Business and management

Avoiding costly underground cable problems - now and in the future

02 December, 2009 by Paul Stathis

Recently, a friend of mine who operates an excavator tore through a mains cable as he was digging footings on a commercial site. Not only did he get the scare of his life, but he had a few anxious moments afterwards wondering if he would cop the huge repair bill for the damage he had just caused. Fortunately for him, he called Dial Before You Dig before commencing to excavate.

Professional training vs the school of hard knocks

01 December, 2009

In today’s economy, many look at the bottom line more than usual and don’t do anything unless it’s mission critical. When we cut costs, we also decrease expenses, but to what end? Training seems to be one of the first things companies eliminate without thinking about the outcome. But why is training and development so important? Why can’t people learn the way that many of us did - by the school of hard knocks?

Why calibrate your test equipment?

01 December, 2009 by Paul Stathis

Test and measurement equipment is essential to the electrical trade, be it for electrical, data or control systems. Whether it’s for commissioning a new installation or finding a fault in an existing one, electrical tradespeople and technicians put a lot of faith in the readings from these instruments. But how can they be certain what’s being reported is correct?

Dealing with the halogen downlight conundrum

01 December, 2009 by Paul Stathis

The 2007 Wiring Rules introduced a number of installation directives for halogen downlights because of the high incidence of fires directly attributable to the extreme heat output from them igniting nearby combustible materials. One of these directives is to leave considerable clearance around them from all materials, including insulation. But this introduces the problem of potentially compromising a home’s thermal efficiency. How do electrical contractors deal with this conundrum?

Is it time to genuinely adopt 230 V as our distribution voltage?

01 December, 2009 by Prof Alex Baitch, Principal, BES (Aust) Pty Ltd and Visiting Professorial Fellow at University of Wollongong

The article in September/October 2008 Electrical Solutions raised many questions regarding supply voltage variances. Author Paul Stathis was warned that he could be opening a can of worms. The advice he received was not wrong. In this article, I will attempt to answer some of the issues raised in the previous article and bring attention to more issues that need to be addressed by the electrical industry.