Last night I watched Jon’s video on the implications of DIY smart homes with regards to law and insurance, it really got me thinking.
I live up in QLD and it really is a state of laws, it’s ridiculous. I understand that some of these laws were put in place to protect people, and also to protect industry but it’s clear looking at other demographics this method doesn’t work.
Luckily most of what I have done to my house is mainly wireless circuits so far and any voltage has been low (ie 3.4 -5v) and uses existing certified converters to get to that voltage. The devices are also not permanently fixed and can be moved around if necessary.
But my next few devices on the project list were utilising relays and AC-DC step down modules, while I always have safety, serviceability, and longitivity in mind when designing anything, the Insurance and law aspects scare the shit out of me. It’s a hard enough time finding a sparky these days let alone a decent one, I have booked 3 in multiple times over the last 12 months and none of them showed. I don’t want to get some cheap guy in (unless I can tell him exactly what to do LOL), If I am paying someone I want them to have considerably more knowledge then myself and can bring new ideas to the project.
I looked up last night what would be involved for me to legally do all my own work and I quickly looked away as it becomes so apparent that most of the laws look like a way to protect the big electrician companies, They even crap on the owner-operator business.
Going forward I am really not sure how to proceed as I am running out of low voltage / non-fixtures to dabble with. The ideal situation would be finding a decent electrician who would be willing to work with us and essentially cop the risk on the bases of him checking the quality of the work undergone and maybe does all the final hookups. Finding this magical electrician could be difficult.
What are your thoughts on this?