In operating my own business, I became very competitive – well competitive for me.

If I was on the road, tending to business, and passing by a job site, I would wonder to myself; “Why didn’t they let me bid on it?”  Sometimes I would stop and leave a business card.  (Of late, the boys have put together a list of pros and cons for hiring AdenBecks to do their wiring.  They send it with bids or leave it in doorways where there is a project happening.  The last listing under the “Cons” of the home owner doing it himself is; “Being electrocuted is a bad thing.”)

One time I was working on a house when a fellow came inside to talk to me.  He was building a house up the road from where I was working and wanted to know how much I charged per hour.  He was quite disgusted with his contractor and was ready to fire him.

I gave him my business card and told him to call me anytime and I would come by and give him a price.

I never heard from him again.  Perhaps he made up with his contractor.  Or maybe he used my hourly rate as a negotiation tool.  Who knows?

One gentleman would get my price regularly, …. then do the work himself.  He would use my price to calculate his general contract, and do the work I had priced for him.  I don’t know how he handled the electrical inspection.

About that time I began to realize that electrical inspectors were our allies.  Over time the electrical code has become more stringent and non- electricians or contractors without an electrical license are no longer allowed to do the electrical work.

Now-a-days an electrical inspector has to pass the same tests as an electrical contractor.  It evens the playing field.

Even today, though, we still encounter some individuals that want to do their own wiring.  It is allowed if it is for their Own Residence.  They still need to take out a permit and have it inspected.

Sometimes an individual will do their own wiring on their “own residence” and in less than 2 years they will flip the home.  When the Washington State electrical inspection department catches them, there is a fine attached.

All in all, there are some good laws, and some that aren’t so good.

Changing electrical advancements have included changes in the way cash registers work.  In fact, I am unsure if “cash register” is still an accurate description of the modern version of determining your bill at the check-out counter.  Maybe it’s no longer called the check-out counter anymore, either.

The old style cash register could pretty much be placed on a counter at any given spot and used as it was.  As the cash registers became electronically controlled, wiring and grounding became necessary – limiting their movement from where they were installed.  When bar code scanners were introduced the grounding requirements became more involved.

For the bar code scanners we had to run new circuits that would not pick up any stray currents that would interfere with the working of the scanners.

In one installation, the location of the scanner was 60 feet away from the circuit source.  The store was already in existence and was sitting on a concrete slab.  Since there was no basement, I could not run a ground wire underneath the floor.

I drilled a hole through the concrete slab and then drove a ground rod down to floor level.  I had no idea if there were any man-made and/or installed impediments below.  I was hoping that I would not “interdict” any gas lines, water lines, sewer lines, etc. with my ground rod.

I wondered why they couldn’t make a better system of wiring within the scanner itself so that the external grounding would not be necessary.  As usual with all of my good ideas, within a few years the manufacturers of the bar code scanners had done just that.

Of course, that necessitated replacement of all of the old scanners.  I guess you sell more equipment that way.   If you remember back a few of these blogs – (well more than a “few”) – that’s what happened with the bowling pin setter machines.

As the saying goes; “That’s the cost of progress.”

I have in my office an early vestige of such progress.  In wiring hotel rooms in the area, I saw how wiring operations have changed over the years.  Hanging in some rooms there used to be a sign indicating the progress of electrical technology.  The sample I have reads:

“This room is equipped with Edison Electric Light.  Do not attempt to light with match.  Simply turn key on wall by the door.  The use of Electricity for lighting is in no way harmful to health, nor does it affect the soundness of sleep.”

There are three ways to conduct electrical current from one point to another.

1. Under the ground through wires.

2. Overhead on poles through wires.

3. Through the air – with no wires

As radical as number three sounds, it is used today – sometimes with increasing regularity.  However at this time lightning is not controlled by humans.

I have always wondered why it isn’t possible to use the electricity produced by lightning.

You can use running water to produce electricity, and you can use electricity to provide running water.

You can use blowing wind to produce electricity, and you can use electricity to provide air movement.

You can use electricity to produce heat, and you can use heat to produce electricity.

Why not lightning?

Science has established that in a lightning storm, lightning rises from the earth to meet the lightning descending from the sky.  Therefore, evidently, there is electricity in the earth.  That brings all kinds of possibilities to mind.

For instance, when you park your car in the summer with all the windows up, the interior of the car soon becomes unbearably hot.  Between the hot upholstery and the super hot steering wheel I’ve been scalded numerous times.

Why not install an interior automobile system in a car for summer time heat.  When the summer time temperature in the car rises higher than the outside ambient air (and you would ONLY want this to operate in the summer), a generator powered by heat and ground effect electricity, could operate a series of small fans to bring outside, cooling air into the car to equal, or be less than, the outside temperature.

Voila!  Another problem solved.