in today's news jail for the mercedes driving rogue trader who lied about being an approved
electrician while living a life of luxury the electrical contractor paralyzed after a fall warns
the trade to take health and safety seriously and in one of our biggest competitions ever we have
over 100 prizes to give away welcome to electrical news weekly in association with schneider electric
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 spotted the two words i've been challenged to slip into today's
show comment them below for the chance to win a prize a portsmouth road trader who claimed to be
an approved electrician has been locked up for nine months portsmouth crown court judge david
melville sentenced 35 year old builder sam hart of langley road portsmouth to the stretch in prison
after he claimed to be a member of the nic eic while delivering what was described as appalling
workmanship he left his customers thousands of pounds out of pocket and has been ordered to pay
back nearly 45 000 pounds the court heard that hart had left a trail of devastation after he
started trading as mac and heart developments limited work on a loft extension and a rear
extension failed to comply with building regulations leaving homeowner deborah parrish
with a bill of 11 000 pounds to fix the work hart then formed another company harkins construction
limited and agreed to work on a full refurbishment of a property in fairum in hampshire but the work
was never done and he diverted the deposit to help with the liquidation of his previous company
meanwhile hart is said to have had a luxury lifestyle regularly hiring mercedes and bmw cars
to drive around portsmouth judge melville described it as a most appalling series
of events harp pleaded guilty to six offenses contrary to the consumer protection from unfair
trading regulations of 2008 contravening requirements of professional diligence
failing to provide cancellation notices and the unauthorized use of nic eic and gas
safe logos he was also disqualified from being a company director for five years we'd like to
remind householders that all work needs to be conducted by a qualified professional and be
compliant with all the latest changes to the 18th edition of the wiring regulations now to help you
keep up with those changes schneider electric have produced a really useful ebook this details the
updates to the 18th edition as well as the latest products to help installers comply the amendments
include changes to special location installations including solar and electric vehicle systems
prosumer low voltage electrical installations and the need for systems that can both produce and
store energy installation requirements for fire risk buildings including escape routes and cabling
and removal of the crl calculation and the increased need for surge protection
nico van der merve vice president of home and distribution uk at schneider electric
sees the changes as a great opportunity for the electrical industry and he believes that
the company's lineup of products will support the trade in complying with the latest regs
in other news new prime minister liz truss has been warned that she has to act
now to avoid a crisis in the electrical industry the electrical contractors association is urging
trust to urgently focus on skills electrification and net zero they believe the industry is key to
upgrading britain's energy infrastructure and that it needs urgent government support to survive the
energy bills crisis the eca's head of public affairs andrew eldred said that many electrical
contractors were small to medium-sized businesses with an average profit margin of just 2.5 percent
he warned that these firms will struggle with crippling inflation in the trade of 23 he said
trust must act now to avert the biggest crisis in the sector since the collapse of carillion in 2018
whatever help liz truss gives the industry and the eca have already taken the initiative with
electrical safety this month they've got behind the safer september campaign which is a push to
raise awareness of the importance of safe isolation and the steps that electricians
should take to ensure they're working safely at all times backing the campaign are the eca and
select and brands like test instrument solutions we're backing it too in the usual e-fix style with
a giveaway we've got 100 mini safe isolation kits to give away to anyone who completes our special
safe isolation cpd during the month of september it's a video based cpd which could save your life
so what are you waiting for check it out after this episode i've put the link in the show notes
if you're way ahead of the curve and have already got a cpd certificate from our video you can win
one of 10 voltage and continuity testers from test instrument solutions these are really cool bits of
kit because they have a built-in proving unit simply post your cpd certificate on instagram
and tag us in again for all the details click on the link in the show notes still on health
and safety an electrical contractor from norfolk who had a life-changing work accident
has launched a campaign for better health and safety in the workplace while wiring a building in
2018 sean garrett fell from a stepladder through an open flooring hole and three metres onto the
floor below he suffered four fractured ribs a fracture to the front of the skull broken nerves
to the nose a broken backbone in three places and a broken spinal cord which left him paralyzed from
the waist down he has no feeling from the waist down or sense of body temperature no thirst and
he never feels hungry he has extreme lower back pain and has to take over 150 tablets a day four
years on he now feels ready to raise awareness of the importance of health and safety garrett
says he gets very frustrated over electricians who lack ppe or haven't thought of their safety while
completing their daily works he says that he will be happy if he can get his message across and stop
some people from getting into accidents he plans to raise money for the electrical injuries charity
and the east anglian air ambulance we applaud the campaign and if you want to help i've put
the just giving links in the show notes now on to an emergency lighting conundrum it's a conundrum
wrapped in an enigma and surrounded by a riddle with an emergency exit sign does the arrow point up
or down we put the question to the wisdom of crowds in the form of our weekly eFIXX survey
we asked you which way it should go and a whopping 11 000 of you voted but i'm sad to report that
most of you 7 out of 10 of you are wrong so does the arrow go up or down to hear the answer and
the surprising thinking behind it check out our special video on the issue and finally on to the
fake news that had us all here at lineside studios crying into our galaxy cookie crumble mcflurries
a report broke last week that mcdonald's had decided to serve all day breakfast from next month
if you get delayed at the wholesaler or stuck on a job then you will know the pain of missing the
10 30 a.m cutoff time for this tasty treat so the rumor that the company would start selling
breakfast all day from 6th of october has us rushing to mark our mastab's curry house calendar
we cheered we hugged some of us kissed but then mackie d's tweeted sorry guys file this one
under fake news it seems that whoever started the rumour had their pantaloons on fire we unhugged we
unkissed we shed some tears but that's enough bad news let's have some good by looking ahead
to what's coming up from eFIXX this week we'll be looking at the mains link from rf solutions
an amazingly easy to install weatherproof strip light from jcc and as if one competition wasn't
enough we're also launching a new cpd from envirovent about changes to the building regs and the
impact of that on extraction and ventilation and if you complete that cpd you stand the chance
of winning a 50 pound amazon voucher that you could spend on anything from books to shampoo
watch out for the hashtag training tuesday for more details if you think you know the words
i've smuggled into today'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 rap scallion and winkle pickers
and loads of people guessed correctly possibly because last week's words were rapscallion
and winklepickers i mean sure i use rap scallion on a daily basis as we all do but winkle pickers
seriously i think our scriptwriters have a vendetta against me or something anyway the first
person to get it right was glenn wu fit so well done to you sir click the link in the show notes
to claim your prize thanks for listening to this episode of electrical news weekly in association
with schneider electric make sure you subscribe to receive the next update and until next time have
a great week stay safe out there and remember there's no such thing as a talk calibrated on