Privacy/rights

Safety First Electrical:
Consulting, Safety Education, and (rarely) Contracting

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114 Northway, Greenbelt, MD 20770
Home phone number: 699-8833 (machine-screened). Area code? That's 301.
Customers are welcome to call between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Emergency? Call 24/7. However, fires spread quickly, so if something's smoking, call after everyone is out or after the circuit is turned off, the fire's extinguished, and the area's ventilated.
email

To visit my main page, with links to my other business and more, hit this link.

⚡What will I do for you? (short version)⚡

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Why do people call on me? Because they put safety first.
Learn enough that you can make informed choices about your building.

Enough information? Now you just want to know how I work and what I charge? Then jump to this link.

Otherwise, here's further information that will help you decide whether to contact me.

This means I have what it takes to legally and effectively provide a number of services The first and most important is elaborated on at the first link. If one the other services I describe here fits your needs better, the other information is combined under the link I identify as "these services," at the bottom of this list.

Over the decades, I've contracted to provide all these services many times.

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LICENSE

Here's the basic, minimum credential: I am licensed as a master electrician to perform electrical contracting anywhere in Maryland. Over to the right, I've explained what that signifies.

Having decided to limit my driving time, I chose not to renew my licenses to work in Virginia and D.C., plus various subsidiary jurisdictions. While I could restore my ability to work legally in those jurisdictions, or others, by applying and paying the corresponding fees, I have no reason to do so currently.

I'm also the very person you deal with throughout; you're not dealing with a journey-level worker, an apprentice, or a helper. My contracting is covered by suitable insurance. This is an additional reason that I am very firm about taking responsibility only for work that I myself have performed or directly supervised.

Is that it: "He's licensed and insured"? To check out a hefty quantity of credentials, hit this Further Credentials link.

SERVICES

I Evaluate and Inspect

This can include a variety of options.

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I Install, Troubleshoot/Repair, Consult, and Teach

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Additional Services

I consult on wiring systems in Maryland, mainly in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, though I can arrange to serve anywhere in Maryland. I no longer install or repair wiring, except for the rare emergency or teaching opportunity. I am not interested in climbing ladders with coils of cable, or drilling hole after hole. Consulting, and occasionally working with highly-committed, high-integrity customers, is less back-breaking. Of course, it demands more knowledge and experience. I take satisfaction in knowing that another home was wired to a higher standard, and is likely to be safer than if a so-called romex jockey raced through.

Why me?

Some people just want the job done safely. They want a top person to do their work, whether it's changing a lighting fixture or wiring a home. They do want to be billed fairly, to receive reliable service and clear communication--to enjoy good value for their money. They're not interested in shopping for the cheapest bid. They don't want a false bargain: a contractor who wins their job by guaranteeing a low price, and cuts corners to make a profit.
Now that I'm not usually available to do the work, they can get the next best thing: having me design and specify the work; and then have me check the work has been performed in accordance with those specifications.

What I offer

Being especially knowledgable about old wiring, I can address what the decades have left you, both good and bad.

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What we agree to (short version), including my fees

I've simplified my fee schedule greatly. Now you pay either $150 or $200 an hour, depending on what you need me to do.

  1. $200 an hour for:
    • Consulting that involves research, talking over your issues, designs, inventions, or proposals.
    • Consulting that involves the preparation of written reports
    • Courtroom testimony or a deposition. Associated preparation is charged at the same rate.
    • Teaching you to work on your wiring, closely supervised (never wiring that could shock you).
  2. $150 an hour for:
    • Answering your questions from my office, without specialized research.
    • Coming out and look your building, whether to
      • evaluate the wiring;
      • troubleshoot or repair;
      • disconnect unsafe equipment;
      • or to answer your questions about its wiring.

Jobs that involve travel are billed starting when I head out, and include phone time other than calls lasting five minutes or less.

You'll find more details on how I work below the additional credentials. You can simply hit this link to jump there. The responsibility I take on is limited to the work I perform or directly supervise. If an inspector tells you that other items need correction, I am willing to discuss them, but they're not my responsibility.

If you wonder what my rates could translate to in terms of dollars out of your pocket, some consults cost many thousands, and others add up to not a whole lot. You'll find a recent sample bill here.

Further Credentials

Competence at Legally Constituted Inspection

I am qualified to inspect, I am certified as an inspector, I consult to inspectors, and I taught inspectors for decades. While I do not inspect for a political entity presently, I served as a Third Party Inspector for Washington, D.C. I have been invited to inspect for several Maryland jurisdictions and one Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory.

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The Authority Having Jurisdiction, usually your city or county, requires a permit for most new electrical work, and except in one special case insists on inspecting the installation. Usually, this means they look at just that aspect of your wiring addressed by the permit. One unfortunate consequence of tight municipal and County budgets is that jurisdictional inspectors tend to have large workloads. This means that in most cases they have very little time to perform each inspection. Some jurisdictions do not have the skilled professionals needed to train and supervise their inspectors. In some cases, a jurisdiction allows a third party to perform that inspection in place of their employees. The result of this naturally varies from one Third Party Inspector to another.
I have the credentials to do this type of inspecting, and some jurisdictions have asked me to work for them as an inspector. I have been invited to perform contract inspections for Frederick County, Maryland and the Cities of Laurel and Annapolis, Maryland. While I felt honored by the invitations, for different reasons at different times, I did not take up the offers.
Similarly, one Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (meaning one of the authorized product-listing competitors to UL), offered me a job as a part-time Field Evaluation Engineer. I turned down that honor as well.
Washington, D.C. authorized me to function as a Third-Party Inspector of single- and two-family residences. I have not done so since February, 2012, and eventually I dropped that certification.
I am authorized by Maryland's Fire Marshal to inspect for any jurisdiction in Maryland, but have not chose to perform jurisdictional inspection for many years. I have no objection to doing so, and generally maintain good relations with inspection authorities. However, I cannot perform both contracting and jurisdictional inspection, and so at this point I maintain insurance only as a contractor, not as a Third Party Inspector.

Professional Recognition

Briefly, I have many professional certifications and relevant memberships, and my expertise, skill, and reliability have been acknowledged by a considerable variety of organizations.

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Certifications

Memberships and Positions

Public Acknowledgment

My contracting and consulting have been recommended by a number of groups:


Some of the best-known home inspectors--senior members of the American Society of Home Inspectors--have referred their customers to me for consultation, and some realtors as well.

Teaching and Consulting

The seminars I have provided over the years are one form of teaching. Another is one-on-one instruction as I evaluate or inspect electrical work.

In addition, I have served as a consultant on electrical topics to a wide variety of clients:

One reason a variety of groups turn to me as a consultant is that I'm a teacher, specializing in adult electrical education. I received graduate training in teaching at Lehigh, and I have been put in charge of classrooms at levels ranging from pre-school to university. My electrical teaching has taken many forms.

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  • IAEI certified me as an electrical instructor, qualified to teach seminars that provided Continuing Education to electrical inspectors, designers, and electricians. I did so periodically for decades;
  • Other times I took on the responsibility to arrange for others to provide continuing education seminars.
  • The American Society of Home Inspectors relied on me for Continuing Education on electrical safety inspection three times between 2012 and 2024, twice in the D.C. metropolitan area and once in New York.

Electrical and Safety Writing and Editing

Writing, and providing consultation to other writers on electrical topics, is another area in which I've received a fair amount of recognition. I have sold quite a bit of written material since about 1983. If you're looking for help from a consultant or inspector, the relevance of this is straightforward. First, the acceptance that my publications have received suggests that I can communicate clearly about electrical subjects. Second, the range of outlets that have gladly taken my work demonstrates the respect for my expertise.

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I tend to focus on writing for the purpose of teaching --both mass instruction and individual. By "individual instruction" I mean that individual readers, usually electricians, periodically contact me for help. I have also helped other electricians, inspectors and engineers who needed assistance in writing clearly, most commonly for audiences of electricians or inspectors, but sometimes in their efforts to raise public awareness. In addition, in my consulting and "work-with" engagements I have taught bright and handy laypersons a considerable amount about how to perform their own wiring safely and even elegantly.

Electrical Publications

I have written on electricity and home safety for periodicals including:

  • Redbook
  • The Washington Post
  • Practical Homeowner
  • Fine Homebuilding (you can find my writing in their "Best of" publication, and in their February 2025 issue)
  • New England Builder
The majority of my articles have been written for electricians, engineers, and inspectors. I published in all the U.S. electrical trade magazines.
  • I initiated a monthly Residential Wiring column in Electrical Contractor magazine, writing it for decades.
  • I was hired to provide safety advice to my colleagues in the online column, "Safewatch."
  • My first book, Old Electrical Wiring: Maintenance & Retrofit (McGraw-Hill, 1998) was the only one on its subject. McGraw-Hill published the second edition, Old Electrical Wiring: Evaluating, Repairing, and Upgrading Dated Systems--a major revision--in 2010.
  • My second book, Your Old Wiring (McGraw-Hill, 2000), serves readers who lack the background to get full benefit from my first book -- including people with no electrical experience.
  • I co-authored a third book, privately published: Behind the Code, with the late W. Creighton Schwan. It explains the bases for many of our electrical rules. The third edition, nearly 500 pages long, was published in 2018.
  • Earlier, I authored an award-winning safety column in Utility Fleet Management magazine.
  • I also authored articles for
    • National Safety Council publications;
    • Public Power magazine;
      • and
    • IAEI News, when it was the electrical inspectors' magazine.
  • From 1983 to early 2018 I published and edited The Flexible Conduit, a monthly 8-page newsletter for intellectually inclined electricians, inspectors and engineers, affiliated with Mensa.
  • New Jersey officials distributed materials I provided during 1993's National Electrical Safety Month
  • Finally, decades back I produced and validated a test, Safety Awareness for Electricity.
Back to the top What could I end up paying?

That depends on what you need.

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This is a sample bill, paid in Fall, 2024.
For on-site work, you pay your bill, I sign it, and I give it back to you as the payment receipt. For remote consultation, I email you the invoice, you snailmail me the check, and at your request I will send a receipted invoice when your payment clears.
Invoice for an hour's consultation via phone and email


Next, I spell out the fine grain of my and your expectations.

What We Agree To: further detail

General

My expertise is limited to electrical work. It's up to you to deal with other systems, or find people you trust to do so. There are rules in the electrical code affecting work on other systems, and I can review them with you. For a simple example, if someone touches up the paint on a wall and, perhaps without noticing, gets paint in a receptacle's slots, it's no longer as safe as it should be. I can't claim competence at repairing paint, wood, masonry or plaster that may need to be disturbed, sometimes extensively, in the course of installing or repairing your wiring.

Why's this even relevant, if all you're offering is consultation?
If something is in bad shape, opening it up to get a look may disturb it enough that it needs repair or even replacement.

Example: I was called in to evaluate the wiring in an old house. Often the wiring that is least likely to be replaced in a superficial upgrade is in the worst shape. (I will explain why, if you're curious.)

I warned my customer that if I took down a certain light fixture, or even exposed the wiring feeding it, I might not be able to put it back in good conscience; doing so could be too dangerous. He told me that if that was the case, he'd just as soon I not take a look. As long as it was giving him light, he'd prefer to leave it alone. He'd rather receive a less-complete, hence less-accurate evaluation.

I strongly encourage you to be present as I work, whether I'm consulting, performing an emergency repair, or meeting an inspector, in order to ask and to answer questions. Any work, especially work performed after a building is completed, can bring surprises. If you have me work alone, even to evaluate an electrical system, by doing so you are agreeing to accept the technical, cost-related, and aesthetic choices I make based on my potentially inaccurate interpretation of your wishes.

Appointments

I take responsibility to keep my appointments, and if at all possible to call you if I am unreasonably delayed (more than 15 minutes). Note that I do not talk on the phone while driving.

By making an appointment for me to come out to your site, you are agreeing to pay for a minimum of one hour of my time, unless you get hold of me a day in advance to let me know you want to reschedule or cancel. If you do not reach me to cancel an appointment and I show up in good faith and cannot perform the work because no one is there to let me in, or because you are not ready for me to begin, or for a similar reason, you still need to pay, because I've still invested my time for you.

Additional Expectations

Basic requirements in the electrical code keep electricians and others dealing with energized wiring safe. Among the most important, frequently violated rules is the requirement for clear working space. In your home, a space at least 30 inches wide by 36 deep in front of your panel must be clear, floor to ceiling. Look it up, in Section 110.26. The rules are readable (though not downloadable without payment) online provided you fill out the National Fire Protection Association's registration, which is free. They encourage you to buy copies or interactive online access, but you can reject the marketing and still leaf through it free, legitimately.
Even if you want me to look at wiring elsewhere in your house, I need clear access to your panel. If that clear space is missing, I'll clear it if I can. However, you'll save money if you clear it yourself, and keep it clear. If, say, a plumber has installed equipment in that space, they violated the electrical code, breaking the law--and if you hired them, you're considered responsible! I am not professionally qualified to relocate plumbing equipment, or ducts, or doors or walls; I've found all of these in the way, one time or another. Consequently, I'll only work in such a space in an emergency, and only long enough to avert a crisis. It is wisest to assume that I will need ready access to open and work in your electrical panel for any electrical work. Wonder why this is so?
I need to kill power at its source, whenever possible. Also, a common wiring design known as a multiwire circuit can endanger even someone who thinks they have killed power. One should be able to identify and deenergize (shut off power to) such circuits by looking inside the panel.

When I encounter dangerous or unprofessional wiring, I will inform you. When I discover that certain equipment was installed incompetently, or find antiques that may have been legitimate once but are approaching the end of their lives, you need to know. Either may stop working as the result of the disturbance associated with being examined; when this happens, the equipment's failure rarely is the responsibility of the person who examined it. I don't believe in Finagle's Law (a corollary to Murphy's Law), which says, "Once a job is botched, attempts to improve it make it worse." I do, however, know from rock-solid experience that when something is dangerous, "Just get it working" is not a choice with a good payback. If something seems dangerous, my fiduciary responsibility--the duty an expert takes on, at least to some degree, by agreeing to tackle professional work--demands that I not connect it to power--or even reconnect it.

STANDARD RATES

For most work I'm prepared to take on, I charge $150 an hour, from the time I leave for your work site till I quit for the day; or from the time I pick up the phone till I put it down.

There are six situations in which it's $200 an hour:

  1. Technical research and consultation for inventors, designers, publishers, legislators, or litigators;
  2. Preparing written reports;
  3. Testifying or being deposed;
  4. Advising you on your independent work&emdash;with you retaining control over and responsibility for the work.

      5. Business Hours.

      My normal field hours run between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Sometimes I am willing to work outside these hours. I normally limit my onsite work on any one day to a maximum of six and a half hours.

      Please call no earlier than 9 am and no later than 8 p.m. except by prearrangement. In an emergency, of course call any time.

      After the first hour on site, I prorate charges to the nearest quarter hour. Remote consultation? I don't sweat spending five minutes to answer a question or two. If we go much longer, I charge. You can call or email me for the purpose of planning your work, or to offer you suggestions for tracking down problems on your own. Of course I can't taek responsibility for what you do or don't do.

      Because no inspection is exhaustive (and because of the benefits of what psychologists call distributed exposure) future visits or reviews, by me or by any expert, may uncover items that were not picked up during earlier consultations.
      All this said, I believe my approach is the very best I can offer to ensure people's safety.

      Consultation

      I evaluate wiring and consult on wiring projects. Consultation does not extend to my taking responsibility for an installation that someone else has performed or wants to perform outside my control. I don't have a flat fee for safety surveys, for laying out jobs, for preparing specifications, for reviewing plans, proposals, or educational materials. Instead, you get to choose how exhaustively I examine wiring, and thus how much time you pay for.

      I also provide more formal consultation; I charge $200 an hour for depositions, formal reports, or other testimony; work that leads to them; for consultation on others' electrical books and articles; and for ghostwriting.

      I won't work under unusually difficult or unpleasant conditions. Leaving the cat's litter box--or rubbish, or vermin, or movable obstructions--near where I am to work are examples. I won't come on-site after a fire or flood unless the damage has been cleaned up. Otherwise, I'd risk exposure to carcinogens or mold.
      Here's a concern that may be less immediately obvious. Please remove vulnerable items stored in the areas I will have to get past in the course of my work. What if you didn't realize, or had no way to know, that I would need to get over there? I'll ask you to move them, waiting if necessary, or returning. The time is billed.

      Some conditions are not under your control. Example: the inspection could require me to claw my way through an unventilated attic or a crawlspace. I may or may not be willing to take on that work. Sometimes, these constitute hazardous conditions, not merely unpleasant ones. I will not risk exposure to asbestos, for example, or significant loose fiberglass.

      If you know that I am likely to have to enter or work in an environment where breathing could be unhealthy, I can bring a hood-type (supplied air) respirator. It's bulky and a bit of a nuisance, but it draws air from up to 50 feet from the locaiton that needs to be investigated. This can alow me to inspect equipment that otherwise would not be ethically accessible.

      PAYMENT

      Payment is due right away, at the time services are rendered, unless I agree to another arrangement--up-front, in writing. Following the week of work, payment is overdue, except when I've signed on to other arrangements up-front. Interest is charged on any outstanding balance at the monthly rate associate with overdue credit card balances. Collection costs, including legal fees, accrue to unpaid bills. Non-payment, or a bounced check that isn't corrected as soon as you're informed, can mean a property lien. It is very important that you ask me questions, check assumptions, and discuss concerns as they arise, so that disputes are avoided.

      CREDIT

      I accept cash and valid first-party checks; no plastic.

      Limits

      "I've seen something just like this elsewhere" doesn't make an installation legal.

      Materials

      I am happy to answer simple, limited questions about materials by phone or email. However, I cannot take responsibility for mistaken purchases, unless I myself made them, based on information I collected for myself.

      I also cannot review a list of potential purchases by manufacturer or supply house item numbers by glancing over them, so if you want to buy materials, find a supplier whose knowledge and integrity you can trust.

      PERMITS

      All new wiring, including "Just run me one more outlet" jobs that you were assured did not require any official notice, requires a permit and, after it is completed, inspection.

      In some jurisdictions, inspectors are hired without having earned licenses as master electricians, nor even journey-level licenses; this is the choice of the hiring and budgeting authorities. In these cases, inspectors often are unclear about what the Code requires, and rely on imperfect rules of thumb. Nevertheless, they are the people who have to sign off on installations. In jurisdictions such as Prince George's County that lack a chief electrical inspector with appropriate qualifications, installations have to satisfy the field inspector. The permit and inspection may not result in the expert oversight I believe it should.

      What this comes down to is that I inspect for code compliance and safety. Others' views are based on their knowledge. It may overlap mine, but it won't be identical. Example: Residential electrical systems must be connected to the ground, the literal ground, at the point they originate. The electrical code offers half a page of ways to do this. More than one residential inspector has required that two rods be driven into the ground, rejecting installations even at locations where other code-compliant options had been chosen.

      Seem reasonable? Ready to hire me on the terms I've explained, or ask me to clarify something? You can email me, or if it's time-urgent, call me at home between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. at 699-8833,area code 301. Normally I respond to email promptly, so if you don't hear back within a day or so, it is judicious to assume that there may have been a glitch, and call.

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      Privacy/
      Rights             		YoursI don't collect information when you visit my pages, and I don't deposit cookies.
      Mine I don't take marketing calls, I block spam, and I don't abide Intellectual Property theft.