in today's news jail for the mercedes driving rogue trader who lied about being an approved  electrician while living a life of luxury the electrical contractor paralyzed after a fall warns  the trade to take health and safety seriously and in one of our biggest competitions ever we have  over 100 prizes to give away welcome to electrical news weekly in association with schneider electric  whether you're listening in the van on-site 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 i've been challenged to slip into today's  show comment them below for the chance to win a prize a portsmouth road trader who claimed to be  an approved electrician has been locked up for nine months portsmouth crown court judge david  melville sentenced 35 year old builder sam hart of langley road portsmouth to the stretch in prison  after he claimed to be a member of the nic eic while delivering what was described as appalling  workmanship he left his customers thousands of pounds out of pocket and has been ordered to pay  back nearly 45 000 pounds the court heard that hart had left a trail of devastation after he  started trading as mac and heart developments limited work on a loft extension and a rear  extension failed to comply with building regulations leaving homeowner deborah parrish  with a bill of 11 000 pounds to fix the work hart then formed another company harkins construction  limited and agreed to work on a full refurbishment of a property in fairum in hampshire but the work  was never done and he diverted the deposit to help with the liquidation of his previous company  meanwhile hart is said to have had a luxury lifestyle regularly hiring mercedes and bmw cars  to drive around portsmouth judge melville described it as a most appalling series  of events harp pleaded guilty to six offenses contrary to the consumer protection from unfair  trading regulations of 2008 contravening requirements of professional diligence  failing to provide cancellation notices and the unauthorized use of nic eic and gas  safe logos he was also disqualified from being a company director for five years we'd like to  remind householders that all work needs to be conducted by a qualified professional and be  compliant with all the latest changes to the 18th edition of the wiring regulations now to help you  keep up with those changes schneider electric have produced a really useful ebook this details the  updates to the 18th edition as well as the latest products to help installers comply the amendments  include changes to special location installations including solar and electric vehicle systems  prosumer low voltage electrical installations and the need for systems that can both produce and  store energy installation requirements for fire risk buildings including escape routes and cabling  and removal of the crl calculation and the increased need for surge protection  nico van der merve vice president of home and distribution uk at schneider electric  sees the changes as a great opportunity for the electrical industry and he believes that  the company's lineup of products will support the trade in complying with the latest regs  in other news new prime minister liz truss has been warned that she has to act  now to avoid a crisis in the electrical industry the electrical contractors association is urging  trust to urgently focus on skills electrification and net zero they believe the industry is key to  upgrading britain's energy infrastructure and that it needs urgent government support to survive the  energy bills crisis the eca's head of public affairs andrew eldred said that many electrical  contractors were small to medium-sized businesses with an average profit margin of just 2.5 percent  he warned that these firms will struggle with crippling inflation in the trade of 23 he said  trust must act now to avert the biggest crisis in the sector since the collapse of carillion in 2018  whatever help liz truss gives the industry and the eca have already taken the initiative with  electrical safety this month they've got behind the safer september campaign which is a push to  raise awareness of the importance of safe isolation and the steps that electricians  should take to ensure they're working safely at all times backing the campaign are the eca and  select and brands like test instrument solutions we're backing it too in the usual e-fix style with  a giveaway we've got 100 mini safe isolation kits to give away to anyone who completes our special  safe isolation cpd during the month of september it's a video based cpd which could save your life  so what are you waiting for check it out after this episode i've put the link in the show notes  if you're way ahead of the curve and have already got a cpd certificate from our video you can win  one of 10 voltage and continuity testers from test instrument solutions these are really cool bits of  kit because they have a built-in proving unit simply post your cpd certificate on instagram  and tag us in again for all the details click on the link in the show notes still on health  and safety an electrical contractor from norfolk who had a life-changing work accident  has launched a campaign for better health and safety in the workplace while wiring a building in  2018 sean garrett fell from a stepladder through an open flooring hole and three metres onto the  floor below he suffered four fractured ribs a fracture to the front of the skull broken nerves  to the nose a broken backbone in three places and a broken spinal cord which left him paralyzed from  the waist down he has no feeling from the waist down or sense of body temperature no thirst and  he never feels hungry he has extreme lower back pain and has to take over 150 tablets a day four  years on he now feels ready to raise awareness of the importance of health and safety garrett  says he gets very frustrated over electricians who lack ppe or haven't thought of their safety while  completing their daily works he says that he will be happy if he can get his message across and stop  some people from getting into accidents he plans to raise money for the electrical injuries charity  and the east anglian air ambulance we applaud the campaign and if you want to help i've put  the just giving links in the show notes now on to an emergency lighting conundrum it's a conundrum  wrapped in an enigma and surrounded by a riddle with an emergency exit sign does the arrow point up  or down we put the question to the wisdom of crowds in the form of our weekly eFIXX survey  we asked you which way it should go and a whopping 11 000 of you voted but i'm sad to report that  most of you 7 out of 10 of you are wrong so does the arrow go up or down to hear the answer and  the surprising thinking behind it check out our special video on the issue and finally on to the  fake news that had us all here at lineside studios crying into our galaxy cookie crumble mcflurries  a report broke last week that mcdonald's had decided to serve all day breakfast from next month  if you get delayed at the wholesaler or stuck on a job then you will know the pain of missing the  10 30 a.m cutoff time for this tasty treat so the rumor that the company would start selling  breakfast all day from 6th of october has us rushing to mark our mastab's curry house calendar  we cheered we hugged some of us kissed but then mackie d's tweeted sorry guys file this one  under fake news it seems that whoever started the rumour had their pantaloons on fire we unhugged we  unkissed we shed some tears but that's enough bad news let's have some good by looking ahead  to what's coming up from eFIXX this week we'll be looking at the mains link from rf solutions  an amazingly easy to install weatherproof strip light from jcc and as if one competition wasn't  enough we're also launching a new cpd from envirovent about changes to the building regs and the  impact of that on extraction and ventilation and if you complete that cpd you stand the chance  of winning a 50 pound amazon voucher that you could spend on anything from books to shampoo  watch out for the hashtag training tuesday for more details 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 rap scallion and winkle pickers  and loads of people guessed correctly possibly because last week's words were rapscallion  and winklepickers i mean sure i use rap scallion on a daily basis as we all do but winkle pickers  seriously i think our scriptwriters have a vendetta against me or something anyway the first  person to get it right was glenn wu fit so well done to you sir click the link in the show notes  to claim your prize thanks for listening to this episode of electrical news weekly in association  with schneider electric make sure you subscribe to receive the next update and until next time have  a great week stay safe out there and remember there's no such thing as a talk calibrated on