[fouc]

Isn't there a distinction between the house wiring and the solar/battery stuff?

P.S. I've never heard of sparky being used as slang for an electrician, sounds very aussie.

[selcuka]

> P.S. I've never heard of sparky being used as slang for an electrician, sounds very aussie.

When I moved into a new house in Australia I asked the real estate agent if I could extend the fence, and he said I'd need a cheapie to do that.

I said ok but scratched my head as to why it needs to be cheap, only to find out later what he actually said was chippy, slang for a carpenter.

[marcus_holmes]

Chippies are also known as "wood butchers" apparently. Amused me ;)

[Scoundreller]

Next you’ll need a roofie

[unwind]

Why, though? Is there some kind of requirement that only fully trained carpenters can build fences?

[roygbiv2]

Just about everything in Australia needs a license to do. Even down to network cabling.

[gambiting]

The rule is - if it's going inside the wall, only a licenced electrician can do it. Yes it also extends to things like speaker or HDMI cables. It's mad.

[qubitcoder]

Mad, indeed. It's hard to imagine those rules are followed, especially for speaker wires and HDMI cables.

[whatevaa]

HDMI cables? Sounds like protectionism. Invent rules to make yourself more work.

[LorenPechtel]

Aren't there power delivery versions of HDMI?

I can understand requiring a license for any power wires behind walls.

I could also see the possibility that it's just an old law that doesn't consider data-only cables which don't have the safety issues that wires carrying power do.

[old_hat]

Yeah, it's all fun and games until you're at Macca's and someone says, "Oi, can you pass me a chippy?" and they get real confused when you go find a carpenter.

[fennecbutt]

Maccas is nz, maccies is Aus

[selcuka]

It's definitely Maccas in AU. Maccies must be a UK thing.

[soci]

in Spain we call them “chispas”, which literally means sparks. An electrician is someone who knows the home electrical wiring stuff, while a chispas is someone who is skilled in repairing home appliances.

[happymellon]

We use sparky in the UK for an electrician too.

[lelanthran]

> P.S. I've never heard of sparky being used as slang for an electrician, sounds very aussie.

I'm surprised to find out it's aussie slang; I always thought it was slang local to South Africa :-/

[Lio]

We say the chippie in the UK too.

We also use sparkie for electrician.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

It's local to UK and more recent British colonies

ZA and AUS included. USA less so.

[mrexroad]

In the US, sparky is common slang electrician among the trades, but far loss-so for end customers who are looking to hire one.

[throwaway81523]

Sparky=electrician is common in the US too. I had previously thought of it as meaning a radio operator e.g. on a ship.