Comment by ssl-3

I'm just a geek who studies wires (and anything using them) for fun, and sometimes for profit. I work with wires in some capacity nearly every day. Sometimes low-voltage, sometimes RF, sometimes mains, and seldom fiber. Every now and then I get to bend some pipe or work with tightly-specified systems like Motorola R56.

My grandfather did rural electrification for the power company (bringing light bulbs, motors, and safe electric heat to the agricultural industry) until he retired, so I had good opportunities to get a solid understanding at a very early age.

In terms of licensing and rules: The area of Ohio I'm in has never adopted the NEC for normal residential homes. That means no permits needed for household electrical work, no licensing required, and no inspections -- there's nothing to permit or license or inspect when there are no adopted rules to judge against.

So we've got a much richer DIY culture surrounding electricity here than many places have and we still somehow succeed in not burning down entire neighborhoods.

But that means I don't have a journeyman card. I've never needed one. At home, I follow the NEC even though I don't strictly need to (and I'm frustrated as hell that public standards like this aren't freely available by design). For jobs at work, there's almost always already a preferred electrical contractor and/or staff electricians, and we're not trying to compete in that space. The sparkies and I can chat on like terms and get good things done together, and I think we both finish up these jobs with a bit of new knowledge about the others' trades.

But I did try a written practice test once. A lot of it was very easy for me. The parts that were hard were the bits I've never had to worry about. Like the rules about conduit fill, feeder ampacity, and derating: I know of those concepts well enough to ask the right questions and find good answers, but those are things I never interact with -- they're beyond the scope of what I normally do.

And I could learn those things and understand them and get through the whole test just fine, but then: In order to get a card, I'd also need to work as an apprentice for at least 2 years and that's just not very likely to happen. :)