World Skills Australia: National Competition for Trades

Are you a young Australian under 23 years of age, and want to showcase your trade and skill talent at a regional, national and even international level? Here's a chance for you to compete on the International Stage in the Skill Olympics.


World Skills Australia's National Competition will run over three days from Friday 7^th May to Sunday 9^th May at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Over 500 competitors from over 30 regions will compete in up to 50 trade and skill categories including electrical installations.

Government dumps home insulation rebate scheme

So there's not gonna be any more of the insulation rebate scheme, not even in any kind of modified form as it was initially expected.

Energy Efficiency Minister Greg Combet made the announcement today: "The government has determined not to proceed with the proposed insulation rebate."

Quoting from the same article in The Age:

"Cabinet is understood to have decided the government's top priority should be assuring the safety of homes which had already had insulation installed rather than installing more.

The government had promised to install safety switches into about 50,000 homes which had foil insulation installed and to carry out safety inspections on at least another 150,000 homes which had batts and other non-foil insulation installed"

Three men treated for electric shocks today

Browsing through the news today, this article caught my eyes





PARAMEDICS treated three men for electric shocks in separate cases across Melbourne today. Two of the men were taken to hospital

Electrical burn on fingers

Dislocated shoulders and electrical burns. Ouch! But thankfully all three men are safe. Electrical accidents may in many cases, tragically, be fatal. For your own safety, if you need electrical work done, please call a licensed electrician to have a look.

Electricity Theft - Illegal and Dangerous

During a routine switchboard upgrade the other day, I discovered this house had an illegal and potentially dangerous electrical connection directly to the main electricity supply cable bypassing the meter.  In the picture below, the black cable is the main supply from the street, the white cable is illegally connected.  To check if your house has an illegal connection, turn off all main switches in your switchboard and then ensure that all electrical outlets, appliances and lights are no longer operating.  If anything is still operating, contact us immediately for a professional inspection.   

Call Epping electrical on 0431 232 796 for a FREE quote

Insulation scheme finally abandoned

Last week the government's billion dollar insulation scheme was finally abandoned. After being linked to four deaths, 93 house fires, and 250,000 houses potentially having unsafe or poor quality insulation, it was a largely expected decision by the time it happened. The government has promised a new improved scheme by June 1. We have to wait and see the details of that.

Inspectors are now being arranged to make sure the work on at least 48,000 properties has been done properly. I don't even want to imagine what they will find. Just the other day Geoff went to quote on a job that needed some roof work and discovered that the insulation batts have been put only in one single row just around the manhole!! That's it! The rest of the roof is empty, uninsulated. It's gonna need some serious remedial work to eventually sort out the mess.

If you have had your roof insulated under this scheme, especially by a person that walked off the street, made you sign a form, went up in your roof for an hour or so and walked away - get it inspected. It's highly likely the job has not been done properly. At best, it is only that your home is just as uninsulated as before. At worst, you run the risk of a roof fire or electrocution. Get it checked to be safe!

Have you had your roof insulated recently? What has your experience been?