On Wed, 29 Apr 2026, Tim via users wrote: > > Here, in Australia, you have to be an electrician to run any kind of > > wiring through walls and ceilings, and I'm sure about the floor, too. > > So there's a deliberate dearth of public info. You're probably better > > looking for something like American wiring and building codes as a > > guide.
Michael Hennebry: > Who is ensuring the dearth of public info? Well, those "in the knowledge" aren't going to share it, because they're happy with "you have to hire us to do it," and don't want the liability of sharing any "how-to" info. You might call it a trade union lock-in thing. Any electrical website in this country is just a sales site for fittings or services, with warnings everywhere that only a qualified electrician can fit or install any of the products. In other countries, you simply have to do your wiring according to code, and have it inspected by someone qualified. You'll find many electricians, here, will refuse to do that. Hell, you can't even drill straight through a wall and put a doorbell either side of where you drill the hole. At best, you're allowed to drill through the edge of a wooden window frame to do it. Nor put a hole through the wall and run your TV or stereo speaker wiring out of sight. You're not even supposed to change a plug on an appliance, despite just about all the fittings being sold in general hardware stores, where no tradie would ever buy them from (mainly for price reasons). Of course the allegedly qualified electricians who wired my house in the 1960s did a brilliant job (not) - every power point in the entire three bedroom house on just one 16 amp fuse, with a wandering radial going from the fusebox to room to room. Likewise with every light fitting on a single 8 amp fuse, on a single feed going room to room (with an two feet of joined sections screwed up like a corkscrew above the lamp fitting in the laundry, that eventually became a short-circuit hazard after years of vibration rubbed the insulation thin between them). Only one power point in every room except for the kitchen and the lounge, and one in the bedroom that didn't even have the wires screwed into place (the screws were backed out all the way, with wiring only held in place by the stiffness of the solid copper). I don't think there's a single wall plate that's level to the horizon. Or do I mention the two indoor light sockets in my workshop, where one side has an earth to neutral short, the other has an earth to live short. The room's lighting and power on the one fuse, with a wandering radial that takes the shortest paths between plates (e.g. diagonally between the last wall socket to lighting socket, with just a couple of inches of slack). Then there's the allegedly qualified electricians in the 1990s and 2000s, who put new wiring in for some electrical additions to the house, and fitted the wiring in the fusebox where it gets squashed by the hinged bars that the fuseboard swings out of the box on. Also losing the screws that fasten the fuseboard into the box, so it just hangs on the hinges and is only held in place by a bit of conduit jammed between it and the lip of the box. So, whenever sparkies get narky about their trade, I'll point out those things while saying something about protectionism. A professional is merely someone who gets paid for what they do, it doesn't make them a professional, an expert, nor even competent. -- uname -rsvp Linux 3.10.0-1160.119.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Jun 4 14:43:51 UTC 2024 x86_64 (yes, this is the output from uname for this PC when I posted) Boilerplate: All unexpected mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted. I will only get to see the messages that are posted to the mailing list. -- _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected] Do not reply to spam, report it: https://forge.fedoraproject.org/infra/tickets/issues/new
