Then my question becomes finding the requirements to obtain an electrical license.
In Kansas, yes.
And just to be clear about my intentions because you folks don’t know me, I’m not looking for some certificate mill kind of license and certification. I come from a world where if you don’t do things right–never mind all of the Quality Assurance paperwork and audits–if you don’t do things right, the submarine floods, or people die, or you destroy multi-million dollar pieces of machinery, or you could melt down a nuclear reactor.
Probably because of that career experience, in my own home, I am the master of overkill. I over-engineer things and I build things to last. I can’t build something from a kit without making it better or stronger somehow.
I have also worked in the cyber world where computer certifications became meaningless because of certificate mills that sprang up. I even have had to deal with an employee under me who falsified his resume to say he had a certification that he didn’t. They didn’t fire him–they gave him 60 days to earn the certificate.
I despise contractors who do crappy work just to make a quick buck. I believe that permits are one of the few government oversight functions that are there to protect us, and sometimes to protect people from themselves.
I look at the house I just bought. The foundation is solid which is more than we saw in many other houses we looked at, or we would not have bought this house. But with several roofing shingles missing from a roof that is in otherwise pretty good shape, every faucet leaking, every shut off valve leaking, kitchen faucet totally shot, one toilet needed new tank guts. Had to replace another toilet entirely because of a hairline tank crack and leak. Nearly every electrical receptacle is so worn out that a plug just falls out onto the floor. Every receptacle and switch has years of grime on them, and some painted over. Somebody spray painted the inside just about the same color as the inside of a submarine and got overspray on a lot of things.
I look at this and I ask how can people live like that?
So thank you all for your insights. If the answer to my question about becoming an electrical inspector is no, that I can’t do it without a ten year apprenticeship or something, then this is not something I will pursue. But I told my plumbing contractor I would look into it. He believed that my supervisory Navy Enlisted Classification Code (NEC) possibly translates to a master designation that I could leverage to becoming an inspector. Yes I need to learn the other NEC (electrical code).
Please excuse him. 