Many appliances use electricity even when they aren’t powered on. This property is known as standby power, which is used to perform functions that must operate continuously. Energy saving measures often include unplugging electrical devices to eliminate the cost of keeping them in standby mode. This strategy requires you to estimate the cost of standby power for each appliance since it may not be worthwhile to unplug a device when it is not in use.

A year is about 8,766 hours long, so a month has an average duration of about 730.5 hours. This means you can multiply an appliance’s standby power in watts by 0.73 to obtain the kilowatts of energy it consumes each month, assuming it is always plugged in. A typical cost of electricity in the United States is 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. You can therefore estimate the standby cost of an appliance in dollars by multiplying its standby power consumption in watts by 0.0731.

A good number of the calls I get during an average day at work fall into two categories;   customers who call to have something installed in their electrical system, and customers who tried to install it themselves and are calling me to come and fix the mistakes they made.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with trying to perform basic electrical work yourself if you have a good grasp on proper electrical safety techniques and what you’re doing.  On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with calling a top Dallas electrician to do the work for you either.  The best way to ensure the job is done right every time is to hire an honest, hardworking professional electrician who’ll stand behind his work.

Even tasks that can seem quite simple can be treacherous if you’re not sure what you’re doing.  This comes into play a lot when a homeowner is trying to perform a three-way switch installation.  It seems a lot easier to install than it really is; I generally recommend homeowners not attempt to install three-way switches without at least a electrician on the phone to walk you through the process.  Keep the following in mind:

There are tasks well suited for the do-it-yourself minded homeowner, though.  The easiest is wall outlet replacement, which is usually a very simple, straightforward procedure.   That doesn’t mean the haystack isn’t free of the odd needle that you can hurt yourself on, though.  Here are some of the more common problems I run into, along with some typical solutions or hints to keep them from happening to you: 

Do you have a specific way you place food in your refrigerator or do you just put food wherever you can find an empty spot? If you use the latter method, you probably see more food spoilage. In fact, you may have to occasionally go hunting through the fridge to find that rotten smell we have all been familiar with.

Decluttering your refrigerator is probably one of the easiest ways to prevent food from spoiling quickly. It’s an easy process once you develop a system for it. The main goal is to keep your food easily accessible and highlight the foods that need to be eaten as soon as possible (like strawberries).

The best way to start this process is to clear out all of the expired food in your refrigerator. This includes bags of leftovers you promised yourself you were going to eat and it also includes all of those jars you’ve had on the side of your door for the past few years.

Once you have only edible food left in your refrigerator, think about how you want to use it:

Dedicate space for frequent meal preparation. If you have a certain breakfast, lunch or dinner meal prep routine, dedicate a shelf or two for just those ingredients so you can easily grab them first thing.

Showcase the foods that will spoil soon. Have foods that are likely going to expire sooner than the rest displayed front and center. This will encourage you to use them in meal preparation. Clear containers also make it easy to see what’s inside.

Control the environment. Check the temperature to make sure foods are properly stored. Putting liners in the bins also helps absorb any moisture that could make your fruits or vegetables too cold.

Develop a rotation system. When you buy new food, make sure you put it behind your older food.  This keeps your food waste low and your budget on track.

Don’t forget the freezer. If it is older than 6 months, it is probably freezer burned by now and can be tossed.  Store your foods in airtight containers or bags and label them (include the date).  No more “mystery meat” for dinner, and no more wasted food.

The freezer is often underutilized. Bread, scrambled egg mix, leftover coffee, tea, and broths can all be frozen for later use. Your homemade soup, cooked rice and other dinner entrees can also be frozen if you don’t have a chance to eat the leftovers in time.

Try using an ice cube try to store single serving pieces of purees, sauces and beverages. Freeze leftover coffee for an iced coffee drink, or a cube of frozen veggie broth to whip up some gravy later in the week. Make smoothies down the road by freezing mashed or chopped fruit. Almost anything can be frozen except for canned foods in the can (although they can usually be removed and frozen) and eggs in the shell.

To keep your refrigerator decluttered, go through it once a week to identify foods that need to be eaten soon and toss what is no longer edible. Once your refrigerator is decluttered, you’ll save money by having less food spoilage and eat better because all of your food is easy to find.

Keep Your Refrigerator Running at its Best Quality

Making sure your refrigerator is well maintained can also prolong the life of the food inside. If your refrigerator isn’t working correctly, food is more likely to spoil. Consider these tips for proper maintenance of your refrigerator:

Bryant Electric Service was recently inundated with calls the morning after a strong wind/thunderstorm blew through Austin.  This happens every time.  Although many calls were customers needing their power restored after tree limbs took down their overhead power line, there were also many calls wanting our service techs to come out to check their whole electrical system because of nearby lightning strikes damaging many of their home appliances and electronic devices.

With the enormous amount of electronics that are now being installed in almost every device that can be plugged into any power or phone/data outlet, it has become evident that having whole house power/data surge protection installed is imperative.

When lightning strikes it creates a huge static electrical field that, like the bolt itself, seeks the easiest path of least resistance to the ground.  The easiest path for this static current is your overhead electrical and phone/cable lines that run up and down your street and all of which connect directly to your house.  When this happens, it destroys the very delicate, low voltage instruments that are now installed in most appliances:  refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, oven, coffee makers, washer/dryer, A/C and furnace, thermostat, garage door opener, sprinkler system control, etc.  These are all affected by power surges going throughout your electrical wiring system.  Then there are your TVs, computers, modem, hand-held charging devices, VCR, TV signal box, Bluetooth and your telephone, if you still have one, and these are all affected by the power surge through your phone/data cables.

If you are interested in receiving a cost estimate to have this protection installed in your house, please contact us at Bryant Electric Service and one of our dispatchers will be happy to help you.