kgoody

Hows it going sparky ?
love my football but a quick question on the electrical stage 3 practical and the electrical regulations courses, if i may ?
im bboked in for both courses within the next month,i aint done any work on motors back home...ever,will that effect my practical ? could you give me a general idea of what to expect plz.
and as for the regs course.i sat the uk regs 2/3 years ago now,i just got my homestudy pack yesterday and they have sent me (electrical safety regulations 2010) electricity act 1992 / in-service safety and inspection and testing of electrical equipment and as/nzs 3000:2007 (regs book).
i have a pre-course to do at home,involving reading these books right through,which i think is mad !!! and making notes an various sections which i think are suitable/may be of use.
i have a 1 week course to sit before the 3 houe exam on the saturday morning,did you do the course this way ? and did you find it the best method of preparation ? is there anything i should be preparing myself for in the stage 3 practical ? or it all general stuff we have all covered in college and on the job in the uk ?
im living in auckland so cant meet up for football(may have to move down your end if i dont get a job...;[
thanks for any help n good look finding a game of footy !!!

Kevin

BEVS

Hi there. I've moved this post into a thread of it's own as the thread you attached your post to was a couple of months old.
If you'd like the title changed, please let me know.

mwhite1962

Hi there,

The 1st weeks course, which is regulations is basically sitting in a classroom for a week pounding through old exam papers, the course is open book so you need to get yourself a highlighter pen and loads of small post it pads, on which you can make quick find notes as the 3hrs hours goes so fast, the tutor will point you in the direction of which questions are lightly to be raised, but it is a hard course especially if like me you havent done a regs course in 20 or so years.
The theory is a different matter , you start off wiring up a circuit board, on the board it consists of wiring up a consumer unit along will lighting and power, the 2-way lighting and intermediate switched via a relay, three phase sockets and a few stop/start switches which go through various relays and contactors....not easy!!
Next is the wiring up or motors, about 6 in total if i remember, star/ delta, three phase/single phase. Now this is the hard part....there is a board fixed to a table, mounted on this board at the top are contactors/overloads/ mcb's and relays, these are wired up to what can only be discribed as what the old telephone operators used to used back in the day, with loads of holes in a board and plug in cables to each of the holes, these go to various parts of the contactors etc, so you will need a multi meter as you have to find out the normally open/ normally closed contacts on the overloads/contactors, you get circuit drawings so you dont have to work out any of that, at the end of that you have to test the control circuit and if ok, connect up the motor to it and run.
After that, there is RCD testing and then portable appliance testing( and they use 2 phase cookers over here) so i would be lying if i said it was easy and if its something your not familar with, you may struggle, but you may not be the only brit there so you can work it out between you, there is help from the tutors but you are expected to have some knowledge.

Good luck

Mick

kgoody

cheers mick...i got my regs papers thru for my home study last week and have been bladdering them making notes and getting familiar with sections and bits n peices.ive don 2 regs courses in the last 8=10 yrs back home so hoping will be ok with that...need to catch up on cable calcs tho ! ;[ was you right up on them before you did the regs or was revision adequate mate ?
as far as the practical go,s i mentioned to the tutor that i had no motor switching experience and he said dont worry all will be fine,hope so cos i 100% got to pass these first time so i can get earning.
where are you living /working mate ?
im on the north shore/albany area if u get time for coffee n muffin ? haha
thanks for ur help and defo fingers crossed.

SparkyGaz

Hi guys,

I'm a full time dad in Tauranga since July but been sparky for 18years now, some great advice on here for when I register an complete my regs next year.

Totally agree, bit rusty on some of the stuff, did my regs back in 1996 and although you know your job inside out, it's daunting to prove yourself on paper.... especially in a new country.

Got a sparky mate here who did it all last year, will have to keep picking his brains

mwhite1962

Hiya,
Nope i wasnt up on the regs at all, last time i picked a regs book up was in 1990 ish when i did the 16th edition,so thought i was prepared when i went in for the exam but did fail it, i am resitting next month, fortunately i got a job with an air con company so no immediate worry about passing but did knock my confidence back a bit.
I am down in Rotorua, so a bit of a hike for a coffee,

Any help you may need give us a shout

Mick

mwhite1962

Hi Sparkygaz,
Likewise for you if i can help in anyway, chances are you will be doing the training/course over here at ETCO seems to be the local traing centre here abouts, so give us a shout when you over.

Mick

kgoody

im gonna be doing the stage 3 practical on mon,tue,wed of next week,ive gone through the set-up of the course and to be honest i wont pass without sone leeway and a bit of help judging by the criteria they have set.having spent the last 10 years wiring central heating systems up back home i aint done too much in the way of motor control and the setting up of various discharge lighting.i have just got a job and start on thursday which is great but need the certs to fulfill the visa criteria,i have got my regs course/exam 21-26th november so will get back to you on here with the lowdown on how the courses went.i have been told and am under the impression that the stage 3 practical assessors do not want anybody to fail as they understand what we(immigrants) have gone through to get here and start n new life,and that unless you are multi-skilled it is highly unlikely that you will be able to walk into the practical and wire each part of the assignment straight off and be out of there...i hope !!! well fingers crossed and hope i come back here with positive vibes for all of us .

SparkyGaz

Thanks Mick, I think because the Electrical field is so diverse, sparkies assume that every other electrician knows it all inside out...
Not so; having spent my working life in the industrial field, motors are a doddle, but some of the domestic stuff doesn't come as second nature to me like I feel it should.
This is surely why we specialise certain aspects of the job.
I plan to study hard and hopefully learn something useful along the way.
Good luck with the exams everyone.
I was always taught as an apprentice 'the only stupid question is the one you never ask'

kgoody

hi all.just finished day 3 on my stage 3 practical,the couse was set up to Hover across the whole board of the electrical industry,i very much hope all went well but a matter of waiting for a letter of confirmation im guessing !
roughly the course ste up was
1.Wire up a 3 phase socket,a single phase plug and an after the connections and terminals being checked both leads were the used to wire up to a 2 phase motor,both star and delta and a single phase motor.
2.Was give a worksheet to set up a board and circuits comprising of-4 lights ran from 3 switches,2 x 1 way,1 x 2-way-inter,2 sockets ran independantly through an rcd,info depicted which size breaker for each,a 3 phase socket,a control circuit for a 3 phase motor switching the motor from star to delta through contactors and a timer and the 3 phase wiring to the motor,
4.Fuseboard wired from scratch from a 3 phase sochet you must feed to a 3 phase isolator up to the board which then feeds an isolator,links must then feed breakers for each individual circuit as ther is no busbar inside the board.
all necessary test conducted to confirm the safety of the installation before liven up the board,do live tests and test the circuits,lights/power/motor.
5.appliance tests,was given 2 appliances to test,visual inspection,earth continuity test,I/R test,appliance resistance test and fill in necessary testsheet.

It sound like a lot of work but once you begin they are very understanding of the industry and peoples knowledge more of the part of the industry you specialise in.they want you to have a basic knowlege of everything i guess but will be very helpful if you become stuck/confused with any part of the (exam),i have written ""exam in the loose term because they class the whole thing as somewhat as a lesson for you as well,to learn the techniques they are after over here,any questions more than willing to help,got the regs exam in 3 weeks so got my fingers crossed i passed today and will be working my butt of studying till thEN...

GOOD LUCK to anybody still waiting to sit th course and any questions i will be more than happy to answer.

im sure nobody is as nervous as i was before doing the course so chill out and go n kick its ass...

Kevin