Wiring an electrical panel. What qualifications are needed?

crossy

Hi
I have a question about electrical qualifications that someone might know the answer to.

I work in a company that manufactures machinery. Rock crushers. Etc.
Most of the machines have 3 phase electric power on them.
We install all the motors in house, buy in panels some times and sometimes make panels. The company has a mix of electrical engineers, electricians and mechatronic engineers working in house. We nix and match who mounts the panels, builds the panels, wires the machine.

My question is who is actually qualified to build a panel or wire the machine.?

Some people tell me you have to be a fully qualified electrician to wire it but the panels are designed in the first place by an electronic or mechatronic engineer so surly he can wire them?
Or is it just the responsibility of the company and anyone they employ can wire them?

Thanks for the help would appreciate some feedback.

mikhail

Some of your engineers will be capable of it, but it's usually safer ground in terms of liability to leave that sort of work to qualified electricians.

crossy

Thanks for the response. The problem is that its very hard to get a good electrician that understands complex 3 phase panels and wiring on machines. They all seem to want to only wire houses.

Mechatronic engineers on the other hand, seem to understand the stuff with ease.

Is there anything illegal about an engineer doing the work? Like is it like a house where the electrician has to be registered with Safe Electric? or is it down to our company to ensure the high standard to work?
(we dont take on foolish engineers either. They all have the capability of wiring)

Thanks

mikhail

I'm afraid I don't know the legalities. I'd say your best bet is to ring Safe Electric. I expect it's outside their remit, but they may know the answer anyway, and there's an excellent chance they can refer you to someone who does.

https://safeelectric.ie/contact-us/

Turbulent Bill

No idea on the legalities, but surely any trained employee could wire the panels? There should be schematics, wire specs etc. to build these. Suitable H&S precautions around 3-phase testing, and a Quality check that it's all OK, job done.

It's a different story for domestic or commercial wiring obviously.

2011

crossy wrote: »

The problem is that its very hard to get a good electrician that understands complex 3 phase panels and wiring on machines. They all seem to want to only wire houses.

Plenty of electricians understand "complex 3 phase panels and wiring on machines", the reason that you can't find them is they are all have well paid jobs.

In my opinion electricians are more suited to this work. Why? Because apprentice electricians receive practical training on their tools (for 4 years). This is not normally part of an electrical engineering degree (certainly not to the same extent).

To answer your question, I do not think there is any requirement for panel builders to be qualified electricians. At work we use a number of panel building companies in ROI and NI. Many of the employees of these companies are not qualified electricians.

IMHO the building of electrical panels is outside of Safe Electric's scope.