electrical engineering a study of the practical uses of energy systems. Electrical Engineers will often specialize in one or two different areas of energy for example: Gas, hydro energy, fuel cells, solar energy, geothermal energy or wind energy. mechanical engineering is also focused on the practical side of things but in this case focusing on designing, building and installing machinery, tools, devices and components. It is the broadest and oldest engineering profession and the engineer can draw knowledge from a range of technical areas for example: thermodynamics, kinetics, fluid mechanics and elements of electronics.

Both electrical engineers and mechanical engineers work on a contract as a consultant to organizations or full-time on a ’project-to-project’ basis so they tend to suit ambitious people who like to be challenged and work well in groups. mechanical contractors will often specialize in an industry such as industrial equipment for plants, aeronautics, automotive, consumer electronics or robotics.  electrical contractors can specialize in the following sectors:  Telecommunications, Energy and Electric Power, Computers, Semiconductors, Aerospace, Bioengineering, Manufacturing, Services and Other Professions and Education/Research

As you may have gathered from the above information, both electrical engineering and mechanical engineering are broad fields of study and quite often you will need to seek out a specialist with specific education and experience in work related to your project.

Electrical and Mechanical Contractors often meet on projects involving commercial and industrial buildings ranging from new builds to existing facility upgrades. For example many manufacturing plant setups will require both specialists in both machinery and energy systems. In this case an electrical contractor would install the energy systems, related circuitry/cabling as well as ensuring that any data centers are adequately powered.  The function, size and location of a building will affect its energy requirement and quite often an electrical engineer will need to intelligently integrate the electronics of larger commercial buildings with its communications and information technology infrastructure to ensure smooth operation. The mechanical engineer would oversee all aspects of instrumentation and process control machinery including any component specialization for specific manufacturing techniques.

Whether dealing with buildings or consumer products the emphasis of either field is, generally speaking, driving more and more towards combining energy efficiency with reducing the size of units/components and machines. A talent in innovation as well as great networking skills would be ideal characteristics in both electrical contractors and mechanical contractors because neither profession works in isolation.