Electrician

Electrician

TVA electricians, Tennessee, 1942
Occupation
Occupation type	Vocation
Activity sectors	Construction, Maintenance, Electrical grid
Description
Fields of employment	Tradesmen
Related jobs	Lineman

An electrician is a tradesman specialising in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also specialize in wiring ships, airplanes and other mobile platforms. In the film industry and on a television crew the Electrician is referred to as a Gaffer.

"Electrician" and "electrical contractor" are related terms. An electrician is an individual tradesperson; an electrical contractor is a business that employs electricians to design, install, and maintain electrical systems.

Terminology

In the United States, electricians are sometimes referred to as an electrical wire men as opposed to Electrical linemen, who work on electric utility company distribution systems at higher voltages. Electrical contracting is divided into four areas: commercial, residential, light industrial, and industrial wiring. Service electricians have considerable skills troubleshooting wiring problems, wiring, and making repairs. Construction electricians focus on the actual wiring of buildings and may have few skills troubleshooting wiring problems. Other specialty areas are marine electricians, research electricians and hospital electricians. "Electrician" is also used as the name of a role in stagecraft, where electricians are tasked primarily with hanging, focusing, and operating stage lighting. In this context, the Master Electrician is the show's chief electrician. Although theater electricians routinely perform electrical work on stage lighting instruments and equipment, they are not part of the electrical trade and have a different set of skills and qualifications from the electricians that work on building wiring. jlhfvjsadhbsoiufhb

Training and regulation of trade

An electrician hooking up a generator to a home's electrical panel.

Most jurisdictions require qualifications to do work on any electrical apparatus with voltages above a specified electric potential to ground. This is normally anywhere from 24 to 100 volts depending on the governing body. Many companies have their own voltage limit rules as well.

In most countries, the job of an electrician is a regulated trade for safety reasons due to the many hazards of working with electricity, requiring testing, registration, or licensing. Licensing of electricians is controlled through government or professional societies.

United States

In the US, licensing requirements for construction work are controlled by local building officials. Typically, certain types of electrical work are only permitted to be performed by a Journeyman or Master electrician. The requirements for becoming a journeyman or master electrician, and the types of work they are permitted to do, vary between individual states; however, there are often interstate reciprocity agreements. Not all states offer a statewide journeyman or master electrician license, and the license may be limited to the county or city's licencing board.

Before electricians are allowed to work without supervision, they are usually required to serve an apprenticeship lasting from 3 to 5 years under the general supervision of a Master Electrician and usually the direct supervision of a Journeyman Electrician. Schooling in electrical theory and electrical building codes are required to complete the apprenticeship program. Many apprenticeship programs provide a salary to the apprentice during training. A Journeyman electrician is a well rounded craftsman who has met the experience requirements for on the job training (usually 4080 to 6120 hrs) and classroom hours (about 144 hrs.); they may also have a two year relevant degree and another two to three years of apprenticeship training and have passed a licensing exam for their jurisdiction, be it state, county or city. They are trained in all phases of electrical construction installation in various building styles (residential, commercial, industrial, basic electronics) and maintenance of equipment after installation. All of their time is well documented under the jurisdiction of the state government in order for their time to be credited. A Journeyman is usually permitted to perform all types of electrical work except the design of electrical systems, although in some jurisdictions a Journeyman may design systems within certain limits. By contrast, a residential electrician is only permitted to work on residential projects with limitations (for example under 4 stories), and apprenticeship is typically four to five years. In certain states like Michigan, to go on to be a Master Electrician and then an electrical contractor, a journeyman has to work another two years past his passing of the extensive exam given and then apply to take the Master's exam which is another very rigid exam. Then they can apply for an electrical contractors license according to the guidelines of that government.

United Kingdom

Electrical trade organisations such as the JIB (joint industry board) define and regulate KSA (Knowledge, Skill, Attitude) requirements, such as City and guilds 2330 Levels 2 and 3, City and Guilds National Vocational Qualification Level 2 and 3, h. There are no specific regulations or rules on who may operate or refer to themselves as an 'Electrician' in the UK.

General standards (and protections) are set within a variety of Regulations such as BS7671 - Electrical Installations, Building Regulations which require work to be designed, installed and maintained according to those standards or better. Specific standards such as for BS EN 62305 - Lightning Protection, etc., must be complied with but do not necessarily require qualification but rather verification of competence. Most commonly the Test & Inspection of an installation and subsequent signing of documents to confirm suitability and safety may only be carried out by a qualified person, the most common qualification being BS2391 - Test & Inspection of Electrical Installations.

Canada

In most Canadian jurisdictions, a supply authority will not connect power to a new building unless a licensed electrician has applied for the electrical permit (some provinces allow a homeowner to obtain his or her own electrical permit). Similarly to the United States, training of electricians follows an apprenticeship model, taking four or five years to progress to fully qualified journeyman level. Typical apprenticeship programs emphasize hands-on work under the supervision of journeymen, but also include a substantial component of classroom training and testing. Training and licensing of electricians is regulated by each province, but many provinces recognize qualifications received in others. The red seal program allows qualified electricians to practice their trade in other provinces without having to write additional examinations.

Restricted electrical licenses are also issued for specializations such as motor winder, appliance repair, audio/visual installation, HVAC installation, and similar jobs.

Australia

An electrician's license entitles the holder to carry out all types of electrical installation work in Australia without supervision. However, to contract, or offer to contract, to carry out electrical installation work, a licensed electrician must also be registered as an electrical contractor. Under Australian law, electrical work that involves fixed wiring is strictly regulated and must almost always be performed by a licensed electrician and/or electrical contractor. A local electrician can handle a range of work including air conditioning, data, and structured cabling systems, home automation & theatre, LAN, WAN and VPN data solutions, light fittings and installation, phone points, power points, safety inspections and reports, safety switches, smoke alarm installation, inspection and certification and testing and tagging of electrical appliances.

Electrical licensing in Australia is regulated by the individual states. In Western Australia the Department of Commerce tracks licensee's and allows the public to search for individually named/licensed Electricians.

Currently in Victoria the apprenticeship last for four years, during three of those years the apprentice attends trade school in either a block release of one week each month or one day each week. At the end of the apprenticeship the apprentice is required to pass three examinations, one of which is theory based with the other two practically based. Upon successful completion of these exams, providing all other components of the apprenticeship are satisfactory, the apprentice is granted an A Class licence on application to Energy Safe Victoria (ESV).

An A Class electrician may perform work unsupervised but is unable to work for profit or gain without having the further qualifications necessary to become a Registered Electrical Contractor (REC) or being in the employment of a person holding REC status. However, some exemptions do exist.

In most cases a certificate of electrical safety must be submitted to the relevant body after any electrical works are performed.

Safety equipment used and worn by electricians in Australia (including insulated rubber gloves and mats) needs to be tested regularly to ensure it is still protecting the worker. Because of the high risk involved in this trade, this testing needs performed regularly and regulations vary according to state. Industry best practice is the Queensland Electrical Safety Act 2002, and requires six-monthly testing. Companies specialising in this service can test at up 300,000V and offer services from glove testing to Elevated Working Platform or EWP Truck testing.

Tools

The electrician's trade requires use of a range of hand and power tools and instruments. Usually an electrician will have a personal set of hand tools and general-purpose test instruments, with the more costly power tools or instruments provided by the employer or business.

Two of the tools commonly used by electricians. The fish tape is used to pull conductors through conduits, or sometimes to pull conductors through hollow walls. The conduit bender is used to make accurate bends and offsets in electrical conduit.

Some of the more common tools are:

• Pipe and tube bender
• voltage indicators
• Lineman's pliers: Heavy-duty pliers for general use in cutting, bending, crimping and pulling wire.
• Diagonal pliers (also known as side cutters or Dikes): Pliers consisting of cutting blades for use on smaller gauge wires, but sometimes also used as a gripping tool for removal of nails and staples.
• Needle-nose pliers: Pliers with a long, tapered gripping nose of various size, with or without cutters, generally smaller and for finer work (including very small tools used in electronics wiring).
• Wire strippers: Plier-like tool available in many sizes and designs featuring special blades to cut and strip wire insulation while leaving the conductor wire intact and without nicks. Some wire strippers include cable strippers among their multiple functions, for removing the outer cable jacket.
• Cable cutters: Highly leveraged pliers for cutting larger cable.
• Rotosplit: A brand-name tool designed to assist in breaking the spiral jacket of metallic-jacketed cable (MC cable).
• Multimeter: A battery-powered instrument for electrical testing and troubleshooting; common features include the ability to measure and display voltage, resistance, and current with other types of measurements included depending on the make and model. Are available in digital or analogue. These need regular calibration.
• Step-bit: A metal-cutting drill bit with stepped-diameter cutting edges, generally at 1/8-inch intervals, for conveniently drilling holes to specification in stamped/rolled metal up to about 1/16" thick; for example, to create custom knock-outs in a breaker panel or junction box.
• Cord, rope or fish tape. Used to 'fish' cables and wires into and out of cavities. The fishing tool is pushed, dropped, or shot into the installed raceway, stud-bay or joist-bay of a finished wall or in a floor or ceiling. Then the wire or cable is attached and pulled back.
• Crimping tools: Used to apply terminals or splices. These may be hand or hydraulic powered. Some hand tools have ratchets to insure proper pressure. Hydraulic units achieve cold welding, even for aluminum "locomotive" [many fine strands] cable.
• Insulation Resistance Tester: Commonly referred to as a Megger. Insulation testers apply several hundred to several thousand volts to cables and equipment to determine the insulation resistance value of the item being tested. Modern insulation resistance testers often have an ohm meter function available and are often included as a function of a multimeter. These need regular calibration.
• Knockout punch: For punching holes into sheet metal to run wires or conduit.
• Other general-use tools with applications in electric power wiring include screwdrivers, hammers, reciprocating saws, drywall saws, metal punches, flashlights, chisels, adjustable slip-joint pliers and drills.
• Test light
• Ground Fault Indicator Tester

Safety

See also: Occupational safety and health

In addition to the workplace hazards generally faced by industrial workers, electricians are also particularly exposed to injury by electricity. An electrician may experience electric shock due to direct contact with energized circuit conductors or due to stray voltage caused by faults in a system. An electric arc exposes eyes and skin to hazardous amounts of heat and light. Faulty switchgear may cause an arc flash incident with a resultant blast. Electricians are trained to work safely and take many measures to minimize the danger of injury. Lockout and tagout procedures are used to make sure that circuits are proven to be de-energized before work is done. Limits of approach to energized equipment protect against arc flash exposure; specially designed flash-resistant clothing provides additional protection; grounding (earthing) clamps and chains are used on line conductors to provide a visible assurance that a conductor is de-energized. Personal protective equipment provides electrical insulation as well as protection from mechanical impact; gloves have insulating rubber liners, and work boots and hard hats are specially rated to provide protection from shock. If a system cannot be de-energized, insulated tools and special live-line training are used; even high-voltage transmission lines can be repaired while energized, when necessary.

Electrical workers, which includes electricians accounted for 34% total electrocutions of construction trades workers in the United States between 1992–2003.

Working conditions

Working conditions for electricians vary by specialization. Generally an electrician's work is physically active, with climbing of ladders and lifting of tools and supplies. Occasionally an electrician must work in a cramped space or on scaffolding, and may frequently be bending, squatting or kneeling, to make connections in awkward locations. Construction electricians may spend much of their days in outdoor or semi-outdoor noisy and dirty worksites. Industrial electricians may be exposed to the heat, dust, and noise of an industrial plant. Power systems electricians may be called to work in all kinds of adverse weather to make emergency repairs. Because of the training and skills required, an electrician's job pays better than general labor; for example, in 2005 in one province of Canada, electricians were the highest-paid of the trades. Some electricians work under union collective agreements with closely defined employment conditions, others are independent contractors who must charge based on current local market conditions.

Trade organizations

In North America, electricians are represented by several unions, including International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Canadian Union of Public Employees  ; International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine, and Furniture Workers; International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; United Auto Workers; and the United Steelworkers.
Many merit shop training and apprenticeship programs also exist, including those offered by such as trade associations as Associated Builders and Contractors, National Electrical Contractors Association [1], and Independent Electrical Contractors. These organizations provide comprehensive training, in accordance with U.S. Department of Labor regulations.
http://www.bls.gov/k12/build06.htm.

In Australia, electricians can choose to be represented by the Electrical Trade Union (ETU). Electrical Contractors can be represented by Master Electricians Australia or the National Electrical & Communications Association.

In the U.K., electricians are represented by several unions including Unite the Union

In the Rep. of Ireland there are two self-regulation/self certification bodies RECI Register of Electrical Contractors of Ireland and ECSSA.

See also

• Lineman (occupation)
• Gaffer (term used in film and television)
• Electrician (theater)
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
• List of electricians, notable individuals who have worked as electricians

External links

• Electricians – from the BLS
• Occupational Outlook Handbook
• Division of Apprenticeship Standards – Electrician Certification Program
• How to Become an Electrician Vocational Skill Set Information Center
• Electrician USA, Dallas/Ft Worth
• Master Calibrators Association
• HV Safety Testing