Fair Trading warning on electrical safety

[Metro]

Just a message to some of those that underestimate the sore point of
Electrical licenses.


http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About_us/News_and_events/Media_releases/2011_media_releases/20110618_fair_trading_warning_on_electrical_safety.html



I'm just a messenger

 

[Mick DaDik]

On 20/06/2011 4:03 PM, Metro wrote:

Just a message to some of those that underestimate the sore point of
Electrical licenses.


http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About_us/News_and_events/Media_releases/2011_media_releases/20110618_fair_trading_warning_on_electrical_safety.html



I'm just a messenger

Does that mean I can shoot you?

mik

 

[Sylvia Else]

On 20/06/2011 4:03 PM, Metro wrote:

Just a message to some of those that underestimate the sore point of
Electrical licenses.


http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About_us/News_and_events/Media_releases/2011_media_releases/20110618_fair_trading_warning_on_electrical_safety.html



I'm just a messenger

However, the media release rather glosses over the fact that two of the
fatal accidents involved people who were not doing something for which
they needed an electrician's licence, and one may not have been. One is
attributable to someone doing something that was careless or just plain
stupid (working on live wiring), and only one is clearly attributable to
incorrect wiring work, and for all we know that may still have been done
by a licensed electrician.

Of the non-fatal accidents, the vast majority involved network operator
cabling, and unless unlicensed people are the habit of attempting DIY
stuff on the network operator's side of the meter, it seems likely that
these are also incidents where the person was doing something for which
an electricians licence was not required.

There may be a valid reason for requiring people to have an
electrician's licence before they do electrical work, but this data
doesn't provide it.

Sylvia.

 

[who where]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:42:35 +1000, Sylvia Else
<sylvia@not.here.invalid> wrote:

On 20/06/2011 4:03 PM, Metro wrote:
Just a message to some of those that underestimate the sore point of
Electrical licenses.


http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About_us/News_and_events/Media_releases/2011_media_releases/20110618_fair_trading_warning_on_electrical_safety.html



I'm just a messenger



However, the media release rather glosses over the fact that two of the
fatal accidents involved people who were not doing something for which
they needed an electrician's licence, and one may not have been. One is
attributable to someone doing something that was careless or just plain
stupid (working on live wiring), and only one is clearly attributable to
incorrect wiring work, and for all we know that may still have been done
by a licensed electrician.

Of the non-fatal accidents, the vast majority involved network operator
cabling, and unless unlicensed people are the habit of attempting DIY
stuff on the network operator's side of the meter, it seems likely that
these are also incidents where the person was doing something for which
an electricians licence was not required.

There may be a valid reason for requiring people to have an
electrician's licence before they do electrical work, but this data
doesn't provide it.

Further to that, I spent a fair amount of my working career checking
electrical contractors' work, and I can honestly say that some of them
were sloppier than "backyarders" I know.

My BIL holds a contractor's licence, and with a colleague he
retrofitted RCD's and MCB's to the MIL's house to replace the olde
porcelain fuse panel. When they recently had breakers trip (BIL away
in N-W) I got called to check it out. Non-compliance was evident in
the RCD confuguration although not the cause of the tripping. Had the
supply authority inspected, this job would have been snagged. But
they only inspect a small percentage, and to be honest I don't even
know if the BIL ticketed the job.