I both enjoy and loath doing lighting control. I enjoy creating a system that enhances life in the home for the client. I loath trying to educate an electrician that refuses to do something new.




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Ever heard of a level? Oh, not needed if he used the same j-box?

Its even better than that. The house is brand new construction, with a vantage lighting system. That is a vantage keypad (and its j-box was installed first). Somewhere after our rough-in, and before the sheetrock went up, the client decided to add a center hanging light in her office. Sparky decides just to put his own switch in instead of wiring it back to the vantage panel. The vantage panel is a long way from this location. Its in the mechanical room just under this office, mounted on the same wall that sparky added the switch. would have taken 8 more feet of wire

Could have been worse.

He could have tried making that switch turn the power on/off to the Vantage switch...




Sounds like its time to call in the sheet rock guy so that can be fixed the right way.

If he called you, you could have had him run to the Vantage panel, or if he was just so lazy, you could have added a 120v box, and used a scenepoint in lieu of the keypad and all is good.
We see this all of the time when they don't call , or want to spend a nickel more.
So if you turn off the lights from the keypad on the other side of the room, you still need to go to the toggle switch.

Bummer.

The house also has only LED bulbs (cheap ones from Lowes) so the builder and electrician get to have the job certified with some special green certification. Meanwhile, I'm the one that gets to figure out how to make them not look like a strobe light if dimmed so the dog doesn't have a seizure and fall down the stairs.

I knew lighting control was a mistake on this job when I met the GC and the head Sparky.

You need to point to this debacle and tell the client that with the level of lighting control you've installed, all changes are to be coordinated through you. This is ridiculous.

It would be a bit more obvious if the photographer had taken the shot from directly in front of the panels, though. It's hard to see that one is out of level. Hell, I'd even have held a level up in front of the two.

An electrician once complained that I didn't put my volume controls in line with his light switches. I had to ask: did he want me to angle them off level at the same angle as his covers? Or put them at the same height as his plates? And since his weren't level, should I line up with the plate screws on the left, or those on the right?

Maaaan... That's a good one.

When I entered the whole licensing process, I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about it, feeling like I was doing it 'right'. Once you get spit out the other end of that obstacle course, you may have your license, but you'll also have cynicism that you didn't have before. Stuff like that makes me mad for a whole lotta different reasons now.

Erinie, I took the photo with my cellphone. Who gives a flying *#%} about the photo properly showing the two boxes are out of level? For one, you can see that they aren't inline, even if the photo isn't court quality. But more importantly, on the left you have a $600 keypad connected to a fully flexible central located lighting control system. On the right, you have a $4 decora light switch from Home Depot. It doesn't even matter that I have 3 witnesses that can verify my box was mounted first. He should have called me and said "hey, you know our mutual client, that happens to be a big shot attorney in multiple states, well, his wife wants to add a light in her office.

Oh yeah, did you catch that last part? Sparky may be screwed and royally fried.

I don't think this thread is about the level ness of the switch. But rather the fact that sparky added the switch at all. He could've used the "high tech" switching system that is apparently beyond his comprehension.

During my apprenticeship for my first company, this past summer. It was funny watching my coworkers work with the Luton Maestro dimmers with 3-way abilities. They were very much insistent of saying they need to be programmed to each other. I just shook my head as I've installed them in my house before I started working with them. Just need to wire them up as any other 3-way any you're done.

KOT

What's funny is he would have had to of pulled power from somewhere so that 8 ft of wire may have been longer considering there isn't power at your keypad location. Idiot.

Tom, apparently:

And then I thought it was part of your issue. You bitched about him doing it, but your initial complaint didn't really tell what bothered you.

Really: reread your first post and tell us where you detailed what your problem was. It seemed to be the educational level of the electrician and you did not state what bothered you:

You may be at fault as much as he. He was hired to add a switch. You were hired to put in a lighting system. Why didn't your client know that you needed to be involved in any lighting additions?

You need to throw that one back to them. We deal with this nonsense too and we always tell the client "you can have ON or OFF or you can have the electricians do their job".

You should have used a tripod. Also, the composition is very amateurish- never heard of 'The rule of thirds'? :D

Has this pinhead never heard of a dougle-gang junction box?

Do you have photographs after the rough-in?

I consider myself lucky because I work with several contractors on multiple jobs, so we don't have problems with this kind of crap. We all understand that it's not OUR house and that the final result is what matters, not just getting in/out as quickly and cheaply as possible.

This isn't a fargin' language class and you're not an Englich teacher. You need to learn to consider what you see in these photos. The switch at the right of the keypad isn't in the standard location for a main light switch- it's much farther from the door opening than standard. If you had thought about what you were looking at, you would have realized this. Or, not.

The keypad was there first, the later work is usually installed so it looks like it's supposed to be there. The second switch clearly looks like an afterthought.

WRT your last question, it's because some people think they know how to deal with contractors and that they know how to schedule the work. It happens frequently, but not everywhere. I have worked on several homes that were being remodeled with added space and if the homeowner sticks their face into the process, it's common for the floors to be refinished before the rest of the work is done. Then, they bitch about damage to the newly finished floors after all of the other work is done and everyone has no choice but to walk on them. Even with resin paper, Ram Board and drop cloths, they're not going to be left undamaged but that doesn't mean the homeowner understands that none of us can hover.