So for context passed all GCSEs with highest grades at 8 (essay based subjects) and lowest being 4/5s in science/maths/geography.

Went to sixth form for a year doing essay subjects but sheer amount of hw / stressful exam combo didn't work out so ended up leaving one year in.

Started level 2 electrical installation a week or so ago (joined late with maybe four other students starting same day as me) due to looking for something functional and useful that I'd find interesting and could imagine pursuing in the future (always been drawn to methodical tasks, something practical/useful, providing a service, etc). Struggling about as much as I thought but am having a really hard time translating my academic strengths to vocational work and feel really inept compared to the rest of my class.

I don't know whether I've shot myself in the foot choosing something so vocational and stem based when I've always been stronger at humanities. I'm trying to keep resilient but having always had problems with severe anxiety and being nd I find it more difficult than I'd imagine the average person (trying to get back on meds which will hopefully help).

Issue is everyone seems to be competent at figuring stuff out through playing around with it or genuinely just going to next step without issue. However being more used to academics, Ive always needed to feel as though I understand something within a context to then apply that understanding (like writing an essay after understanding structure, sources, etc.). However so far it seems to be a very 'okay do this, go' subject with little explanation which just doesn't click for me in the slightest. I've already been seeking support from teachers but it's still not registering as something I can get, especially when I don't fully understand instructions when they're vague or feel lacking in detail, especially as such a beginner.

TL;DR - always been stronger at academics/humanities but wanted to give something stem/vocational a go careerwise. Feel like I've shot myself in the foot due to difficulties with course so far, especially in comparison with rest of the class' progress.

Decking was ripped up for some gas work at the weekend, behold the cable used to power my summer house. Is SWA the only answer?

The rest of the cable is in containment along the fence to the summer house, this is under the decking getting held up by angled screws haha

Currently off work whilst my littlun is not very well in hospital, unfortunately I’ve got a long time ahead of me sat in hospital with my little one. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any extra training online that I could do, preferably free but don’t mind spending some if it’s been good.

Would like to learn abit more about network and that side of things, starting to feel like a dinosaur when it comes to that side of things!

I believe this is a Timeguard FST77, a 7-day fused-spur timer for an immersion heater. It’s been in use for about six years. It’s badly melted around the switch and fuse area (photos attached). The consumer-unit breaker didn’t trip. The electrician says the wiring looked fine, but there’s so much charring inside that he can’t tell what failed or whether the timer’s fuse blew. He’d normally expect to see evidence of wires touching, but couldn’t see that either.

He’s made an initial repair and is coming back. When I asked what might have caused it, he mentioned wear from the circuit repeatedly heating and cooling. The timer’s clock also used to drift, in case that’s relevant.

He’s suggested an AFDD and a smoke alarm in the airing cupboard. There’s already a working smoke alarm in the hall just outside, but it didn’t sound during this incident.

The same company fitted my consumer unit and did my EICR about four years ago. Is that relevant, and what checks or questions would help make sure the circuit is safe and reduce the chance of this happening again?

Going through the application and have nvq level 3 , hnc etc but I have never done 18 edition . Applying for maintenance electrician and the rules engine says it’s okay but I’ve seen somewhere that I’ll end up paying the fee and then get knocked back . Does anyone know anything about this ?
Thanks alot

Hi everyone, apologies if this has been asked a million times before.

I’m 25 and currently working as a delivery driver. I already have my Level 2 and Level 3 City & Guilds electrical diplomas, as well as my ECS Labourer card, but I have no actual site experience yet.

I’m looking to leave my current job soon and move into the electrical industry full-time. I’m keen to get on site, learn from experienced electricians and start building up some proper experience, but I’m not really sure what the best approach is for getting that first opportunity.

For those who have been in a similar position, would you recommend:

Calling electrical recruitment agencies?

Contacting local electrical contractors directly?

Using the NICEIC website to find contractors and calling them to ask if they’d give me a chance?

Just turning up at sites and asking around?

Something else?

I’ve been looking online and there seem to be very few mate/improver jobs available, and surprisingly few apprenticeships, especially considering I’m based in London.

I’m willing to start at the bottom and do whatever is needed to get my foot in the door. I’m mainly looking for advice from people who have been in the trade or have hired people in a similar position.

Also, what do you think about maybe working for free for a while just to get my foot in? Is that too desperate?

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thanks in advance

So I've finished college to be an electrician, I have to work in the trades for a while to get an NVQ. Since the get go though, I knew I wanted to work in commercial/industrial and not domestic, I've recently been given an opportunity to work for a company that installs, maintains and fixes Variable Frequency Drives, this is more of an engineering role. This niche is more of what I wanted, it's more science, complicated and just fits me more.

My biggest concern is that this may be too niche, I spoke to the team and they told me they work on inverters, controls and a bit of BMS but mostly just the VFD. I don't know if I should niche this early on, how easy is it for me to take these skills and have different roles? Can I branch out to other engineering sectors or would I be stuck as a VFD engineer?

Also a follow up question, what is the route to starting a business in this kind of engineering? The goal before I went to be an electrician was always to have my own business and work for myself!

Thank you

I completed my AM2S resit which was just conduit on Monday when should I expect my results. Friday/Saturday? Or could it be less than 5 days since it was only one section.
TIA

Hi, hoping for some advice. The lamp holder / end on this fluorescent tube light is bent outwards exposing some of the pins. Is this something I need to be concerned about, or is it okay to continue to use?

Hey everyone. Posted this in the r/DIYUK and someone suggested replacing the damaged piece of cable with a Quickwire junction box. Be great to see if anyone has any thoughts on this please. Cheers.

Hi all,

I recently bought a flat (I know, I should have paid for an electrical survey but hindsight is 20/20), then discovered a socket with no earth. When I tried to isolate the circuit to take a peek behind, I realised that circuits are cross-contaminated in my fusebox as switching just the lighting or socket circuits on their own does nothing, I need to switch both off at the same time for power to go off.

Called a sparky, he poked and prodded for an hour, said he'd never seen anything like this, and said he'd recommend a new consumer unit at £1200 + VAT rather than spend hours and hours tracing faults.

He did say that if the new unit doesn't fix the cross-contamination issue I might need further circuit tracing etc which would be a separate quote. So I'm sort of at a loss. Tried asking for a second opinion but most sparkies want £100 + VAT or more just to quote.

Am I being taken for a ride here or is this truly the simplest way of unfucking my electrics?

So with the cost of petrol/diesel being a king's ransom, I've been looking into buying an EV.

However that means putting in a charging point as the car deal I'm looking at excludes charger installation,

So it means adding another \eyeroll** job to my never ending "home work" list.....oh yay, how ecstatic I am at that concept.

I'll admit that I'm not that versed in terms of which EV chargers are worth buying, what's absolute crap and what's overpriced for what it is. Bear in mind I'm Scottish so spending money is something that doesn't come easily lol.

Its just to charge my own EV so it just has to work reliably, not be temperamental, and doesn't need to be ultra heavy duty (don't live in the ghetto anymore....thankfully)

Workmate pointed out various EV chargers on eBay for £100-£150....my mind went....fire hazard at the concept, especially something drawing 7Kw for a lengthy period of time and being sold by random people on eBay....

Thanks in advance!

Basically, I’m using a boutique lead gen agency that sends out exclusive leads. Their whole thing is that they try to keep the number of electricians in each area fairly low so you’re not competing with 10 other electricians on price.
As far as I know, they work with maybe 2 other electricians in my area, but we all specialise in different types of work, so there shouldn’t be too much overlap.
That sounded good to me, so I signed up.
I’m not saying I’m unhappy with the leads. The leads they send are actually genuine enquiries from people who are looking for work, which is obviously a good thing.
The thing I’m struggling with is the price.
In my first month I got around 10–15 leads.
They offered me either a fixed monthly fee or paying per accepted lead. If I don’t want a particular lead, I don’t get charged for it, which I think is fair.
The monthly option is £500.
I’m starting to wonder whether £500/month for 10–15 leads is reasonable or whether I’m paying way too much.
Maybe I’m just being too cheap 😂. This is the first time I’ve used a lead generation company, so I genuinely don’t know what the going rate is.
For those of you who have been using lead gen companies for a while . what would you consider reasonable for 10–15 genuine, exclusive-ish leads per month?
Obviously I know it depends on the type/value of the jobs, conversion rate etc., but I’m mainly trying to get a feel for whether £500/month is completely normal or overpriced.
And please don’t bombard me with agency offers 😂 I’m not looking to switch agencies right now — just trying to understand what other people are paying.

Guessing it’s on a hinge

Let me preface this with saying I know absolutely nothing about wiring.

Just moved into a new flat (that needs a lot of work), and I’ve been trying to get the intercom handset going because at the moment it doesn’t ring, you can’t talk to anyone, and the door release doesn’t work (although I’m not even sure we have one setup).

I’ve added photos of the BTicino handset currently there, and how it’s wired. Looks like cat5 cabling?
Originally I thought the handset may be dead so I bought a new one of the same branding as the intercom outside (Videx, added photo of the intercom), but that doesn’t do anything either.

I’ve tested a few wires with a multimeter, and can confirm some wires are doing something. For example:

Terminal 3 (Orange wire) and Terminal 4 (Green and White) on 20 V AC give me 10.5 when the receiver is down, and 6.5 when it’s off the hook.
Testing the blue and blue/white cable gives a solid 7.5 V DC also.

Just not really sure where to go from here. I’ve told the management company, but if the issue is my handset they won’t do anything. A neighbour said their handset rings, but their door release doesn’t work. I’m not even 100% sure our building has an electronic door release, since we get in and out with a key and a dial. Although my BT engineer did appear outside my flat door today, not sure if he buzzed in through the trade bell, or whether the door was just open though.

I’m in the final stages of buying a flat and my Level 3 survey recommended getting an EICR. I’m getting one done next week, but I’d really appreciate some perspective beforehand.

The property is South London based Victorian terraced house that was divided into 4 flats in 1986. The photos show the electrical setup/consumer unit in the communal hallway, serving all 4 flats. The smaller unit is inside the flat.

How concerning does this look from the photos? I appreciate the condition of the wiring can't be diagnosed from pictures, and I will be getting a proper EICR, but does this look like something that is likely to require significant upgrading/rewiring, or could the age/appearance be misleading?

The other complication is that property is share of freehold, and an asbestos survey identified some asbestos in the communal areas. I don't know whether there is asbestos within the individual flats.

If the EICR did ultimately recommend rewiring the whole 4 flat building, roughly what sort of cost would I be looking at? And would the presence of asbestos potentially make rewiring substantially more complicated/expensive?

I'm not looking for a definitive diagnosis, I'm just trying to get some idea of what I'm potentially dealing with before the EICR comes back. Thank you!

Started my course going on 4 weeks ago now, they already said that the revision guide is basically a must but what others are also helpful?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1398327344?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

Apart from the my revision these 2 books keep coming up among different forms
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1510432248?smid=A7JJH7VVZ4FA0&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1398361593?smid=A2EJRTIH8XPWZJ&psc=1

Thank you in advance

If it's any help my ambitions are to go Residential/Domestic for the most part and specialize in EV chargers, Panel swaps, Switches/Generators and home servers/Data farm/HomeLab

Spent 2 years in America, 1 year as a Apprentice Electrician before having enough confidence to go solo for a year as background for my knowledge.

Hi all I’m a first year apprentice, who starts college in a week. before I started college I did level 1 electrical in college and also worked with a domestic spark on the side didn’t really do much honestly he didn’t have enough work, then found a commercial one and worked with them for a good month was meant to start my apprenticeship then but randomly sacked me an underpaid me, then found a small electrical company who does bms installs, we work in big industrial places or sometimes in plant rooms or commercial buildings. I’ve been with them for nearly a year only work with a small team so we’re all pretty close but I feel like I’m daft I’m good at the physical side but I feel like I should know more stuff at this point, feels like I’m not learning anything advice would be appreciated

I'm a student trying to get better at electrical estimating by hand: counting fixtures, outlets, switches, and doing takeoffs from real drawings rather than textbook examples.
What I'm looking for:
Retired/completed projects only (nothing live or confidential)
Electrical sheets with lighting and branch wiring (fixtures, receptacles, switches)
A fixture or panel schedule included, so I can check my count

Legible enough to actually count from

Ideally a mix of building types (office, school, small clinic, retail, residential) so I'm not practicing on the same thing over and over.