America Is Trying to Electrify. There Aren’t Enough Electricians

Re:America Is Trying to Electrify. There Aren’t Enough Elect... by zamnos on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @01:04PM (#34985921)

If it seems too complicated and it's all really confusing, DO NOT DO THE WORK YOURSELF. HIRE A LICENSED ELECTRICIAN. Sorry for yelling but burning your house down is a remote, but very real possibility. Especially when working on an older house that was never up to code. People's houses burn down all the time, but it usually isn't a big enough story to become a news that everybody hears about. Hell, even school shootings barely make the news anymore unless they're particularly egregious.

If you're smart enough to figure out, say, npm install, and have confidence in what you're doing after watching a bunch of YouTube videos about the procedure, go right ahead and rewire your home electrical. But holy shit if you are not; if it still doesn't really make sense after several hours of YouTube, for the love of life (yours, any house mates, possibly your neighbor's as well), don't try this at home and have a licensed professional, or at least someone who does get it to do it.

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Re:America Is Trying to Electrify. There Aren’t Enough Elect... by briHass on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @02:05PM (#34986801)

Agree, but I would definitely caution with getting your advice from YouTube. There are many, many home improvement YTers that give incorrect/dangerous advice. This isn't limited to small channels with Joe Blow working on his house; I've seen NEC violations galore and general bad practices on some of the larger DIY/contractor channels. If you get beyond the basic 'replace a light switch' level, the NEC often contains levels of ambiguity and dependencies on other rules that you might not be aware apply. It's also written in a legalese style that takes some time to be able to penetrate the jargon.

Just take a look at electrician forums or even Stack Exchange to see how seemingly simple things result in arguments.

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Re:America Is Trying to Electrify. There Aren’t Enough Elect... by Dalewyn on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @08:50PM (#34990898)

>I've seen NEC violations galore and general bad practices on some of the larger DIY/contractor channels.

For an example more relevant to the IT crowd here: Linus Tech Tips and pretty much all their videos concerning "upgrading" a house, car, boat, etc. are rife with regulatory violations, safety guideline violations, industry standard violations, and the kitchen sink.

So if you want to learn any of the trades, even just superficially for hobby/DIY purposes, find someone who really knows what they're doing and ask them to teach you.

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