- Coming up on this week's news tragedy as a young electrician is electrocuted just as his career in the trade is beginning, a 1 million pound set of EV superchargers sits idle as there's not enough juice to turn it on, and are microwave boilers the next big opportunity for the trade. 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've 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. Tragedy has struck this summer as a young electrician is electrocuted in the prime of his life. 24-year-old Matthew Milner died while running cables through the attic of a home in preparation for the installation of a number of sockets. It appears that the power to the roof void of the property in Perth, Australia was never turned off. Launching an investigation, Western Australia's director of Energy Safety, Saj Abdoolakhan, said his focus is now on determining how the incident occurred. He urged homeowners to ensure that the power is turned off at the main switch before anyone enters a roof space, and reminded people that it is also a legal requirement. Milner's wife, Monique, to whom he was married for just a year, said, "I love you more than words can describe. Life will never be the same without you." The eFIXX team and wider community extend its condolences to Monique and Matthew's family and friends. Another no less tragic death of a former electrician has just been scrutinized at Cockermouth Coroner's Court. Much loved granddad, James Patterson Tyson, from Barrow-in-Furnace, worked in the local shipyard before his retirement. He believes asbestos exposure at the site resulted in his diagnosis with terminal lung cancer. The 85 year old was pursuing a legal claim last year before his death in December. A post-mortem examination found pneumonia and acute lung injury in Tyson's lungs as well as an extensive tumor. Crucially, the results also showed the presence of asbestos bodies. Coroner Margaret Taylor recorded a conclusion of industrial disease. If you think you were ever exposed to asbestos in your career, I've posted some useful links in the show notes. And keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming CPD we're currently working on with the Luceco Group on the subject of safety, including units on both asbestos and mental health. In other news, it's been revealed that the destination of choice for Britt electricians looking to work overseas is not what you think it is. Despite much publicity over the red carpet being rolled out for sparks by Australia, the number one choice is not the land down under. According to Google, the search term for a wiring job abroad that's more popular than the search for the same job in Australia is Saudi Arabia. In fact, there's been a 126% increase in the search term in the last year. That's because Saudi Arabia has identified electricians as one of five key skills that the kingdom needs to attract if it's to fulfill its ambitious plan to build complete new cities. It's offering zero-rated personal income tax and an electrical system that will be familiar to UK contractors. I popped a link to the embassy in the show notes. New rules governing public charging points come into force this month. The Public Charge Point Regulations of 2023 state that all rapid chargers must be reliable for 99% of the time during the year. Those who provide chargers are also required to publish information about how reliable their equipment is, and they must make this available to the public by putting it on their website, for instance. Additionally, payments for all charging transactions must be unified on a single centralized app. Finally, all public chargers that deliver more than 8 kilowatts must also offer a contactless payment option. The Department of Transport says that the aim of the new law is to improve the experience of charging for drivers. myenergi boss, Jordan Brompton, welcomed the legislation. She says there's nothing more frustrating than arriving with minimal charge to a point that isn't working. However, in a situation as fragile as a pavlova, charge point providers have been arguing this week that they want to install in more locations, but they're having trouble getting connections. In fact, a new one million pound set of fast charging points at a service station on the M23 is sitting idle after electricians said they couldn't hook it up to power. The bank of 16 Tesla Superchargers at Pease Pottage aren't connected because the grid isn't ready to cope with the demand. And recently, 24 GRIDSERVE and 24 Tesla chargers at Medway services in Kent took seven months to connect. Ken McMeikan, chief of motorway services for Moto, says he's having to consider radical alternatives such as installing large solar farms. A spokesperson for UK Power Networks told "The Sunday Times" that it was organizing the necessary consents for the Tesla Superchargers and was working with other parties to ensure that the works are completed as soon as possible. In another move designed to speed up the installation of public chargers, BT says it's going to convert its street cabinets to EV points. The company expects that as many as 60,000 of its 90,000 cabinets may be suitable for upgrading. You may remember that Virgin Media said in 2019 that it was looking to do the same. It now has 303 chargers in cabinets across the UK. Most of the cabinets you see on pavements are currently used for copper-based broadband and phone services, but when a street converts to fiber, the cabinets are no longer required. The first pilot location will be in Northern Ireland this autumn. It's not just cars that are going electric. There's an opportunity for some enterprising electricians to install charge points for aeroplanes. That's right, electric aircraft are a thing, and, well, they need chargers too. Startup, Aerovolt, is in fact installing the first smart chargers for planes this week at six airports and aerodromes across the south of England. The locations include Brighton City Airport and Kittyhawk Aerodrome in East Sussex. A further 20 sites are in the pipeline, making this the largest rollout of EV chargers for planes in the world. The company says it's also developing a series of superchargers. Having worked at a number of airports in my time, I'd suggest you pack a poncho, Aerovolt, as they are some of the windiest, wettest places that you'll ever work. In product news, the first microwave-powered boilers are set to hit the market, and some industry experts believe they could be could be an opportunity for the electrical trade to take some business from the gas guys. These electric boilers work in the same way as conventional ones, but instead of producing heat through combustion, they do it by using the same form of electromagnetic radiation used in your microwave oven. The manufacturer, Heat Wayv, says that the electrical demand is comparable to that of an electric oven. Householders should pay no more or less than they would have with conventional gas boilers to heat their water. The boiler is 84% efficient at turning the electrical power into hot water according to the manufacturer. And an additional 12% of waste heat is recovered, giving a total efficiency of 96%. There's no need for maintenance, and they produce very little sound. There's no need for a vent, so you can site them anywhere in a home. Heat Wayv says it's straightforward to replace gas boilers with microwave boilers, and if you're using green electricity, the product creates no pollution or greenhouse gases. The first boilers are being installed now in trial sites, and they'll be ready for purchase in early 2024. And just before we get to your favorite 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 Sunsynk. Up next for all your circuit protection needs, they're like having an Italian star striker in your Premiership team, it's Lewden-Palazzoli. Next, they're your one-stop solution provider for EV installations from domestic to large DC public chargers, it's the ingenious and gifted Garo. And the best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel is Doncaster Cables, the home of EV-Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality cables. And to fix all that gear together and to surfaces, you need fasteners that would win a gold medal. Of course, it's Olympic Fixings. Big thanks to you all. We really appreciate your ongoing support for the news. If you think you know the words that I've smuggled into this week'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 peculiarity and wombat, and in a shocking turn of events, nobody got them both. Hopefully this week was a little bit easier. So strictly speaking, we shouldn't have a winner, but we always like to pick someone to massively delay sending a prize to, so the first person to get one of the words right was mark_just_mark, who I've got a feeling has won before with a slight variant on that name. Either way, well done to you, Mark. Make sure you click the link to claim your prize. Joe 2.0 is back from his travels this week, and so I'm sure you'll receive it in one to two working months. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly in association with The Electric Heating Company. Make sure you subscribe to receive the next update. Thanks for listening, and until next time, have a great week, stay safe out there, and remember, there's no such thing as a torque-calibrated arm.