Good day everyone

Is there an authoritative resource available like a guide, code or a standard which electricians needs to follow when they do electrical installations? For example: Lets say an electrician wants to rewire a Distribution Board, he or she will then obviously do it according to years of experience and training. In lieu of years of training and experience, is there not maybe a book or guide available that would enable me (as a non-electrician) to perform some of the work myself, and only have an electrician finally approve the work?

I know I am stepping on a lot of toes of electricians now... Try to see it from the point of an electrician in need of a plumber...

Yes, it's called SANS, i.e. South African National Standards. They generally follow SANS 10142 

And there's NRS. NTS 097-2-1:{year} is used for solar. 

My sparkies, with the grid tied connection, hauled out there SANS books, books they buy each time new regs come out. 

2 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

My sparkies, with the grid tied connection, hauled out there SANS books, books they buy each time new regs come out. 

And they change every now and then, as technology and other regulations change

41 minutes ago, SilverNodashi said:

And they change every now and then, as technology and other regulations change

2 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

..., books they buy each time new regs come out. 

😂

 

11 hours ago, Corné said:

authoritative resource available

Yup, it's called SANS 10142-1. It costs a little over R1000 to buy. When it is amended you can sometimes get an update for free, but in general you buy new versions every few years.

But the document alone is no substitute for experience, which is why you generally need to do an apprenticeship (or some kind of alternative) before you can qualify as an electrician. I actually looked into this some years ago, what it would take to also qualify as an electrician (which would be helpful in my job), and it comes down to doing an N1 and N2 Electrical trade theory (with includes maths and some engineering), and then doing 18 months in the field. While I am not scared of the maths and engineering (seeing as I already passed these on a significantly higher level), the 18 months in the field is the problematic part for me... 🙂

1 hour ago, plonkster said:

and it comes down to doing an N1 and N2 Electrical trade theory (with includes maths and some engineering), and then doing 18 months in the field

it does not take a lot

Thank you for all the replies and info.

18 hours ago, stoic said:

it does not take a lot

Yeah the academic side looks fine. You need a standard 9/grade 11, that gets you into N1, followed by N2, and both those can be done by distance-education (eg Intec). But it is the bit after that I don't know about. I'm pretty sure if you do solar installations and you have a sparky working with you, you could get the experience bit down quick.

I see Thando from Eskom uploaded a copy write protected copy :

 

https://thando863.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/sans10142-1looseleaf.pdf

 

please note there is a later revision basically only the E/L for water heaters was added.

 

In my opinion this should be available for free to anyone - how can you enforce a code and than want to charge people to see what the code requires.