Funny mistakes in the speech of non-electricians.

Working as a private electrician, you have to combine several professions at once: an electrician, a manager, an accountant, a director... One way or another, you find a client yourself, you agree on volumes, prices, terms... And of course, during the entire period of cooperation, you communicate directly with customer.

Such close communication with people saves an electrician (and indeed any builder) from monotony and boredom. Sometimes you come across such interesting clients... with such over-the-tops...

Today, I want to not so much tell stories, but to tell you about funny mistakes in terminology that customers make who are far from elementary concepts in electricity. However, the humor is specific and only electricians will understand.

I have compiled a small list of similar errors that my clients sometimes voice.

So…

Plus-minus, Phase-zero.

Amazingly, it turns out that many people do not see the difference between direct and alternating current at all, especially motorists. By the time the electrician was called, some clients (men) were already trying to figure out the causes of the malfunction themselves (armed with an indicator screwdriver, they made a series of “measurements” in junction boxes, sockets, switches, shields ...).

Therefore, in their speech, sometimes the following phrase proudly sounds: “... there are two pluses in the socket ...” or “... I found a plus with an indicator, but I don’t understand with a minus ...” or “... I twisted the negative wires into a bunch in a box ...”

So it turns out that for some reason they call the phase plus, and zero - minus or mass.

I used to work for an electrical company. The director is a very distant person from electrical engineering. But on the other hand, he had money for promotion and connections in power (we did all the “fattest” objects of the city). I collect once a shield. The work is almost over - I'm assembling a zero tire. The director stands nearby, watching the work with interest, telling stories. And then, he decided to show off his mind and ingenuity:

- Are you combining the "minus" in a bunch?

So what was his answer? He's the director!

2. Cork / automatic.

It would seem that many have long abandoned the use of traffic jams and switched to circuit breakers. And in new buildings, automatic switches are installed even more so in the shields.

Nevertheless, quite a lot of clients, protection devices are called traffic jams. By inertia or something ...?

3. Activation / inclusion.

I had such a bore:

A young girl called me ... Malfunction: "The light in the hall suddenly went out." After a short repair of the chandelier, I tell her:

- All! Ready!

And she asks me:

- Can it be activated?

I was a little taken aback by such a phrase, apparently she wanted to ask if it was possible to turn on the chandelier, but I immediately realized:

-You probably work as a programmer or a system administrator?

- Almost ... Computer science teacher.

So, purely IT terminology suddenly intertwined with electrical engineering.

4. What is "earth".

Well, you can write a separate article about this. Few of the inhabitants generally understand what grounding is and why it is needed. We have to educate people...

You may have seen funny pictures on the Internet in which someone brought out a ground wire and stuck it in ... a pot of natural earth. Why not ground? Although, it is quite possible that these are staged shots.

Nevertheless, in my practice, I had the honor to observe such a life hack.

They called me to make grounding ... I come, I begin to understand the situation ... And the owner says to me:

— I changed the wiring last year. The shabashniks laid a three-core cable everywhere, sockets already with a connected grounding contact. That's just from the shield to the ground, I already laid the wire myself and made the ground electrode myself.

And then I saw THIS!!! Imagine… There are three large buckets in the hall, from which some indoor trees grow. From the shield, a cable is laid along the plinth. Carefully so ... on the clips. This cable comes to the first bucket and ... enters the bucket, from it to the second and, accordingly, to the third.

-What's this? I ask.

-So that's why I called you. The guys explained to me that I need to bury 3 pipes in the ground at a distance of at least a measure from each other, connect them together and put them in a shield. I did everything as they said. But the other day, the washing machine began to beat with current. I don't know what happened.

Maybe someone will say that this is “nonsense” ... Indeed, I myself would not have believed that there are such things ... if I had not seen it all with my own eyes ...

5. Units of measure

For an electrician, confusing Volts with Watts or not distinguishing Watts from kilowatts is a huge shame, which speaks of the low qualification of this individual. But mere mortals, especially women, very often confuse these terms.

Moreover, I have noticed more than once how in some budgetary organizations they glue “220V” signs. Where a person without an electrical engineering education is responsible for the electrical economy, the following inscription may appear above the outlet: “220W”.

What are Amps - it’s better not to even start a conversation about this ...