ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area master electrician

great site i'am from winnipeg ,manitoba,canada
i have heard the term master electrician but i'am not sure what it means .i'am a jouneryman of 16 years and have held a contractors license for 14 of those 16 years.
thanks in advance.

Master probably means differant things in various areas.

Here in the Mountain State, it allows you to work without supervision, not that that stops journeymen from working on their own. It also means that you can do design work, whatever that is.

Basically, electricians licenses in WV are about worthless.

At the other extreme, and off the subject, Florida does not require an electrician to be licensed. But if you are a Beautician, you need 1200 hours of training & have to pass a test. Go figure.

Tom

Glen
Did myou look at the Electrican Classification topic started by Redsy?

Chris

Tom,
IF a permit is pulled for the job it has to be pulled by a licensed contractor(licensed master electrican).The license may be issued at the state level or the county level.
The work done on the job site has to be supervised by a master electrican and is monitored by code enforcement in that geographical area.
Take a look at the electrical license requirements for Florida that I wrote about
in the topic "Electrician classification" started by Redsy.

Chris

Chris,

If Florida is anything like WV, there are some folks advertising "No Pass, No Pay" tutoring for the exams. Passing a test means that you know how to pass a test.

Even though I poked fun at Florida's electrician licensing, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that licenses, in their present form, are not all that important, except as a fund raiser for the government. (I can just see my high school English teacher attacking the previous sentence with her red pencil)

Sure wish I new how to keep the unqualified from practising our trade.

Tom

Oh, God... Don't get me started on this one...

Tom,
Which category do you put me in? Worthy (of my license) or not?

I guess I'm asking for it...

Here in Houston every contractor must have a Master Electrician in full time employment. Every permit that is "pulled" in the city, is "pulled" by a Master Electrician. In order for an apprentice to be able to take the Journeyman's test in Houston he must complete 8000 hrs of on the job training, and have a letter signed by a Master Electrician. A Master Electrician oversee's all the projects for the contractor, and he or she can do limited design work. The afore mentioned items are just a few things that a Master Electrician does in Houston.

What a Master Electrician is, is defined by the AHJ. I can tell you that a Houston Master carries a lot of respect in Texas, and I think the fact that there are less than 700 of us is a testimony as to how hard it is become a Master Electrician in this jurisdiction. I contrast that against Dallas which has something like 5000 Masters.

I'm proud of the fact that I am a Master, and at the same time I'm humbled at the fact that I'm counted among such a small group of people.

Respectfully,
Slam HMEL #688

Hey Glen,

Good question!
(I'm not sure what journeyman means)
I'm still trying to figure out what everything means too! Here on Long Island (New York) there is 2 types of Electrical licenses. 1 is a Restricted Electrical which would cover work within equipment such as for Air conditioning and boiler work. The other is the Master, which has no limitationsat all. This would cover all voltages and conditions.

In some areas I have heard there are different classifications that go according to Voltage I think.

glen,

If it's not too much trouble perhaps you can give us some comments from time to time on differences between codes? Or tell us they way you guys do it or don't do it up there? Many of us are curious about similarities and differences between our codes. I think they'd give you some encouragement in this area.

Anyway, Welcome to the Forum!


Bill

I say the karate belt system would do us better!

welcome to the dojo Glen

( all bow)

In the greater Phila., Bucks Co. area you can become a Journeyman Electrician by attending a State-approved 4yr (576 hr. calssroom theory, 2,000 hr.on tne job experience) these are available for open-shop employers and, of course through the trade unions. Contractor licensing requirements are determined at the local levels. This could mean taking an exam or simply filling out a form. Question-- do other training programs provide hands-on classroom training, or do they also provide theory only with the hands-on coming from OJT?.