General > General Technical Chat
Electricians - an awkward bunch to deal with
james_s:
--- Quote from: tom66 on March 29, 2023, 09:55:44 am ---This is true of a lot of trades. A good one I've seen recently is the air conditioning trade in the UK being up in arms about a major UK company selling fit-it-yourself air con. These systems use propane as a refrigerant which has negligible global warming potential and therefore, legally, you do not need to be qualified to install or maintain these systems. Yet the trade board is very upset at this development. Nevermind the fact that we let people run portable gas grills off propane, or refrigerators, or any number of other things, apparently DIYers fitting a propane system with 400g of refrigerant within it is a recipe for disaster.
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Propane is an excellent replacement for R22, it has almost identical properties aside from being flammable, in fact it offers slightly improved performance in R22 systems. It is actually a federal crime here to use it as a refrigerant, although that doesn't stop some people from doing it. Instead of switching to expensive R410 which is a greenhouse gas and new equipment they could have just switched to propane when phasing out R22. Personally I don't think R22 should have ever been phased out in the first place, it has only 5% of the ozone depletion potential of R12 and modern regulations require fixing leaks and recovering used refrigerant. The big problem with R12 is it was used EVERYWHERE, including as a propellant in aerolsol cans.
mendip_discovery:
Talk of some of these out of the training course electricians reminded me of Isaac Asimov and the Foundation books. I recently had to do a PAT training course (online) and I found the 2hrs a complete waste of time. I got more info from the quick start guide that came with my seaward pat tester.
I'm the UK amongst the trades it's often joked that electricians are over paid. Supposedly they clean tools with £50 notes etc.
With the metrology snobbery. Yeah I have been known to be like that. But it's my job so I do get a little sensitive up about it. I don't mean to be a twat about it. Just finished a two day grilling from the assessors and they take it really seriously.
Gregg:
Another group of dullards that think they are so special are locksmiths. Although there are virtually zero legislated requirements other than a business license, they think their trade is so special that they make up their own rules that have no substance.
tggzzz:
--- Quote from: mendip_discovery on March 29, 2023, 07:29:27 pm ---Talk of some of these out of the training course electricians reminded me of Isaac Asimov and the Foundation books.
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I found and find his 1957 novella "Profession" more useful; I recommend it to anyone thinking about career futures. Especially good w.r.t. the engineer vs technician debates.
It is available online.
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on March 29, 2023, 10:05:02 am ---
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on March 29, 2023, 01:50:12 am ---
--- Quote from: unknownparticle on March 28, 2023, 08:19:20 pm ---Yeah, sparkies do tend to have a jumped up sense of self importance, particularly now they have all that complex test equipment to play with!!
And yet I've seen more utter botchery on domestic wiring installs than in any other electrical or electronic systems!
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If the wiring is neat, it was some illicit stuff done by a Technician------not an Engineer, their stuff is as "bodgie" as a sparky!
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Just so.
Once, 40 years ago, some of my wiring inside a prototype electric door mechanism was criticised as not being especially neat. I agreed, pointing out that I wasn't a technician. I also pointed out something in the design that a technician might have missed. The designer didn't want to acknowledge the issue; the prototype was never reliable.
If I need a diagnosis of a medical problem, I want a doctor to do it. If I want blood taken or a leg plastered, I want a nurse to do it. Vive la difference!
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Oh, don't worry, a tech won't miss the problem a few years down the track when the thing fails.
In the meantime, the manufacturer will have "moved on" & be happy having ignored that pesky EE back then! ;D
EEs can definitely miss things, though---one such chap of my acquaintance, designed a really nice, neat interface to convert a output contact function from a remote control from "made for the duration of the function" to "momentary".
It worked fine, except that he had assumed that the remote control was "made for the duration, etc", when in fact, it always was "momentary".
He was a nice bloke, with rather "a lot on his plate", so we just modified the remote control to match his interface.
There were only two such remote controls in existence, so, except for the time used for the (simple) mod, accommodating
his interface was pretty much "revenue neutral", & arguably offered a better match to the "domestic" CD player it now controlled, than a basic relay closure did.
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