Cold Plates – Electricians, Electrical laborers, electrical engineers
Electricians, Electrical laborers, electrical engineers. They all have one thing in common.
They don’t turn up when they arranged too. Some don’t turn up at all!
After 20 years of hiring electrical people here in Portugal, we have slowly gained an understanding of the good, bad and downright ugly side of the Portuguese electrical profession.
I should be clear up front that 50% of this opinion is probably caused by me and my initially poor understanding of how things work here. You may be in the same boat?
When we think of hiring an electrician in the UK, for instance, we don’t usually worry because the person will have been through thorough training or an apprenticeship over many years. Night school courses and have at the very least a piece of paper/certificate proving that probably won’t kill himself or you when he is fixing an electrical problem at your home.
It’s simply not the case here. Here’s a red-hot tip, if you are looking to hire an electrician here and he is available at short notice and wants to be paid in cash. You have just found what I would call an Electrical laborer.
This is someone who installs plastic conduits in walls at the direction of a trained Electrician.
They can wire up a socket if the wires are in the right place and wire up a light switch. They are no better able to understand the electrical circuits than you or me. You have just hired the equivalent of the “bloke next door”.
I know this situation well because of the number of properties we have seen that have electrical systems so badly wired they should be located on the end of death row.
Next, we have the certified Electrician, These are hard to get a hold of because they are always busy and here’s one of the main reasons for this. Good electricians can make a lot more money by working in the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Luxemburg. Which means there simply are not enough available in Portugal.
Then we have the real “rare as hen’s teeth” Properly trained and certified Electrical Engineers who can look at a lighting plan and interpret it.
They can understand what components are blown on your pool heater and know how to fix them. They can identify the electrical problems in your house previously caused by the Electrical laborers/Muppets that you hired last month. If you don’t believe me take a look at this little beauty we came across last week.
A small child would know that this is not a proper solution to any electrical requirement in the home.
Cold Plates – Electricians, Electrical laborers, electrical engineers
