Originally Posted by
Homestar
As a Sparky myself who specialises in power generation equipment, I shudder when discussing the basics of their control to some other Electricians and sometimes wonder if they should have their fingers anywhere near this equipment. It is very specialised, much like Commercial refrigeration control - those that work on it all the time and understand it are far better placed to work on it safely IMO than someone who may have a ticket but has never worked on it. I'm sure some other Sparkies here may flame me for my opinion but it is just that - my opinion, based on my experiences over 30 years in the Trade, with over 20 of that specifically on generators.
There's always been this back and forth between Sparkies and Fridgies and some of the reasons are valid from both sides. I'm certainly not going to sit here and say no one but an Electrician should work on some gear to be honest as I would be way out of my depth with anything more than a split system - sure there could be drawings I could wade through but would I really understand what's going on as far as the gas, pressures and how these all interact with each other - nope, not a chance, but I'm right at home with any generator big or small, control system, software, mods, etc on these and I don't and wouldn't expect someone who hasn't worked on them before to be able to beyond some basic faultfinding like breakers tripped, etc for the exact same reasons.
Doesn't make things easy as far as legislation goes though, as all sides get in on the act on these things and want to protect their own when it comes to locking down things - which again, isn't black or white IMO.
Just my 2 cents. [smilebigeye]