Tag along!

Last Friday, I had my first opportunity to following along Mark from Maine Electric on one of his first calls of the day. I watched as he prepared his Maine Electric van with all the tools and supplies he needed for a long day of electrical work. Once the van was ready, I followed him from our dispatch office in Livermore, CA for a short drive over to Pleasanton. This was a warranty call meaning that Maine Electric had done some work earlier and was called to come assist with any occurrences that may have arose free of charge.

Originally, the team had been called to help solve the problem of the new air-conditioner unit that was was higher voltage than the breaker could handle. The team solved that problem!

The reason the team was back was to check on a few items that had occurred: the pool light, pool side outlet, and motion light had all seemed to lose power. So, I went with Mark and watched him work.

I watched as Mark searched high and low as he made sure that every wire was correctly lined up in its proper position. Checking the wires to see their voltage and making sure each wire was doing the job it was supposed to do. 

Finally Mark had found the problem and it was time to get to work on fixing it!

During the process, Mark had looked at the outlet by the pool and noticed a lot of rusty build up. The outlet was in a cool and damp area by a patch of roses that saw much water. The outlet was used to power the pump of a fountain. Although the outlet was in working order and not the source of the trouble, Mark replaced the outlet and added a bubble cover to as a complementary service to prevent trouble in the future.

The bubble covers are used for electrical outlets for spas, pools, or any other item that is outside everyday and is exposed to wet or rainy conditions. The cover allows for items to be plugged in and protected from the elements. After this Mark cleaned up shop and put everything that he had worked on back together and everything was good as new.

Overall, it was a fun experience watching my first electrician at work for Maine Electric. I look forward to many more different jobs that experienced certified electricians take on every day!

More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maineelectric/