[00:00:00] Ben Poulter: When it's good, it's not just good, it's great. Everything in that job is going well and everything goes to plan. It's like you are a God at your job and nothing can go wrong, and then it does. It goes as wrong as it could ever go, and your life's basically ruined. So you think acid, I've had enough of this.

I'm gonna quit being an electrician. I'm gonna go work on a chicken farm and just get paid away for just turning up and collecting chicken eggs. I want the simple life. That's, that's what I'm gonna do. I've had enough of all this crap. There's many scenarios that can trigger these type of thoughts and feelings that when you're working as an electrician and , yeah, things do go into plan, but you think, scrap this, I'm just gonna jack it in and go work somewhere else.

And these f thoughts and feelings, exactly what I'm gonna go into today. Toolbox talks for electricians, loading electricians with the tools and skills they need to reduce stress, gain back time, and earn more money. Hello everyone. Ben Polter, your host back here once again, and I hope you're doing very, very well.

As I know this goes out on a Monday and it's the beginning of the week, and you should be fired up to have a great start to that week. Whatever happened last week as in the past, it's the future, what we look forward to, but what happened in the past? What happened last week? What was it that got us looking on the.

Over the weekend to see how much you can make as a lottery driver. It happens to all of us, and I'm here today to tell you that it's happened to me as well. And one of those reasons is over the past about five or so years, don't you think that materials have gone downhill? The lights and the lamps in people's houses from the sixties, they don't even trip the R c d.

, They're well made from the past, I've rewired a few properties with the old Baker lot switches and the old baker lot cel. Processs and they've been there for sort of 20 years and they're still working fine. Even when you come to rewire the house. And these days everything's sort of l e d with the downlights, big l e d, the Plimp lighting with them, L e D tape, the Undercovered lighting, that's even got the L e D tape and everything.

Outdoor. It's all L E d, low voltage, e d saving. And I must agree, they do. They look a lot better, don't they? They look more modern and nice and they give out a an even light. And on the plus side, they do not burn as much energy light. There's an equivalent seven wat lamp, L e d lamp that'll do at a hundred wat lamp what used to.

So obviously it's a lot cheaper, but do they stand the test of time? Hell. As an electrician, you go out, , in your price a job, and it's to wire install, fit and test. There's no point in factoring in that, there's faulty materials because you go out and you get the best ones that you've been using for the wholesalers because they give you a good warranty.

Like MK Consumer units. They used to be my go-to board. The MK brand itself, , I think you'll know is got quite a good reputation and is known as a good product. And I've fitted around 20 boards in around nine months of MK when , I think they had a deal on at the time. So the wholesalers, , they were pushing, saying, Hey, we've got a deal on these boards fully loaded.

Was it that long ago? There were split load boards, so there were split load boards and we've got a deal on them. Would you like to sort of purchase 10 of these boards? So I said, yeah, definitely. And that was all going fantastic. I installed these boards. I was flying along, yeah, till I got a letter one day and there was a batch of faulty incomers.

The UND lamp isolate switching switches. In these boards, there was a list of them with a certain product code. That was faulty and you had to replace them because they were a fire hazard. Mk, obviously, they would cover the cost of the new, uh, hundred amp incomer, but you had to go and fit them and I'd fitted these boards all over the country.

So who the hell writes down the product numbers? Of anything they put in. You don't go through each M C B Orla or even the board to be honest. You put it up and you tell 'em exactly what they had and that's all that sort of goes on the invoice. The only ones that I did used to write down the product numbers for was them old JCC , where they were offering the seven year warranty.

And to get the seven year warranty, you had to register them and you had to fill in like online, I think it was where you give them the product code to say, yep, this seven year warranty has been activated from this. But with these MK boards, I had to figure out how many Fuse, what I'd installed and where it installed them and go and check them.

Product , numbers, that's a freaking massive nightmare. And that's obviously one of them things that make me think, ah, screw this for a living, there must be something easier. , but that's just one reason that sometimes you think, ah, I'm going to quit being an electrician, cuz how many cowboy electricians are out there that are qualified to maybe 16th edition and there was qualified back in the eighties and still haven't done the upgrade to the 18th edition.

I know a fair few. Work for a company that they don't want to upgrade to the 18th edition. They're not interested. They're older guys. They're waiting for retirement and the whole reason they don't go out on their own and build their own business is cuz they don't want to go and do the upgrade. They see it as , maybe a challenge or fear, but maybe think they're gonna fail.

Now, I qualified with the 17th edition wire regulations of the BS 7 60 71. It was a red book, if I remember right, and the first edit. Was out of this . BS 70, 60, 71 book. It was out in 19, no, weren't 19, it was 1882, and now we're on currently the 18th edition. And having to do these upgrades to be able to say you are a , fully qualified electrician to the highest level.

Yeah, it's a bit of a ball like sometimes with these upgrades. And I'll be the one to say it. I will admit that I hardly ever pick up that book. I spent 80 pound on that book. And if I've got a question, normally I'll Google it. I, I rarely go to find it in that book, but without fail, I need to buy the latest edition every year.

Because if you don't, If you don't have it, you don't pass the Part P assessment. These are one of the regulations that you've got to have. You've gotta draw a copy of the book. I've got all the old books that obviously cost me 80 pound apiece. I've got the, the red one, the yellow one, the blue one, and now the brown one that I've had to spend money on every year.

And if you've ever been through this part P um, yeah, the Part P assessment, you don't just have the i e regs, you've also got to have the onsite guide. But to be fair, I do dip into that onsite guide every now and again that I'll find that book quite handy. Sometimes when you're doing a a different installation, you just want to check a few of the readings that you should get on, maybe a TT system or a pme.

But along with buying a new book, new books, even not just a book, buying a books every of the year, you gotta do an assessment. And one of the questions from the 18th edition assessment, I'll read you it and see if you can guess. BS 76 71 states that installation design must take into account one, the comparison of renewable energy sources.

Two anticipated electromagnetic emissions. Three current copper prices or four, the effect of climate change. I do honestly think what the hell's that got to do with any wiring regulations in a domestic house or even in industrial or commercial premises in the uk? Uh, it's a bit of a crazy question. I dunno.

I'll suppose I'll pick the copper prices, cuz that's the one that mainly affect me. , if the copper prices are low, then I'll just pile the copper up and keep it for another time. I don't know. I failed my 18th edition twice, and this is for this exact reason. It was my third time lucky, however that I passed.

So that's another reason that made you think, well, I'm gonna jack and be an electrician having to do these upgrades all the time, getting asked these stupid questions that are not actually questions that you're gonna have to think about in life when you're going to rewire maybe a property you don't think, hmm.

In 10 years time, if there's a climate change, how will this affect the cable, which I'm going to install today? You don't think that It's not something that goes through my head anyway. Now, this next one I think a lot of electricians will be able to relate to, cuz it won't be a real rant about wanting to quit being an electrician.

If I didn't mention customers, 99.9% of customers are fantastic and they're brilliant. You explain the job and how much it's gonna cost them and you get paid. It's that simple. It should be that simple all the time. But now and again you get that North point, north 1%. Look, I really wind you up. There was a job in a garage I did once and they wanted to upgrade the light into their workshop.

Basically that lighting had been in there for a long time and they kept replacing, I think there were 10 foot fluorescent lamps, which you probably can't even get anymore. So I recommended changing them to l e d, which will obviously save them money on energy as well. So we've got some sample lights of, uh, different sorts of budgets, what they can install, and I'll put 'em up in certain areas of the.

And I tested deluxe levels to tell 'em that it, I proved to them that basically this is a brighter light and a better light for you to work in, and it's a lot more efficient. I even provided them with a, a printout reading of how much energy they'd be saving in their garage if there were to install the whole garage with these, any l e d lights.

And working with l e D Lights, I know there's different daylight. There's cool white and there's war white and all different sorts of lights. So I left these lights up in there for a couple of weeks just because I know that some people don't really sort of understand the different light that an L E D will bring across, especially in a workshop where it's pitch black when they had the door shut.

So I wasn't sure they'd like it. So I'll let 'em have a trial of these new fittings in certain areas so they could choose which one they wanted to go for, if at all. And then I went back after a couple of weeks and said, how did you get on? What do you think of these lights? So they chose a specific L e D light and said, right, fantastic.

We want to go ahead and replace the whole garage with that light in insert. We want the whole garage to be filled with that specific light from that L E D, which I thought, fantastic. So I made a. And to go in at the weekend as well because it was , a busy garage and I wanted to at least the minimum amount of cars in that garage.

And if it did happen, I dropped a lot of fitting on a car. I didn't wanna have to climb the insurance or anything so I could get my area, my working area safe, my safe working environment. See, , I was thoughtful like that. And these fittings, they weren't low down. You can't access 'em off a ladder or any steps.

So I had to go get myself a lifter. So I got that lifter delivered and I installed these , new L e D lights all over the garage. It only took me a day to install, I think it was around 30 to 40 lights. And after completing that install and sending them the. A week later, yeah, I had a call from the garage.

It was conveniently, probably about the day that I sent it in the invoice. Uh, these lights are not bright enough, so I went in there and I approved to him saying, look, these lux levels, it's twice , as bright as it used to be. Like this is proof by an actual lux level reading. There was nothing wrong with them, like fitting.

I just didn't want to pay the bill. And these sort of customers that obviously I decided to never work for them customers again, I don't even speak to 'em anymore, but I worked out with them where they paid for the materials to the wholesalers and obviously I cut my losses and I didn't want to get involved with them.

Cause , they weren't good at pay. They didn't want to pay to start with. I never issued this certificate for the work I did because I never got paid for the install. And the funny thing, I've driven past that place. It's sort of five years ago that was, and them lights are still up working perfectly

They never did change them in its customers like that where you go above and beyond out the way to guarantee that you do a good job for them. But those type of customers that make you wanna stop being electrician, they may wanna stop running your own business and just go out and be an idiot and rip people off and take their Mick outta people just like they did to me.

But you get over it. I say, you get over it. I'm still branding about it now, aren't I? Five years later. And it is funny how you always remember the person that ripped you off. , you remember it like it was yesterday cuz you annoyed you and it , got you a bit angry, maybe a bit of annoyed, but you sort of forget the kitchen company that you work for that gave me all new plates, cups and cutlery, nicer forks.

They seem to get forgotten cuz they're the nice things. But as electricians working for customers, we meet different to customers all the time, every day. And there's always one that puts you in a bit of a mood, but so many of the others become friends and you even get invited to their family dues and parties because you are their electrician.

So I suppose in hindsight, don't let one customer put you off, be an electrician or wanting to quit the trade because right the corner, there'll be 10 more customers that you'll get along with. Fantastic. But that's not the only thing that we're up against. And to be honest, I do go on about all the time electricians being heroes of the building trade.

But let's be honest, without plumbers, builders and carpenters, a house wouldn't get built after all. And there are plenty of other tradesmen out there that are brilliant at their job and they become friends and you end up having a great working relationship with them. And then there's the other. The cowboys that you mistakenly get involved with and do a job with someday, the cowboys who completely mess the job up, they take the money from the customer and it puts you in an awkward position when it comes to completing the job because the builder or the other tradesman who's ran off with the money and there's no money left in the job to pay you.

There was an extension that I first fix for a builder. I did a beautiful job as you do. You go in there, you may fix nice and neat. So it makes the second fix nice and easy, and obviously it makes it nice and neat for them to carry on with their job. It was on a loft conversion, so I was in and out in a day, did my first fix in a day.

I was booked in a time to do the second fix and return to site on that day. Nice and bright and early. I like to be. Only to find that the builder left the job a long time ago, and he left it unfinished even where the customer had paid the full amount of what the builder asked for. But that builder just hop skipped and jumped and went onto the lock's next job to do the same thing to another person.

Maybe he didn't tell me. So I'm turning up like an idiot, expecting to complete the job. And this is what winds me up with these cowboy builders. The customer had paid for it to be completed, so this means that the money allocated for electrics is also gone. And the builder never fought to tell anyone any of a trade.

He just took their money and went, and this puts you in a very awkward position. Obviously we are the customer, but after a cup of tea sort of thing, we came to an agreement and we got the electrics done and completed for that job. I can confidently say that over the 20 years of working in the electrical trade, these things, they don't happen all the time.

It's just when they do, they make you question it. Is it all worth the hassle? And of course there are regulations bought out like Part P for the , electrical trade. But it's still the common thing that when a customer is quoted 50 pound for a job that ideally by electrician could cost around 150 pounds, the customer don't see that.

They just see the same guy turning up, like call himself electrician and is saving them a hundred pound. As anybody would they like to save money and saving a hundred pound dollar job is probably at a lot, but unfortunately, it's not until it's too late that it costs them double to put it all right now with these few scenarios that make you want to quit your job and not wanna be an electrician and do something else.

It's not all doom and gloom. I'm gonna end the podcast with this one. That makes it all worthwhile. There's one that sticks out to me is when I went to a property where someone had fit in a cooker for. They'd fitted the cooker from the outlet plate in the wall to the cooker in a 1.5 twin Earth cable. It was an electric oven that should have been wide in six mill cable, at least from a 32 amp.

So if that oven was used a hundred percent, that cable would've melted and caused a fire, and it was a flat with a single mum and a newborn baby. So in my mind, I potentially saved someone's life that day. And that's why I do it. That's why I'll be an electrician. That's why I go around people's properties and say, this is bad.

This is bad. This could cause a fire. I like to help people by not causing a fire. I like things tripping. They trip for a reason cause you maybe got water in the light or there's a fault. I'd rather something go off than catch fire. And they are the sort of jobs where I walk away from with a smile on my.

And talking to smiles. You could put a smile on my face too by leaving a review on the podcast. Whatever platform you're listening on, take 20 seconds to leave a quick review and it'll be smiling from ear to ear for the rest of the day. So until next time, I'll see you again.

Get inside the toolbox, talks for electricians group, and post your experience of what we've talked about today. I'll leave a link to the group in the show notes below. Until next time, we'll see you again.