Wooba Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 Hello everyone, I'm a Canadian electrician and preparing an application for myself and my common-law wife. I've been an electrician in Canada for more than a decade however I've not worked anywhere else. I believe that UK methods are quite different from here and I assume Australia is closer to the UK. What are typical construction methods/materials used there? I typically work in commercial work and common things are EMT (Metal conduit) to get from A to B when not buried. Sometimes rigid (much thicker, harder to bend and needs to be threaded), but that tends to be only factories. PVC conduit underground or embedded in concrete. Armoured cable (BX) often used to wire devices. This can be run through the steel studs used to mount drywall. Boxes for plugs/switches typically are mounted to the studs and once drywall is laid over them a hole is cut to expose them. High rise residential buildings have much of the conduit as a flexible PVC (called ENT) right inside the concrete. Boxes are mounted on forms before concrete is poured so that they are flush once the forms are removed. Chipping/coring of concrete is kept to a minimum. Houses are typically wood framed and wired with Romex. These are 2 conductors plus bare ground and are sheathed in a plastic jacket, usually white (but often yellow for 20A rated wire). This can be run through holes drilled in the wood studs and stapled to keep it in place. Colour wise, neutral is always white. Inside a manufactured cable (bx/romex) the hot wire will always be black. If it's a 3 wire the additional hot will be red. If pulling your own branch circuits as you would in a high rise unit there's little restriction on what colour the conductors can be, just green for ground and white for neutral. 3 Phase colours are Red/Black/Blue. Typically in commercial and industrial environments you would never stray away from red/black/blue. There is so much more to the trade than this, but this would probably describe the bulk of typical work in a very brief summary. If anyone can offer a vague comparison I would be grateful. Additionally, how does it work for fire alarm systems there? I'm a licensed fire alarm system installer and it's something I enjoy a lot. Typically when a building is built the installation will be done entirely by an electrician with a fire alarm license. This goes for almost the entire system from start to beginning. Conduit, wiring, devices, main panel, etc. When just about complete the technician from the manufacturer would come in and wire/program the main panel. Together we would test every single device and I would fix any problems/short circuits/ground faults there may be. Is this work done by an electrician there? Lastly, what sort of pay can be expected there? Either in Sydney or Brisbane. Thanks for any advice.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuffythetugboat Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Hi Wooba, I'm not a sparky but I do know that an electrician has to prove that he is one before he arrives in Australia and then he has to re qualify in Australia so that he can work in the industry. A real sparky will hopefully elaborate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharron pickett Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Hi Wooba, I can probably help with a lot of your questions. I was a sparkle in UK, then USA for 11 years, (NV), now a contractor here in Brisbane. Feel free to PM me, Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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