This is my fifth monthly blog post of the year. How did it get to be May already? If you are anything like me, you might still be stuck in March of 2020 when this crazy pandemic turned everything upside down. As much as we thought that the dawn of a new year, 2021, would […]
Getting Smart with Lighting
The focus of this month’s blog is smart lighting. As I stated before, I am writing my monthly blog with the subject matter being in line with the monthly editorial focus of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR Magazine. For more great articles about smart lighting, I encourage you to visit www.ECMag.com to check out their April 2021 issue. […]
Demystifying Electrical Control Systems in your Estimate
This is my third monthly blog post of 2021. As I was preparing the post, I realized that I haven’t explained where I am getting my inspiration for these posts, so I thought I would share with you now. As some of you may know, Candels has advertised in Electrical Contractor Magazine since 2005. It’s […]
The Workforce – Essential Workers, The Trades, and COVID
A meme I recently saw on Facebook prompted me to write about essential and non-essential workers which will eventually lead me to talk about the trades. Further, I felt a need to discuss what’s really happening and where I believe we are headed. Define Essential During this pandemic, we have learned that Hollywood starlets, professional […]
Best Practices to Succeed in 2021
It’s a new year. The calendar has been turned and everything is fresh and new, right? We all know that after 2020, as much as we want it to be true, the world is still exactly as it was “last year” and many of you are scratching your heads wondering how you are going to […]
Does knowing software make me an electrical estimator?
You took the electrical estimating software training. Are you now an estimator? One of the biggest fallacies in the electrical industry is that knowing how to operate an electrical estimating software package automatically “makes you an estimator.” While knowing software is very important to the estimator’s role, this is only a piece of the estimating […]
Women in Electrical Estimating
The best students have a combination of aptitude and attitude! When we teach our electrical estimating apprenticeship, we often say that the best students have a combination of aptitude and attitude. To our delight, some of our most successful students have indeed been women, women without any electrical experience. How can a woman with no […]
Construction Labor: Unforeseen Job Factors and How They Influence Job Performance
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” or so goes the saying engraved in the front of the US Postal Service Building in New York City. Unforeseen circumstances can affect your job labor costs! Just as snow or rain will not […]