Difference

[ptonsparky]

The size of the project adds problems that even I, on the lower end of that spectrum, see. Getting enough materials, man I hate looking for 1/4" fender washers, and allocating the man hours for particular portions of the project are a PIA. There are no spare electicians in this area. None.

The 1100 sq ft home I was happy to do 30 years ago is a different ball game from the modest 4000 sq ft that the ropers do now.

We put an 800 amp 480v service on a farm grain system a year ago. Wired a garage or two, a few PLC and HMI projects, changed a couple ballasts, and are now working an a small commercial project that has taken 4 of us 60 hours a week for 8 weeks to get as far as we are, behind, and I still can't seem to find those damn washers when I want them. I can see what would help us on future projects, but when we switch gears all the time, it is so hard to implement them.

 

[hillbilly1]

Different for some, not so much for others. Depends on what you regularly get involved with. I do a little bit of everything, that is what the demand is in a rural population area. I do just about anything from adding an outlet to an existing dwelling to large switchgear and complex controls. Farms are not the little ma and pa operation they once were, with exception to some small operations still clinging on, they are big business anymore. Crop farmers have more acres of land, genetics, and other agronomy practices make for higher yields, which means there is more grain, more fertilizer, more of everything, including more power and automation to make it work. Livestock operations are same way, it becomes more profitable to operate on a large scale. There are very few guys with just a dozen head of cattle or pigs, they have hundreds. Along with that comes automated feeding processes, as it is not ecomomically feasible to do so by old fashioned man power, labor costs are too high even with cheap labor.

Farm installations are becoming more of an industrial site. Sure I don't run into facilities as large as an automobile manufacturing plant, or a steel mill, but there is a lot of the same stuff around just on a smaller scale. I have never installed a 2000 amp service, but does not mean I have not worked in places that have one. The base rules are still the same for a 60 amp service anyway, you just have bigger components and parallel conductors, which is not uncommon on 400 - 800 amp circuits which I don't do everyday but do run into often enough they are not that unusual.

I have a dairy farm I do occasional work at. This farm is owned by third or fourth generation of a family. I can assure you the first generation may not even used much for electricity at all, then a 60 amp 120/240 service at the barn was considered a lot of power at one time. The new barn (up to 10 years old at the most) has 277/480 volt service 800 amps, and instead of milking just two to four cows at once they can milk 30 - 40 cows at once.

Some of the city guys may limit themselves to one type of installation only, and the guys employed by an industrial facility only see that facility, but some of us get all around the industry.

At least you don't have to do plumbing too, in my area, most of the ropers have to do plumbing and electrical to make ends meet. That's why I work in Atlanta instead. Wouldn't want to live there, but at least I make more than minimum wage there!:lol:

 

[kwired]

At least you don't have to do plumbing too, in my area, most of the ropers have to do plumbing and electrical to make ends meet. That's why I work in Atlanta instead. Wouldn't want to live there, but at least I make more than minimum wage there!:lol:

I don't do whole house plumbing installations, but that doesn't mean I have not installed some plumbing at times. Sometimes get a call to maybe hook up an electric water heater, get to the site, and find out hooking it up means remove old one and install the new one, have had other times where a plumbing pipe needed moved for installation of electrical items. Getting plumbers to come to a site around here is harder than most any other trade for some reason lately, so I will often do it myself. There is no plumbing code or inspection enforcement around most areas here until you get into cities over 5000 or even 10,000 population. Smaller cities and villages want someone that they license or otherwise approve to make taps to the municipal systems, but once beyond that tap there is no enforced regulations.

 

[ptonsparky]

We had an elderly customer call and complain about her toilet running all the time. I confirmed that she knew she had called xxx Electric, then sent a tech out to fix it. Then called her son so he would know why we were there. Advantage of small towns. Disadvantage as well.

 

[kwired]

We had an elderly customer call and complain about her toilet running all the time. I confirmed that she knew she had called xxx Electric, then sent a tech out to fix it. Then called her son so he would know why we were there. Advantage of small towns. Disadvantage as well.

Do you make adult films there also?

 

[ptonsparky]

Do you make adult films there also?

:lol:



I am bald, overweight, and older than 18...I would say they are adult..

 

[PetrosA]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Outside of pay, bending conduit, and 3 phase. What do you believe is the core difference (Skills: What one should know?has to know over the other) between residential electricians and commercial electricians? Just some info, I?m working for a commercial company, and it seems we are doing residential work. Not learning anything new!! [/FONT]​

One of the core differences as I see it is knowledge about how to get your wiring from point A to point B. Residential electricians often have little or no clue about using pipe, while commercial electricians often have little or no clue about fishing cables. Another core difference is familiarity with a certain set of installation materials which vary pretty drastically between residential and commercial. For instance, in this area metal studded walls in resi are almost non-existant and most residential electricians wouldn't have the faintest idea of how to properly run wiring in them. On the other hand, I've seen commercial electricians staple romex to the bottom of joists in a basement or run 14/2 romex in an office building on a 20A circuit on side jobs, not knowing they're not allowed to do that since in their commercial work all they did was run conduit - someone else pulled the wires.