We talk with Master Electrician Dustin Stelzer and Electrician U

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[00:00:07] Dustin Stelzer: I don't ever tell homeowners like, go out there and do your own electrical. Like you, you, a lot of places you can pull permits. Like in Austin there's a homeowner's permit. Um, to do work though, under a homeowner's permit, you cannot hire other contractors for anything. You have to take all of the liability on your own and it still goes through an inspection process, but the inspector will come through and be like, Okay, you obviously have no clue what you're doing.

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[00:00:46] Dustin Stelzer: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know that we got you coming. This is around the house.

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[00:01:12] Eric Goranson: You welcome to Around the House, man. What you doing, man? This is great. Happy to have you

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[00:01:24] Eric Goranson: So thanks. We've got a mutual friend, our buddy Roger Wakefield, Master Plumber. Yeah. .

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[00:01:34] Dustin Stelzer: It's kind of one of those, uh, Like plumbers are better, electricians are better. Kind of a things , so we're always giving each other crap. But, uh, yeah, I love Roger, man. Just a positive, great dude. Always on fire. Always wanting to help people out,

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[00:01:51] Eric Goranson: Well, I wanted to talk to you today, man, about so much that you've got going on. I love how you're just blowing up the electrical space out there [00:02:00] and really given some education to electricians, but including homeowners as well, for people trying to tune in and, and learn something else out there, because I think there was such a need for that man.

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[00:02:16] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I, um, I saw an opening a long time ago, so basically how I started was I got my master electrician's license and I figured like that my whole career, there was nothing visual for me to see for like, how does, how do you wire a switch and like, how does the capacitor work and all this stuff, you know, like, I didn't understand it.

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[00:02:58] Dustin Stelzer: But there's just, there was [00:03:00] nothing instructive in like video or visual form. And I'm a creative person, I'm a very visual learner. So I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna make it. So about six years ago I just started putting videos together and. You know, the, the cool thing is that as I'm instructing people, I'm having to have my head in books and actually like learning things even deeper and more profoundly.

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[00:03:27] Eric Goranson: It's so true because you can know that this is the right way to do it, but when you have to sit there and explain why it's the right way to do it, it's a different thing of, Oh yeah, we just always do it that way.

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[00:03:42] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, . Yeah, I had some people coming up that I worked under, you know, some journeymen that I would ask them. I was that annoying apprentice to man, like I would, like, how does this work? And how does, how do the waves do this? And where do the, And people are just like, Dude, shut up.

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[00:04:17] Eric Goranson: That is awesome. And you know, something, I think right now, in 2022 going into 2023, that electricians are going to be the need of the future over the next dec, next decade or so, more so than even ever before. I, I think it's gonna be almost like what we saw in the turn of the century when we started putting electricity in homes.

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[00:05:02] Dustin Stelzer: Well, it's, man, it's really interesting to see that because we've. Not only are we putting more things into homes, we're kind of changing how much things use and reducing it as much as possible. So I think what we're gonna see in the next, I don't know, like 10 years or so, is that all lighting's gonna be low voltage, You know, like I think there's gonna be a way LEDs, like everything's already low voltage, it's being converted from high voltage to low voltage, but I don't think there's a need.

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[00:05:45] Dustin Stelzer: Um, and I think that excellent. Using excellent DC using battery backup and, and things like that. I just think we're gonna see a reduction in a lot of things. But also, like you're saying, we have car chargers, we have these big crazy pools. We have all these other things that we want to [00:06:00] do. So I don't know, it'll be interesting.

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[00:06:03] Eric Goranson: look at it, you know the general homeowner out there that's got maybe that a hundred, 150 amp panel and they just went out and bought the, the latest electric car and they wanna put a hot tub in, and all of a sudden they got more aper pulling outta that panel than it was originally designed for.

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[00:06:19] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. And that's, you know, there's a lot of houses. Like my house was built in 1968. I got like a hundred amp panel on my, you know, it's an old zenko, which they don't even make Oh, you know, like old, old stuff that definitely has to be replaced. But, um, but you know, I will say too, a lot of people kind of misunderstand when they look at a panel, they think, Okay, I have to add up every single one of my breakers and that's how big my panel is.

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[00:07:02] Dustin Stelzer: Which is good for me. So

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[00:07:22] Eric Goranson: But then who knows, maybe they turn around and boom, it's something else, you know, in two or three years that, that doesn't require that, which will change the entire plan that they're gonna need to do to, to put in that much amperage. Cuz you know, my old house here that I have built in 79, I have the old split main Cutler hammer, you know, like to catch on fire.

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[00:08:11] Eric Goranson: So I was weeks to months away from having a panel fire. But

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[00:08:34] Dustin Stelzer: They didn't have any, a lot of the breakers just weren't smart enough, or they weren't, you know, not that they weren't smart enough, but over time they aren't as effective as they used to be so they wouldn't trip. Um, or you'll have like a bad bus connection. So the actual bus where the breaker snaps in, there's like a loose termination.

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[00:08:58] Eric Goranson: one of the things that bugs me [00:09:00] sometimes when I jump on Craig's List and Facebook marketplace. I see people selling those old breakers that came out of, you know, I don't know if it's some apprentice or somebody that's at the junk pile at the, uh, you know, when it's coming outta the van at the end of the day, but I'm seeing, you know, black market breakers out there of stuff that they haven't made for 30 years.

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[00:09:27] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, it's actually, uh, it's really dangerous to be doing that, but I know a lot of, uh, US electricians that have been, I don't know, 15, 20 years, oh, and older, we would keep the old stuff that we would tear outta panels because say you got like an old ranch out in east Texas somewhere, wait in the middle of the boondocks and you got some old grandma that's like lost power.

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[00:10:01] Dustin Stelzer: But it's a now, right. Yeah, but there's a lot of other breakers out there. I like to tell people not to do that anymore because now there's companies that are making brand new replacement breakers that have like good springs in them and they're actually UL listed and stuff like that.

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[00:10:16] Eric Goranson: What do you seeing out there? I mean, the trades is something that you and I can sit here and talk for four hours on about getting people into the trades, but man, there is such a shortage out there and my impression is, is that we're going backwards, not forward. We just can't get the, get the young generation into the trades fast enough to replace all those guys out there and, and ladies that have been ready to retire now that have done their 30 or 40 years,

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[00:10:47] Dustin Stelzer: So right now, for those listening that don't know, there's a thing that we call the skilled trade gap, and it's a huge gap from the people that are retiring, you know, fifties, sixties, to the people that are coming in the trades that want to be YouTubers and play [00:11:00] video games and stuff, and they just don't have the same desire and there's nothing wrong with that.

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[00:11:21] Dustin Stelzer: But I think what needs to be understood by kids is, or taught to them, told to them, is you can actually make a really, really good living. Doing a trade, and you'll always have work for the rest of your life. You're never gonna be sitting there without the ability to find work. And that's a problem, you know, as seasons go, like people are outta work.

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[00:11:50] Eric Goranson: It's Twitter, . Yeah. You know?

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[00:11:59] Dustin Stelzer: [00:12:00] I can't tell you how many vehicles I've started from grabbing some romax out my truck and just like pullings, you know, and twisting some wire together and boom, just hold it on there. And people are like, What did you just do? I'm like, Bro, electrician, that's an ass on your chest. You know? Like you're Superman.

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[00:12:33] Dustin Stelzer: So I think we need kind of a reeducation of what it means to work with your hands. And I think the biggest problem is that schools don't teach that this is cool. You know, they teach like code programs and make video games and stuff, and the kids are immersed in that world. But I think schools don't teach like, hey, if you take something apart and put it together and see how a thing is built and how this works, like you can make money doing that.

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[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I mean, if you're a kid that's, that's loves science and math and, and like working with your hands, you're gonna get, you're gonna make more money as an electrician than you are gonna be that middle school science teacher.

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[00:13:30] Dustin Stelzer: electrician. Yeah. And you know, that's funny that you bring that up too, because a lot of teachers out there will are like, Well, don't you need to get a degree or else you're gonna end up being a plumber?

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[00:14:01] Dustin Stelzer: So you could be an electrician that's just working out in the field and you get a great wage and you just, that's it. Or you could be like, kind of crazy about electricity and wanna start a company and have trucks and have all this stuff. Um, and you can make a, an outstanding living for yourself.

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[00:14:34] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And I, I know a guy that'll write a check tomorrow for 20 grand. Yes. Like, just so you can get out here and work and that. Come on.

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[00:14:49] Dustin Stelzer: They're in high demand, and they're so hard to find. If I was just to announce, like on YouTube, Hey guys, like I'm looking for a job. Who's gonna hire me? Like, I know the opportunity [00:15:00] because I'm actually one of those super passionate guys that's gonna be a lifelong electrician that's always trying to move and shake and hustle and do a good job.

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[00:15:17] Eric Goranson: What are you seeing right now on the, on the apprentices that make it through? Are you seeing a, a 50, 60% rate in, in, in your area?

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[00:15:27] Dustin Stelzer: everywhere. What do you mean a 50% or 60 rate? Well, you

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[00:15:39] Eric Goranson: Are you seeing a pretty successful rate for those, or, I know a lot of it's on the person.

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[00:16:06] Dustin Stelzer: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. They're never, they're gonna equate that, that that is what an electrician is and they're never gonna want to do it. But you got people that are like really on fire about it and love it and teach safety and training, and always want to give opportunity and, and like bring somebody along and like really groom them.

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[00:16:39] Dustin Stelzer: You know, it's a whole who. Is teaching is the biggest thing out there. Granted, yes, there are. Uh, there's a whole different generational thing. Like my son is 17, he's about to be 18, and he started his apprenticeship last year. So like, just during the summer he came and worked with me every day. And because he was working with [00:17:00] me and there's mutual respect there and I wanted to teach him, and he just, he wanted to learn.

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[00:17:18] Dustin Stelzer: But I was like, Well, I should take this thing and actually make some money until you get to the point of being able to do that. But I think that's the thing is a lot of these kids, if they, if they have like a skill or a thing that they've got as their backbone, they can do anything else that they want because the technology that they have at their disposal, they can take whatever they know about anything and they can make millions of dollars doing something with it.

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[00:18:11] Eric Goranson: It's not just going, Oh, I need 20 amps. Is 10 amps there? 14 two? What? You know? No, that's the basic stuff. The, the hard stuff is figuring loads and all those other things that, uh, once you get it, it's easy, but there is some learning to it.

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[00:18:51] Dustin Stelzer: But electricians, mm-hmm. , we just gotta install wire. It ain't that crazy with the math. You know, like as long as you know how to balance an equation and be like, Hey, I'm, I don't know [00:19:00] something, but I know some other things and I can put the things I know. I know. To figure out the thing. I don't know, like that's easy algebra pretty much.

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[00:19:27] Dustin Stelzer: And then you've got all these people that just have these weird generalized misunderstandings and contradictory things, and so like nobody really knows what electricity is, but we have a model that we use in science and we're like, there's these electron things and just go with that, you know,

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[00:20:06] Eric Goranson: Or I'm, Or there's somebody with a 80 year old house that's got, you know, two wires in that box for the electrical no ground, and they're trying to figure out how to deal with that. Do I really have to run a grounder at, There's so many little things that homeowners, uh, I love for them when they see this is I just turn around and go, Hey, look, if you don't understand this, this is why you bring the professional in.

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[00:20:37] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. I try to tell people, so my YouTube channel is called Electrician U, not electricity, u and I always try, try to tell people like, this is. Apprentices who are electricians to help them further understand what they're doing for a license with legal liability backing.

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[00:21:16] Dustin Stelzer: Like you need to hire, at least hire a master to come in here and tell you how to do things correctly. But don't let him touch anything because then it's his liability. But yeah, I try to, That makes sense. I try to tell people like, don't, don't do your own wiring because I, most of the work that we do is fixing husband's wiring who said they were gonna do it and not have an electrician come out.

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[00:21:47] Eric Goranson: Now, here's a secret for all of my, uh, all of our listeners out there that, uh, check out my videos and stuff that I've done over the last six years.

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[00:22:19] Eric Goranson: I don't wanna be the one teaching you how to do it because your situation could be very wrong or different or anything else, and that can go. Uh, like you said, from a homeowner

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[00:22:42] Dustin Stelzer: And it's funny cuz I will watch other people's videos and I'll be like, Oh wow, you're really just working on that, that whole panel live, opening that up and just telling Mr and Mrs. Homeowners to start doing, you know, stuff on live circuits and you're not gonna say, Go shut the main off. You're not gonna talk about wearing hot glove, you're not gonna insulated tools, Nothing.

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[00:23:20] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I watched, uh, oh, probably 15, almost 20 years ago, I watched an accident happen and then one of the cabinet shops I was working at, and they were working on a three phase panel that was hot. And I don't know what happened, but uh, I heard the arc and then they had to put the, uh, the electrician that was working on it, his carhartts lit on fire and they had to put him out.

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[00:24:00] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I mean, it can, you can get 120 volts can kill you just like 480 volts can, and you know, depending on how much currents going through you, how much voltages and if you're wet or not, because it changes the amount of resistance that you're giving to all of that current trying to go through your body.

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[00:24:33] Dustin Stelzer: I'd say 90% of the time you're doing work, you're not working anywhere near live stuff. Most of the time we're running wires and walls, we're installing light fixtures, we're doing all of this stuff. And at the very, very end we will go turn a breaker on and see if it works and pull a multi-meter out and we're actually testing a live circuit.

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[00:25:10] Dustin Stelzer: Proper PPE or you know, protective equipment. They make gloves, they make face shields. And I think if that person with the Carhartt, I don't know what happened. I'm, I'm making some broad assumptions here, but they probably didn't have any of this stuff on and that's why they

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[00:25:30] Eric Goranson: So, uh, I came on 10 seconds later, there was zero PPE that I saw right there. Yeah. So which would've prevented that most

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[00:25:58] Dustin Stelzer: There's all. Just [00:26:00] to, I say it all the time, don't work on electricity live unless you're trained and you have the proper ppe, you can do all your own, like run and wire romax in your house and doing all that if you want. But working on live power is extremely dangerous and shouldn't be done unless you're an electrician and you're trained.

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[00:26:30] Eric Goranson: So that's the beautiful part of that. If you take the minute, go over and shut it off, you now have control of that situation. And like if it was a commercial project, you'd actually go lock it out for instance, versus that. Yeah, you're still in control of the whole situation. So is it dangerous for you? No.

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[00:26:48] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. It's really just mitigating risk. Like we decide as electricians how much risk we're willing to take. And it's even silly stuff like climbing up on ladders. We're on ladders all the time because we're doing stuff up in ceilings. So it's like how janky of a ladder set up are we gonna [00:27:00] try to do to get up to this 27 foot light that we gotta hang?

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[00:27:28] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. Those are the best work for, Cuz they'll never put your life in jeopardy.

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[00:27:44] Eric Goranson: And I'm like, I ain't going up there .

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[00:28:03] Dustin Stelzer: Like how, what? Yeah. All right.

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[00:28:11] Dustin Stelzer: Yep. And it's so funny, all these big fixtures that people buy, like really expensive, you know, $20,000 entry light chandeliers, they're made by somebody drinking beer outta their garage.

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[00:28:37] Dustin Stelzer: Like I don't feel safe with this hanging above somebody's head because this is not made with quality stuff. Yeah,

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[00:28:57] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Or my

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[00:29:16] Dustin Stelzer: You know, like there's a lot to this stuff. But then, then you have to go take the entire thing you spent all day putting together and take it all back down and find a short and rerun new wire in it. It's stupid.

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[00:29:32] Eric Goranson: He bought some, he's got a vintage house and he bought some streetlights to go around the sidewalk and stuff around the outside. Pulled permits, did everything else on it. Actually had a guy come in and run the wire and do it all for him. But the final inspection, the inspector came up and went, Where's your UL listing on those

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[00:29:48] Dustin Stelzer: Mm. and they have the right to do that. And

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[00:29:58] Dustin Stelzer: easy. No, [00:30:00] no, it's not. Um, and well, and UL is not the only listing agency, so that's something too, like to get faster listings or to not have to go through such a strenuous, crazy process, you can get other listings and as long as it is listed, period, it doesn't have to be UL listed.

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[00:30:34] Dustin Stelzer: They just kept doing it. And so finally, I think it, in the early nineties, like 92 or maybe late eighties, uh, they got shut down and they like, they had to close shop because they had lied to the people about all of it. But it was, it was all inspectors that were going out after that. There was this huge wave of like, every inspector was like, super.

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[00:31:00] Eric Goranson: It was crazy. I was, First thing I asked my little brother was, Okay, who'd you make mad? Yeah. . Who'd you make mad? Cuz that was

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[00:31:31] Eric Goranson: And it's not the, the problems that we saw 25 years ago compared to now, but, uh, I think there's such a huge opportunity out there because you're seeing work wear being built. You're seeing all these different opportunities and I think it's a missed opportunity for plenty of people out there that want to get into

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[00:31:49] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, we have this whole skilled, uh, gap problem mm-hmm. , and I think if we just hired as many females as there are mails, , [00:32:00] it would fix the whole problem overnight. Right. Um, the, the, the industry is very male dominated, so there is, I'm, I'm friends with a lot of females that are in the trades and we.

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[00:32:38] Dustin Stelzer: But there's a lot of things that like, because this is a male dominated industry that we just don't know about. It's not that we're a bunch of chauvinists, you know, like male pigs that just wanna hold the woman down. It's nothing like that. . Most dudes are like, Dude, hell yeah. We got a woman that's like on the, on the job site.

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[00:33:10] Eric Goranson: to us, but was Yeah.

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[00:33:17] Dustin Stelzer: for the job site. Yeah. And so there's, there're it's just things like that need to be brought to the attention of people so that something can be done about it. But the industry, I think in general is a lot more welcoming than it ever used to be.

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[00:33:44] Dustin Stelzer: Or like, or that the other one. Uh, Hey, can I carry your ladder for you? Or, Hey, let me get that. It might be too heavy or, Hey, don't fall off. How fast. I know, but it's even homeowners, it's not even just regular people. Like homeowners will be like, Oh, woman electrician. Are those tools too heavy? And they're not trying to be mean, [00:34:00] they're just, they're trying to figure out, how do I talk to this human?

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[00:34:17] Dustin Stelzer: They're people, they're just normal people. .

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[00:34:35] Eric Goranson: You know? Yeah. It's like we're 20% there because, you know, maybe with the, with the PPE and the work wear, Okay. Some of it's being made in, in women's clothing, but not all of it is, or not enough of it is. So there's some companies that have gone out and gone, Okay, hey, we're, we've got a good start. And, and I appreciate the good start that they're out doing it, but, uh, I can't wait for that day when they're actually coming out and putting out an [00:35:00] equal line.

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[00:35:14] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I think there's a lot more to go.

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[00:35:41] Dustin Stelzer: You know, that actually that we understand the problem. But I think there's, there's just, yeah, there's a long, long, long way to go because there's so many products that have to be thought of in terms of hand sizes, waist sizes, body shapes, you know, different frames, different like issues with how bodies work.

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[00:36:12] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And, and I'm gonna call the retailers out cuz that is part of the problem here.

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[00:36:25] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah, I agree. And you know, obviously like in throughout history, we, things don't get taken care of until people are loud enough about the problems, right?

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[00:36:52] Dustin Stelzer: Um, but, but there does need to be a lot. ,

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[00:37:06] Dustin Stelzer: And I love that. Yeah. And there's a lot of groups too where there's, um, like female only, uh, groups of.

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[00:37:33] Dustin Stelzer: And like the more females that we can kind of elevate to tell their stories and create a safe space for them to feel comfortable talking about stuff, um, the more people are going to know and it's gonna be able to help the problem. But just like feeling like they have to be sec sequestered and not have a voice because they don't wanna be judged.

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[00:38:06] Dustin Stelzer: But I have found, you know, I have. Hundreds of thousands of followers. So I get comments like, I don't even, can't, can't count the comments. And the people that I talk to in groups of people all over the internet, I'm like really engaged in this whole thing. And I will say probably 90% of people fall in the middle where they're mindful, they're like secure, supportive, they want to help and they want to learn about the issues.

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[00:38:39] Eric Goranson: that, you got that handful of percentage of trolls out there that love to, love to roll things up. But, uh, I think the biggest thing we can do is, is guys out in this field is quite frankly, listen and see what we can do to make things better.

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[00:38:53] Dustin Stelzer: We don't always have something to say. We don't always have to have something to say. We can just Exactly.

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[00:39:12] Eric Goranson: Let's talk about how this was started. How did you get into this really, Dustin? I mean, obviously, you know, you have gone to be spending a ton of time doing, doing all this media and social media. Yeah,

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[00:39:36] Dustin Stelzer: And I was starting my electrical company because I had just become a master electrician and I was trying to get more customers. So I was like, maybe if I put some videos out on YouTube of like some of the work we're doing and like talk. Just anything in life, it might get people to like the persona of my company and I might get more work.

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[00:40:07] Dustin Stelzer: And then I had a bunch of sponsors reach out, and that was like Domino's, you know, after. Um, once I realized that there are, you know, brands that have like billion dollar budgets that are, that are interested in putting the red tool in my hand while I'm talking about something. Exactly, yeah. But then I kind of felt messed up about it.

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[00:40:44] Dustin Stelzer: So it just kind of, the money decision was part of it, but mainly it was the massive community of people. Um, and all of 'em were like, Dude, thank you so much. Like, this is so needed. Some kind of visual thing of people explaining stuff and how it works and it got to be the point where, [00:41:00] You know, instructors in schools use my stuff to teach in their classrooms with now.

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[00:41:21] Dustin Stelzer: Like he's real and he's not. That's the real thing. Yeah. He's not afraid to like, throw out some cus words. Tastefully. Um, when I started my I cussed way too much. It was like, it was like, Um, absurd how much, because I was insecure in front of a camera, you know? And instead of saying like, um, or, uh, a lot, it was just mm-hmm , like f bums constantly.

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[00:42:00] Dustin Stelzer: Like, quit trying to watch the stuff I'm giving you for free and complain about it. But then as I've gotten a little bit older, I'm like, no, there's actually, like, I'm limiting who has access to information by not being wise about that, you know? Um, so I'm, I, absolutely, My videos today are far, like, I might go like five videos and then one little, like, tasteful story of a cuss word might come out or something.

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[00:42:31] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I've gotten better too. And, uh, you know, that darn FCC for the radio show is the one that I have to be careful with. That's the only thing. But, uh, that's why we're not live. We always record, so I have to clean it up.

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[00:42:52] Dustin Stelzer: so curious now

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[00:43:10] Eric Goranson: But, uh, it was a good challenge. But, uh, probably won't do that again, just for that very end. Yeah. .

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[00:43:30] Dustin Stelzer: Yeah. But you know, it's people speaking their truth. Um, and none of us are stumbling towards the light at varying levels of

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[00:44:01] Eric Goranson: I wish we could kind of standardize that a little bit. Well,

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[00:44:19] Dustin Stelzer: Like if you wanna be an electrician, go wire three plugs and you're an electrician and you can now run a, run a company . And it's seriously, there's, there's, I think there's only like 26 states that actually require state mandated continuing education every year. Um, there's some that require it, like bi annually, so every two years.

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[00:44:52] Eric Goranson: Nice, Nice. And, and I know the guys out there in the field and the ladies out in the field right now that are going, ah, I hate the Cs.

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[00:45:08] Dustin Stelzer: down the road. Yeah. Especially in the electrical industry. I mean, we change, like the biggest thing in the electrical industry is that everything changes every single year.

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[00:45:40] Dustin Stelzer: I think that's, you should have to have a license and there should be inspections to people's work, even if you have licenses. Like I take all that very seriously. But yeah, we, we do rightfully so. Yeah. And you were saying we do provide continuing education. So as a part of what I was doing, I realized that continuing education most places is so boring and it [00:46:00] doesn't actually teach you anything new.

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[00:46:27] Dustin Stelzer: And I was like, What are you doing? And she's like, Oh, this is my continuing education I have to do. I'm tested over this entire book. Every single year there's a new monster book. And uh, they take us knowing stuff really. Seriously. And it just made me think, I was like, Wow, I wish we did that too, You know?

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[00:46:50] Eric Goranson: hey, let's talk about some other continuing education stuff here and what's changed out there. Before we end up running outta time, I got a couple questions for you. What do you think about, you know, the changes over [00:47:00] to arc fault breakers in homes from your traditional, uh, breaker or

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[00:47:06] Dustin Stelzer: Oh, I think they're great. Um, I think in general, uh, more service calls that I get in houses are because of arc fault breakers that just don't work anymore. You know, there's all, whether it be planned obsolescence and they're just planning on them failing, um, or it's just crappy design. There's a couple of brands that never have problems.

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[00:47:51] Dustin Stelzer: Um, I think Eaton depends on if you're in the, the, uh, color hammer line or not, but like, Eaton's got some products that charges not that great. [00:48:00] Um, so, you know, in general I do notice that every code cycle they're pushing more and more things beyond a fault breakers and then they're pushing now more and more things that need to be G F C protected.

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[00:48:35] Dustin Stelzer: So I think we're probably gonna see in the next, I don't know, five, 10 years that every breaker in every room has to be smart enough to be able to detect ground faults and arc faults. And I just think we're gonna see a big change in what a panel looks like and smart diagnostics and recording, you know, power, like how, how power fluctuations happen.

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[00:49:13] Dustin Stelzer: There's brands out there that are doing crazy stuff, right? Oh,

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[00:49:35] Eric Goranson: And, uh, when you could put that into a panel that's doing it automatically, why

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[00:49:51] Dustin Stelzer: The ting thing though, you'd mentioned this to me. Can you like re-explain what the difference between the sense thing and the ting is? Is it both different hardware?

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[00:50:09] Eric Goranson: This is a little box. Hold on, I got one.

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[00:50:16] Eric Goranson: It just plugs into a receptacle on video. I have one right here. That's so cool. There it is right there. Oh, okay. And so literally it just mount, Just plug it in. Yeah. And it is. Now, the way they explained it to me is basically it is like lightning has a certain wavelength of sound that comes out of lightning and a little spark, like in the back of an outlet for a stab connection that's bad or loose.

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[00:51:06] Eric Goranson: And, uh, they, they will, uh, they even have a thousand dollars insurance policy to send out somebody like you to come out and take a look at it, because of course, Ting wants to learn. Mm-hmm. what's gonna happen, you know? Okay, well that sound, did this, what was the problem? Was it a bad switch? Was it, you know?

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[00:51:40] Eric Goranson: Uh, heck think about an insurance company. Okay, we can give you a something to put in your house and it'll keep your house from burning down from electrical fire. Yeah,

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[00:52:02] Dustin Stelzer: But if it's, you know, it's that good that they can detect what different. Wave forms are what, what things are happening. Cuz like right now, breakers can detect what an arc is. There's a certain signature Sure. That an arc looks like, or a ground fault looks like. Um, even surge protection. There's a couple of different ways surges happen and we can tell like a certain spike or a certain kind of like ringtail wave, like what's happening.

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[00:52:35] Eric Goranson: That's super cool. It's super cool. I will say one thing I don't like about the changing code is I do not, I'm not a fan in my house of the, uh, childproof outlets and I get it.

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[00:52:57] Dustin Stelzer: too. I know, man. It's [00:53:00] everywhere That kids or anybody that, um, might. It have a different, I don't even know how to say this in a politically correct manner.

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[00:53:35] Dustin Stelzer: That's the thing. They don't tell you. They're both flaps with springs on 'em, but they're both attached to each other. So you have to push equal force people sit there and try to put one prong and wiggle it and shake. Yeah, yeah. No. So if you're kind of like delicate with it and you, you might have to jig a it a little bit cuz some it's, it's just springs and little cheap pieces of plastic.

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[00:54:07] Eric Goranson: Oh, they're so frustrating. And, and like I said, it's that one that's behind the bed. It's behind the, you know, it's behind the, the, the entertainment center behind the piece of furniture that you're trying to stab in the dark with anyway.

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[00:54:19] Dustin Stelzer: with that too. Well, you know, I get it. I mean, you know who that, who actually makes electrical code, right? It's manufacturers. Well, not all of them. There are people that represent the union that, you know, National Electrical Contractors Association. There's a lot of different associations, but the majority of the names in the Codebook for people that are writing code are manufacturers who have new material that they'd like customers to buy and electricians that have to install.

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[00:54:49] Eric Goranson: Nice. No, . Nice. That makes sense. No, . I mean, it's just what it is. I mean, that's, it's, it's, it's like the sun coming up in the morning. Somebody's gotta do it, right. Yeah, [00:55:00] absolutely. And somebody's gotta do it. And, uh, they're the ones out there that are pushing it.

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[00:55:20] Eric Goranson: I mean, that's just where I'm at with it. But do I hate the ever-changing code? Yeah. It's frustrating. It's like, man, electricity hasn't changed. Why do we have to keep changing this? Right. But I

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[00:55:35] Dustin Stelzer: But I think that there's a lot of things that are, that also happen because they can, because of the leverage of things. Like there's, there's just codes that don't need to be codes, but it's that somebody's making something and they want it to get in. And that, that's, that's the stuff that I can't. Yeah, that's

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[00:55:57] Dustin Stelzer: that?

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[00:56:14] Dustin Stelzer: But really the only stuff that's gonna shake out and matter and like affect change is what the loudest people are, are speaking. Um, and have the most amount of sway behind them. So there's just, it's politics, right? Like that's the side of the industry that I don't like, just because I hate politics in general, especially like industry politics.

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[00:56:49] Dustin Stelzer: Well, there's a couple of different paths. So, um, I went up and I was non-union my whole entire career.

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[00:57:17] Dustin Stelzer: And so I say in those areas, you may not have a choice, you might have to go in the union, but I think the union is an outstanding organization because, uh, it's a very structured place. It's kind of like the military, how they, like, they have pay scales, right? If you reach certain things, you get paid a certain amount.

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[00:57:50] Dustin Stelzer: And they boom, like they just take care of you. So there's a lot of great opportunity and great training and there's a lot of solid union electricians that come out of their training. Uh, but there's also a lot [00:58:00] of solid. Crap union electricians, and there's crap non-union electricians have seen it all across the board, but either way that you go up the mountain, just get up the mountain, uh, doesn't really, doesn't really matter.

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[00:58:31] Dustin Stelzer: You still have to start at an apprenticeship getting paid nothing. And so they won't tell you that. They'll be like, Oh yeah, well like knock two years off of your apprenticeship. And it's like, well, those two years are necessary and you need to be out in the field for those two years, not in a classroom sitting here learning about like drawings of switches on a, a board.

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[00:59:07] Dustin Stelzer: I'm a master electrician. I want to know if I hire you on day one, what are you gonna do with those tools and all that material? You gonna go put it up, Or are you gonna not know what to do? And that knowing what to do is more valuable and they can't teach that in schools.

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[00:59:25] Eric Goranson: It was in the book. Yeah. That

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[00:59:42] Dustin Stelzer: But even that, you gotta be buying all this expensive wire and replacing it and throwing it away. And, you know, like it's just, it's hard for schools to be able to provide that. And, um, I just always tell people, remember, it's a business and so they, where I might pay you $30,000 a year to learn and make mistakes, they're gonna [01:00:00] charge you tens of thousands of dollars.

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[01:00:19] Dustin Stelzer: How long does it take? How is it expensive? Is it, versus just going and calling somebody that's an electrician going through, you know, Google in your city and go to the top 10 best rated companies. Just say, Hey, are you hiring? Hey, are you hiring? Hey, I have no experience, but I would love to start. Hey, are you hiring?

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[01:00:51] Dustin Stelzer: Um, so the union's just a little bit. .

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[01:01:06] Dustin Stelzer: Right. Or, yeah. Or they might just care enough to be like, We're not, but like, here's the steps you need to take.

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[01:01:19] Eric Goranson: real quick, I wanted to mention this before we jump out. I love, and it's been a few years since I've seen it, but I caught it one time on like ESPN or something, the electrician Olympics, whatever they call that, where they're sitting there and they have to wire a room up and like an hour or something stupid.

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[01:01:37] Dustin Stelzer: television. Yeah, it really is. Especially when you have a good production company that's producing the show . So I'm actually going, there's a few of them, um, different organizations do them, but uh, there's one this weekend, this Friday that I'm going to, um, I think it's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

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[01:02:10] Dustin Stelzer: And then they kind of like, You know, just like any tournament, they make it smaller and smaller. And then for the nationals, the people that get picked, they, there's like 200 and some people and they all get thrown in. There's people from different countries, from like Australia and everything, um, and they have a big, huge thing.

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[01:02:36] Eric Goranson: that's, I think that's what I was watching was ESPN two. And I was like, Holy smokes, where's this been all my life. This is cool to watch. Yeah. And these

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[01:02:48] Dustin Stelzer: I think the one guy that won, I don't know if they are letting him still compete, but he was like five years in a row and it's like 75 grand a year. So he doesn't even have to work. But he's, he's a great dude. He's such a, like a [01:03:00] nice person and he just does clean work quickly and he's figured out their competition structure and what he has to do to win and like he just nails it every year.

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[01:03:22] Dustin Stelzer: side. Yeah. That was somebody that was telling me, uh, I think last year that they were gonna try to tell him to like, come and teach or something like that instead of competing.

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[01:03:33] Eric Goranson: awesome. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Dust. Thanks for coming on today, man, electrician, you. This has been great and, uh, we'll dive in a little deeper next time, but this has been a lot of fun. Yeah,

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[01:03:48] Dustin Stelzer: The show, with everything, man.

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