[00:00:00] Intro: It's around the house.

[00:00:07] Dustin Stelzer: I don't ever tell homeowners like, go out there and do your own electrical. Like you, you, a lot of places you can pull permits. Like in Austin there's a homeowner's permit. Um, to do work though, under a homeowner's permit, you cannot hire other contractors for anything. You have to take all of the liability on your own and it still goes through an inspection process, but the inspector will come through and be like, Okay, you obviously have no clue what you're doing.

[00:00:28] Dustin Stelzer: Like you need to hire, at least hire a master to come in here and tell you how to do things correctly. But don't let him touch anything because then it's his liability. But yeah, I try to, I try to tell people like, don't, don't do your own wiring because I, most of the work that we do is fixing husband's wiring who said they were gonna do it and not.

[00:00:46] Dustin Stelzer: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know that we got you coming. This is around the house.

[00:00:56] Eric Goranson: Welcome to the Around the House Show. This is where we talk. Everything [00:01:00] about your house every single weekend. Thanks for joining us today. We've got a special guest in the studio, Dustin Seltzer, Master Electrician from Austin, Texas, and the guy that founded Electrician.

[00:01:12] Eric Goranson: You welcome to Around the House, man. What you doing, man? This is great. Happy to have you

[00:01:18] Dustin Stelzer: on today, man. Yeah, dude. It's happy to be here. I, uh, checked out your show and I like what you're about.

[00:01:24] Eric Goranson: So thanks. We've got a mutual friend, our buddy Roger Wakefield, Master Plumber. Yeah. .

[00:01:31] Dustin Stelzer: Roger. Roger and I have a great relationship.

[00:01:34] Dustin Stelzer: It's kind of one of those, uh, Like plumbers are better, electricians are better. Kind of a things , so we're always giving each other crap. But, uh, yeah, I love Roger, man. Just a positive, great dude. Always on fire. Always wanting to help people out,

[00:01:46] Eric Goranson: man. He is, he is. Just as solid as it gets. My favorite plumber out there.

[00:01:51] Eric Goranson: Well, I wanted to talk to you today, man, about so much that you've got going on. I love how you're just blowing up the electrical space out there [00:02:00] and really given some education to electricians, but including homeowners as well, for people trying to tune in and, and learn something else out there, because I think there was such a need for that man.

[00:02:12] Eric Goranson: You've just jumped in and filled that space full steam.

[00:02:16] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I, um, I saw an opening a long time ago, so basically how I started was I got my master electrician's license and I figured like that my whole career, there was nothing visual for me to see for like, how does, how do you wire a switch and like, how does the capacitor work and all this stuff, you know, like, I didn't understand it.

[00:02:34] Dustin Stelzer: And electricity's and visual invisible, you know, so like with plumbing, plumbers can see the water so they can see what's happened. There's no mystery there. But with us you gotta like understand quantum physics and wave particle physics. Like you don't really see anything and it just acts crazy. So I was like, okay, there's people that have made books on electrical code and you know how to, yeah, how to install stuff correctly, I guess to codes.

[00:02:58] Dustin Stelzer: But there's just, there was [00:03:00] nothing instructive in like video or visual form. And I'm a creative person, I'm a very visual learner. So I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna make it. So about six years ago I just started putting videos together and. You know, the, the cool thing is that as I'm instructing people, I'm having to have my head in books and actually like learning things even deeper and more profoundly.

[00:03:18] Dustin Stelzer: And I found that just teaching in general, having apprentices on under me, it like forces you to know a lot more, a lot quicker. So, um, it's kind and it's dust.

[00:03:27] Eric Goranson: It's so true because you can know that this is the right way to do it, but when you have to sit there and explain why it's the right way to do it, it's a different thing of, Oh yeah, we just always do it that way.

[00:03:40] Eric Goranson: But why do we always do it that.

[00:03:42] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, . Yeah, I had some people coming up that I worked under, you know, some journeymen that I would ask them. I was that annoying apprentice to man, like I would, like, how does this work? And how does, how do the waves do this? And where do the, And people are just like, Dude, shut up.

[00:03:54] Dustin Stelzer: Just go put the wire in . And I'm like, But how does this work? And they're like, I don't care how it [00:04:00] just, the white wire, hook it to the other white wire and shut up. But, so, you know, I would find teachers though that were nerds like me, other journeymen and other masters, and those are the ones that I really clung to because they had that thirst when they were younger and they understood and they needed to pass that on to somebody who really cared and wanted to be great.

[00:04:17] Eric Goranson: That is awesome. And you know, something, I think right now, in 2022 going into 2023, that electricians are going to be the need of the future over the next dec, next decade or so, more so than even ever before. I, I think it's gonna be almost like what we saw in the turn of the century when we started putting electricity in homes.

[00:04:41] Eric Goranson: Now we're going to be putting in so much more electricity into homes from car chargers to, you know, maybe taking things that are natural gas and flipping 'em over into electrical and, you know, how many 100 or 150 amp panels out there in the residential world that are gonna have to be [00:05:00] swapped out in the next decade.

[00:05:02] Dustin Stelzer: Well, it's, man, it's really interesting to see that because we've. Not only are we putting more things into homes, we're kind of changing how much things use and reducing it as much as possible. So I think what we're gonna see in the next, I don't know, like 10 years or so, is that all lighting's gonna be low voltage, You know, like I think there's gonna be a way LEDs, like everything's already low voltage, it's being converted from high voltage to low voltage, but I don't think there's a need.

[00:05:29] Dustin Stelzer: There's a lot of commercial lighting out there right now that's all just low voltage cable to each thing. And you have low voltage cables down to these little smart switches and occupancy sensors and stuff. So a lot of that stuff doesn't need to be as bright and as powerful and crazy. So a lot of that's gonna reduce.

[00:05:45] Dustin Stelzer: Um, and I think that excellent. Using excellent DC using battery backup and, and things like that. I just think we're gonna see a reduction in a lot of things. But also, like you're saying, we have car chargers, we have these big crazy pools. We have all these other things that we want to [00:06:00] do. So I don't know, it'll be interesting.

[00:06:02] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I just

[00:06:03] Eric Goranson: look at it, you know the general homeowner out there that's got maybe that a hundred, 150 amp panel and they just went out and bought the, the latest electric car and they wanna put a hot tub in, and all of a sudden they got more aper pulling outta that panel than it was originally designed for.

[00:06:17] Eric Goranson: Not counting the rest of the house. Right.

[00:06:19] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. And that's, you know, there's a lot of houses. Like my house was built in 1968. I got like a hundred amp panel on my, you know, it's an old zenko, which they don't even make Oh, you know, like old, old stuff that definitely has to be replaced. But, um, but you know, I will say too, a lot of people kind of misunderstand when they look at a panel, they think, Okay, I have to add up every single one of my breakers and that's how big my panel is.

[00:06:42] Dustin Stelzer: And it's like not most of what's in your panel, you're not using like even a 10th of, you know, if you have a 200 amp panel, you might be using 20 amps maximum ever. You know, there's so much capacity. But yeah, if you're adding something like a Tesla charger and you need like 80 amps sustained for eight straight hours or something like that, [00:07:00] then yeah, you do definitely, you'll have to upgrade your.

[00:07:02] Dustin Stelzer: Which is good for me. So

[00:07:03] Eric Goranson: true, So true. That's, and that's why you're gonna be so needed in, uh, in your people out there, cuz I don't know. I see it in, and again, like you said, I, I think that, that it could go a bunch of different ways, right? You know, they could come out with, right now it's, you know, okay, you need a 60, 80 amp charger depending on what level of charger you put in there.

[00:07:22] Eric Goranson: But then who knows, maybe they turn around and boom, it's something else, you know, in two or three years that, that doesn't require that, which will change the entire plan that they're gonna need to do to, to put in that much amperage. Cuz you know, my old house here that I have built in 79, I have the old split main Cutler hammer, you know, like to catch on fire.

[00:07:41] Eric Goranson: And, uh, , ironically, I bought the house and, and I looked at that panel and I went, ah, that's a little smoked. Okay, that's, that's gonna go on the short list. And sure enough, we had to move the meter to get in, uh, to, to meet code where they'd put it versus where it is now. And long story [00:08:00] short, We noticed that when they were pulling it down that the, the neutral was shorting out against one of the legs and had already rubbed through the wire of the neutral, and that's what was causing the heat inside the panel.

[00:08:11] Eric Goranson: So I was weeks to months away from having a panel fire. But

[00:08:16] Dustin Stelzer: yeah, strange down. And with that old, with that old panel too, there was no surge protection. There was no, you know, like even that era. What, how old was the house? Uh, 79. Did you have smoke detectors? Oh yeah. Okay, so there's a, that's a thing though, is a lot of houses back then, they didn't have any smoke protection or any kind of fire protection.

[00:08:34] Dustin Stelzer: They didn't have any, a lot of the breakers just weren't smart enough, or they weren't, you know, not that they weren't smart enough, but over time they aren't as effective as they used to be so they wouldn't trip. Um, or you'll have like a bad bus connection. So the actual bus where the breaker snaps in, there's like a loose termination.

[00:08:50] Dustin Stelzer: There's all kinds of stuff. And then over the years, all of the change in temperature, all the moisture. Yeah. Like there's disasters waiting to happen everywhere. That's

[00:08:58] Eric Goranson: one of the things that bugs me [00:09:00] sometimes when I jump on Craig's List and Facebook marketplace. I see people selling those old breakers that came out of, you know, I don't know if it's some apprentice or somebody that's at the junk pile at the, uh, you know, when it's coming outta the van at the end of the day, but I'm seeing, you know, black market breakers out there of stuff that they haven't made for 30 years.

[00:09:19] Eric Goranson: Right. But it's like, Oh man, why don't you guys just swap that panel out instead of trying to, to do that much with it? Yeah. .

[00:09:27] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, it's actually, uh, it's really dangerous to be doing that, but I know a lot of, uh, US electricians that have been, I don't know, 15, 20 years, oh, and older, we would keep the old stuff that we would tear outta panels because say you got like an old ranch out in east Texas somewhere, wait in the middle of the boondocks and you got some old grandma that's like lost power.

[00:09:47] Dustin Stelzer: And it's like, dude, I gotta, I got one of those, I just keep it in my truck. I can go throw that in there. It's better than the one that's burn out. Complet understand it, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then I'll hit her with a $3,000 service build next weekend, you know? But like right now I just, [00:10:00] I gotta do something.

[00:10:01] Dustin Stelzer: But it's a now, right. Yeah, but there's a lot of other breakers out there. I like to tell people not to do that anymore because now there's companies that are making brand new replacement breakers that have like good springs in them and they're actually UL listed and stuff like that.

[00:10:14] Eric Goranson: So true. So true.

[00:10:16] Eric Goranson: What do you seeing out there? I mean, the trades is something that you and I can sit here and talk for four hours on about getting people into the trades, but man, there is such a shortage out there and my impression is, is that we're going backwards, not forward. We just can't get the, get the young generation into the trades fast enough to replace all those guys out there and, and ladies that have been ready to retire now that have done their 30 or 40 years,

[00:10:44] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, it's, it's a culmination of a lot of things.

[00:10:47] Dustin Stelzer: So right now, for those listening that don't know, there's a thing that we call the skilled trade gap, and it's a huge gap from the people that are retiring, you know, fifties, sixties, to the people that are coming in the trades that want to be YouTubers and play [00:11:00] video games and stuff, and they just don't have the same desire and there's nothing wrong with that.

[00:11:03] Dustin Stelzer: But yeah, they're, they don't have the same desire to go out and actually sweat and break their knuckles doing stuff if they can make more money doing other things. So this generation that's very digitally minded, they've seen, wow, there's tons of people making millions of dollars, not sweating. Why do I want to go make a little bit of money doing whatever?

[00:11:21] Dustin Stelzer: But I think what needs to be understood by kids is, or taught to them, told to them, is you can actually make a really, really good living. Doing a trade, and you'll always have work for the rest of your life. You're never gonna be sitting there without the ability to find work. And that's a problem, you know, as seasons go, like people are outta work.

[00:11:42] Dustin Stelzer: When you work in an IT and you're coding, there's like 50 million people that code. And if the company downsizes, you're just a number. You know, they don't care. It's,

[00:11:50] Eric Goranson: It's Twitter, . Yeah. You know?

[00:11:53] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. So it's like a real skill that you actually know. And the cool thing is like you can whip out tricks when you're at parties and stuff.

[00:11:59] Dustin Stelzer: [00:12:00] I can't tell you how many vehicles I've started from grabbing some romax out my truck and just like pullings, you know, and twisting some wire together and boom, just hold it on there. And people are like, What did you just do? I'm like, Bro, electrician, that's an ass on your chest. You know? Like you're Superman.

[00:12:12] Dustin Stelzer: Exactly. But it's also, you know, electricity's dangerous. It's there's, it's cool, There's like this awesome, cool factor to being an electrician and I think. I've seen almost every person I've gotten into this trade, this is the coolest thing I've ever done. There's all these machines and motors and electricities invisible and it does all this crazy stuff, you know?

[00:12:33] Dustin Stelzer: So I think we need kind of a reeducation of what it means to work with your hands. And I think the biggest problem is that schools don't teach that this is cool. You know, they teach like code programs and make video games and stuff, and the kids are immersed in that world. But I think schools don't teach like, hey, if you take something apart and put it together and see how a thing is built and how this works, like you can make money doing that.

[00:12:58] Dustin Stelzer: And you could be really good at [00:13:00] fixing stuff. And I think there's a lot of people that would love that if they knew, Hey, I don't have to go to college and go into debt and I can still have a good life. I think that it just needs to be broadcast more.

[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I mean, if you're a kid that's, that's loves science and math and, and like working with your hands, you're gonna get, you're gonna make more money as an electrician than you are gonna be that middle school science teacher.

[00:13:23] Eric Goranson: So if you really wanna be able to give yourself some freedom and a good income and not have the college debt, y'all be an

[00:13:30] Dustin Stelzer: electrician. Yeah. And you know, that's funny that you bring that up too, because a lot of teachers out there will are like, Well, don't you need to get a degree or else you're gonna end up being a plumber?

[00:13:38] Dustin Stelzer: Or like some, you know, it's like, dude, I know plumbers that have multiple homes. Balling that have beau like Audis, all kinds of crazy cars, pools. They go on vacations, they're wealthy. So it yet, like, sure, there's the, there's the, there with any job, you could be the one scientist guy that works at the corporation or you could be the scientist guy that started his own corporation and is like [00:14:00] bajillionaire.

[00:14:01] Dustin Stelzer: So you could be an electrician that's just working out in the field and you get a great wage and you just, that's it. Or you could be like, kind of crazy about electricity and wanna start a company and have trucks and have all this stuff. Um, and you can make a, an outstanding living for yourself.

[00:14:17] Eric Goranson: I mean, great example, right now I know of probably four to six positions that if I had a friend that was on the East coast right now wanting to move out to Portland where I'm at, that I could say, Okay, I'll get you a year contract and a 20, so $20,000 signing bonus just because you want to come out here and work.

[00:14:34] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And I, I know a guy that'll write a check tomorrow for 20 grand. Yes. Like, just so you can get out here and work and that. Come on.

[00:14:40] Dustin Stelzer: Who does that? Yeah. And that's the crazy thing too, is trained people that really know what they're doing. They have a blank check anywhere they go, they can get paid anything they want.

[00:14:49] Dustin Stelzer: They're in high demand, and they're so hard to find. If I was just to announce, like on YouTube, Hey guys, like I'm looking for a job. Who's gonna hire me? Like, I know the opportunity [00:15:00] because I'm actually one of those super passionate guys that's gonna be a lifelong electrician that's always trying to move and shake and hustle and do a good job.

[00:15:07] Dustin Stelzer: You know, like that's, that's really hard to find. Finding apprentices. They're a dime a dozen. Right? Finding people that don't know or don't really care, they're everywhere. But they're replaceable.

[00:15:17] Eric Goranson: What are you seeing right now on the, on the apprentices that make it through? Are you seeing a, a 50, 60% rate in, in, in your area?

[00:15:25] Eric Goranson: What are you seeing out there? Cause I know it's different, you know, it's different

[00:15:27] Dustin Stelzer: everywhere. What do you mean a 50% or 60 rate? Well, you

[00:15:30] Eric Goranson: know, people that start as the apprenticeship program and actually make it through to the other side. Oh. You know, like in bootcamp versus turning into the electrician.

[00:15:39] Eric Goranson: Are you seeing a pretty successful rate for those, or, I know a lot of it's on the person.

[00:15:43] Dustin Stelzer: Well, and a lot of it's on the. So I, I think most of it, I think 98% of that, the answer to that question are the people that this new person that's insecure and doesn't know anything has to work under. And if you, if that person, uh, male or female is working for [00:16:00] people that are not mindful at all, that don't care, that are just, you know, jerks all day, just berating people.

[00:16:06] Dustin Stelzer: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. They're never, they're gonna equate that, that that is what an electrician is and they're never gonna want to do it. But you got people that are like really on fire about it and love it and teach safety and training, and always want to give opportunity and, and like bring somebody along and like really groom them.

[00:16:21] Dustin Stelzer: It's a whole different experience for their life. Like when they go home, at the end of the day, they're like, Dude, I love my job. They tell their wife like, I can't wait to go to back to work tomorrow to work with that one guy. Like, shows me all the crazy things. And then when you're at work, it's like, somebody's like putting faith in me and they trust that I'm gonna do a good job and they're teaching me how to do a good job.

[00:16:39] Dustin Stelzer: You know, it's a whole who. Is teaching is the biggest thing out there. Granted, yes, there are. Uh, there's a whole different generational thing. Like my son is 17, he's about to be 18, and he started his apprenticeship last year. So like, just during the summer he came and worked with me every day. And because he was working with [00:17:00] me and there's mutual respect there and I wanted to teach him, and he just, he wanted to learn.

[00:17:04] Dustin Stelzer: He soaked it up and I told him like, working hard, you know, I show him by working hard, that working hard is the right thing to do, so he works hard, you know? So he loved it and he's like, Dude, I don't wanna go to college. Like, I want to be an electrician. This is the thing. He wants to be a YouTuber also.

[00:17:18] Dustin Stelzer: But I was like, Well, I should take this thing and actually make some money until you get to the point of being able to do that. But I think that's the thing is a lot of these kids, if they, if they have like a skill or a thing that they've got as their backbone, they can do anything else that they want because the technology that they have at their disposal, they can take whatever they know about anything and they can make millions of dollars doing something with it.

[00:17:42] Eric Goranson: So true man. And electricity is interesting. You know, it's, it's one of those things that requires a fair amount of math. And the more you learn about electricity, the more you realize that there's more science and math in there than you think there is. It's, it's [00:18:00] shocking. I don't mean, is that a pun, but you know how much people have to know to get into there because you know, you're figuring it, There's a lot of math in, in electrical work.

[00:18:11] Eric Goranson: It's not just going, Oh, I need 20 amps. Is 10 amps there? 14 two? What? You know? No, that's the basic stuff. The, the hard stuff is figuring loads and all those other things that, uh, once you get it, it's easy, but there is some learning to it.

[00:18:26] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I agree. So I, I think. The more depth of understanding that you want to have as an individual about electricity, it behooves you to learn more math so that you can understand, because electrical engineers, for instance, they talk about electricity and mathematical terms, so they have to understand calculus and differential equations to be able to like construct, you know, these complex wave forms and everything.

[00:18:51] Dustin Stelzer: But electricians, mm-hmm. , we just gotta install wire. It ain't that crazy with the math. You know, like as long as you know how to balance an equation and be like, Hey, I'm, I don't know [00:19:00] something, but I know some other things and I can put the things I know. I know. To figure out the thing. I don't know, like that's easy algebra pretty much.

[00:19:06] Dustin Stelzer: Um, there's tape, great example. There's tape measure stuff, you know, like if you're working, you're always measuring like what is, what is like 49 and five sixteenths divided into three , but you got a phone, you can figure that out, right? So it's not that crazy. Fair point. Yeah. The craziest thing with electricity is understanding what it is and how it's working because you can't see it.

[00:19:27] Dustin Stelzer: And then you've got all these people that just have these weird generalized misunderstandings and contradictory things, and so like nobody really knows what electricity is, but we have a model that we use in science and we're like, there's these electron things and just go with that, you know,

[00:19:45] Eric Goranson: Oh, it's, it's so crazy. And, and social media, you know, I'm in a lot of the different residential homeowner groups out there on social media, and I'll see stuff where somebody's trying to take their. Their welder [00:20:00] outlet in the garage and split that off into a, into a, you know, a plugin for their drill or something.

[00:20:06] Eric Goranson: Or I'm, Or there's somebody with a 80 year old house that's got, you know, two wires in that box for the electrical no ground, and they're trying to figure out how to deal with that. Do I really have to run a grounder at, There's so many little things that homeowners, uh, I love for them when they see this is I just turn around and go, Hey, look, if you don't understand this, this is why you bring the professional in.

[00:20:30] Eric Goranson: If you have to ask the question that you're asking, then bring the pro in. It's gonna help you so much. Yeah.

[00:20:37] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. I try to tell people, so my YouTube channel is called Electrician U, not electricity, u and I always try, try to tell people like, this is. Apprentices who are electricians to help them further understand what they're doing for a license with legal liability backing.

[00:20:54] Dustin Stelzer: You know, I don't ever tell homeowners like, go out there and do your own electrical. Like you, you, a lot of places you can pull [00:21:00] permits. Like in Austin there's a homeowner's permit. Um, to do work though, under a homeowner's permit, you cannot hire other contractors for anything. You have to take all of the liability on your own and it still goes through an inspection process, but the inspector will come through and be like, Okay, you obviously have no clue what you're doing.

[00:21:16] Dustin Stelzer: Like you need to hire, at least hire a master to come in here and tell you how to do things correctly. But don't let him touch anything because then it's his liability. But yeah, I try to, That makes sense. I try to tell people like, don't, don't do your own wiring because I, most of the work that we do is fixing husband's wiring who said they were gonna do it and not have an electrician come out.

[00:21:35] Dustin Stelzer: And the wives are always the one that call, you know, and, and we have to fix a lot of stuff because they don't understand. They think that they just see a picture in a book. And it's like, no, there's, there's a lot more to. .

[00:21:47] Eric Goranson: Now, here's a secret for all of my, uh, all of our listeners out there that, uh, check out my videos and stuff that I've done over the last six years.

[00:21:54] Eric Goranson: If you'll notice, you never see me hooking a wire up in those. And I do that on purpose , because I don't [00:22:00] want ever this to be a DIY video for how to hook something up. Electrical. I'll be putting a vent fan in. I'll be putting an outlet in and I'll go, All right, well, we'll back in a second. And all of a sudden it's working again because, uh, if I have to show you that in the video, again, this is why you need to have that licensed electrician out there to do that work for you.

[00:22:19] Eric Goranson: I don't wanna be the one teaching you how to do it because your situation could be very wrong or different or anything else, and that can go. Uh, like you said, from a homeowner

[00:22:29] Dustin Stelzer: point of view. Yeah. And I always try to be really, um, mindful of that, right? Like, when I first started making content, that was my biggest fear is I was like, Oh my God, if I do any kind of misstep, every electrician on the planet is just gonna light me up.

[00:22:42] Dustin Stelzer: And it's funny cuz I will watch other people's videos and I'll be like, Oh wow, you're really just working on that, that whole panel live, opening that up and just telling Mr and Mrs. Homeowners to start doing, you know, stuff on live circuits and you're not gonna say, Go shut the main off. You're not gonna talk about wearing hot glove, you're not gonna insulated tools, Nothing.

[00:22:58] Dustin Stelzer: You know, So I try to [00:23:00] incorporate a lot of that stuff and make sure that I show an image of a breaker being shut off or, uh, . Cause you have to, it's, it's the responsible thing to do. And I, I think you, if you're gonna be teaching electrical, you need to be talking just as much about safety and respecting safety and doing things correctly, um, as you are about, you know, installing this.

[00:23:20] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I watched, uh, oh, probably 15, almost 20 years ago, I watched an accident happen and then one of the cabinet shops I was working at, and they were working on a three phase panel that was hot. And I don't know what happened, but uh, I heard the arc and then they had to put the, uh, the electrician that was working on it, his carhartts lit on fire and they had to put him out.

[00:23:40] Eric Goranson: So I don't know what happened there, but it was bad. Whoa. And he made it. But my job was to go out and clear the. Clear the parking lot, so life flight could get in and get him outta there. But, uh, after seeing that, it gave me a new respect of like, okay, yeah. I mean, commercial stuff's a different story, but still it, uh, it can happen to anybody.[00:24:00]

[00:24:00] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I mean, it can, you can get 120 volts can kill you just like 480 volts can, and you know, depending on how much currents going through you, how much voltages and if you're wet or not, because it changes the amount of resistance that you're giving to all of that current trying to go through your body.

[00:24:15] Dustin Stelzer: Um, there's a lot of different ways where you can get shocked, you know, just, just basically hurt, uh, or electrocuted, you know, like seriously hurt or killed. Um, so yeah, it's nothing to play around with, but I, I try to like put some levity into that because I want to, I want more electricians to come in here and not be terrified of it.

[00:24:33] Dustin Stelzer: I'd say 90% of the time you're doing work, you're not working anywhere near live stuff. Most of the time we're running wires and walls, we're installing light fixtures, we're doing all of this stuff. And at the very, very end we will go turn a breaker on and see if it works and pull a multi-meter out and we're actually testing a live circuit.

[00:24:50] Dustin Stelzer: Um, but the majority of the time, even if you go to like a commercial or industrial thing and you have a service call, most of the time it's cuz something won't turn back on. It's like a trip, [00:25:00] something trip, something's blown up, so you're walking into a dead situation. So, you know, with a little bit of levity, he's like, sure it's dangerous and people do have to work on things live, but that's why they.

[00:25:10] Dustin Stelzer: Proper PPE or you know, protective equipment. They make gloves, they make face shields. And I think if that person with the Carhartt, I don't know what happened. I'm, I'm making some broad assumptions here, but they probably didn't have any of this stuff on and that's why they

[00:25:22] Eric Goranson: got, they did not, they didn't have the gloves, they didn't have, It was literally a guy sitting there in his Carhartt jacket and, and overalls underneath it, sitting there working on it.

[00:25:30] Eric Goranson: So, uh, I came on 10 seconds later, there was zero PPE that I saw right there. Yeah. So which would've prevented that most

[00:25:38] Dustin Stelzer: likely. Yeah. And a lot of people don't understand, too. It's like they think they get into an environment and they're like, Ah, I know what I'm doing. I'm safe. But it's the accidents, it's the things that, like you drop a piece of metal into this, this, uh, panel that you're working in, and then it connects between two hots and then boom, it blows an explosive amount of energy at you.

[00:25:58] Dustin Stelzer: There's all. Just [00:26:00] to, I say it all the time, don't work on electricity live unless you're trained and you have the proper ppe, you can do all your own, like run and wire romax in your house and doing all that if you want. But working on live power is extremely dangerous and shouldn't be done unless you're an electrician and you're trained.

[00:26:17] Eric Goranson: Yeah, Dust. That's the thing. For all you people out there that are thinking about being an electrician one day, these are all things that you have a hundred percent control of. If you're an electrician, cuz it's, you're the one that's gonna go off, turn the panel off, turn the breaker off, you're the one in control of that.

[00:26:30] Eric Goranson: So that's the beautiful part of that. If you take the minute, go over and shut it off, you now have control of that situation. And like if it was a commercial project, you'd actually go lock it out for instance, versus that. Yeah, you're still in control of the whole situation. So is it dangerous for you? No.

[00:26:45] Eric Goranson: You take the right steps. That's not gonna be your problem.

[00:26:48] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. It's really just mitigating risk. Like we decide as electricians how much risk we're willing to take. And it's even silly stuff like climbing up on ladders. We're on ladders all the time because we're doing stuff up in ceilings. So it's like how janky of a ladder set up are we gonna [00:27:00] try to do to get up to this 27 foot light that we gotta hang?

[00:27:02] Dustin Stelzer: Are we gonna get, you know, some people will do crazy stuff and it's like you're literally putting your life in, in risk to put a life fixture up that you're getting paid $25 for this one hour, it's gonna take you to do you really 25 bucks. It's worth risk in that like, no. So it, the, the best companies are the ones that preach safety and that actually overtrain to the point where it's like obnoxious how much they're talking about safety and doing things right.

[00:27:28] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. Those are the best work for, Cuz they'll never put your life in jeopardy.

[00:27:33] Eric Goranson: Exactly. I can't tell you how many times I've called electricians to do something they could easily do because that's the, uh, chandelier that weighs a hundred pounds and it's in the 24 foot high entryway next to the stairs.

[00:27:44] Eric Goranson: And I'm like, I ain't going up there .

[00:27:47] Dustin Stelzer: I know when I get, when I get a call from somebody, they're like, Hey, I got a light that I want you to hang. And I'm like, All right, cool. I'll come out there. And then I go, . Cause we deal with large custom homes and I'll see this like 40 foot atrium with like a [00:28:00] 500 pound chandelier and I'm like, this is gonna take six people.

[00:28:03] Dustin Stelzer: Like how, what? Yeah. All right.

[00:28:06] Eric Goranson: So we're hanging a piano off the things there that we're gonna plug in. Right. Awesome. .

[00:28:11] Dustin Stelzer: Yep. And it's so funny, all these big fixtures that people buy, like really expensive, you know, $20,000 entry light chandeliers, they're made by somebody drinking beer outta their garage.

[00:28:20] Dustin Stelzer: Like they are hacked together. Almost every one of them, they, they like, they don't have UL listings. They're like, Oh yeah, I found it in Mexico somewhere. And it's like, how much did you pay? They paid so much. And it's just, again, it's somebody just kind of rag tagging some stuff together and so hanging it, it's like, okay, this is dangerous.

[00:28:37] Dustin Stelzer: Like I don't feel safe with this hanging above somebody's head because this is not made with quality stuff. Yeah,

[00:28:43] Eric Goranson: you, you, that base could be fastened perfectly. You did everything you could and three quarters of it comes apart. Six weeks later it comes down and of course it's ripping the wires right with it, because whoever built it didn't really put it together for it to be upside down, hanging up.

[00:28:57] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Or my

[00:28:58] Dustin Stelzer: favorite is when they've got this [00:29:00] really complex, beautiful design and they've run the cord through all the chains and through all the little beautiful pieces and all this stuff, and you go and turn the light switch on and it just shorts out every time because they were just yanking wire through this, trying to get it through all these stupid things and they didn't put bushings.

[00:29:16] Dustin Stelzer: You know, like there's a lot to this stuff. But then, then you have to go take the entire thing you spent all day putting together and take it all back down and find a short and rerun new wire in it. It's stupid.

[00:29:26] Eric Goranson: Ah, man. It's interesting that UL listing something interesting, and I ran into this with my brother here years ago.

[00:29:32] Eric Goranson: He bought some, he's got a vintage house and he bought some streetlights to go around the sidewalk and stuff around the outside. Pulled permits, did everything else on it. Actually had a guy come in and run the wire and do it all for him. But the final inspection, the inspector came up and went, Where's your UL listing on those

[00:29:48] Dustin Stelzer: lights?

[00:29:48] Dustin Stelzer: Mm. and they have the right to do that. And

[00:29:51] Eric Goranson: uh, they did. Yeah. And, uh, he had to, he had to send them off and get 'em test, uh, you know, certified. And that was, uh, that was not

[00:29:58] Dustin Stelzer: easy. No, [00:30:00] no, it's not. Um, and well, and UL is not the only listing agency, so that's something too, like to get faster listings or to not have to go through such a strenuous, crazy process, you can get other listings and as long as it is listed, period, it doesn't have to be UL listed.

[00:30:15] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. But that was the problem with Federal Pacific. I don't know if you know about the whole federal Pacific Breakers thing. Yeah. They were lying and they were saying that they had a list. They had gone through all the listing procedures and then they got their listing taken away after they realized that all of their breakers weren't tripping and there was a hazard and they kept selling 'em with the UL stickers on 'em for year, for like, for like 20 years.

[00:30:34] Dustin Stelzer: They just kept doing it. And so finally, I think it, in the early nineties, like 92 or maybe late eighties, uh, they got shut down and they like, they had to close shop because they had lied to the people about all of it. But it was, it was all inspectors that were going out after that. There was this huge wave of like, every inspector was like, super.

[00:30:51] Dustin Stelzer: Is this listed? Is this listed to make sure that this is listed? Oh yeah. Yeah. So I haven't heard of an inspector checking a UL listing ever in my entire career, So that's kind of crazy. [00:31:00]

[00:31:00] Eric Goranson: It was crazy. I was, First thing I asked my little brother was, Okay, who'd you make mad? Yeah. . Who'd you make mad? Cuz that was

[00:31:08] Eric Goranson: Yep. Pretty crazy is what that was. But what are you seeing out there too as far as, um, you know, one thing I, I really like about what I'm starting to see out in the trades, but man, The females that should be in being electricians and plumbers out there. I'm liking what I'm seeing of the trend of our female population starting to get into these trades.

[00:31:31] Eric Goranson: And it's not the, the problems that we saw 25 years ago compared to now, but, uh, I think there's such a huge opportunity out there because you're seeing work wear being built. You're seeing all these different opportunities and I think it's a missed opportunity for plenty of people out there that want to get into

[00:31:49] Dustin Stelzer: the trades.

[00:31:49] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, we have this whole skilled, uh, gap problem mm-hmm. , and I think if we just hired as many females as there are mails, , [00:32:00] it would fix the whole problem overnight. Right. Um, the, the, the industry is very male dominated, so there is, I'm, I'm friends with a lot of females that are in the trades and we.

[00:32:11] Dustin Stelzer: And in ig nauseum about the issues and the reasons why there aren't more females or the issues that females have when they come in. And really in today's world, I think people are a lot more mindful than they used to be. Um, they understand that the culture and people act differently and people just like respect and mindfulness in all of that is, is something that people care a lot more about and they won't put up with if there's not that in, in their environment.

[00:32:38] Dustin Stelzer: But there's a lot of things that like, because this is a male dominated industry that we just don't know about. It's not that we're a bunch of chauvinists, you know, like male pigs that just wanna hold the woman down. It's nothing like that. . Most dudes are like, Dude, hell yeah. We got a woman that's like on the, on the job site.

[00:32:53] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. And it's like this competitive thing, you know, It's, but it's fun. But there's a lot of things like, um, just porta John. Out on a job [00:33:00] site. Yeah. They, they, like females need bigger, cleaner, well lit spaces for what they have to do compared to a dude that can just go and like, you know, doesn't, doesn't matter

[00:33:10] Eric Goranson: to us, but was Yeah.

[00:33:11] Eric Goranson: The Home Depot bucket in the corners perfectly fine to them. Right. You know, that's not what they, that's not what they need

[00:33:17] Dustin Stelzer: for the job site. Yeah. And so there's, there're it's just things like that need to be brought to the attention of people so that something can be done about it. But the industry, I think in general is a lot more welcoming than it ever used to be.

[00:33:28] Dustin Stelzer: But there still are people that just don't know how to act around a woman. You know, the biggest, one of the biggest complaints a lot of females have is that they are thought of as a girlfriend prospect instead of just a worker. Oh. So like everybody's trying to figure out like if they could date 'em or if, you know, or like Oh yeah.

[00:33:44] Dustin Stelzer: Or like, or that the other one. Uh, Hey, can I carry your ladder for you? Or, Hey, let me get that. It might be too heavy or, Hey, don't fall off. How fast. I know, but it's even homeowners, it's not even just regular people. Like homeowners will be like, Oh, woman electrician. Are those tools too heavy? And they're not trying to be mean, [00:34:00] they're just, they're trying to figure out, how do I talk to this human?

[00:34:03] Dustin Stelzer: This is just a, a bizarre thing. And it's like, no, just talk to them like you would if they were a dude. You would give them respect first. Yeah. Cuz they're wearing tools, they're obviously qualified or they wouldn't be there doing it. Exactly. You know, don't treat them any differently and stop trying to hit on 'em.

[00:34:17] Dustin Stelzer: They're people, they're just normal people. .

[00:34:19] Eric Goranson: Exactly. You know, it's one thing too, and I'll say this to all the manufacturers out there that are listening to this, cuz I, there are a few of em and I think the, one of the biggest complaints I'm hearing is that, yes, there. Things that are built for women and boots and clothing and stuff, but we're still not there yet.

[00:34:35] Eric Goranson: You know? Yeah. It's like we're 20% there because, you know, maybe with the, with the PPE and the work wear, Okay. Some of it's being made in, in women's clothing, but not all of it is, or not enough of it is. So there's some companies that have gone out and gone, Okay, hey, we're, we've got a good start. And, and I appreciate the good start that they're out doing it, but, uh, I can't wait for that day when they're actually coming out and putting out an [00:35:00] equal line.

[00:35:01] Eric Goranson: For the male and female side of things out there because, uh, I know we've got more to go, but, uh, that's one of the biggest complaints I've heard from my friends, uh, in the trades that, uh, that there's a little bit more to go on, on getting the right work wear out there.

[00:35:14] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I think there's a lot more to go.

[00:35:16] Dustin Stelzer: Um, I, I think. There tends to be a trend of like, Hey, we want to just be the cool company that is seen as caring about a certain group of disaffected people versus people that understand the problems and are themselves the ones that are gonna solve the, the issue. So I think a lot of female run companies, I think you're gonna see a lot more, um, clothing companies that are female run, that are like, Let's make some clothes for us.

[00:35:41] Dustin Stelzer: You know, that actually that we understand the problem. But I think there's, there's just, yeah, there's a long, long, long way to go because there's so many products that have to be thought of in terms of hand sizes, waist sizes, body shapes, you know, different frames, different like issues with how bodies work.

[00:35:59] Dustin Stelzer: Like, there's just a [00:36:00] lot of other things to consider and I think if it's still largely all male run from the top, we're still gonna be trying to like put a hammer, uh, you know, on an apple and think like, you know, it's a good match.

[00:36:12] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And, and I'm gonna call the retailers out cuz that is part of the problem here.

[00:36:16] Eric Goranson: These companies are really good. But I am gonna say that the, that the other issue we have out there is retailers and, uh, they need to make the shelf space for that as well.

[00:36:25] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I agree. And you know, obviously like in throughout history, we, things don't get taken care of until people are loud enough about the problems, right?

[00:36:35] Dustin Stelzer: Like power, kind of power historically always has to be taken. It's never given. And so I think to, to make things happen, to shake things up, there needs to be voices and people stepping up to take care of the problems. And we are starting to see a lot of that. I don't mean to be, you know, sounds so drab about it all.

[00:36:52] Dustin Stelzer: Um, but, but there does need to be a lot. ,

[00:36:56] Eric Goranson: I love to see change and the more we can, uh, help push that along, I [00:37:00] think that's the positive side of this because, uh, I think, uh, they need more advocates out there for people trying to make that change.

[00:37:06] Dustin Stelzer: And I love that. Yeah. And there's a lot of groups too where there's, um, like female only, uh, groups of.

[00:37:12] Dustin Stelzer: Um, like on, on Reddit or something like that, you know, there's, there's some like trade women groups. I think just every person that works with a female or even does, doesn't work with a female. Just being a part of groups like that and kind of listening and seeing, holy crap, like this is the issues they're having, I had no idea, cuz I do that too and like, damn, I didn't even realize I was creating a problem.

[00:37:33] Dustin Stelzer: And like the more females that we can kind of elevate to tell their stories and create a safe space for them to feel comfortable talking about stuff, um, the more people are going to know and it's gonna be able to help the problem. But just like feeling like they have to be sec sequestered and not have a voice because they don't wanna be judged.

[00:37:51] Dustin Stelzer: That's how a lot of them feel, uh, right now. And or the opposite. They're being like, hated on because there's a lot of men out there that are like, we [00:38:00] don't need more women in the trades. Like, just, we're fine with all the men that we have. You know, there, there's just a lot of differing opinions out there.

[00:38:06] Dustin Stelzer: But I have found, you know, I have. Hundreds of thousands of followers. So I get comments like, I don't even, can't, can't count the comments. And the people that I talk to in groups of people all over the internet, I'm like really engaged in this whole thing. And I will say probably 90% of people fall in the middle where they're mindful, they're like secure, supportive, they want to help and they want to learn about the issues.

[00:38:29] Dustin Stelzer: So they're not being an idiot. Um, that's most people. It's just that with any issue in the world, you're always gonna have the opposite polarities that are way extreme. And you got

[00:38:39] Eric Goranson: that, you got that handful of percentage of trolls out there that love to, love to roll things up. But, uh, I think the biggest thing we can do is, is guys out in this field is quite frankly, listen and see what we can do to make things better.

[00:38:52] Eric Goranson: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:38:53] Dustin Stelzer: We don't always have something to say. We don't always have to have something to say. We can just Exactly.

[00:38:59] Eric Goranson: Well, hey, I [00:39:00] wanted to talk to you about electrician you, and get into this a little bit more because I like what you're doing here and you know, we've gone off on, uh, all these different things out there, but I love how you're really training people out there.

[00:39:12] Eric Goranson: Let's talk about how this was started. How did you get into this really, Dustin? I mean, obviously, you know, you have gone to be spending a ton of time doing, doing all this media and social media. Yeah,

[00:39:25] Dustin Stelzer: it's overwhelming . So when I, when I started, I was like, Hey, I'm just gonna make some cool videos and talk about the testers that I like and that I think are garbage and that people shouldn't buy.

[00:39:36] Dustin Stelzer: And I was starting my electrical company because I had just become a master electrician and I was trying to get more customers. So I was like, maybe if I put some videos out on YouTube of like some of the work we're doing and like talk. Just anything in life, it might get people to like the persona of my company and I might get more work.

[00:39:54] Dustin Stelzer: And I realized that all I was doing is attracting a whole bunch of electricians that were doing that. They were like, Hey [00:40:00] man, I like your perspective. Have you ever tried this? You should try this. And so it became like this back and forth thing where it grew into enough people that it became a community.

[00:40:07] Dustin Stelzer: And then I had a bunch of sponsors reach out, and that was like Domino's, you know, after. Um, once I realized that there are, you know, brands that have like billion dollar budgets that are, that are interested in putting the red tool in my hand while I'm talking about something. Exactly, yeah. But then I kind of felt messed up about it.

[00:40:25] Dustin Stelzer: Like at first I was like, God, am I gonna sell out because I am trying to earn money doing this? And you know, like I was still working out in the field as an electrician, but then the, the income became so parallel, you know, it was like, Oh wow, I could actually be more talking to a camera than I ever could, like five, 10 times more than I could ever do as like a master electrician.

[00:40:44] Dustin Stelzer: So it just kind of, the money decision was part of it, but mainly it was the massive community of people. Um, and all of 'em were like, Dude, thank you so much. Like, this is so needed. Some kind of visual thing of people explaining stuff and how it works and it got to be the point where, [00:41:00] You know, instructors in schools use my stuff to teach in their classrooms with now.

[00:41:03] Dustin Stelzer: And so I would get entire classrooms of people and I'd get instructors and I cuss, you know, like I'm actually an electrician. I really wear tools. I have tattoos. I was in the Marines, I speak the, uh, the dirty version of English, I suppose you could say. So I think a lot of electricians were like, Oh dude, he's, he's like legit, you know?

[00:41:21] Dustin Stelzer: Like he's real and he's not. That's the real thing. Yeah. He's not afraid to like, throw out some cus words. Tastefully. Um, when I started my I cussed way too much. It was like, it was like, Um, absurd how much, because I was insecure in front of a camera, you know? And instead of saying like, um, or, uh, a lot, it was just mm-hmm , like f bums constantly.

[00:41:43] Dustin Stelzer: And, uh, I was trying to teach and so I would have instructors at schools reach out and be like, Bro, you gotta cut this out, man. You gotta stop. Like, I can't use your stuff in my class. And at first I fought it cuz I was like, I'm gonna be me and I'm not gonna filter myself for your corporateness. And then I , you know, I was like, go make your own [00:42:00] videos.

[00:42:00] Dustin Stelzer: Like, quit trying to watch the stuff I'm giving you for free and complain about it. But then as I've gotten a little bit older, I'm like, no, there's actually, like, I'm limiting who has access to information by not being wise about that, you know? Um, so I'm, I, absolutely, My videos today are far, like, I might go like five videos and then one little, like, tasteful story of a cuss word might come out or something.

[00:42:23] Dustin Stelzer: But I specifically still don't filter myself. I'm just far more confident and I, I'm careful with my language, I think.

[00:42:31] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I've gotten better too. And, uh, you know, that darn FCC for the radio show is the one that I have to be careful with. That's the only thing. But, uh, that's why we're not live. We always record, so I have to clean it up.

[00:42:41] Eric Goranson: I had, uh, I don't know if you've ever caught him out there. I, I like doing stuff different with this show. So, uh, I brought on Carmine, the construction comic. I don't know if you've ever caught him out there on social media. No. . I'm

[00:42:52] Dustin Stelzer: so curious now

[00:42:53] Eric Goranson: though. Oh yeah, check him out. Um, hilarious. Uh, I have never had [00:43:00] to edit a show that much , uh, to try to get that on the radio because it was very, it was very hard to get that in there without it sounding like a beep fest.

[00:43:10] Eric Goranson: But, uh, it was a good challenge. But, uh, probably won't do that again, just for that very end. Yeah. .

[00:43:16] Dustin Stelzer: That's funny. There's a couple of podcasts out there that are just raunchy and they're pr, they're like presented as like construction podcast or like electrician podcast. And then when you listen to it, you're like, Oh God, you guys foul

[00:43:30] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. But you know, it's people speaking their truth. Um, and none of us are stumbling towards the light at varying levels of

[00:43:37] Eric Goranson: grace. . Yeah, absolutely. I also noticed though, man, it's, I like how you're doing, uh, continue education as well, you know, in certain states because I've noticed that, uh, you know, boy, what's, with every state being so different with trade licensing across the country, it's crazy where, you know, one state's got this rule, this [00:44:00] state's got another rule.

[00:44:01] Eric Goranson: I wish we could kind of standardize that a little bit. Well,

[00:44:04] Dustin Stelzer: a lot. A lot of people would hate if that was standardized as well. Uh, it, I know, you know, all, all licensing for anything is, is always at a state level. So states have control of what they deem necessary to have licensing for. And there's states that just don't care.

[00:44:19] Dustin Stelzer: Like if you wanna be an electrician, go wire three plugs and you're an electrician and you can now run a, run a company . And it's seriously, there's, there's, I think there's only like 26 states that actually require state mandated continuing education every year. Um, there's some that require it, like bi annually, so every two years.

[00:44:38] Dustin Stelzer: And there's a lot of states that have no requirement whatsoever. If you want to, you can, but you're not, you're not gonna lose your license if you don't do continuing education. So here in Texas we will, we, every year we have to do it or we lose our license.

[00:44:52] Eric Goranson: Nice, Nice. And, and I know the guys out there in the field and the ladies out in the field right now that are going, ah, I hate the Cs.

[00:44:58] Eric Goranson: And I mean, I hate my CEUs [00:45:00] for my trade too, but that's where you get to learn that new stuff or, or maybe new products. Cuz this is not a static sport, if you know what I mean. There's, everything's changing

[00:45:08] Dustin Stelzer: down the road. Yeah. Especially in the electrical industry. I mean, we change, like the biggest thing in the electrical industry is that everything changes every single year.

[00:45:16] Dustin Stelzer: Constantly. There's new code books every three years. It's just, there's new, there's all kinds of new crazy stuff being developed for our industry and products and everything. So you have to be able to keep up with it somehow. So I do like that continuing education is mandatory. I think that electricity is dangerous and not everybody should be doing it unless you've had a lot of formal training to take on the liability of risking somebody else's life and their investments.

[00:45:40] Dustin Stelzer: I think that's, you should have to have a license and there should be inspections to people's work, even if you have licenses. Like I take all that very seriously. But yeah, we, we do rightfully so. Yeah. And you were saying we do provide continuing education. So as a part of what I was doing, I realized that continuing education most places is so boring and it [00:46:00] doesn't actually teach you anything new.

[00:46:01] Dustin Stelzer: It's just kind of like, here go through all these click screens and it's all just, the code changes from the last year or the last three years or something. So you'll go three years and have the same exact click screen course cuz nothing's changed. And it's like, this is bs. Like we should be teaching and pushing that people, like, I had surgery and I had this young nurse, um, I woke up and I was all drugged out and she was sitting next to me with this, with this monster textbook.

[00:46:27] Dustin Stelzer: And I was like, What are you doing? And she's like, Oh, this is my continuing education I have to do. I'm tested over this entire book. Every single year there's a new monster book. And uh, they take us knowing stuff really. Seriously. And it just made me think, I was like, Wow, I wish we did that too, You know?

[00:46:45] Dustin Stelzer: Mm-hmm. , I just wish there was a higher, absolutely higher standard. So,

[00:46:50] Eric Goranson: hey, let's talk about some other continuing education stuff here and what's changed out there. Before we end up running outta time, I got a couple questions for you. What do you think about, you know, the changes over [00:47:00] to arc fault breakers in homes from your traditional, uh, breaker or

[00:47:05] Dustin Stelzer: gfc?

[00:47:06] Dustin Stelzer: Oh, I think they're great. Um, I think in general, uh, more service calls that I get in houses are because of arc fault breakers that just don't work anymore. You know, there's all, whether it be planned obsolescence and they're just planning on them failing, um, or it's just crappy design. There's a couple of brands that never have problems.

[00:47:28] Dustin Stelzer: Um, Square d qo pretty much. Mm-hmm. , uh, never have any issues. I don't have very many issues with ge, but, uh, Siemens to they, they're like planned to go bad every year or two years or, or it's not all of them. It's, it's like maybe three or four out of, you know, 10 or or 15 in a panel just go bad and you're constantly replacing them.

[00:47:51] Dustin Stelzer: Um, I think Eaton depends on if you're in the, the, uh, color hammer line or not, but like, Eaton's got some products that charges not that great. [00:48:00] Um, so, you know, in general I do notice that every code cycle they're pushing more and more things beyond a fault breakers and then they're pushing now more and more things that need to be G F C protected.

[00:48:12] Dustin Stelzer: So before, none of your two 20 stuff, none of your big like dryers and like, uh, you know, anything big had to be protected. But now everything that is 50 amps and 220 volts all has to be GFI protected, um, depending on where that's smart. Um, some things don't have to, but like, there's just this constant push of ground fault protection and arc fault protection that is growing and growing and growing every code cycle.

[00:48:35] Dustin Stelzer: So I think we're probably gonna see in the next, I don't know, five, 10 years that every breaker in every room has to be smart enough to be able to detect ground faults and arc faults. And I just think we're gonna see a big change in what a panel looks like and smart diagnostics and recording, you know, power, like how, how power fluctuations happen.

[00:48:55] Dustin Stelzer: Um, surge protection. We're just, I we're moving towards this very smart [00:49:00] electrical system kind of a thing where there's monitoring and there's just more smart logic to how breakers sense problems. Cuz we're still living in this like ArcHa, like 1930s push a switch back and forth kind of thing, right?

[00:49:13] Dustin Stelzer: There's brands out there that are doing crazy stuff, right? Oh,

[00:49:17] Eric Goranson: it's, And, and I, I love the new, new thought process on this because, you know, we've got the technology, it's out there to do this. I mean, I have that whole sense home energy monitoring system in my house. Yeah. I have the, the ting system for looking for, for uh, you know, electrical fires and that kind of stuff.

[00:49:35] Eric Goranson: And, uh, when you could put that into a panel that's doing it automatically, why

[00:49:39] Dustin Stelzer: not? Yeah, absolutely. I've got the sense thing too. Mine is, uh, it's called Wiser. It's still the sense, same block that you have, but it's made by Schneider. Um, so I got to install that and mess around with it and do some videos on it.

[00:49:51] Dustin Stelzer: The ting thing though, you'd mentioned this to me. Can you like re-explain what the difference between the sense thing and the ting is? Is it both different hardware?

[00:49:59] Eric Goranson: Yeah, [00:50:00] different. Completely. So, you know, as the sense, you know, mounts into your panel and you put the little leads around the, the wires coming in and it uses your wifi this way.

[00:50:09] Eric Goranson: This is a little box. Hold on, I got one.

[00:50:13] Dustin Stelzer: Oh, that's true. Right? You were saying it plugs into receptacles.

[00:50:16] Eric Goranson: It just plugs into a receptacle on video. I have one right here. That's so cool. There it is right there. Oh, okay. And so literally it just mount, Just plug it in. Yeah. And it is. Now, the way they explained it to me is basically it is like lightning has a certain wavelength of sound that comes out of lightning and a little spark, like in the back of an outlet for a stab connection that's bad or loose.

[00:50:42] Eric Goranson: It's doing the same sound, so it's automatically monitoring the relationship of voltage and those noises. So if they say, Hey, we noticed a spark and we noticed the voltage thing, you might have a problem. Yeah. So it's [00:51:00] always comparing those, and then it'll gimme a notice if something's off, it'll say, Hey, oops, we got a.

[00:51:06] Eric Goranson: And, uh, they, they will, uh, they even have a thousand dollars insurance policy to send out somebody like you to come out and take a look at it, because of course, Ting wants to learn. Mm-hmm. what's gonna happen, you know? Okay, well that sound, did this, what was the problem? Was it a bad switch? Was it, you know?

[00:51:22] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Did somebody. Put a screw, you know, through, through the wire someplace, what happened? And so they're using that just so they can keep learning from it. But, uh, uh, insurance companies out there. Check with your insurance company guys, because a lot of these are getting given away out there just for that reason because, uh, I think State Farm's been given a lot away.

[00:51:40] Eric Goranson: Uh, heck think about an insurance company. Okay, we can give you a something to put in your house and it'll keep your house from burning down from electrical fire. Yeah,

[00:51:49] Dustin Stelzer: there in, you gotta think. Insurance companies all want nothing bad ever to happen, ever. So if they've got something like this, like, yeah, I would be handing this out like candy to people and be like, Well, we don't wanna pay [00:52:00] premiums ever, we just want you to keep paying us every month.

[00:52:02] Dustin Stelzer: But if it's, you know, it's that good that they can detect what different. Wave forms are what, what things are happening. Cuz like right now, breakers can detect what an arc is. There's a certain signature Sure. That an arc looks like, or a ground fault looks like. Um, even surge protection. There's a couple of different ways surges happen and we can tell like a certain spike or a certain kind of like ringtail wave, like what's happening.

[00:52:25] Dustin Stelzer: But um, that's really cool that they'll like, you can kind of, they're working with people to figure out every single thing and what it all is. I like that.

[00:52:35] Eric Goranson: That's super cool. It's super cool. I will say one thing I don't like about the changing code is I do not, I'm not a fan in my house of the, uh, childproof outlets and I get it.

[00:52:46] Eric Goranson: I used to have kids, but dude, can we not make that any harder to, It's hard enough to get the plugin behind the entertainment center to plug it in, but now you gotta put something to block it for me to do it

[00:52:57] Dustin Stelzer: too. I know, man. It's [00:53:00] everywhere That kids or anybody that, um, might. It have a different, I don't even know how to say this in a politically correct manner.

[00:53:10] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. So I'm not gonna say it, but there's anywhere where somebody might be able to stick something metal in and hurt themselves. Um, so even like jail, like certain places where it's not just children that they're worried about. Let's just say that. Yeah. Um, but the, the key to it, a lot of people don't realize this is, it's designed so that both flaps are touched and contacted and pressed in at the exact same force at the exact same time.

[00:53:35] Dustin Stelzer: That's the thing. They don't tell you. They're both flaps with springs on 'em, but they're both attached to each other. So you have to push equal force people sit there and try to put one prong and wiggle it and shake. Yeah, yeah. No. So if you're kind of like delicate with it and you, you might have to jig a it a little bit cuz some it's, it's just springs and little cheap pieces of plastic.

[00:53:54] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. But the better brands, more expensive ones, like you just push it in and as long as there's equal force on both of 'em, they go in [00:54:00] just fine. Yeah. I hate 'em. And every customer I do so hate them too.

[00:54:07] Eric Goranson: Oh, they're so frustrating. And, and like I said, it's that one that's behind the bed. It's behind the, you know, it's behind the, the, the entertainment center behind the piece of furniture that you're trying to stab in the dark with anyway.

[00:54:17] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And it's like, really? We have to block it

[00:54:19] Dustin Stelzer: with that too. Well, you know, I get it. I mean, you know who that, who actually makes electrical code, right? It's manufacturers. Well, not all of them. There are people that represent the union that, you know, National Electrical Contractors Association. There's a lot of different associations, but the majority of the names in the Codebook for people that are writing code are manufacturers who have new material that they'd like customers to buy and electricians that have to install.

[00:54:44] Dustin Stelzer: And it ends up being forced to be bought because it's forced in code.

[00:54:49] Eric Goranson: Nice. No, . Nice. That makes sense. No, . I mean, it's just what it is. I mean, that's, it's, it's, it's like the sun coming up in the morning. Somebody's gotta do it, right. Yeah, [00:55:00] absolutely. And somebody's gotta do it. And, uh, they're the ones out there that are pushing it.

[00:55:04] Eric Goranson: And, you know, I do like it, to be honest. I do like it with them pushing on some of this stuff. Like you said earlier, you know, there is some, there's some great safety tips with this stuff that, that technology, if we can stop people from getting hurt, if we can stop fires from happening. Yeah. You know, I'm all for that, just to be honest.

[00:55:20] Eric Goranson: I mean, that's just where I'm at with it. But do I hate the ever-changing code? Yeah. It's frustrating. It's like, man, electricity hasn't changed. Why do we have to keep changing this? Right. But I

[00:55:29] Dustin Stelzer: understand why. Yeah. It's, that's where the, the line with me, like, I respect it 100% and it's necessary. It needs to happen.

[00:55:35] Dustin Stelzer: But I think that there's a lot of things that are, that also happen because they can, because of the leverage of things. Like there's, there's just codes that don't need to be codes, but it's that somebody's making something and they want it to get in. And that, that's, that's the stuff that I can't. Yeah, that's

[00:55:54] Eric Goranson: the politic inside of it that it's like, really guys, do we have to do it like

[00:55:57] Dustin Stelzer: that?

[00:55:57] Dustin Stelzer: Oh yeah. And even just to be on like the code making [00:56:00] panel, you have to be sponsored by a mega corporation that has a lot of money to sponsor you. So it's like, it's not even really penetrable. I mean, you could be a normal electrician and when they start sending out all the requests and things that they want to have new codes you can submit whatever you think.

[00:56:14] Dustin Stelzer: But really the only stuff that's gonna shake out and matter and like affect change is what the loudest people are, are speaking. Um, and have the most amount of sway behind them. So there's just, it's politics, right? Like that's the side of the industry that I don't like, just because I hate politics in general, especially like industry politics.

[00:56:32] Eric Goranson: Yeah. That's the worst. That's the worst. So we're running out of time here, but I wanted to touch on how do people find you and, uh, if they're, if somebody wants to be an electrician, what's their. Source to get going? How do, how does somebody get going on that?

[00:56:49] Dustin Stelzer: Well, there's a couple of different paths. So, um, I went up and I was non-union my whole entire career.

[00:56:56] Dustin Stelzer: I've never been in the union where I live in Austin, Texas. There's just [00:57:00] not a large union presence. Um, there is a union here. It's just that there's probably like, 20 times more non-union people. So that's just, there's more opportunity and you don't have to be in the union. There are places like, uh, New York City or Chicago, LA really, really huge places that have massive union presences.

[00:57:17] Dustin Stelzer: And so I say in those areas, you may not have a choice, you might have to go in the union, but I think the union is an outstanding organization because, uh, it's a very structured place. It's kind of like the military, how they, like, they have pay scales, right? If you reach certain things, you get paid a certain amount.

[00:57:33] Dustin Stelzer: It's not based off of just kind of willy-nilly merit and who you're working for in negotiating things. So like, there's a lot of structure, but they fight for your wages, they fight for your healthcare. They make sure that you've got benefits and you always have a job. And if you don't like something, you can call your union sh uh, house and be like, Hey, I want to be put somewhere else on something else.

[00:57:50] Dustin Stelzer: And they boom, like they just take care of you. So there's a lot of great opportunity and great training and there's a lot of solid union electricians that come out of their training. Uh, but there's also a lot [00:58:00] of solid. Crap union electricians, and there's crap non-union electricians have seen it all across the board, but either way that you go up the mountain, just get up the mountain, uh, doesn't really, doesn't really matter.

[00:58:10] Dustin Stelzer: Now, the one thing that I am very ardent about speaking up against is trade schools. Um, just because not every, but the majority of trade schools out there, our businesses first not educational, uh, opportunities. They are businesses. So they require you to pay a lot of money. And then when you get out, you don't actually have anything to show for it.

[00:58:31] Dustin Stelzer: You still have to start at an apprenticeship getting paid nothing. And so they won't tell you that. They'll be like, Oh yeah, well like knock two years off of your apprenticeship. And it's like, well, those two years are necessary and you need to be out in the field for those two years, not in a classroom sitting here learning about like drawings of switches on a, a board.

[00:58:49] Dustin Stelzer: You need real world experience, right? And so I say people that get experience first and can wear tools and know how to use those tools and know how to install things, you're always gonna get the job over somebody that's [00:59:00] got. And you know, four years of experience versus four years of schooling, you're always gonna get the experience, guys, the job, because that's what I want, right?

[00:59:07] Dustin Stelzer: I'm a master electrician. I want to know if I hire you on day one, what are you gonna do with those tools and all that material? You gonna go put it up, Or are you gonna not know what to do? And that knowing what to do is more valuable and they can't teach that in schools.

[00:59:21] Eric Goranson: Yeah, they're, they're, they're out there, You're having them pull wire and all of a sudden they're like, This is a lot harder.

[00:59:25] Eric Goranson: It was in the book. Yeah. That

[00:59:27] Dustin Stelzer: doesn't do you a bit. Yeah. And there are some trade, uh, schools, Again, I'm not saying every, I'm just saying the vast majority of course, Yeah. Don't have labs set up. You know, some of these schools actually have buildings where they, uh, they have the funding to like, have some little setups where you can drill holes and pull wire.

[00:59:42] Dustin Stelzer: But even that, you gotta be buying all this expensive wire and replacing it and throwing it away. And, you know, like it's just, it's hard for schools to be able to provide that. And, um, I just always tell people, remember, it's a business and so they, where I might pay you $30,000 a year to learn and make mistakes, they're gonna [01:00:00] charge you tens of thousands of dollars.

[01:00:03] Dustin Stelzer: to not, Yeah. It's like, what are you doing paying for something that's, that'll pay you instead? So that's one thing I just, I just caution people, if you have a trade school representative or anything at like a career fair that's trying to explain, um, just think, what am I actually getting? Like real world, what am I getting?

[01:00:19] Dustin Stelzer: How long does it take? How is it expensive? Is it, versus just going and calling somebody that's an electrician going through, you know, Google in your city and go to the top 10 best rated companies. Just say, Hey, are you hiring? Hey, are you hiring? Hey, I have no experience, but I would love to start. Hey, are you hiring?

[01:00:36] Dustin Stelzer: Um, if you're in the union, it's a little different. You actually have to go through a testing procedure. You have to test to see, you know, if you're, if you have some like, uh, mechanical understandings and things like that, and you get put in a rating system to see who gets a job first and all that. But you do have to go through some formal training.

[01:00:51] Dustin Stelzer: Um, so the union's just a little bit. .

[01:00:55] Eric Goranson: And I will say that, uh, for the non-union guys out there, I can say most [01:01:00] electricians out there, if you call that company up and go, Hey, are you guys hiring? Someone's gonna at least hear what you have to say. Yeah,

[01:01:06] Dustin Stelzer: Right. Or, yeah. Or they might just care enough to be like, We're not, but like, here's the steps you need to take.

[01:01:10] Dustin Stelzer: If you call this person over here, I bet that they're hiring, or, you know, they're sad. Just don't be afraid to call around and, and.

[01:01:19] Eric Goranson: real quick, I wanted to mention this before we jump out. I love, and it's been a few years since I've seen it, but I caught it one time on like ESPN or something, the electrician Olympics, whatever they call that, where they're sitting there and they have to wire a room up and like an hour or something stupid.

[01:01:36] Eric Goranson: That's fascinating to watch on

[01:01:37] Dustin Stelzer: television. Yeah, it really is. Especially when you have a good production company that's producing the show . So I'm actually going, there's a few of them, um, different organizations do them, but uh, there's one this weekend, this Friday that I'm going to, um, I think it's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

[01:01:53] Dustin Stelzer: It's from Ideal. It's the ideal national championship for electricians. And uh, they, over time they have like [01:02:00] local competitions where you can go to a supply house and they've got little setups that for certain supply houses that participate in it. And you do a couple things and they time you and then you figure out if you advance in the next round.

[01:02:10] Dustin Stelzer: And then they kind of like, You know, just like any tournament, they make it smaller and smaller. And then for the nationals, the people that get picked, they, there's like 200 and some people and they all get thrown in. There's people from different countries, from like Australia and everything, um, and they have a big, huge thing.

[01:02:27] Dustin Stelzer: And it's telegraph. It's, uh, it's filmed. And so the last year I did was ESPN two. They actually televised the entire thing on ESPN two. And the per, Yeah,

[01:02:36] Eric Goranson: that's, I think that's what I was watching was ESPN two. And I was like, Holy smokes, where's this been all my life. This is cool to watch. Yeah. And these

[01:02:41] Dustin Stelzer: dudes are winning like $70,000 work fans, and it's not messing up getting checks for like 50 Gs.

[01:02:48] Dustin Stelzer: I think the one guy that won, I don't know if they are letting him still compete, but he was like five years in a row and it's like 75 grand a year. So he doesn't even have to work. But he's, he's a great dude. He's such a, like a [01:03:00] nice person and he just does clean work quickly and he's figured out their competition structure and what he has to do to win and like he just nails it every year.

[01:03:09] Eric Goranson: They're like, Can you, uh, come work for us and uh, be one of the announcers cuz we're tired of writing you checks. Yeah. It's cheaper for us and better for the sport if you come up here and, and come on the camera side versus the participant

[01:03:22] Dustin Stelzer: side. Yeah. That was somebody that was telling me, uh, I think last year that they were gonna try to tell him to like, come and teach or something like that instead of competing.

[01:03:30] Dustin Stelzer: And I'm like, That's that's funny. That's

[01:03:33] Eric Goranson: awesome. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Dust. Thanks for coming on today, man, electrician, you. This has been great and, uh, we'll dive in a little deeper next time, but this has been a lot of fun. Yeah,

[01:03:43] Dustin Stelzer: man, thank you so much for having me and, uh, I wish you all the best of luck with all of your endeavors.

[01:03:48] Dustin Stelzer: The show, with everything, man.

[01:03:51] Eric Goranson: You too, brother, keeps spreading the word out there. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around The House