules and safety regulations.

Back-yarders who work without a contractors license do not advise the regulators of the work they do and subsequently that work is never inspected to make sure it has been done safely and correctly.

Back-yarders also won’t have the required insurance cover which means you could be left holding the bag if something goes wrong.  How do you think your insurance company would react if your home was damaged or destroyed as a result of unlicensed electrical work?

Always use a licensed electrical contractor for any electrical work, no matter how small, to ensure the safety of your family and your  property.

Christmas Lights Survival Guide

by | Dec 3, 2015 | Fun Ideas For Your Home, Keep Your Family Safe

The Unexpected Dangers Of Christmas Lights
It seems that every year the bar is raised higher and higher in the neighbourhood Christmas lights competition.

Displays are bigger and brighter, with more and more lights added each successive year. Home owners go to a lot of trouble and some of the displays look quite impressive, but did you know there is a dark side to those festive lights?

There are a number of injuries and even deaths each year directly attributed to Christmas lights.  Electrocution, fire and falling off roofs can make the quest for festive lighting a hazardous endeavour.

The major source of problems are old and poorly maintained light strings.

That old set of Christmas tree lights you’ve been dragging out every December for a couple of decades should probably be replaced.  Any lights that operate with 240 volts at the lamp have the potential to cause electric shock or start a fire.

Old Christmas lights can also cause overloaded circuits, a problem that has been solved by new LED lights.

LEDs are ideal for Christmas lights due to their low power consumption, low voltage power supplies and the range of colours that can be produced.  Even with new LED lights there are safety issues you need to to be aware of.

You should only buy your Christmas lights from a reputable local retailer to ensure they are safe and approved for use in Australia.

If you buy online make sure your lights are sent from an Australian based distributor and not sent direct to you from overseas.  It doesn’t guarantee the safety of the lights but it does give you an opportunity to seek redress in the event of a problem.

If you import any electrical product direct from overseas you assume all the responsibilities of an importer and will be personally liable for any problems the lights cause.

If some one is injured by non-compliant lights you will be responsible.  If you home is damaged by fire due to faulty Christmas lights your insurance company may not pay if the lights that caused the damage were not approved for use in Australia.

The usual commonsense safety measures still apply to low voltage or LED lights.

Don’t use lights that have damaged cords, broken lamps or damaged power supplies.

Don’t mix old and new light strings, they are probably not compatible.

Do keep power packs and extension cord connections out of the weather.

Do use a proper ladder for accessing your roof and make sure it is footed correctly and secured at the top if possible.

Do ensure that any lights you buy are approved for use in Australia.

While a good display of Christmas lights can look amazing, some people go just a little too far.

Last year a Townsville man disconnected the street light outside his home in order to make his lighting display stand out more effectively. He removed the cover from the base of the pole and pulled apart the live wiring connections, which disabled the  street light but created a very dangerous situation.

Enjoy your festive lighting display but make sure you keep your family safe as well.

Dumbest Place To Install A Light Fitting

by | Aug 18, 2015 | Common Repairs, Dodgy Installations, Save Money

Poor Design Leads To Big Repair Bills
The photograph above shows a pretty dubious set up for installing a light fitting in the ceiling at the top of a stairwell. While the initial installation is risky, how on earth is anyone supposed to repair that light in years to come?

After these clowns have finished, a builder will fit a handrail around the walkway and there will be no easy way to get to that light even to do something as simple as replace a blown globe. (more…)

Loose Electrical Connections Are A Fire Hazard

by | Jul 27, 2015 | Common Repairs, Dodgy Installations, Keep Your Family Safe

Loose Electrical Connections Get Hot, And This Could Be The Result.

Electrical connections can become loose for a variety of reasons.   A tightly made connection can become loose over time due to the tiny expansion and contraction that occurs as the cable warms up during use and cools down when not energised.  Perhaps the last tradesman to work on the installation didn’t do them up tight enough, or maybe the connecting parts have worn out and don’t make good contact anymore.

Occasionally we find connections that have never been tightened up at all.  The wire has been pushed into the terminal and the screw never tightened.   This can happen even in new homes and installations.  It’s a sign that the tradesman didn’t do a final check by pulling on each wire to make sure it’s solidly connected.

Sometime the connectors or terminals are faulty so even though the screw is done up tight it’s not actually clamping the cable enough.  Once again, a simple check by tugging on the wire will alert the tradesman to that type of fault.

Every electrical connection has the potential to get hot.  With increased heat comes increased electrical resistance, which in turns causes things to get even hotter.   Depending on the location of the connection this heat could potentially start a fire.

Common Locations

Common locations for loose electrical connections include switchboard connections of fuses and circuit breakers, connections to stove elements and hotplates and connections to power points.

The more load being drawn through the loose connection the more likely it is to fail.  For example a loose connection to a power point is more likely to be a problem if a heater is plugged in to the heater as compared to a phone charger or some other low wattage device.

Signs To Watch For

Signs that could indicate a loose electrical connection include flickering lights, intermittent power fluctuations, buzzing noises and burning smells.  If you do find any of these problems you should have an electrician check it out as soon as possible.

Common Lighting Faults

by | Jun 27, 2015 | Common Repairs, Keep Your Family Safe

There are many possible causes of lighting faults.

From a simple blown globe to various wiring and light fitting faults to rodent damage and weather conditions, some faults are minor, some can be quite serious.

If your lights are flickering, dimming, sparking or turning on and off by themselves, you should call an electrician as these can be signs of potentially serious electrical problems.

Here are a few tips and ideas to help you identify the problem you may be experiencing and what you can do about it.

Don’t forget to check your power points as well.  This article describes lighting faults only.  If you have no power at all click here to see our information on power faults

Which Lights Are Out

First you should identify the extent of the problem.  How many lights are out?  Is it just one fitting, is it just part of the house, or are there no lights working anywhere at all?

Most homes have only one lighting circuit.  This means all the lights in the house are protected by one fuse or circuit breaker.  A problem with just one light fitting can blow the fuse or trip the circuit breaker and put all the lights out.

Lamps

If only one light is out, the first thing to check is the lamps.

Even for a seemingly simple job like changing a lamp, it’s a good idea to turn off the power to the lighting circuit by switching off the circuit breaker.

These days many lighting problems can be traced back to poor quality lamps.  If you put a new lamp in your light fitting and it blows immediately when you turn the light on it could be a problem with the wiring or the light fitting.

If you put a new lamp in and it only lasts a couple of days or a couple of weeks, then it’s more likely a problem with the poor quality of the lamps.  Even brand new lamps can be faulty.

See our article “Why do my light globes blow all the time” for more information.

You can always test a light fitting by removing a lamp from a fitting you know is working and installing it in the non working light.

If the light still doesn’t work it must be a problem with the light fitting itself.  In this case you will need to call an electrician.

A seemingly simple job like changing a light bulb can actually be quite dangerous under certain circumstances.

Most lights are high off the ground so you could be setting yourself up for a fall if you don’t have the correct equipment to access them.

In older houses a lot of lights are not earthed and so could be an electric shock hazard to anyone who touches them, when a fault occurs.

Reset The Circuit Breaker

If all your lights are out and you can’t identify an obviously faulty fitting, turn off all lights in the house and then try resetting the circuit breaker or reloading the fuse.

(Under these circumstances, circuit breakers are a great advantage over fuses because they are so easy to reset while carrying out the testing, compared to reloading a blown fuse each time.)

If the circuit breaker stays on after you reset it, go around the house turning on all the lights one by one.  If there is a faulty light fitting the circuit breaker will probably trip when you switch the faulty light on.

If this happens then you will need to call an electrician.  Make a note of which light is causing the problem and put a piece of tape over the switch to prevent it being turned on again.

Lighting problems can be time consuming to locate because all the lights are usually on one circuit.  Passing on useful and accurate information to your electrician will make their job quicker and easier and therefore cheaper for you.

Water Damage

Water in an outside light fitting is a common source of problems, especially if you have an earth-leakage circuit breaker (safety switch) protecting the circuit.  In this case turning the light off may not solve the problem as the safety switch can still detect a fault and turn itself off.

Heat Damage

Lamps with a screw-in type base can sometimes get stuck in the threaded lamp holder and when trying to screw them out you can actually be spinning the whole lamp holder and twisting the wires around behind it.

This is a dangerous situation as the wires can break or have the insulation damaged which could result in a short circuit, or even an electric shock for the person trying to change the lamp.

The fittings that are more susceptible to this problem are surface mounted spot lights which take an incandescent reflector lamp.  The lamps produce a lot of heat and can weld themselves into the lamp holder over time.

Sensor Lights

Sensor lights can fail due to moisture problems or be affected by a power spike.  This may cause them to not work at all or to stay on all the time.  A damaged sensor light cannot be repaired.  It will have to be replaced.

Rodent Damage

Rodent damaged wiring can be a serious problem in your roof space and may cause noticeable problems with your lights.  Click here for more information.

Old Wiring

Old rubber cable with crumbling insulation could also cause similar problems.  Click here for more information.

Other electrical items that may be connected to the lighting circuit include exhaust fans and sweep fans, bathroom Tastics and air-transfer fans.  If you can’t find a fault with your lights it may be a fan causing the problem.  Smoke detectors are also connected to your lighting circuit but do not generally cause a problem with lights tripping.

If you can’t locate and remedy the problem yourself, call an electrician as soon as possible.  Don’t attempt any electrical repairs yourself.

You don’t need to go to the expense of an after hours callout if your power points are still working.  You can get light from any lamp that can plug into a power point and that may be enough to get you by until an electrician can attend.

Be very careful with candles as they do present a higher risk of fire.  LED torches and lamps are reasonably cheap to buy and don’t use a lot of battery power so you should have a couple handy in case of power faults anyway.

Whatever you lighting fault, Mance Electrical can provide free advice and prompt service in Launceston and surrounding areas.

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