Don't know if I should continue school....

[LoneUnknown]

Hey everybody.

I am a student trying to get my associates degree in electrical technology and possibly a bachelors after. I don't know if anybody has seen this (this is the only link I can find on this new product) http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/04/01/8403349/

Basicaly this is what's going on they use inductive coils to tranfer magnetic waves of a certain frequency to power electronic devices without wires kind of like a tranformer. At CES 09 I forgot wich company is releasing it but they are comeing out with a cellphone platform that can charge your cellphone battery just by placing it on the platform (this is new technology right now and I dont see it effecting electricians at the moment). Eventually there is talks of making these things powerful enough for factorys and homes where you can just hang your TV up and its powered by the wall without wires. Right now they have them powerful enough to power 60 watt lightbulbs 7 feet away so you can get kind of an idea how fast this is already taking off and where it could be in the next 10 years.

Now finally for my question... Do you guys think this new technology could change the amount of employment in all electrical fields where there wouldnt be as great a need? Could the electrical field be nearly eliminated you think if this technology takes off? I am just finisishing my residential wiring certificate and it's already starting to worry me how tight this field might get in the near future. I need some reassurance if I should continue studying this field as advanced as I had planned. Don't want to go to school the next 3 years and end up not able to get a job. I have only been learning electrical 4 months now so I don't have the slightest clue how much work there is in commercial besides wiring branch circuits.

 

[jeremysterling]

Tesla had this idea already and spent a lot of money without a lot of advancement. AC distribution (i.e. the power grid) was his idea and he tried to go one better.

Stay in school. I will need you around to hardwire my life support system once I'm unable to pull wire. Like anything else "wireless", the hardwired version will out perform it.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

The electrical industry is always changing, it is the same as other industries.

Stay in school, you are definitely on the right track and should keep it up.


Good Luck!

 

[Karl H]

Stay in School! Who will install and maintain this new Magnetic Field
Equipment? Hint> Electricians!

You gotta love Tesla.Pure Genuis!

 

[wbalsam1]

I'm also in the "stay in school" camp. Good luck to you. Stick to it. You're doing the right thing.
Careers can change as many as 7 times on average nowadays for anyone entering the workforce, so it's possible, in fact probable, that you'll undergo shifts as you narrow your interests and talents and focus your skills in an ever-changing market, but that AS/BS degree will pay off handsomely.

 

[ultramegabob]

Im wouldnt lose any sleep over it, stay in school....

 

[Doug S.]

Mark my words. In 15 (or so) years, when the find out all this energy "in the air" is giving us all cancer, "they" (we) will be scrambling back to wired stuff. =)

Stay in school! Especially if you are young! It only get's harder when you are older.

Regards,
Doug S.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Eventually there is talks of making these things powerful enough for factorys and homes where you can just hang your TV up and its powered by the wall without wires. Right now they have them powerful enough to power 60 watt lightbulbs 7 feet away so you can get kind of an idea how fast this is already taking off and where it could be in the next 10 years.

Now finally for my question... Do you guys think this new technology

it isn't new. Nikola Tesla was transmitting power wirelessly in the 1890's.

he transmitted 10kw ac over 10 miles. lit a bunch of incandescent lights with
it, so the story goes....

so... this antiquated industry was expected to be phased out by the
1930's.

any day now....... it'll all be over.....

 

[RHJohnson]

Stay in school!!!!!!!
I'm the oldest in a family of full service electricians. We have worked all the way up to 230kv, and have done construction, maintenance and trouble shooting, and instrumentation.
But my grandson, who did 2 years of school like you are, then did a 4 year apprenticeship (now a journeyman) and has now returned to college (in his
1st year) for an EE sheepskin has impressed us all. Put your nose to the grindstone and learn all you can - you'll NEVER need to worry about finding a job like YOU want.

 

[ptonsparky]

Stay where you are - in school. It gets harder to go back once you have mouths to feed and bills to pay.

 

[S'mise]

When Nikola Tesla invented it everyone thought it was a hairbrained idea. It does not seem feasable for household use. People are worried about the magnetic field from their cellphones. I can't see people being in the center of the flux lines of devices like this and being ok with side effects. Would you want your pregnant wife sitting inside a power transformer? It seems like it would be very inefficient also.

Any degree is a plus. Your next employer probably won't care if it's in electrical or basket weaving.

 

[tom baker]

There is equipment, such as you mention, that has not been invented yet that we will be installing in five years.
Whats important is to learn how to learn and the basics. Employers want some one who can be trained and not "thats how we always done it".
Get a degree and then the experience to go with it.
I got my degree 20 years ago I couldn't do it now. Now I use it to instruct others.

 

[LoneUnknown]

Thanks for the advice everybody I defintely am staying in the electrical field it's the only thing I so far found in life I really enjoy. I been reading alot about electrical engineering and how it splits up into major disciplines such as power distribution, controls, and electronics I am looking more into stuff like that instead. Thanks for the input everybody.

 

[cadpoint]

Some First Post!

If your not hungry, well it's just that!

I don't think that your not hungry, it also seems you know enough to know better and know the answer!

It's not a simple @ a Boy here!
It's more of don't tell me what you did, just tell me that it's done.

JMO

 

[LoneUnknown]

Thanks everybody for the responses I think I have kind of more of an idea what I want to do with my career. Sorry cad what you said made no sense to me.

I found out some more stuff if anybody is interested. Can't find a good place to make this a topic so i'll just say what I found out more about the technology here. It's called wiitricity, I dont know how efficent it is but I just found something else on the net that was at CES 09. Yes they can power laptops, TV's, game controllers an endless amount of stuff the article I showed was this device in the early making and they made it more advanced since then in just 2 years. What's crazy about this technology is how they can basically piggy back the energy from one device to the next. Like lets say you have the tranceiver plugged into the incoming power supply well the recievers act also as transceivers and can deliver power to another device a given distance like a booster signal. So say the transciever only can send signals up to 10 feet away well electrical devices with recievers can boost it an extra 3 feet (these distances are just examples) and now that reciever can boost the signal and tranfser it even furthur to power more devices furthur away. I couldnt copy and paste the link to the video that I saw all this and I dont know if it will still be up by the time anybody intrested finds it but they had a video all about it up on MSN main page.

 

[cadpoint]

Thanks everybody for the responses I think I have kind of more of an idea what I want to do with my career. Sorry cad what you said made no sense to me.
.

That's alright get in Line!