coming up on this week's news a coroner rules that an electrician who worked at the government's
secret spy HQ in Cheltenham died from exposure to asbestos Legrand launches a consumer unit which
communicates with your phone in real time and the gaming industry unveils its latest Blockbuster
computer game to rival FIFA it's called I kid you not electrician simulator welcome to electrical
news weekly in association with myenergi whether you're listening in the van on site or down at the
wholesale counter I'm Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of the electrical industry news
to save you the trouble and as always if you think you've spotted the two words I've been challenged
to slip into this week's show comment them below for the chance to win a prize a coroner has ruled
that an electrician who was regularly exposed to asbestos when he worked at sites including
gchq in Cheltenham died from an industrial disease the death last month of Nigel Barnes
of Huggle Gloucester was due to a form of lung cancer called mesothelioma electricians are 16
sometimes more likely to die from this than the general population and the only known
cause is asbestos exposure Barnes worked for the electrical contracting firm Williams Brothers in
the 1980s and in a statement made in July last year he revealed that his job was to fit light
and fire alarms into full ceilings where he used a small handheld drill to cut two inch holes as
he cut into the ceiling just from asbestos sheets would fall on him and he couldn't help but breathe
it in later in his career he worked on the gchq development where he was exposed to asbestos in
the roof of Nissan Huts Barnes was never warned about the dangers of the substance and he was
never provided with a mask he said that it was impossible to avoid the dust Barnes made
a compensation claim which was settled before he died and now the court has confirmed that he did
in fact die from an occupational hazard the team here at efixx send our deepest condolences to Mr
Barnes family and there's a link to further information and help about mesothelioma in
the show in product news knipex has come up with a super useful multi-purpose tool that
cuts strips and crimps the next strip can cook cable of up to 10 square millimeters it can strip
both flexible and solid conductors from 0.0 3 squared millimeters up to 10 square mil and it
automatically adapts to the cable's cross sections you use the adjustable length stop to ensure
consistent stripping lengths and there's also a fine adjustment to get it perfect the ratchet
crimping mechanism guarantees the exact pressure so you get a consistent crimp each time it offers
fast and even Square crimping for individual wire ferals in accordance with din-46228 parts 1 and
4. the next trip is available from wherever you get your tools and we've done a full video review
of this clever bit of Kit so have a watch of that to see what all the brouhaha is about Legrand has
launched what some are calling a consumer unit from the future the cx-3 smart electrical panel
allows homeowners to view what's happening in all the circuits in their property and control them
in real time using a smart smartphone or voice assistant such as Amazon's Alexa they can see
the power consumption of individual appliances and turn them on and off they can also see the
actual cost of energy used by each device thanks to the app's built-in electricity tariffs they
can schedule their lights home appliances and electrical equipment directly in the app for
instance they can set a daily schedule which automatically opens the blinds in the living
room in the morning or they could program the charging of an electric vehicle to get the best
tariffs they can even bring load shedding into the home for the first time this is an
algorithm which can intelligently shut down high energy appliances to prevent power failures and
the secret to all this cleverness is a technology developed by a startup called natatmo The Breakers
have a special smart module which uses zigbee technology to talk to a Gateway unit which in
turn connects to the Wi-Fi Schneider Electric meanwhile has taken sustainability to a new
level with a range of switches and sockets which unveiled at a trade show in Germany last week the
Merton mpure ocean plastic range is made from 50 and regular plastic and 50 percent from discarded
Fisherman's Nets the company says that millions of tons of plastic waste end up in the sea every
year and it wants to do its part to clean it up the Nets are collected from beaches and
all along the coastline and even from fishermen themselves the Nets are cleaned sorted shredded
and then the plastic is processed into a recycled polymer this is then used by Schneider to make
the wiring devices which include switches dimmers and sockets also out this week is a new computer
game which developers hope will be a blockbuster franchise to rival FIFA it's available on Xbox
PlayStation and PC and it's called electrician Simulator the game revolves around 30 exciting
story based missions these include repairing an electrical socket fixing a kitchen appliance and
there are workbench jobs where you conduct repairs on realistically recreated electrical items during
the action you're in a race to acquire the various tools you'll need there are over 50
to get including various screwdrivers a cable detector a soldering iron and a multi made data
you must work your way up the ranks and accept whatever jobs you are given and as you become more
Adept the jobs become larger they pay higher and you'll be required to juggle more tasks at once
the ultimate task is a complete rewire of a house it's like they've taken our lives and put it into
a computer game the software company behind the electrician simulator says the game is something
entirely new in the gaming industry the head of Take It studio Dorian Lowe says that the game is
designed to be relaxing and fun so nothing like the life of an electrician at all and the first
review of electrician simulator is in games editor Daniel Waite says it's a fun concept
and has awarded it three out of 5 Stars I have genuinely already bought it and will be trying
it out over the next few weeks once I figure out the controls and all that Malarkey if you try the
game let us know how you get on in the comments and finally a shout out to a former electrician
Darren Cunningham recently down tools and left the trade to take up a new career as a hairdresser at
just 20 years old he has swapped his screwdrivers for straighteners and hasn't looked back in fact
Cunningham is aiming to Be A Cut Above the Rest taking on the challenge of becoming the best in
Britain for a new TV show Cunningham who co-owns a hair salon in Leicester is one of 11 stylists
vying for the crown in e4's the big blowout all the very best there Darren the hair industry may
have taken one of our own but it's also given back in the shape of Dan McAdam McAdam used to sell
shampoo to hairdressers but quit when he learned that his electrician mate Ross was drowning in
paperwork and didn't even have time to answer his phone so McAdam set up the rewired agency which
helps electrical contractors take care of their admin and it even answers the phone for them check
out our video launching this week which involves secret phone calls that Gary made on a burner
phone to a variety of electricians including one in a town called little snoring if you think you
know the words that I've smuggled into this week's show pop your guess into the comments and we'll
dig out a goodie bag prize to the first to get the right answers last week's words were cacophony and
flummoxed and the very first person to get both right was Mr witters eight so well done to you sir
click the link in the show notes to claim your prize that's it for this week but keep watching
our YouTube channel because we've got some excellent content coming up including Gary's
paying a visit to Newark College on Monday as part of his college connections tour we take a look
at a very clever three-phase connector from scami that allows you to change the direction of a motor
and we've got a couple of Q and A's on conduit and car Parks so make sure you stay tuned for
all of that thanks for listening to this episode of electrical news weekly in association with my
energy make sure you subscribe to receive the next update thanks for listening and until next time
have a great week stay safe out there and remember there's no such thing as a talk calibrated arm