Energy Conscious Consultant

Backup Generators With Illegal Hookups

When installing a generator in your home, I recommend a professional licensed electrician perform the job. But some electricians are not qualified to do this job.  Since I am an electrician, does that surprised by that statement?

General Contractor Construction May Affect Your Bottom Line

Homeowners who want a turnkey job to build their home will hire a general contractor. That means that once plans are printed, the home owner has little to do with the building of their home.  You may pick out a few items that can range from the paint colors to appliances, but little else. When you hire a general contractor, you hire no one else. That’s where you may run into problems, including money problems.

Electrical Circuit Wiring For Homeowners

“A circuit is the path that electricity follows.” When you flip a light switch on and off, it stops the flow of electricity.  You can have several circuits in your house.  But you are limited by the amount of power you can draw on each circuit.  You can’t plug in a window air conditioning unit anywhere.

Electrician Bidding By Square Foot Ridiculous

Electrical contractor can bid jobs according to the specifics of that job. If a general contractor asks an electrical contractor, “how much are you a square foot?” you may want to consider other factors. The electrical contractor shouldn’t answer with a price per square foot because every house is not the same.  An electrical contractor should look at the plans.  He would need to take note of how many outlets there are per house, how many recessed cans there are, and where is the location of the main panel. 

Electrician: Go The Extra Mile

As an electrician, do you wire exactly what is on the homeowners’ plans or do you make suggestions for improvements and possible future designs?  I was called out to a customers’ house and found his chandelier hanging by a thread – or should I say by a wire.  That was the only thing holding it up. It was originally hung from a plastic box.  The weight of the chandelier deteriorated the box and ultimately destroyed it over many years.  I told the customer that this is a product of the cheaper lines of electric work.

Licensed Electrician Required For Solar Installation

A licensed electrician should be installing your solar powered system.  Solar code is covered in the National Electric Code (NEC).  It covers all aspects of the installation:  voltage drop, heat wiring, grounding and everything of the solar modules that is a installed on the roof. When an electrician puts his license on the line for a disconnect that follows the inverter, he is putting his license on the line for the whole installation.  That means the wiring from the solar modules to the combiner.  This includes installation from the roof flashing to the grounding on each module to the grounding to the wiring and includes tying the high temperature wire up to the railing.  This is all under the electrical contractor’s license whether he knows it or not.

Electricians Going Green

As a trained electrician, I have followed the National Electric Code.  I have even, on occasion, whipped out my NEC book.  When someone dared contradicted my work, I can prove them wrong through the code.  This code is not just for your local ordinances or state wide.  In the United States, it is guidelines that ALL ELECTRICIANS must follow around the country.  The code also describes, in detail, code for solar powered systems as well as wind powered systems. All installers must follow this code.

Lien Waver For Contractors

As an electrical contractor, I have been asked to do some strange things.  Some have been good for me and some have been good for the general building contractor.  As a sub contractor, I have been asked to sign a lien waver on a new construction house.  I had just bid on the job when the general contractor called and asked me to sign a lien waver.

Electricial Contractors: Emergency Pricing

As an electrician, I received a phone call from a customer who said he had an emergency.  I arrived at the location, and asked questions to determine his problem.  That’s when the customer started negotiating price.  I reminded the customer that he asked for emergency service.  He said yes but still need to know what it was going to cost.  So I started telling him ball park prices of the job.  Then he tells me “I’m not sure if I want that.”  Then I said, “You’ll have to pay me for a call out charge.”  Then he became angry.  I pointed out to him that he was the one that called me saying he had an emergency.

Electrician Restricted From His Own Work

As an electrician, I was called to a customers' house because a situation was quickly developing. He described his problem as half his house was out of power, then it came back on, then half went out again.  When called out to do a job as an emergency, an electrician will listen to the complaint of the homeowner first.  The homeowner will describe their particular situation.  

I started narrowing down the problem.  I started with with most common problems first and eliminate those.  Then I work myself down the list of usual suspects.  I went first to where the customer says it is switched off on another panel.  I checked the breaker where it is switched and found that it is getting no power to that breaker.  Then I go up to the main and I placed my meter on it to make sure there is full power there.  But this customer was only getting half the power there.  So the next step was to check his meter.