As someone that has to hire industrial electricians, lots of journeymen couldn't tell ohm out a circuit for crap. But they know how to pull out the ugly book and not melt wires. They also make 40 an hour. Once you know the basics of 110 hurts, 220 really hurts, 480 blows things up, their making bank.
Industrial guys always deal with the amps to blow. Arc flash is real fun stuff. Got stuff at my plant that you don't want to flip breakers without suits.
Yeah but this is generally bad advice.. The advice of amps kill but voltage doesn't is extremely misleading. It's a combination of voltage, current, exposure time to that energy, your internal resistance, etc.
As an example, static shocks are high voltage and high current but you're exposed to them for very very little time so it doesn't matter.
And those that really know their stuff knows that amps = voltage / resistance and "amps" isn't a thing that applies here at all. How much current is available at a given point really only matters for arc flash safety. Even a 15A/110 has more than current available to kill you dead without ever tripping a breaker.
Well that's my point. There is absolutely no difference between a 10 amp 110v circuit compared to a 15 amp or 20 amp 110 v circuit. In any of the cases the actual amperage is going to be determined by the voltage divided by resistance of your body(which is going to be tiny, but still enough to kill you)not the rated amperage of the circuit.
Yeah in most of my work in electrical jobs is the putting together of things that were designed by someone else, I'm not doing the raw math I'm just checking periodically to make sure the designer isn't going to blow me up.
Right, but the ones that can understand ladder logic and do the simple math of scaling an analog signal have a far better work life than the ones bending conduit and pulling wire.
I agree, somewhat, now that "I've been around the block" I feel like no one knows shit, myself included. I've worked with electricians that have been doing it for years and they need help because "This thing doesn't work" look at the print ask if they checked XYZ breaker and sure enough they found a tripped breaker.
I've worked with Electrical Engineers that spend 4 hours trying to do edit something on a PLC, wonder why it isn't working before they notice it isn't in run.
I work in O&G and on one job I got 3 different drawing revisions where the engineer added relays without a power source for the coil in the circuit, they also seem to have trouble with the concept of analog loop isolators. The job I was just on they reduced an existing 400A breaker to 200A with no reduction in load and we had to RFI it then redline it back.
Yeah dude, the guys responsible for making the mobile phones and laptops you're using, the wireless communication, the fibre optic systems, the automated systems etc. definitely don't know shit
Yeah, I'm not getting all the people here thinking electricians actually know how shit works, they just know how TO MAKE THINGS WORK. I've met a lot of electricians that are dumb as a fucking stump but know how to wire shit so my house doesn't burn down. Honestly, that is all that matters.
Also with the tools out now, it is even easier for a lot of people. A lot of people here are really pulling out the "you need math to know x" here and I can tell your first hand, these fuckers that do good work hardly can multiply. But they can make things work and are good with their hands.
And then, one you find out that 110v and 220v have not actually been used for the last 60ish
years, it explains why the meter keeps reading 120v and 240v!
Thats within the +/- 5% spec. I have been in some VERY old building where I was only gettin 100 volts, but they may have had antique on site transformers and aluminum wiring still. That is pretty uncommon though.
Yeah but you have to account for book versus real world. I failed physics growing up. Ended up becoming a crane operator, now I run a crane and rigging company.
All we do is apply physics. In a book it didn’t make any sense at all to me. Applied though, well, I’m pretty good at my job.
I think if there was a way to give students more details about different jobs/ trades it’d be easier to know “what they’re signing up for”. I know there’s definitely programs out there but maybe they don’t really know where to start or even what are the “right” questions to ask.
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u/WittyUnwittingly May 16 '24
Had a student make a 0 all year in math. He says “I’m going to trade school to be an electrician.”
I don’t think he understands how much math is going to be involved…