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An electrician is the person who operates, installs, repairs, and maintains the electrical devices or the electrical wiring at your house. To become an expert in this role, the person also needs various soft and technical skills. An electrician’s job is difficult, but it is also extremely gratifying. The growing demand for electricians these days proves the fact that there is a constant demand for their services. Furthermore, in this article, you will learn all about the skills of an electrician.

What are an electrician’s skills?

Electrician skills mainly refer to the abilities that an electrician has to perform their job properly. These skills represent the communication skills, problem-solving skills, soft skills, and technical skills that would be required in performing their electrical tasks.

The knowledge and technical skills ensure that the tasks being performed by the person will be done safely and effectively. Soft skills refer to the skills that describe how you perform your tasks and give a positive experience to your customers. You can develop all these skills by going through formal training and personal development opportunities.

The skills an electrician needs to possess

An electrician is expected to have diverse skills while on the job. These abilities fall under several more categories, as mentioned below.

1.Technical skills

Technical skills are also known as the hard skills an electrician possesses. The person must have the right technical skills to complete their work properly. These skills vary depending on the role of the electrician. However, the basic ones are to perform electrical repairs, installations, and maintenance tasks. Some examples of an electrician’s technical skills are:

• Repairing the wiring systems
• Installation of tubing, cables, and other switching devices
• Upkeep of the electrical system and equipment devices
• Using and maintaining power tools, such as pliers, drills, and screwdrivers
• Testing the instruments and the equipment
• Understanding all the electrical procedures and the electrical safety rules as well
• Knowledge of the local electrical codes
• Understanding of safety procedures and standards
• Quality assurance skills

2. Problem-solving skills

In simple terms, we can say that electricians are our problem-solvers. Daily, we can face many different types of challenges, like why the outlay started sparkling, or there is an issue in the wiring of the building, so to resolve these issues, we need an electrician. Some of the examples of the correct problem-solving skills of an electrician are:

• Diagnosing the failures in the electrical system
• Reading and analyzing the schematics
• Conducting electrical risk assessments
• Troubleshooting
• Assessing the electrical procedures
• Critical thinking abilities
• Research skills
• Attention to the minute details
• Decision-making skills

3. Interpersonal skills

As an electrician, you always perform your tasks independently, but there are some situations where you find the need to collaborate and work with your colleagues. There are these interpersonal skills that show how you communicate with others. Some examples of interpersonal skills of electricians are:

• Collaborating with the other electricians or the team members
• Customer service skills
• Making recommendations
• Following the directions given by the supervisors
• Providing instructions to the subordinates
• Adapting the plans to meet the client’s requirements
• Visual communication skills
• Verbal listening skills
• Communication abilities in writing
• Display professionalism and tidiness in your work.

4. Physical skills

The role of an electrician is a demanding role, so employers and clients expect the electrician to be in good health and with particular physical abilities. Depending on your work profile, you may be asked to work outdoors and indoors. Some examples of the physical skills of an electrician are:

• Standing, crouching, and bending for longer durations
• Carrying and lifting heavy weights
• Climbing up ladders or stairs
• Fitting into and working in small spaces
• Performing tasks from various heights
• ability to differentiate between the different colors of the wire.
• Good hearing ability to distinguish between various songs.
• Ability to drive vehicles.

5. Business management skills

When electricians get a good amount of experience, they tend to move ahead and run their businesses and work as independent contractors. For this, he should have organizational skills to manage the work efficiently and effectively. Some examples of the business management skills of the electrician are:

• Making cost estimates
• Creating invoices
• Time management
• Developing the project budgets and plans
• Supervising the employees
• Negotiation skills
• Basic math abilities
• Inventory management and tracking

Conclusion

An electrician needs to possess the above soft and hard skills to get a good and reputed electrician job. Therefore, if you are applying for a job, you should always take a training course to ensure your health and skill level.

An electrical panel is a kind of metal box that comes with a door and is usually built into the wall of the out-of-the-way corner of your home. Inside it, you can find all the home’s breaker switches. Whenever required, you can toggle those switches on and off. The main purpose of these switches is that they automatically shut themselves off when there is too much electric current running through them.

Within the electrical panel, there is one main circuit breaker that controls the power of the entire home. Apart from that, several individual breakers are responsible for providing electricity to several different parts of homes. Each breaker will have a label on it that identifies which part of the home it is controlling. As it is an electrical system, wear and tear will surely be a part of this without any doubt. So for electrical panels also, upgrading is a must.

About Electrical Panel Upgradation

An electrical panel upgrade is a kind of service where the existing service panel is upgraded with a new one that has new circuit breakers installed in it. This process of upgrade is also known as the “main panel upgrade. It is like a switchboard for the whole house, and it receives power from solar energy and then distributes the same to the circuits for your lights, internet, and appliances. The electrical panel is the most critical part of a home or building. An electrical panel upgrade is not a tough task; it just needs to be done at the correct time to avoid any major accidents in the house. So let us move ahead in this article to understand when the correct time is to get this upgrade done.

Dimming or flickering of lights

Dimming and flickering lights in your home can indicate that your electrical panel is overloaded and that it is time to upgrade it. It simply means the panel does not have enough electricity left to provide your lights.

The appliance that needs high electricity costs

You would be surprised to know that your basic electronic devices, like tablets, smartphones, and even LEDs, actually draw a very modest amount of electricity in your home. Not just this, this high electricity demand is coming from the main everyday appliances only, like TVs, dishwashers, water heaters, and air conditioners. So in these situations also, it is time for the panel upgrades.

The electrical panel is tripping frequently.

Yes, it is annoying to experience frequent electrical panel trips. They mainly occur for the following 3 reasons:

1. In the event of any short circuit in your electrical system,
2. If any ground fault is occurring, that means any hot wire is touching the extreme ground, making it dangerous to even walk on the ground.
3. Your electrical panel is just overloaded with too many appliances working together.

How to Upgrade an Electrical Panel

When you come to know that there is time to upgrade the electrical panel, So follow the below steps and do the same.

1. Firstly, you just have to turn off the main circuit breaker in the home, so that the complete electricity flow is cut off in the home.
2. Secondly, remove the front panel from the switchboard so that replacement of the switches can be done easily.
3. Then remove the old wires from the panel, but just make sure the labels are still there, as that will make it easy for you to install the new ones.
4. Prepare the new electrical panel and put it in the right place.
5. Once it is put on, just switch the main power on.

Conclusion

Every house runs on electricity, so it is really important to have an amazing electrical infrastructure. So if your electrical panel is old, just upgrade it without wasting any time. And the best part of the electrical panel upgrade is that you can do it yourself without any electrician’s help.