Electrical Knowhow [Newbie Nate’s Question of the Day]

NateTheRiddler

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Good afternoon, CB!

It’s been a while since my last one of these, but man, that last senior semester of college can really suck up your time!

I’ve been reading a ton of CB posts regarding electrical knowhow (from architectural/in-wall, to touring panels, custom installs, off-the-shelf equipment, etc); throughout which, I’ve come to a not-so-shocking conclusion. I’m a halfwit with electricity.

Now, before you all panic and aim your tomatoes: I know W=AV; I’m familiar with V = IR. I understand the basics of three-phase/single-phase. Work, resistance, current are terms I know. I understand electrical safety and prioritize it. But when I read through a lot of your electrical-related posts, I feel significantly ignorant, defaulting to the eSet dictionary and GoogleFu every few seconds or so.

Did you all just gradually pick up that electrical knowledge through years and years of experience? Or do you expect a high level of electrical knowledge from your techs that you work with (or from those that work for you)?

I want to be better prepared before I re-enter the workforce in June this year; and if I’m spending my time googling all these electrical concepts, I’m concerned I’m underprepared and a hindrance to future coworkers and bosses. Should I study any dedicated tomes of electrical knowledge before I work? Or will experience teach me adequately?

Thanks to all of you who read all of this and held your tomatoes. More beer shall be owed at USITT as thanks. (I still have tabs open for some of you :p )
 
Definitely associate with this; I’ve been doing essentially the same at my PAC for the past two years, plus the time I had in Orlando. I’ve been asking to shadow on permanent installations so I can learn a bit more “behind the walls” electrical. I understand, of course, that I’m not a certified electrician, so I’m observing only. CYA. :)
 
And I ask a lot of questions.

This will sound very silly, but this is something about which I am unable to naturally come to a conclusion on my own: where did/do you stop asking questions? The story of the Insatiable Elephant comes to mind whenever I start asking questions, and due to reasons beyond my control, I end up either asking too many (to the annoyance of others) or too few (to my detriment). This is likely not a question with one straight answer, since "good judgment" would probably suffice. Since I'm slower at learning that than most, I was just wondering if you had any "tricks or techniques" from your years of experience.
 
Box lunches around a conference table for an all day meeting are best. ;) Also I include just listening to 2 or more experts discuss, maybe asking for a clarification or two. You benefit a lot when the experts are competitive, trying to out do themselves.

Just try to stay focused and tuned to the experts mood, don't hesitate to apologize, and express appreciation.
 
Definitely associate with this; I’ve been doing essentially the same at my PAC for the past two years, plus the time I had in Orlando. I’ve been asking to shadow on permanent installations so I can learn a bit more “behind the walls” electrical. I understand, of course, that I’m not a certified electrician, so I’m observing only. CYA. :)
@NateTheRiddler My comments:
- One year's experience takes one year to acquire; as do 10, 20, 50, 70 and more.
- NEVER stop asking questions.
- Regardless of how much you learn, there will always be more.

In my case: I knew where I wanted to go / what I wanted to become since grade four.
I graduated from my high school's Grade 12 Electrical program.
In grades 6 through 8 I was the 'go to' person for all teachers requiring help threading Bell & Howell's 16 mm projectors at least a decade prior to those horrible slot-loading contraptions.

Beginning in Grade eleven, I worked part time for the same commercial AM broadcasting station beginning as an operator and progressing to maintenance of our transmitters and 6 tower array in the country side beyond our city limits.
For 13 years (1964 - 1977) I worked part time for the same station; began in their original studios and had a hand in building new studios from scratch in another 3 locations.
Out at our TX site, we upgraded from 2.5 / 5.0 Kw Day / Night to 10 Kw Day / Night with pattern changes as decreed by our DOT, the equivalent of your FCC.

Out of high school into an IBEW Installation and Maintenance 5 year electrical apprenticeship resulting in 40+ years as an IBEW member.

In parallel with the foregoing, the theatre bug bit me in Grade 4, seriously infecting me resulting in the IA 'Bug' reinfecting me in grade eleven.
The IA infection infects and affects me to this day as I sit rotting in a retirement home.

After four years as the combination Assistant to both the IA Head of Sound and the IA Head of LX in our city's 2183 seat soft-seater, I moved to Stratford, Ontario to replace their IA Head of Sound in their main venue. I spent the bulk of my time with Stratford's main stage from 1977 to 1980, then migrated to running their multi-track recording studio in the basement of their Avon venue 'tl well into the 1990's and worked my last Stratford call in 1998.

1983 through 1990 - ish I formed a technical theatrical consultancy in partnership with a fellow IA member; I didn't handle the 'Equine Excrement' well, became heavily involved with a new venue from before they found a location, through the design and construction stages eventually being hired as their IA Head electrician. My former consulting partner continues with one of Canada's major consultancies to this day although he's slowly weaning himself into retirement.
I remained with Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton 'til things were getting boring; an IA scenery and automation shop beckoned and I was soon employed as their IA head electrician dealing with all aspects of electrified scenery and all electrical aspects of their automation systems. The scene shop flew me to Broadway at least 8 times to deliver and finesse various scenery and automation systems. Building The Who's Rock Opera "Tommy" took me to Offenbach / Frankfurt, Germany for six weeks in '95 followed by three weeks in London's West End when we built all of "Tommy" a second time in 1996.

Touring as one of two IA assistant LX Heads with a British / Canadian Co-Pro of "Buddy Holly, The Musical" took me from Toronto, through Calgary to six weeks in San FranCisco to several months on Broadway in their Shubert Theatre. If you're going to go touring, doing it by air with your seven 53's eventually catching up with you is about as good as it gets; definitely beats touring one-nighters in a van.

1999 found me in Las Vegas leading the installation of all A/V and lighting along with a building wide control system for Madame Tussaud's first serious venture on our side of the Atlantic in the upper two floors of a three story building on the Vegas strip associated with the new Italian place, the one with the indoor and outdoor canal with the gondolas and gondoliers.

In 1983 I drafted the risers and supervised the upgrading of all AV systems in London, Ontario's Grand Theatre, the venue where @Dionysus works to the present day.

Theatre, along with broadcast maintenance kept me alive and employed 'til a mini-stroke felled me in 2014 or 15. I fought my way through stroke recovery eventually returning home for six to eight months before a relapse and bureaucracy forced me into a retirement home where I sit rotting.

Bottom Line: @NateTheRiddler I'm still asking questions and will be 'til I hear the sound of dirt falling on my coffin.
You'll NEVER learn all there is to learn nor is there ever any need to stop asking questions: Bring'em on, answering the queries of others is what keeps many of us alive.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Adding on to the comments about learning from experts. Recognise that not everyone who talks like an expert is actually an expert. Figure out who you can trust and who to take with a grain of salt.

I have a degree in Electrical Engineering so would like to think I have a reasonable understating of how electricity works. That's not to say I'm always still learning though. Nevertheless I've heard some pretty 'interesting' new theories about electricity from otherwise very skilled technicians on gigs.
 
Just adding support to the other fantastic replies, never stop asking questions. The world is full of people who know more than you, about things you've never even thought of. Sure, half of them are wrong, but you'll never learn it all without asking. Just keep your mind open, and don't fall into the trap of "we've always done it this way."
 
Actually, many posts from many people here have been remarkably educational.

Agreed wholeheartedly- it is these posts that has revealed the “weaknesses” in my knowledge, and is driving my desire to learn more.
 
Hi Nate-

Lots of good advice, and without a doubt the Control Booth forums have a much higher signal to noise ratio regarding electrical practices in general and for theater in particular (as should be expected). @Jay Ashworth and @SteveB suggestions for electrical wiring books are a good start. Whether you know it or not, what the authors tell you in those books is actually about Code, the authors simply put it into practice rather than theory. If you've spent much time in the NFPA70 (National Electrical Code) you already know that "clear, it is not" in a number of respects, but eventually one "gets it" as to how the Code is put together for general aspects of small commercial and residential occupancies and how the Code Committees then manage the exceptions.

There is so much more to being a theatrical electrician than being a guy with a pair of side cutters and a spool of wire and a roll of e-tape; there's a lifetime of learning available to you. Just don't stop working and you'll never stop learning... heck, @RonHebbard stopped working and he's still learning AND teaching!

The conversations you want to overhear are the trouble-shooting and "why can't we do THAT" discussions. This is where you can pick up on things you might never have considered, either as outcomes or procedures. See @BillConnerFASTC comments in reply #6.

And @STEVETERRY is a Broadway and national treasure. Read everything he writes.

My next book plug: Richard Cadena's "Electricity for the Entertainment Electrician & Technician."
 
Good afternoon, CB!

It’s been a while since my last one of these, but man, that last senior semester of college can really suck up your time!

I’ve been reading a ton of CB posts regarding electrical knowhow (from architectural/in-wall, to touring panels, custom installs, off-the-shelf equipment, etc); throughout which, I’ve come to a not-so-shocking conclusion. I’m a halfwit with electricity.

Now, before you all panic and aim your tomatoes: I know W=AV; I’m familiar with V = IR. I understand the basics of three-phase/single-phase. Work, resistance, current are terms I know. I understand electrical safety and prioritize it. But when I read through a lot of your electrical-related posts, I feel significantly ignorant, defaulting to the eSet dictionary and GoogleFu every few seconds or so.

Did you all just gradually pick up that electrical knowledge through years and years of experience? Or do you expect a high level of electrical knowledge from your techs that you work with (or from those that work for you)?

I want to be better prepared before I re-enter the workforce in June this year; and if I’m spending my time googling all these electrical concepts, I’m concerned I’m underprepared and a hindrance to future coworkers and bosses. Should I study any dedicated tomes of electrical knowledge before I work? Or will experience teach me adequately?

Thanks to all of you who read all of this and held your tomatoes. More beer shall be owed at USITT as thanks. (I still have tabs open for some of you :p )

The first step in learning is realizing you don't know everything! It takes time.
Personally one of the reasons I know what I do about this stuff is that I was raised by an Electrician and my first job was for him as a labourer. I did a lot of theatre and such in highschool, then went to theatre school. After that I worked briefly in theatre, but needed for family reasons to stay in the middle of nowhere so I started my Electrical Apprenticeship. I worked for many years mostly doing residential, but also a fair amount of commercial and industrial jobs. Everything from wiring a pollution control plant, to fixing CNC machines, to wiring ROWS of houses.
I am back in the theatre world now, having left the electrical biz behind me.

Read books, research, take workshops, and ideally find someone to mentor you. IF you were in canada I'd say come say hi!

Cheers!
 
Thanks to everyone for fantastic advice thus far! It’s really encouraging to know I’m not “behind” but that I also have a solid opportunity to keep learning. I will add your book suggestions to my library- whether I actively devour them like novels (although with the NFPA 70 I imagine that would be masochistic) or just keep them as reference, I will always keep asking questions and learning!

@dvsDave Just above @TimMc made an excellent point about learning from posts on “what not to do.” Would it be a good idea to tag posts with bad practices or warnings with a “Don’t Do This” tag or something? Because then, whenever anyone asks for best practices, they can search for the “Don’t Do This” (or similar) tag and get a comprehensive set of warnings and pitfalls to avoid! Of course, this might be a trash idea, but just a thought!
 
@dvsDave Just above @TimMc made an excellent point about learning from posts on “what not to do.” Would it be a good idea to tag posts with bad practices or warnings with a “Don’t Do This” tag or something? Because then, whenever anyone asks for best practices, they can search for the “Don’t Do This” (or similar) tag and get a comprehensive set of warnings and pitfalls to avoid! Of course, this might be a trash idea, but just a thought!

We can't tag individual posts, and any bad advice in a thread is responded to and corrected with alacrity by the community. Since I wouldn't want to tag a whole thread as bad, since CB's very nature is to teach and correct, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot to tag whole threads as bad.
 
We can't tag individual posts, and any bad advice in a thread is responded to and corrected with alacrity by the community. Since I wouldn't want to tag a whole thread as bad, since CB's very nature is to teach and correct, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot to tag whole threads as bad.
Understood! I can see the sense in that. Does the search function allow searching for #hashtags ? As “youthful” and possibly silly as that sounds, if it’s searchable, would it be worth dropping in a post to help make searches faster?

Oh, and feel free to shut me down if I’m just spouting obviously undoable ideas at this point.
 

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