Do you find energy conservation confusing? You're not alone. According to a recent study, Americans are by-and-large misinformed about what household appliances consume the most electricity. As a result, homeowners who wish to cut down on the energy they use in their home electrical work might find themselves spending time and resources to improve efficiency in areas where they won't see big gains. Read on to learn more about where most of our energy goes and how you can get the biggest payback for your conservation efforts.

The Failings of Cognitive Accessibility

In general, Americans tend to overestimate the amount of power that is devoted to common home devices like computers, television and lighting, while underestimating the amount of energy that is consumed by bigger ticket items like heat, air conditioning and hot water heating. That's because we confuse the amount of time we spend actively using a specific device with how much power it uses.

“Consumers tend to use the frequency with which they think or interact with a given energy source as a proxy for its consumption,” Ohio State University psychology doctoral student Dan Schley, lead author of the study, said to the Washington Post. For example, someone who spends eight hours a day working on a computer might naturally be inclined to think that device is what's driving up the electricity bill.

How to Make Your Actions Count

However, it turns out that the energy consumed by common electronics is dwarfed by what goes into major appliances. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a whopping 48 percent of energy in the average home goes toward heating and air conditioning. The hot water heater takes the next largest individual chunk, at 17.7 percent. The refrigerator uses 13.7 percent, with all other appliances and electronics accounting for about 21 percent of the total.

The upshot? If you really want to cut back on consumption in your home electrical work, you need to target the biggest guzzlers. That means making interventions like installing smart thermostats, turning down your water heater temperature and beefing up the insulation in your home. The simplest, most effective change that most families can make is to bump the thermostat down a few degrees in the winter and up a few degrees in the summer.

Don't Neglect the Small Stuff

That's not to say you should ignore simple behavioral changes that can save money in other areas of your home electrical work – things like unplugging devices when they aren't in use, installing energy efficient cable boxes, using the power-saving settings on your computer and turning off the lights when you aren't in the room. Just treat these items as the appetizers and desserts of your energy-saving strategy, rather than the main course.

If you need help identifying the largest loads on your home electrical work, arrange for a visit from an expert electrician today.

If you are planning to start working out of home, it’s crucial that you have a designated work space. The best way to create a home office work area that’s productive and functional is to update your home office wiring. Turning that spare bedroom or a new room over the garage or even an extension into a home office is something that you would have to plan well.

Even the simplest of work spaces have some or the other electrical equipment and appliances and you would need appropriate electrical wiring, powerpoints, and circuits and plug points etc. for it. Aside from this, you would require Internet connectivity as well. Most homes have Wi-Fi, and even if all your office equipment like the PC, printers, scanners, phones and tablets are Wi-Fi enabled, it’s best to have a hardwired Ethernet connection in your home office.

That increases the reliability of the service and you won’t be inconvenienced due to an erratic Internet connection. While it may seem like a very simple job, the fact is that installing home office wiring isn’t an easy job and has to be done with care.

As you can see, setting up a home office requires planning and you need to get a good electrician to provide the right electrical system solutions. They will come to your property, survey the space and then provide recommendations and solutions based on discussions they have had with you.

Once you approve the quote, they will then ensure the work is completed on time in the best possible way. They will also ensure that good quality materials are used and that the workmanship is of the best quality.

We at Allround Electricals can provide excellent electrical upgrade and maintenance solutions. We have also handled a large number of home office lighting projects for many of our customers. For more information, contact our friendly team at this number – 1300 169 263. Alternatively, you can also write to us at this email address.

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This is a prime example of the sort of problems that homeowners convince themselves are too minor to worry about very much. Yes, flickering lights are seriously annoying. However, they can also be indicative of fairly serious problems with your electrical system, such as degraded wiring. If you have lights in your home that always seem to be flickering, contact us to have the problem corrected immediately.

It does not matter how many devices you have plugged in, or how much energy you are using in your home; you should not be smelling burning odors in your house when you are using your electrical system. While the issue may be infrequent, or you may know precisely which outlet seems to be at fault, you cannot afford to convince yourself that the problem can just be ignored.

The convenience with which we can reset circuits in our homes these days is a bit of a double edged sword. It’s great for homeowners, but it can also lead us to overlook the potential for serious problems with our electrical systems, because it is so convenient to just flip the breaker back into position. You are going to trip circuits from time to time. If you find that this is a very regular occurrence in your home, though, allow us to take a look.

By Clarissa Allison | August 21st, 2015

The garage’s original purpose – protecting vehicles – has been transformed. Families inevitably use their garage as an additional storage,  work stations, and hobby/entertainment areas. Proper lighting is necessary to make the garage functional and complimentary to any equipment and the overall garage design. Now we have a multitude of lighting options to select from in order to make the garage a venue for all of our needs. Read on to find out how you can turn your garage into a haven for finishing projects and family fun, simply by upgrading your lighting solutions!

Fluorescent Lights