More and more electricians are avoiding residential work, especially minor repair jobs. There's too little money in it, and too many costs (fuel, insurance, etc). Then newer codes restrict what kinds of work can be done (for example not extending a 2-wire or undersized circuit for an additional outlet), putting much work out of the price range of many customers. To me there is no surprise that more and more people are doing the work in their homes themselves. And in many cases they are even doing it elsewhere (rental property, offices).
So what's the best solution?
Sure, it would be great for electricians if the customers would just pay what the work is really worth (and the other costs to do the job), and be happy with the quantity of work that's needed to make sure everything that gets touched is fully up to today's code. Unfortunately, everyone (who matters) is being squeezed right now in an economy geared to grow only for the rich.
I think there's simply going to be a certain amount of DIY work going on. The question is whether you want to spend your time and give out free advice at the risk that maybe someone won't call an electrician to do the work, or worse, might make a mistake (observed wrong, described the situation poorly, or misunderstood the advise) and get someone hurt or killed.
I have given out advice in that and other forums. But I'm not an electrician (instead, I do design work for computer data centers which sometimes requires electrical specifications), so my advice can't be the best. I think real experienced electricians giving advice would help. But you have to decide if doing so means another electrician has to miss a meal. I've certainly given out lots of free computer networking advice in other places, and felt a bit uneasy about it because they should just hire someone who knows how to do it right to do it for them. I'm sure it's the same way with electrical work, and even more importantly because this stuff can kill (unlike TCP/IP packets).
So what do you think?
