If you’ve ever watched the show “Holmes on Homes” on HGTV, you’ve likely seen the problems associated with old or faulty wiring.  Mike Holmes tends to get very agitated by safety issues, and for good reason.  Each year, over 40,000 homes suffer fire damage due to home electrical problems.  These electrical fires account for hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.  And what’s the main culprit?  Old wiring!

If you live in a classic home built before 1940, chances are you have old wiring in the house.  You may have knob-and-tube or Romex wiring, both of which can become brittle over time.  The insulation dries out and starts to crumble, causing the inner wire to become exposed. The cloth insulation around the wire deteriorates with age and eventually becomes unsafe.

But perhaps one of the biggest threats of Romex and knob-and-tube wiring is that these types of wires aren’t grounded.  That means if one of your appliances shorts out, you could become the path to the ground for the electricity.

Even if your home is only 20 or 30 years old, you could still experience electrical problems at home due to a lack of capacity.  Most homes built more than 10 years ago are not designed to handle the amount of electronics we use today.  Think about it:  if your house was built in 1980, it was built before home PCs and laptops and HDTVs and surround sound and all of the other toys and gadgets we use today.  These appliances can draw a lot of power, and your current electrical wiring may not be up to the task.

If you own one of the one million houses in the DFW area that’s more than 20 years old, it’s a good idea to have a licensed electrician come out and take a look at the wiring.  He or she can make sure that your house will be safe and productive for many years.

ElectricMan Inc. is one of Plano’s most trusted electricians. Nick Schaeffer, Mr. ElectricMan himself, has quite the resume for a master electrician. He started the company by himself in 2004 and hasn’t looked back since! For more information about Electricman’s list of electrical repair services, please visit www.ElectricManInc.com

AC driven LEDs are rare but popular in certain applications. Designers focus on LEDs because of their advantages like direct, brilliant light, strong color saturation, slim measurements, dynamic lighting scenes and in total all the design possibilities that are thinkable. The only restrictions are made by the heat that needs to be dissipated by surface, natural or forced ventilation and the driver’s measurements. The driver is mostly not slim at all. That is why AC driven LEDs can be a smart consideration.

Conventional LEDs, Modules and Light Engines are driven by DC (direct current) power supplies. The LED characteristics are highly dependent on these components as they control the inrush current, convert the alternate current down to DC voltage and stabilize the current the LEDs are driven with. The efficiency of the system is dependent on the driver too as the power factor is one part in the total sum. Most conventional DC power supplies support LED systems with power factors (PFC) of 0.9 and higher.

The lifetime of LED lighting systems is defined by electronic devises. The LED can last up to 100,000h but if the driver needs a replacement after 50,000h the system is only half worth the maintenance. Without any driver at all the problem is solved completely. Power supplies need space, no matter how small, the driver is mostly bigger than the LED modules and electronic component’s wiring needs space too. Without this item there are not restrictions in design any more than heat dissipation. Designers can release their full creativity.

AC driven LEDs are of advantage concerning design and lifetime options. The more complex the circuit, the higher the possibility of system failure and electrical noise. On the other side, the efficiency of AC driven LED modules is not that high like DC driven ones. The performance achieves 110 lm/W these days which is good compared to other light sources but behind DC driven LEDs with up to 140 lm/W and more. AC driven LEDs are a thinkable substitute in applications like bulb lights, downlights, ceiling lights and industrial lighting systems.

As we've discussed before on this blog, spring brings with it a few weeks of abnormally wet weather here in the Mid-Atlantic, which is evidenced by the current storms that are barreling down on the region. Basements throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. are regularly flooded as a result, potentially costing homeowners thousands of dollars in damage if they didn't prepare accordingly.

While most residents know the importance of having a sump pump to keep the water out, there are other precautions that residents need to take to avoid catastrophe when their basements begin flooding.

Many older homes often feature electrical systems that are outdated and not up to current safety codes. One particularly sensitive kind of wiring is the "knob and tube" design, which leaves a complete grid of crisscrossing wires exposed along the ceiling of the basement. Its been decades since this kind of layout was considered acceptable in residential structures, and homes that have them are more than likely dealing with wires that have seen much better days.

During extreme weather conditions, any number of events could result in a deficiency in the system that may either spark a fire or down a wire in homes that feature knob and tube layouts. If the wires in the basement either fall or are damaged in the event of a flood, they have the potential to expose electrical currents to a growing pool of water. This is an extremely dangerous and potentially fatal safety hazard for homeowners to contend with.