From
silicon chip online;
I laughed when it was suggested a sparky needs to check a roof cavity prior to insulation installation, next I'll need a sparky to check my house when I buy it. The reason people are naive when it comes to electricity is that they are taught to fear it and so know nothing about it. The average granny can't afford an entire rewire so ends up keeping old, dangerous wiring. There is no evidence that I've seen that can attribute electrocution to DIY wiring. Most are unfortunately tradespeople, often in non electrical trades like that poor kid in QLD installing insulation.
Cheers
Pulse
Thanks Pulse - you saved me searching for it. I'm an electrical engineer. I spent four years at university learning about electricity from the quantum level to the very large power level. I flatter myself that I know a little bit more about it than your average electrician. Yet I'm not allowed to touch the wiring in my own house... Instead I should just sit and stare at some dodgy tradesman's terrible terminations. Or pay big call outs to have a sparkie end up putting a power point too close to a basin anyway.
The international evidence has been clear for a number of years (I remember these stats from over a decade ago). The higher the level of regulation surrounding electrical safety, the more electrical accidents happen, other things being equal. European countries have very little electrical regulation, have some of the oldest buildings around and yet have a very low rate of electrical accidents compared to us. Comparing India to Australia isn't a fair comparison due to the level of poverty.
The reason for this is simple - if you're educated and permitted to fix up dodgy old wiring in your roof space then you will. If you have to pay huge $$$ so some tradesman can pay off his HSV ute to do the same thing you won't. So the dodgy wiring stays there instead and people stop looking for it in the hope it will go away by itself.
The level of training required of sparkies in the land of Oz creates a scarcity, which creates a high price, which creates a strong disincentive to get the work done that needs doing. As anyone in continental Europe can do electrical wiring if they think they can, then the supply of people is abundant and it can be done for a low price. Even if you get someone to do it for you the price is a lot cheaper as a result.
Fixing the wiring in your house safely is not rocket science (especially in the time of the RCD). Millions of people have been doing it for a long time now...
That said, I don't touch any of my own wiring because it's illegal and certainly don't advocate that anyone should do that in Australia due to the legal consequences. My argument is purely against the over-regulation that exists in this industry, along with the protection of the cosy "club" that is the electrical contractor's industry.
Another way of looking at it is that in most States of Australia, engineers don't need a licence to design a bridge or a building, or a power station or anything for that matter. Technically (legally) you don't actually need an engineering degree to do engineering work. Does that make all the bridges in Australia unsafe?
No...