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Call an electrician for work you need within your home. As a professional, that electrician should be qualified to perform the simplest work such as installing a ceiling fan to the more complicated work such as installing or upgrading your electrical panel.
As an electrician, I pushed hard all my life. My work made a difference to me. I am proud of the work I do for customers. Do all electricians feel the same way? I doubt it. Continue reading
Bad Electrical Work
Do you need a receptacle replaced? Do you need to upgrade your panel? Don’t call your cousin. Don’t call your neighbor. You need to call an electrician. But before you jump on the phone, I have a few tips to point out to you.
I have run across a lot of bad electrical work. Cheapest is not usually the best. When your friends talk about the contractor that they used and how great he was, that’s a referral. That’s word of mouth. That’s telling someone good things about that contractor that you had an experience with on your home. Have you had an electrical horror story happen to you at your house? Continue reading
When a storm passes over, you could lose power at your house. Do you really want to be in the dark while you wait for the power company? You need to realize that they may need to repair any damage from trees falling on power lines or transformers that blew. That could take time. So what would be an alternative to sitting in the dark? How about a generator? Continue reading
Energy Efficient Lighting
When was your home built? No matter whether you recently built your home or you purchased an existing home, you want that home to be energy efficient. You can become energy efficient in your home using methods described in my eBook. But for the purposes of this article, I would like to tell you about light bulbs and lamps. Now, I know light bulbs are as exciting as watching grass grows but given the right facts, you can save money on your electric bills. Continue reading
Have you purchased for a new flat screen TV? Have you purchased a new desktop computer or a laptop? What did you do with your old TV or your old computer? Did you put them out for the garbage? Whether they worked or not, the worst thing you could have done was put them out for the trash. Electronic waste disposal is a growing concern. If you place your old TV or microwave in your weekly trash pickup, you could be putting the environment at risk while also “not making use of materials that can be broken down and re-used.” Continue reading
The Public Utility Commission was started back in the 1850’s as a way to regulate the gas and electric industries.
‘Gas and electric companies were regulated by municipal franchises. Franchises gave utilities the power to dig up streets and operate in particular cities and, in return for these rights, imposed obligations on the utility in question. Typically franchises were written as long-term contracts running from twenty to fifty years. These contracts also established price ceilings and minimum service thresholds.”
Fast forward 150 years, they are now commonly known as a Public Service Commission (or PSC). Utility companies and homeowners alike must abide by the PSC decisions and rules. But I disagree as a homeowner to some of their rules that put money in their pocket rather than in mine. Continue reading
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When more and more people want to save money on their electric bills, homeowners are looking to see where they can save money. That’s when the topic of alternative energy comes in to the picture. More importantly, what is solar power? The idea is simple. Solar power is using the energy from the sun to produce power for your home. Now, there are different applications for solar uses. Continue reading
Did you watch the Super Bowl this year? If you did, then you noticed a 34 minute delay in the 3rd quarter. There was a major power outage. It appeared that they didn’t have a backup power source. The officials said that there were 2 power sources feeding the Mercedes Benz Super dome in New Orleans. One of the feeders’ determined an abnormal reading and shut down causing half the power to go out in the dome.
At first I thought it was the lighting since it would take 15 minutes to recycle them back on because they are metal halide. That’s a gas and it has to reignite that gas and get it to start up and then as it heats up, it gets brighter and brighter and brighter. So the time it takes between when it go down to when it starts up again will be a few minutes. Metal halide are commonly used in football stadiums but they should change to LED. LEDs are cheaper, last longer and they don’t heat as much. They heat but are easy to come up and come up faster. LEDs come on quickly. If high pressure sodium and metal halide go out, they have to come up gradually. Turns out, the problem at the Super Bowl was a little more involved than originally thought. Continue reading
Generators are designed to produce power for your home or business when you lose utility power. But how do you know your generator will work if you lose utility power? The answer is, you don’t. But there is a way for you to get better odds.
When you leave home to drive to work, you get in your car and expect it to start and get you where you need to go. Are there any guarantees that your car will start every time to crank it? No, but there are some things you do to reduce the chances of it not starting. Continue reading
I received bad news last week. A smart meter was installed at my home. Now I know many people think that homeowners would be able to cut back on their electric bills if they knew what to cut back on. Another one I heard was that homeowners are footing the bills so it doesn’t matter what or how you use your electricity anyway. Right? Well, maybe, maybe not, but that’s not all you need to know. Continue reading
