Can I be an electrician?

[happyhippydad]

Hello,
My name is Steve.. It seems polite to start that way.

I am a nurse, in a prison (working, not an inmate). I am not my own boss. I have to spend my life generally being told what to do by bloody useless managers that really are pretty inept and just not very nice people. .I want...... no, I need to be my own boss.

I want to be an electrician. I am intelligent, hard working, honest, moral (to a degree) and colour blind.

I can not believe in this day and age of anti-discrimination that this will exclude me?

Yes.. I've read the articles... PLEASE dont write back saying electrics is all about colours! I know its a bloody rainbow!

I am red/green/brown colour blind. If I wear chromagen lenses I can beat the annoying tests!

What is the law on this matter or is it more down to individual courses?

Plus, I know their are colour blind electricians out there. Tell me your story?

Thanks, Steve!

 

[flameport]

For LV electrical work, the real question is can you see the difference between the colours commonly used in cables/wire, and identify them correctly?
The individual colours being black, red, brown, blue, yellow, grey
The other vital item is to see the difference between yellow / green, as in striped earth wires.
Solid green hasn't been used for 40+ years, but may still be found.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Well you do need to know your core colours is very dangerous if you don't.
Do you confuse the colours red/brown/green with each other?
How about yellow?
Red and Brown are considered phase/line conductors and confusing those two may not be such a big deal. Green/Yellow are CPC/earth colours with the yellow band being there it should help distinguish between them and phase/line conductors.

 

[Paul_C]

Solid green hasn't been used for 40+ years, but may still be found.

Plain green was still being installed as part of fixed wiring up until around 1977 or thereabouts, so there's still quite a lot of it in service. Where it's a single cable used for earthing or bonding, or the sleeving applied to an otherwise bare earth core, it should be fairly obvious though.

The individual colours being black, red, brown, blue, yellow, grey

And don't forget white in older installations, up until circa 1971.

There are others which you may need to identify when it comes to wiring up things like heating controls, or if you get into alarm and telecommunications wiring.

 

[Taylortwocities]

When I left school I wanted to join the (then) GPO as a telephone apprentice. I had good exam results in physics, maths and english (those were the days!). One of the interviews included those spotty coloured card things and I was found to be red/green colour blind. It could have been a show-stopper and I would have had to find a dead-end job in a merchant bank, or something with no future.

I had a final interview and the guy gave me a chunk of 200pair telephone cable. He asked me to pick out a few coloured wires, it was no problem, I had been messing around with wires and bulbs and batteries since I was in a push chair.

I was in. Look at me now, decades later and still waving a screwdriver around for a living. I've not killed anybody, yet. But there are one or two on this forum that I would like to wire up......

 

[Electrifying]

Hello,
My name is Steve.. It seems polite to start that way.

I am a nurse, in a prison (working, not an inmate). I am not my own boss. I have to spend my life generally being told what to do by bloody useless managers that really are pretty inept and just not very nice people. .I want...... no, I need to be my own boss.

I want to be an electrician. I am intelligent, hard working, honest, moral (to a degree) and colour blind.

I can not believe in this day and age of anti-discrimination that this will exclude me?

Yes.. I've read the articles... PLEASE dont write back saying electrics is all about colours! I know its a bloody rainbow!

I am red/green/brown colour blind. If I wear chromagen lenses I can beat the annoying tests!

What is the law on this matter or is it more down to individual courses?

Plus, I know their are colour blind electricians out there. Tell me your story?

Thanks, Steve!

The other thing, of course, is that it's not always lit up as bright as day when your trying to distiguish between colours - you're gonna need to tell the difference in varying light conditions - as said, a bad error could cost someones life.

If you're going self-employed, then I suppose it's your call as to whether you can work safely.......getting employed by someone would be a different matter.

To be honest though - even if you find a way around the colour blindness, the other 4 things will probably rule you out.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Check the adverts in The Lady for wealthy old ladies with no relations needing someone to look after them in their final years

(I'm not suggesting doing a Shipman on them BTW)

 

[chivers67]

If you could get gel filters to go on the front of a torch (marked with words for each colour) and put one infront of the cable it might help distinguishing each colour without your chromagenic lenses in.

For instance a blue filter in front should light up blue insualtion more than the other colours - good luck with two way switching though!

That's after doing various on the job training + class training it depends on how dedicated you are.

 

[happyhippydad]

Thanks everyone, there are some good reply's.

Thanks 'Taylortwocities' for the encouragement and thanks 'electrifying' for the laugh!

Steve[/quote]