Electricians: If You Do Jobs For 'Mate's Rates' You Need To Know This

A shock survey this week reveals the true cost of jobs for friends and family. The tax man names and shames an electrical contractor who he says is refusing to pay his taxes. And the big radial or ring debate, where do you stand? Welcome to Electrical News Weekly in association with the Electric Heating Company. Whether you're listening in the van, onsite or down at the wholesale counter, I'm Joe Robinson, and I've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble. And as always, if you think you spotted the two words that I've been challenged to slip into this week's show, comment with them below for the chance to win a prize. Electricians lose on average over 1,400 pounds each year doing work for free or at reduced rates for family and friends. The true cost of so-called"mates rates" was revealed in a special survey by Direct Line. The firm says the sum is more than the average cost of a Premier League season ticket. In fact, if you combine electricians with other tradespeople, the loss of true income annually is a staggering 1.2 billion pounds. Six out of 10 electricians are asked to do work for free and 73% at a discounted cost by friends and family. The vast majority of you do free and cut price jobs, mainly out of a sense of obligation, but a quarter say that their relationships with friends and family have been negatively impacted by saying no to discounted work. Stacey McCain of Direct Line says that before asking tradespeople for a favour, people should think carefully about the impact this may have. Doing cheap labour means that they're missing out on other, better paid work. It's particularly hard on electricians starting out in their career, although maybe it does give them a chance to get some good Instagrammable pics. Do you put in extra sockets or lighting for family and friends? Let us know how you deal with the requests in the comments below. Another person who doesn't like paying up has been named and shamed in public, no lesser body than His Majesty's Revenue and Customs has named electrical contractor Adam Broad as one of its tax defaulters. The tax man says that Broad, formally trading as Broad Sparks and Construction and formally based at Holly Avenue, Newton Le Willow's on Merseyside owes almost 120,000 pounds. And this is because he was in default from March, 2017 to May, 2020. He's been charged with penalties totaling 65,000 pounds. Still on tax, the HMRC has announced that home batteries will be subject to VAT relief when they are retrofitted or installed as a standalone technology connected to the grid. The Electrical Contractor's Association welcomed the move, which it says was a significant win for its lobbying. Previously batteries systems qualified for VAT relief only when installed alongside something like a wind turbine or solar panels. Now, for instance, a householder with PV panels will get VAT relief when they add a battery at a later stage. If you want to get into battery installation now that it's much more cost effective, you could check out a new course on battery installation from the Green Spark Project. The company which runs two free training bootcamps for self-employed electricians has unveiled no fewer than three Level 3 qualifications. These cover batteries, solar panels, and EV charger installation. If you parachute into its Telford workshop, you'll find the firm has a full-scale tiled roof with fully functional PV system, a five kilowatt hour battery system, and an EV charger, all of which you can get your hands on and get practical experience. I've popped the link to the courses in the show notes. Another renewable that's getting a boost from the government this month is solar panels. Changes to planning rules are set to make their installation much easier for both householders and businesses. Homes with flat roofs will now be able to instal panels without planning permission, bringing rules in line with those for businesses. Businesses meanwhile will no longer need planning permission for installations which can generate more than one megawatt of electricity. Currently getting planning permission can delay projects by up to eight weeks. Other changes will make it easier for panels to be installed in canopies above car parks as long as they're over 10 metres away from people's homes. Meanwhile, scientists say a miracle material has allowed them to smash the world record for solar panel efficiency. A team from solar firm Longi used the substance called silicon perovskite to set an efficiency first of 33.9%. This holds out the promise that at some stage the technology will replace standard silicon. The theoretical limit of silicon perovskite is 43%, but the boffins say that this is unlikely to ever be realised on a commercial scale. There's another game changing technology for solar panel installers out this week, but I'm not going to reveal it here. That's because it would steal the thunder of my esteemed colleague and curry buddy, Gordon. Instead, you'll have to check out his latest video dubbed "Solar Installer Secrets". In it, Gordon walks down a street in Manchester and ends up in Portugal. Again, I've put the link to the video in the show notes. In the eFixx survey this week, we have dared to ask the big question, the one that divides us as a community. The question that has split families, caused pub arguments, provoked bitter rancour on social media and left us as a nation divided. Yes. I'm talking about the big "radial or ring" debate. Where do you stand on these opposing socket circuits? Radial fans say it's simpler and cheaper. Ringers say their method doesn't require as much current capacity, and you voted overwhelmingly for the radial circuit. Some 48% of you said it was your favourite from an installation point of view, 25% of you preferred the Great British ring circuit and another 25% thought that UK wiring is weird. There's still time to vote so check out the community tab on our YouTube page, and watch the debate unfold further still as Gary and Joe-3PO took violently opposing sides in last week's eFixx TV. We also had special guest Steve and Sam Garten from Quickwire visit the studio for a world exclusive product announcement, and it's definitely worth a catch up, that one, an absolutely classic show. You'll find the link in the show notes. Now, last week's question of the week was taken from the CPD we made with Zaptec on the subject of the Smart Charge Point Regulations, and asked the question,"a relevant charge point should be configured so that at each relevant time it operates with a delay of up to...?" The correct answer was, of course, 600 seconds or 10 minutes, and only just over half of people got it right on YouTube, while most people on LinkedIn got it wrong with 36 saying it was 60 seconds. We'd strongly recommend you check out the free training package the question was lifted from to fill in those and other blanks on the Smart Charge Point Regulations. You know where to find the link. And last, a reminder that we are in the market for your stories, your projects, and your recommendations, as we'd like to share them with the wider eFixx community. In the month of January, we're focusing on residential circuit protection with the launch of a brand new CPD from Lewden, where we bust a few myths and give you a few frights about circuit protection. But we'd particularly like to hear from you about AFDDs and your experiences with them. Are you fitting them at all? Have they uncovered any problems on installations where they've been retrofitted? Do you have them on your own house? Send us some pictures of your best instals, tell us about your experiences, or let us know if you've come across any new kit that's making your job easier and you could be featured on the next episode of the News. And just before we get to your favourite bit of the show where I reveal last week's challenge words and winners, we want to thank our premium partners. We couldn't make the news without you. First up, they're the people who've created the Swiss Army knife of solar inverters, along with all weather batteries, very much the Boy Scouts of the solar industry, it's Sun Synk. Up next, for all your circuit protection needs, they're like having an Italian star striker in your Premiership team, it's Lewden Palazzoli. The best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel, it's Doncaster Cables, the home of EV Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality cables. And finally, celebrating their 60th anniversary this year with an incredible range of equipment from EV charge points through industrial sockets and switches to kit for explosive areas, plus they supplied gear for a Campari factory, so they'll always have a place in my heart, it's Scame. Big thanks to you all. We really appreciate your ongoing support for the News. If you think you know the words I've smuggled into today's show, pop your guess into the comments and we'll dig out a goodie bag prize to the first to get the right answers. Last week's words were"hedgehog" and "ghostwriter". And I was really kind last week, for the first time ever, I put both words in the same sentence, which actually threw some people off and made them put in all the words. However, Timbosparks was the first to get both right and therefore is our worthy winner. Well done, Timbo, click the Get involved link to claim your prize. And just a heads up, if you've won a prize recently, it may well be arriving in the early part of the new year. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly in association with the Electric Heating Company. And thanks for listening all year. We've brought you a lot of stories, broke some exclusives, and we're looking forward to doing it all over again next year. In 2023, we've had over 1.2 million views on YouTube alone with many more on our other platforms, and that's a good reminder that the show wouldn't exist without you, our dear listeners and viewers. So thank you very, very much for all your support and for the last time this year, make sure you subscribe to receive the next update. Thanks for listening, and until next time, have a great break, stay safe out there, and remember, there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm.