ELECTRICAL MAGIC

Let me start by explaining my history with this particular "professional". My wife and I had him come over 3 or 4 times over the past few years to do various different odds and ends. We were referred to him by word of mouth from someone we knew from our church. Supposedly he was cheap and did good work (couldn't be further from the truth). The first thing that struck me about the guy was his complete lack of professionalism. He had a very rude and overly-familiar way of yelling at me and/or my wife by our first names from the other room to get our attention; keep in mind that this was within minutes of meeting us. Also, his general attitude is made to seem like we (the customers) were an inconvenience to him. Fortunately, he always charged us a flat fee and not by the hour because he'd ramble on and on (and on, and on, and on...you get the picture); many times having nothing to do with the job at all. I can't emphasize this point enough. literally every time he came over, the vast majority of it was spent talking, not working (albeit, he always finished the job). I could go into much greater detail over the many poor ways he conducted himself, but that could literally fill a review of it's own (or perhaps a book). All of this being said, I felt that it was worth putting up with since he'd always done the job at a very reasonable price. That is until the last job we had him do. My family and I were displaced after the series of tornadoes that came through (Huntsville) Alabama early last year; so I decided to look into the logistics of getting our portable generator hardwired into the house so we could at least power the essentials if a similar event happened. I finally decided against it after finding out that the automatic transfer switches (the equipment you NEED to safely hook up a portable generator to your home wiring) were $500 and up. After a while though, I thought "what the heck", I'll call my electrician just to see what he had to say about it. He convinced me that I didn't need an auto-transfer switch and that they could potentially harm my generator if it couldn't provide sufficient power to the transfer switch when the power goes out again (which is technically true). He went on to tell me that a manual transfer switch is what I'd want, and that it and all of the other equipment he'd need could be purchased from Home Depot for under $100. He came with me to the store to show me exactly what I needed. I found out after hecompleted the job that what he told me to purchase wasn't a transfer switch of any kind at all, it was just a breaker switch. Any knowledgeable electrician will tell you that hooking up a portable generator into your home wiring without some kind of transfer switch can be very dangerous. A simple breaker switch doesn't prevent electricity from the generator from back-feeding into your home, and in turn back into the power lines. This has the potential to overload the home wiring (fire hazard) or kill a city worker should they be repairing your local power lines when the generator's on. Which isn't as unlikely as it may seem, considering that repairs are more likely to take place during an outage, when you'd invariably be using your generator. Before I was absolutely sure of this, I contacted Huntsville Utilities to get someone out to inspect it. After telling them the name of the company who performed the work, they told me that he wasn't licensed and that they'd be sending a city worker and electrical engineer for inspection. Upon arrival, they confirmed that the setup was dangerous and that he'd been performing work without a license, for which he'd be given a citation at the least. They asked me for my receipt as evidence, so I don't remember exactly how much I payed for the labor, other than it was between $100-150. I also spent $350 for the generator and $75 for the breaker switch, cable, and plug altogether. No matter how you look at it, he was either being intentionally disingenuous in telling me that the breaker switch was a manual transfer switch and the inherent risks involved, or he was completely unaware. Either way, I think it's criminal negligence and should prevent him from performing electrical work (not to mention his lack of license). Needless to say, I've reversed the work he did on my breaker panel. So basically he (either aware or unaware) potentially risked the lives of me, my family, and Huntsville city electrical workers all for a little over $100. Not to mention that I'm out $525-575 between what I spent on the parts, generator, and labor; I had no desire for the portable generator unless I could have it integrated into my home wiring. I'm also unable to return it. All in all, I suppose I have to blame myself partly for taking him at his word and not understanding the situation at the time. I hope this review inspires people to look past cheap prices and demand to see people's credentials before hiring. And above all, continue to support sites like Angieslist. In summation: if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably wants to rob you blind.

I contacted Mr. Wahl and described to him the work to be done. He asked specific questions about the type of breakers I had, so as to be prepared when he came. He seemed very knowledgeable and was eager to share the details of why the equipment worked the way it did. He arrived at the agreed to time and performed all the necessary work. He found a problem with the replacement fan which required getting another one. The troubleshooting and additional installation time increased the time worked beyond what was estimated. Overall, I am pleased with the results and feel that I got my money's worth.