Temperatures are still mild enough that you likely aren’t thinking about the implications of snow and ice just yet, but now is actually the perfect time to start considering it, and deciding what you’re going to do about it when it hits.

A driveway heating system will help you with the inconvenience of shoveling snow and the safety concerns involved with walking on icy surfaces, but what about your roof? Winters are particularly harder on roofs than any other season, especially if you have an asphalt or shingle roof.

The buildup of ice and snow adds weight to your roof that it is not designed to handle. Your roof is your home’s first line of defense against inclement weather, but it can only take so much pressure. The ice that forms in the winter creates ice dams—formed from melted snow refreezing and creating a blockage—as well as gutter ice.

Gutter ice can cause gutters to become too heavy and rip away from your home. Not only does this mean you’ll have to repair and/or replace your gutters, you may also have to contend with the property damage that this could very well leave behind.

Even without ice as a factor, snow itself poses a risk to your roof. This is especially true if you have a flat roof, or an older home with a weakened roof structure already. The problem is that as the snow builds up, it creates too much weight, and your roof can crack or even collapse under all the strain.

The solution to this problem is having roof heating cables installed. These cables do just what the name implies: they keep your roof warm so that snow and ice never have a chance to buildup. Rather, it melts upon impact and drains from your gutters and downspouts just as rainwater would.

If anyone living in your home has allergies, asthma, or respiratory issues of any kind, then they will not be able to live comfortably when airborne pollutants make their way into your home. While the air filter in your HVAC system may trap some pollutants, it is really designed to protect your system itself, not to boost indoor air quality. Devices such as electronic air purifiers, though, are. By removing pollutants from the air, they help residents live more comfortably.

Biological pollutants, including viruses, mold, and bacteria may also be present in the air in your home. These can lead to illness, with sick, elderly, and very young family members at increased risk of health problems. While you cannot really just filter these pollutants out of the air, as they can still reproduce on filters or in air cleaners, you can destroy them with the use of a UV air purifier.

We tend to think of the impact that airborne pollutants have on our bodies when considering the benefits of air purifiers, but air purification systems can positively impact your HVAC systems as well. If your air filters, for instance, are full of pollutants, or if dust and dirt build up on sensitive components in the system, the efficiency of that system operates will suffer. This is just one more reason for considering the use of an air purifier in your home.

From movies candle-lit dinners, lighting is one of the most important factors in everything we do.  Science and technology teams around the world have put an amazing amount of effort into developing the sturdiest, longest-lasting lights for any application you can think of.  Color, saturation, brightness, and even beam shape are all important when it comes to picking the right light for the situation.  The best part?  Mood lighting is a careful art that’s pretty easy to pull off once you know which settings work best.  Romantic lighting is especially simple and can set the stage so long as you have the right room and the right lights.

It could be our culture that has led us to see certain settings as romantic.  But there are also a few scientific aspects of lighting that genuinely make a setting more romantic.  While it may be that decades of amber-colored lights or the flicker of candlelight have fashioned our notions of what makes for romantic lighting, there’s also the effect of the light itself to consider.

Light with a low color temperature (below 3000K, or ‘yellow’ light) produces a very interesting effect on surfaces.  These lights, which are standard for most incandescent lamps, soften features and improve appearances.  If you want to look good, use an incandescent lamp.  While not ideal for getting ready in the morning, a standard light gives that warm and cozy feeling we all enjoy from standard incandescent bulbs.

The next step is to keep the lights dimmer than normal.  Dimmer lighting creates a closer, more intimate feeling to any room.  But there is a trick to this.  Don’t simply remove a few light bulbs from the dining room, you need to use an actual dimmer.  Uneven lighting is jarring and distracting.  Removing lamps or relying on recessed lights that have been dimmed can ruin the effect.  Recessed lighting that’s been dimmed can create cave-lighting (when there are unintended dark corners along the upper part of the wall).  Uneven lighting isn’t cozy, it’s distracting.  Use a dimmer switch.  Just be sure to match your dimmer to the type of lights you’re using.  If you plan to use LED lamps, make sure the dimmer is compatible with your brand of LEDs.

When we say to keep lighting even, we don’t mean equal throughout the room.  Even lighting in this case is designed to highlight focus areas.  Think about how restaurants stagger their lighting, with islands of light at each table and muted lights everywhere else.  If you want the greatest effect, use a fixture that focuses a soft light where you’ll be spending your time while ambient lighting casts a light glow everywhere else.

A romantic setting demands more than just the right lighting.  Pair the lighting with a favorite meal or entertainment.  Some background music will set things off nicely, but only if you select something that matches the mood.  You may enjoy electronic dubstep, but when the lights are lower something quiet and soothing is the way to go.

For the best in quality electrical repair work and installations, contact the professionals at Custom Electric!  Be sure to check back here each week for helpful advice, news, and guides or follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

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The electrical enclosures may be one of the simplest electrical components but it is important that you design it properly. While it may be a simple component to specify, the extensive choices available in the market might overwhelm or confuse you. The most obvious choice might not always be the best in terms of reliability and long-term profitability. At the same time there may be under-rated choices that might turn out be great buys.

Let’s see how to approach enclosure design.

Critical Design Aspects to Keep in Mind

• Material Selection

Plastic or metal are the most popular choices. These groups can be further categorized into polycarbonate, ABS, aluminumpolystyrene, steel or cast iron. Select the material that can withstand the surrounding conditions of the location it will be installed in. Understand your needs and make a decision accordingly.

• Internal Design & Size of Enclosure

Consider the internal design of the enclosure. The design must meet with your requirements. Note the internal and external dimensions to make better use of the space inside, for housing your component. It is also important to take mounting options into account.

• Choosing the Right Metal

Popular choices include:

Why do electricians and electric companies insist on using copper wiring above all else? It turns out that copper wiring is the best material for the job, based on its various properties. For example, copper is extremely malleable and ductile; in addition, it also comes with very excellent electrical and heat conductivity. It can be considered virtually perfect for wiring because it is rustproof and robust. Since it has these properties, copper wiring is able to carry an electric current over a much longer distance than other sorts of wires. While copper has a number of uses—it is used from everything as a constituent of different metal alloys to a construction material—its most popular use is in the electrical industry and for creating wires.