Did I make a mistake?

[pete01]

Easier said than done mate

I was at one point, can’t remember when exactly

Was you called learnmore?

 

[CountryFan]

Fire up the MFT, and do some testing, at home to begin with. Post the resulting numbers here for a bit more context of how to interpret them.

Offer to fix small faults and do additions and repairs etc for family (but don't look too keen, or you may never have a free weekend again...)

Open the book, post copies of the tricky bits on here. One or other of the blokes will have seen it, and be able to tie it into something more understandable - but they can't do this unless you ask them.

For all its faults, grab a copy of the on site guide as well, as this is a more practical focused book, with a bit less maths etc focus in it.

Crack on, and post back any and all questions.

You've got this

Great response, I thank you.

I already have the On-site guide and a copy of BS7671, so hopefully all not lost there.

 

[CountryFan]

Was you called learnmore?

Tbh, can’t remember what my username was, so could have been, but it was approx 5 years ago.

 

[pete01]

Tbh, can’t remember what my username was, so could have been, but it was approx 5 years ago.

Oh sorry mate, I was probably thinking of someone else

 

[CountryFan]

Fire up the MFT, and do some testing, at home to begin with.

I’ll have to figure out how to use it too

 

[ETAF]

just an observation reading through the thread.

I hope this wont offend or upset anone , just thought I would put a few comments down , who knows maybe there will help if not then just ignore and move on

Lack of variety, same stuff different day, social housing customers who some moan like hell. Unfortunately, I can’t jump ship yet as we want to move house.

Every trade will have customers who moan and complain and will be unreasonable.
I have heard stories from Gardners and Plasterers in just the last month who have had nightmare customers

I'm not a sparks by trade (but qualified in electronics and electrical engineering in the 70's and did a few house rewires and that would get boring) , BUT i would have thought a lot of trades would find it boring after a while , including sparks , Kitchen fitters , I have fitted 4 kitchens and 3 bathrooms and cloakrooms and again I would think this would become boring repetitive too

I too got bored with my carrier, i fixed computers for 9 years (late 70's early 80's) , when you needed to be an Electronics engineer, not just a plate swapper. i got bored after about 5 years travelling all over the South East of England , and very soon you get to know what a lot of the faults are, through experience, and so it did get boring, and dealing most weeks with a lot of very upset customers when their operation was down.

I started to do a LOT of DIY when i moved house ( i see you are moving ) and learnt a lot of different skills , The JOB was just to make money to pay for lots of things - I fitted a new kitchen, bathroom, built in wardrobes in every bedroom, remade a patio , built a garden shed from scratch.

I did a bit of plumbing in kitchen bathroom and the one Job I hate is plumbing - ALWAYS get leaks , I have just this weekend fitted a new radiator and will have to go into the loft at some point and connect up the pipework and not looking forward to doing that, as a) it will leak and b) balance the whole lot - I may even get a plumber in to do that bit.

i was lucky, the company I worked for, and had a good career programme where you could go more techie or management and i was put on a management program and changed roles often as even with management roles it gets boring, in my case dealing with moaning engineers and customers complaining.

basically what i'm saying is a lot of things will become boring

I'm now retired and spend time on Forums , help with DIY on these sort of forums and I'm also on a few Excel spreadsheet forums and help out there , but i'm not chancing money and I understand you will need to make a living , which I guess the plumbing is giving you. And if you work on Combi boilers then you arew qualified gassafe too

I learnt many years ago a bit about web design 1998-2006 ish and did a few websites for people , and I still look after 1 website for a company , so for that I had to learn wordpress/woocommerce

Maybe look over your current life, what you do totally and where you are - I'm not a life coach so no more advice on that

 

[CountryFan]

@ETAF - decent post and thanks for your contribution. I’ve been been with the same company for over 20 years now, so perhaps it’s something to do with that. I have tried to leave on several occasions, mainly due to the bullying management, but the pay just wasn’t good enough or I lacked experience. I started as an apprentice in plumbing and only became involved with boilers about 8 years ago and yes I’m acs qualified and gas safe registered with the company.

 

[jj4091]

I have to agree with everything ETAF says it is a much more comprehensive answer but is basically the same as I said in my earlier post.
I think trying to change trades will not help you and as you have said you are looking to move house so you cannot afford the time or monery to spend on learning new skills.
I had similar dilemmas throughout my working life, I think most people do, but as my wife always used to tell me you work to live not the other way round. So my advice would be change jobs but stay in the same trade rather than taking a vast pay cut to change to an electrician.
You also mention having stress problems so perhaps your GP might be more helpful than here.

 

[ETAF]

I’ve been been with the same company for over 20 years now, so perhaps it’s something to do with that.

Yep, I was with the computer company for 23 years and the last 5years was terrible , many takeovers and duplication of work and POOR management

mainly due to the bullying management,

Thats sad to hear, i only experienced that once , and it was not the culture of the company - so he was outed quickly , if its the culture than you should maybe look for a change of company - 20 years experience and as an apprentice (i did the same electronics apprentice in the 70's ) , dont underestimate that apprenticeship , you are better trained then some, also gassafe, which i dont know about , but is that you personally or does it stay with company - i assume the pay the ridiculous fees

I'm sure with the right attitude you should be able to get another job with better pay - BUT remember moving house is stressfull - so perhaps put up with it until settled in to new house
Also not sure what pension you are on , final salary or ????? - if like me you leave earlier as i did after 23 years aged 49 , and i was on final salary - the pension drop was a LOT, and i regret that move now , as just 6 more years , which in the scheme of things was nothing , would have made a huge difference to my pension - hindsight a

@jj4091
yes reading your reply inspired me to write my post
Plus i was up at 5:30 am this morning , and doing a lot of DIY at the moment , but could not start till 7:00 - indoors not much noise

taking a break now

 

[ericmark]

As it happens I booked one yesterday. It’s F’ing Wales again. Been going the last 16 years, haven’t been abroad since before then. I know I sound ungrateful but everyone else enjoys it. I don’t. It’s a caravan holiday where I become househusband, so as you can imagine, not great.

Think what it's like for me, I live here full-time.

I’ll have to figure out how to use it too

I had the same problem as an electrician, I never had my own, as works provided them, and on retiring I realised I was lacking tools of the trade, looked at plug in testers, and they are not cheap, so £60 for plug in tester, and £80 for a loop impedance and RCD tester, so I got a cheap China version. RCD testing great, but loop testing it shows 0.01 volts as default, not a clue what that is, have to press a button to read loop impedance. Seems odd, but it works, so I can now test after I had done things. The correct polarity is also suspect, this

it seems is correct, not a very clear thing, could be better.

I have had meters before which gave unexpected readings, the Robin would auto swap line - earth to line - neutral when going from loop impedance to prospective short circuit current, the next meter a Seaman's didn't, also the Seaman's assumed 240 volts, as to if the ELI or PSCC was correct reading I never found out.

With any trade, we have good and bad, and also blinked teaching, I did not rate pipe fitting as a trade, until I went to work for GEC, and I watched them use the theodolite to measure where the pipe was to go, and then cut and grind the pipe, so when lifted it fitted spot on first time, I had not considered pipe fitting was using 36 inch heavy wall pipes, and had to revise my thoughts on the trade.

Plumbing looks so easy, when you watch someone else, same welding aluminium, but when I tried wiping a pipe, or welding aluminium I made a right mess of it. Even working in copper, (what the name for that? Cupping maybe? Sure it is linked to Latin) I managed to get a leak, not straight away, the flux must have filled the hole, 6 months latter the leak showed its self. I could not even use plastic pipes without an air lead somewhere, at least with air lines nothing gets wet.

So when my father-in-law had a problem with his heating, I got a gas safe guy to repair it, and he sealed the flue with gaffa tape which peeled off as soon as the fire got hot. He had looked so professional with his meters on the gas pipes to find a leak, then gaffa tape to seal a flue, in my own house I had plastered up where the flue brick was to get a flat wall for the flue plate to fit on, seems the flue had been leaking since the house was built.

But we get it with every trade, those who go OTT, those who are near enough, and those who are well off the mark. Also, those who use some common sense, I look at my oil boiler, fed with a fused connection unit (FCU) and think why not a plug and socket so in an emergency I can run the boiler off a generator? Does not matter now, I have an UPS supply, but never worked out why not a plug and socket.

Yours is what is called an allied trade, we did have the same Union, and I am sure you can move over, not sure if I could move to plumbing, it is all OK until one is asked to do the not so common task, I know plumbing includes lead work on roof's, but would think very few so-called Plumbers (which means a worker of lead) could actually do that part of the job, and in the same way some of the cable joints would freak out many of an electrician including me. I watched them do the 10 kV line to the tunnel boring machine I worked on, and no thank-you, I don't want that job.

My son and I now both hate house bashing, but we have both done it. I was the first to start playing with PLC's he had now overtaken me, SCADA is still something I am not happy with, and I was useless programming a PIC, but one can go a live time without even having to do that side of the trade, most important thing is to learn to say, sorry you need to get in a specialist for that. We all have to at some point. We have to learn to say NO.

 

[CountryFan]

@ETAF - apologies, I should have made it clear, the bullying management have now been managed out of the company, so is better in that respect. As for the pension I couldn't afford one at the time somlost out, I have my own but it's only £5 per month, not great but it's still a pension. I'm looking to increase this when I have moved and settled.

 

[CountryFan]

@jj4091 - as I work in social housing I'm just looking to expand knowledge whilst still working as a gas engineer, not necessarily move trades. Our electricians aren't on much less than us anyway paywise and I'm friendly with the M&E manager, was on the tools with him and did callout together so we have that relationship.

As for my GP - time will tell. This happens a lot to me, but hadn't for a while. I'm constantly battling with my own self beliefs. I get what you're saying, but posting on here has helped, so thanks to everyone so far.

 

[CountryFan]

@ericmark - appreciate the comment about Wales, I do like the country, however holidaying there for the past 16 years is a lot, would have liked to try other areas. We did visit Yorkshire one year, but that was full of winding roads. My Socket tester is Socket and See, my other Socket tester is Di-Log but rarely used. The mft I bought is Robin.

 

[ericmark]

Robin is good, you should have no problems with that. Are you saying Wales does not have winding roads? Around here, only straight bits have a 20 MPH speed limit.

 

[CountryFan]

Robin is good, you should have no problems with that.

Thanks

Are you saying Wales does not have winding roads? Around here, only straight bits have a 20 MPH speed limit.

No, but where we go and where we stayed in Yorkshire, the latter was worse!