There's nothing more important than protecting your home and its contents – including, of course, your family. That's why it's crucial to take steps to guard against lightning strikes, which can cause major damage to your home’s electrical work and can even start a fire. Fortunately, there are several measures you can take to reduce the chance of lightning harming your home, possessions or family. Read on to learn how to keep these powerful forces of nature at bay.

Stop Surges in Their Tracks

Chances are, you won't ever have to experience a direct lightning strike to your home. For that, you can consider yourself lucky, but that doesn't mean that lightning can't affect you in other ways. If the bolt hits anywhere in the immediate area, especially to an electric line or something else connected to the power grid, a power surge can strike your home and destroy or damage your electrical work and electronics. One strike can be enough to ruin your new computer or television, or at least subtract a few years from their lifespans.

Fortunately, you can add layers of protection to your electrical work so your devices and appliances are less vulnerable to power surges. The first step is to purchase surge protectors for all your expensive devices in lieu of plugging them directly into your wall outlets. You can also have an electrician install a comprehensive surge protector in your circuit box which will protect the electrical work for the entire home.

The Importance of Staying Grounded

Beyond surge protection, you do need to protect your home from direct lightning strikes as well. Your local building code mandates that homes be grounded so that high levels of electric charge can escape into the Earth, dramatically reducing the risk of a fire or damage to your electrical work. If you live in an older home, it's a good idea to have an electrician evaluate your grounding system and upgrade it to modern standards if necessary.

Finally, if you live in an area with frequent thunderstorms, or your house is particularly vulnerable to lightning strikes, installing a lightning rod on the roof is a good idea. These rods stretch high above your home, attracting any lightning likely to strike nearby and conducting the charge into the ground. They can be a life saver if, for example, your house is isolated from other structures and set on the top of a hill.

Keeping Your Family Safe and Sound

With a few extra layers of protection, you can reduce the danger of lightning damage to your home and family to a minimum. If you need help setting up a system to protect your home electrical work from lightning strikes, contact an expert electrician today.

Cold winter months bring opportunities for cozy moments indoors  — but also some potential hidden dangers. More than 45,000 electrical fires occur in homes each year, according to thea licensed electrician update any damaged or two-prong outlets.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you have old and unsafe wiring because electrical work is mostly hidden behind the walls of your home. Remember, however, that wiring problems are a major fire threat. Pay attention to these signs of hidden electrical issues and then get safe by

Lamps and other light fixtures provide necessary illumination but can also pose a risk. Placing a bulb with a higher wattage than a fixture can handle poses a risk for igniting a fire. Heed the maximum wattage allowed for all fixtures and decrease the wattage or replace ones that seem to get excessively hot when lit.

Never decorate a lamp with paper or cloth that could ignite, and keep fixtures away from textiles, like bedding or curtains. Replace cords that are frayed or damaged.    

Electricity is a valuable part of our world today. We use it for just about everything. Without electricity, we would struggle to get through a single day. With that said, electricity can be extremely dangerous, deadly even. There are some electrical hazards you need to be aware of, teach your children and keep top of mind as you go through your daily routines. Becoming complacent around electricity can be extremely hazardous. Your Burbank electrician has some tips to understanding electrical hazards and how to avoid them. You can count on the crew at The Electric Connection to keep you informed about electricity and the potential hazards it poses.

1-Extension cords are not meant to be long-term solutions. They are simply meant for temporary fixes while you use a particular appliance. Extension cords are the cause of over 300,000 fires every year due to improper use. If you need an additional outlet, whether it is in the house or outside, call an electrician. Burbank homeowners don’t have to put their homes at risk by using extension cords as permanent fixes.

2-Pets and young kids and electricity never mix. Do what you can to keep children away from outlets and pets away from cords. You can buy cord protectors to keep pets from chewing on the lamp cord and outlet protectors to keep children from putting things into the outlets. These are quick, inexpensive fixes that can save lives.

3-Water is probably one of the most obvious dangers when electricity is around. You can protect yourself by having GFCI installed in kitchen and bathroom areas where water is most likely to be introduced to an electrical current. This is a simple fix that can be taken care of by your electrician.

Give The Electric Connection a call today to take care of any electrical hazards in your home.

Energy efficiency starts in the home, but the policies and practices of your local municipality play a big role as well. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) recently compiled an efficiency ranking for 51 of the largest cities in the United States, looking at local government operations, community-wide initiatives, buildings, energy and water utilities, and transportation. The scorecard is mostly concerned with policy actions at the government operational level, but the criteria have an effect on consumers as well, through areas like building codes and efficiency incentives. Read on to find out where your city ranked.

Boston Takes the Crown

You don't have to be a master electrician to understand that saving energy means saving money. It also means less impact on the environment through fossil fuel-induced climate change. Therefore, top cities are being both fiscally sound and good members of the world community.

Boston is the top city for efficiency, followed by New York City and Washington, D.C. Washington was also one of the three most improved from a 2013 report, along with Los Angeles and Chicago. Bringing up the rear of the 51 cities ranked are Raleigh, Birmingham, and Oklahoma City.

“Our findings show that cities continue to be laboratories of innovation when it comes to energy efficiency, with many pushing the envelope for more energy savings in the last few years,” ACEEE research analyst David Ribeiro said in a press release. “Cities are also improving their approaches when it comes to tracking and communicating their efforts to save energy.”

Find Out Where You Rank

If you live in one of the ranked cities, you can check out how your community performed. If your municipality didn't make the cut, the organization encourages interested participants to fill out a self-scoring tool to help build up their data.

For each city that does show up in the rankings, you can drill into the information and see where they did well and where they came up short. For example, Philadelphia, slotted in 14th place, got credit for its government sustainability plan, its tracking of energy use for large buildings and its comprehensive public transit system. It scored lower in the community initiatives area, among other places.

What it Means for You

The building and community initiative sections are particularly relevant to homeowners. Building codes, of course, dictate what you can and can't do when constructing or adding on to a house. More stringent codes can mean more red tape, but they can also make buildings more efficient overall, which can save consumers money in the long run. Community initiatives, meanwhile, refer to programs that encourage, track or incentivize efficiency measures, which can take the form of elements like rain barrels and tree-planting programs.

You don't have to lobby your city government if you want to make an impact on energy efficiency in your own life. There are plenty of initiatives you can take to cut back on electricity use around the home and become an energy-saving master. Electricians will marvel at how low your bills are if you take just simple steps like using Energy Star-compliant appliances and unplugging your devices when they aren't in use. For even more ideas, have a master electrician conduct an energy audit on your home today. The expert electricians at you local Mister Sparky® are always here to help!

So many exciting things have happened this year – A new blog design, an Pegasus Lighting website, taking into consideration all the things that Pegasus holds so dear and making them even better:

And this week it happened.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to customers having a great experience on our site and wanting to come back time and time again. Our new design has a clean look with a simple color scheme and easy-to-read font. Clear navigation and integrated filters make the perfect lighting product easier than ever to find.

We’re eager to hear your opinion of the Facebook, Pinterest.