Almost 20 years ago, Electrical Contractor magazine wrote about an impending electrician shortage, warning that it was “too late to avoid it.”
It’s clear now they were right! Owners have struggled to fill boots for years — long before national labour shortages hit the papers recently.
More skilled people are needed. Electricians are busier than ever. Jobs are rushed, mistakes are happening.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports 80% of buildings in North America are over 20 years old. Millions of commercial buildings and hundreds of millions of homes have outdated electrical panels.
Mislabelled panels lead to unnecessary electrical shocks. The Electrical Safety Authority reports they are seeing this in overwhelming numbers, and they are fighting it with the only tool they have, which is with writing permit deficiencies.
Can you believe that in the last 5 years, 36,306 defects were written for Rule 2-100 3) Panel directory required? That’s 1 an hour for the last 1500 Days in Ontario alone.
No one wants to believe that this might be their last shift, and the might not be coming home to their partner and kids. That, Rex won’t be bouncing on his paws at the door tonight.
Governments are fighting for these top electrical defect safety offenders to be extinguished but this one is blazing. Improper electrical labelling is at the top of the list sitting at #2 of all-time worst offenders.
Electricians work with power, of course they get shocked! For some reason there is this myth that this is normal, just part of the job, right? It’s actually shocking how common it is to receive a little jolt, better than coffee for getting you going, right?
When in reality, there’s no such thing as a safe electrical shock. Even if it just feels like a little ZAP, you could have long-term after effects. Just watch this video below and see what really happens:
Most Common Reasons Workers Get Shocked
- Working on “live” circuits.
- A co-worker stated it was “dead”.
- “Missing” electrical information.
Let’s recap. There’s a problem. It’s everywhere, being fought every hour, and it’s putting a highly valued worker in our community in danger everyday.
So what are we doing about it? Nothing.
Well previously nothing was being done. Why? To start, those millions of buildings and hundreds of millions of homes add up to a lot of space. In fact, almost 1/2 a trillion square feet in North America alone.
If a breaker finder can only locate a single plug at a time, how long will this take to get us back up to date? No one knows.
If the average home has 75 plugs in just 2000 sqft. How many plugs do I have to map to update 1/2 a trillion square feet? A lot.
Breaker finders weren’t designed to map entire power systems. They are a bandaid for a scratch. This problem needs stitches or staples, it requires a tool designed specifically for mapping power.
That’s where CircuitIQ comes in to save the day, watch the video below:
Interested in fighting this problem & learning more about this solution? Click here to learn more.
Interested in learning more about the electrical code and why it exists see video below:
Video recommended by Chad Soucy, Thanks Chad!