What type of work do you prefer and why?

New? Remodel? Service/Repair? Commercial? Residential? etc. etc.


Bill

Commercial and industrial. Because I love the artwork involved in pipe bending and the circuit planning and layout.

I definitely prefer new work, not that I get a lot of that. It beats crawling through rat-infested dirty attics trying to sort out someone else's attempts at wiring, dealing with crumbling old brickwork, etc.

I like my electronics work at the bench as well, of course. Not so energetic, zero traveling time & expenses, and all the comforts of home.

Definitely Commercial projects!!!
Such a diverse variety of stuff involved within the Commercial sector.

To take it a bit further, New Construction and T.I. type projects in "Shells" would be my top choice, but the challenges faced with Remodels or existing T.I. stuff can be enjoyable sometimes!

Scott S.E.T.

since i am an industrial electrical maintenance man, i would have to say all of the electrical troubleshooting and PLC troubleshooting. but i would like to get a side job with a residential so i can learn more code and do it on the side later in my life.

hate to crawl with spiders and webs and thick dust, but sure find some neat old stuff sometimes, square horseshoe nails or old pocket knives, old newspapers and magazines, would think easterners and pauluk would find some really old things, most of the buildings here are less than 150 years old

Bill,

What I liked was new res. work. However not condos or track houses. I loved the high end new res. houses. Neat and clean. However my company did mostly maintenance work. Worked for a lot of resteraunts, schools, churches, and commercial stores. There was always lots of work to be done. Downside though is that you were always on call. I worked on Thanksgiving, New Years, Easter, Christmas, etc. You name it and I worked one of thoses holidays.

Caper

Harold,

I have a couple of things that I enjoy, but one thing on your list is one of my least favorite. .. Restaurants. Aside from New work, I avoid them whenever possible.

Bill

After years and years of residential, track to highend custom, I really enjoy commercial. Restaurants are one of my favorite things to do, perhaps because I don't do them often. It's a different game and makes me think. It's good to exercise the grey matter from time to time.

arseegee,

In my experiences working in restaurants I've always found it difficult to work above a commercial Kitchen and it always seemed like I was more concerned about working over the food and preparation surfaces than they were. There's often a lot of work done by the employees that's not quite right that has to be straightened out too and many times there seems to be grease everywhere.


Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 08-25-2002).]

I do alot of resteraunt service. The problems I encounter is serious abuse. They basically dont care. The greece build up in the kitchens are enough to make me want to go home and shower after a 1/2 hr service call, but they pay, and pay right there with no questions asked. I do dread the 10:00 pm saturday night serice calls though. If I had my choice, I would do nothing but new light commercial. , strip malls exc. Get in and get out, kind of like new resi. But around here residential pays the bills, but commercial makes you money.

Hey, you guys are all sick-o's.
You notice Bill did not limit it to the trades........ Well, Lil Abner was a matress tester........THERES my hero

George,

You shoulda been a Lawyer I guess.
For the record, lets confine the answers to the trade though. ...


Bill

Bill:
We used to do industrial & commercial..
The industrial customer base packed-up & moved, so now it's commercial.
(Retail, office, exterior lighting)
Renovation is "king".
Parking lot lighting maintenance & retail store maintenance keeps two guys busy.
We don't look for residential, but we take what we get thru the commercial accounts.

HotLine1
John

Metering and protective relaying in medium- and high-voltage switchgear are fun. Miles of {mostly} grey SIS wire—14-1/0AWG…41-259 strand. Lots of crimp terminals, heatshrink wire labels and mountains of cable ties.

Most important—very thorough testing, as-built documentation and detailed test records.

Definitely Industrial Repair work/
Faultfinding.
Works over the Grey matter more than just
installing gear.
But do not really mind crawling around in
roof voids, mind you we do not really
have a lot of poisonous spiders and no
snakes at all.
Feel sorry for you people that have snakes.

the residential and commercial new work has been our "bread and butter" for many years, with a good deal of remodeling and additions thrown in. but, in the past few years, it seems as though the industrial operations, i.e. auto manufacturers, paper mills, stone quarries, etc., are down-sizing their in-house maintenance departments, and "farming out" their maintenance and line upgrade work. its made it very necessary for all of us, even us "old-timers", to change gears, so to speak, and pursue new avenues in our continued training. we are pretty much required to learn, and become proficient in areas such as PLC's, process control systems, VFD's, soft-starts, computer controlled process networking, etc., just to stay competitive. as a result, this may be our new "bread and butter" area, especially when the snow flies and the outside construction comes to a standstill.



ron

Although i favor industrial, i'm quite happy with a mix where i don't get bored...

Bill,

Yes, resteraunts do have a lot of grease and they want you NOW! Not leter but right now. Some of the crazier things I have wired, I wired up 2-3 solar homes. Lots of control wiring, solar panels on the roof and rock storage pit. I also wired up a mausolium/creamatory. Talk about imediate service call. When they have a body in the oven and it is half baked and the equipment stops working. Well, they do everything short of calling 911.

Harold

Have only dealt with large Commercial. Enjoy the planning and observing all trades working together to finish projects. Have had the opportunity to work as a leadman on such projects as the Disease Control Center in Winnipeg, Canada to the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in the Bahamas. I like nothing more than looking up at "a nice rack".

I prefer the great outdoors. Working on ballfield lighting install this week. A little league field w/ 24-1500W MH. I spend most days running around Central Florida in a 55' bucket truck. I've got 42 red haired pig-tailed burger joints to keep lit, numerous shopping centers and I do all neon repairs at OIA. Being in the lightning capitol of America, I get to use my 3M locator/fault finder a lot.

Given the choice, it would be new commercial=nice & clean, very often indoors.
Unfortunately, the "pick & choose" is seldom an option for us, though.

Bjarney,


Ahhh, My most important items too! [include detailed directories and labels for equipment].

On a Non-Related side: I see from other posts that you deal with Medium to High Voltage stuff [proper EE terms!...hee hee].

Per a Q regarding Inductance with Paralleled Feeders [some other thread in the General Discussion area], I was wondering about High Voltage Feeders with Paralleled Conductors and the effects of Inductive Heating, Coupling or other related issues.
The systems I am referring to are the PoCo owned 138 KV, 220 KV and 500 KV [???] 3 Phase 3 wire systems - from Generating Plants to Distribution Yards.
These poles [towers] contain two 3-phase 3 wire circuits "side by side", and each phase has 2 conductors - separated apx. 6".
The poles for circuits >220 KV have only one 3-phase 3 wire circuit [Horizontal], with upto 3 paralleled conductors per phase.

Have noticed paralleled conductors on the "High Voltage DC" feeder, which terminates at SCE's Sylmar yard.

Any info would be great.

P.S. this might be better discussed in a new thread.

Scott S.E.T.

Some good answers here.

It shows what a varied 'Bunch' we are.


Bill

Folks,
Have you ever done any electrical work in
a slaughter-house.
I took a few years away from the Trade,
from 1994-1997, and I ended up working in
a slaughter-house, as a Butcher/Slaughter-
Man, to cut a long story short, now that I
am back in the Trade, I am now (because of
the Company I work for), the Industrial
Electrician, at the plant.
But, meat processing plants, have thier own
sets of rules, with regard to worker safety,
with respect to the use of Electrical
equipment, in pre-dominantly very wet
conditions and with most of the environment,
made of Stainless Steel.

Trumpy
SLaughter houses are usually called packing plant around here. If you are building a new one, it is a large industrial type of job. When the plant is in operation, it is a pain in the a**. Most electrical work is done when the clean up crew is spraying hot water from fire hoses, is under extreme time pressure to be done now and is done on weekends and at night. Most the plants operate 12-16 hours a day, then have a mandentory clean up time with sterilization of the equipment and food processing areas. Almost all maintence work is done at the same time because it cannot be done while the plant is operating.
If something breaks down during operation all sorts of h*** can break loose. One time the plant I worked in (several years ago) had 825 people on the line stopped becouse the motor driving the line locked up. Two hours to troubleshoot and replace the motor had management in a fit.
I'll take my commercial and new residential work over that any day. Also packing plant do NOT pay much if you are an employee. I have found that they are slow payers for contract work.

typical...yet the same management probably operates thier maintenance via crisis management 101......thus WE end up in the spotlight.....

i look at it this way.....

there's $$$$ in the ignorance of others, as well as $$$$ in what others choose not to do.

sparky — You bring up an important point. It took me a while to realize this, but whether it’s a solenoid coil, 6900-volt motor-control center, 2-amp icecube relay, or a DC hydraulic pump on the plant’s main 138kV breaker lineup — when some self-important management droid gets obnoxious, you can usually get them to blow a gasket by saying something like: “Sir, I’ll come and get you when I’m ready to restart the system. Until that time, I can work more safely and productively without distractions such as the one you are right now. I’m not sure at this point when exactly I’ll be done. Oh, and would you mind very much bringing me a liter of Evian water? Now, if you have concerns about your production reports and such, you may want to do this—start up your hot-standby [whatever it is — be the solenoid or MCC you’re trying to fix] and run it at least until I come get you.”

Blood pressure will typically rise in the process...for them anyway.

Maintenance,Maintenance, and more Maintenance...

I never loose money doing it... Past the stage of doing what I love. Just need to make a good honest living. ---Tired of getting burned--- Need to find some honest contractors

Hero or Zero Tom......no inbettween at times....

would anyone here wish to visit certain 'articles' ???

i miss haz locations , it's been a while....


where's my Evian?.....

sparky I don't follow your reply. Please explain
Tom

my appologies Tom,

Hero/Zero desribes the spotlight/tightrope act while serious CEO overshoulder wannabe sparky interventionists sing the woulda-coulda-shoulda's {3,4, part harmony?}, while the production line workers take a 3 hr smoke break....


when the motor/starter/MCC/is finally sparked up to life again, the clouds part, the angles sing, and all serious maintanence doctrine is forgotten.....

the 'Zero' is when you fail to pull the rabbit outta your toolbelt, and the 'part' needs be UPS'ed in overnight.....



[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 09-18-2002).]