And I was talking about the test itself being under $100...
The current code book and the exam guide book are also available at the library to check out most of the time. You should be able to check for them online at the local library's website.
Plus if you need to own a book for reference, last year's code books are all over EBAY for half price or lower.

I agree that owning them is a good idea.

Isnt there a slight problem with this? wouldnt a liscened electrician be able to get paid ALOT mroe out on his own?

doing this would make the instalelr think he could leave right?

so what everyone is saying is that you cannot run the UL approved plasma wire in the wall and out the wall for a plasma?

As I posted earlier, many other trades have licensed staff:
HVAC, sign installation, overhead door contractors, industrial machinery movers, and on and on hire staff with a license listed on their resume. Or sends a member or two from their staff to acquire and maintain a license.

A license alone won't get magically get you hired high up in the field of electricians, you still have to go through the apprenticeship to get into any union electrical contractors. Or they would have to show considerable experience to get into a high paying position with a non-union contractor.
If a freshly licensed guy wanted to leave to go be a handyman or something, he could take it there, but the road to being a highly paid electrician is still a long one.


At any given point in time, any installer may think that the grass is greener somewhere else.
If he thinks his current job is a dead end, or that the company is hard to work for, he will leave, if he is treated right and sees opportunity to grow, he will stay...


You cannot run any cable, regardless of what it's for or who's mark is on it, into and out of walls without proper termination at the entry and exit points. And cabling in the walls and the terminations must meet the NEC code for the area, whether that means romex, BX, or wire in conduit, metal or plastic boxes, and if it's in a bathroom or kitchen you may have to use a GFCI breaker on the circuit or a GFCI outlet as well...

It's not cut and dried, it's the combination of the correct wiring method, the correct termination AND the correct component installation method for the application.

You seem to be new around here Beerock, read the posts by Larry Fine if you want to learn more about electical and integration from the perspective of someone who knows both inside and out.

What a pain in the ass...having to call an "electrician" every time you need an outlet moved or created. Get you electrical license. We have a C-7 and C-10. I would think that this is more common. If you want to be in this industry you can't escape electrical. What about lighting? This is something that I think every A/V contractor should get or work towards in order to eliminate the sparkies from the loop.

Michigan City has a way of doing that to people. Many a fine mind have been left there.

Anytime I have ever done a plasma screen on wall, I have always discussed the hiring of an electrician to do the wiring aspect of it. I mean customers have to realize that what they want is going to need certain actions. It's just like trying to hang a plasma without selling them a wall mount. Save for the Pioneer plasmas just have electrician mount a clock receptacle where plasma is to be mounted and that is the end of story. or in your case you are speaking as if you are doing this as a do it yourself project. get a new work box a clock receptacle and a piece of romex and make the connections. Requiring that something be done by code to complete your project only makes you look more professional in the long run.

Why not for a Pioneer plasma? What would you do instead, and why?

Maybe, maybe not.

I made $50 one day when I was working on two systems where the clients had each already bought their own Sony plasmas.

One came with a straight power plug and one came with a right-angle plug.

The guy who got the right-angle plug had installed a clock outlet and could not use his power cord.

The guy with the straight plug was installing in a lift and there was not enough clearance for the plug.

So I swapped cords and charged each guy $25. A deal when you think about it, but it covered my extra trips!

Remember Murphy when you specify power. I mounted a plasma over the weekend with another installer. He said he wished the electrician had mounted the outlet a few inches higher.

Then we got out the mount and found that he had gotten one with a solid back panel. That outlet made us have to raise the plasma 3/4" inch higher than the client wanted...imagine if it had been higher! It was cut into cinder block, you see.



And what about the fact that this outlet was right behind the bottom of the plasma but the manufacturer supplied an eight-foot power cord? Can any manufacturer IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT that an eight foot cord will not have to be hidden in some way? The length of the cord itself, and the fact that it is thicker than 3/8", has probably made many people think it was designed to be stuck into the wall.

Hey Alan, you may know this, but Calrad (and I'm sure others) makes power cables in all lengths. Once I found them, I keep many in all different lengths for just this issue. Can't imagine plasma install without it anymore.

It's easy enough to swap a recessed and standard receptacle, just as it's easy to cut and re-plug a power cord to a custom length. If you don't want to cut a factory cable, you can always use an aftermarket one.

I just got home from installing my brother's plasma receptacle. I installed an old-work box in the bottom-center of the wall-space, with a length of NM to a second old-work box in a cubbie-space to the side.

There, I used a power cord with a 3-prong plug fed through a wall plate with a 3/8" factory hole it it. I simply tied a knot in the wire, wire-nutted the cord to the NM, and attached the plate to the box.

There's only NM in the wall, and both ends are in electrical boxes. Couldn't be cleaner, and the cord is ready to plug into whatever power strip/surge protector/voltage stabilizer he ends up with.