You don’t have to tell us twice just how important a fully functioning electrical system is to the success of your commercial building or your business. When something goes wrong on your property, you need everything back up and running as fast as possible to avoid a serious business interruption and loss of profits.

Damage to your electrical system can certainly have a negative impact on your bottom line. So when you do find yourself in need of electrical repairs, who do you call?

Electrical failures are almost always a serious issue. It can leave your commercial space or business without power for hours, or even in danger of an electrical fire. When trouble brews, you don’t want to be stuck with a handyman or amateur electrician who requires you to wait until 9 A.M. on a Monday when the problem happens on a Friday evening. Ensure that you can trust your work to professional electricians with 24-hour availability, for your own peace of mind and convenience.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping a new company from hiring an electrician with years of experience. However, typically a newer company won’t be able to deliver you with the same confident level of quality as one that has decades of experience, such as our staff. It’s also far easier to put your trust in professional electricians who have shown that they deserve the respect of the community and their long-term clients.

This is perhaps the most important point—when you have a commercial space with electrical needs, you want a team on your side that is experienced with this kind of work. Commercial settings have specific electrical demands that aren’t seen in most residential properties. Technicians who can handle the wiring and electrical needs for a whole commercial building will have the necessary skill set to take care of whatever your repair needs are.

Recently, the Obama administration adopted a new gas mileage standard for cars made in America — 54.5 mpg by 2030. That’s a big jump. The most recent figures — 2009 — show that average gas mileage for American cars manufactured in that year was 33 mpg.

Well, the new standard is good for reducing dependence on foreign oil and good for our pocket books — it’s supposed to save us $45 billion annually at the gas pumps. It’s probably also good for American competitiveness in export sales — people in other countries seem even more concerned about gas mileage than we have become. The 2009 cars we imported got 35 mpg, 2 miles better than American-made.

Most Americans support the idea of upping gas mileage. Consumer Reports found in a recent survey that 77% of Americans feel that Detroit should produce more fuel-efficient cars and the government should increase mileage standards. So, everything’s good….

BUT wouldn’t it be better to run our cars on ZERO gasoline? Wouldn’t it be better to go electric? I’m not talking about the government telling Detroit to manufacture only electric vehicles (EVs). But when we buy our next car, if we made it electric or hybrid, we would be asking Detroit to manufacture the kind of cars that emit zero pollution and don’t eat any Middle Eastern oil.

You might be thinking — yes, but where does the electricity come from? That’s a good point, but here’s the neat thing about electricity — it can come from clean sources. In Los Angeles, 40% of the electricity supplied by the Department of Water and Power is generated from coal — not clean. But that means that 60% is generated from cleaner sources like natural gas, hydropower, nuclear, geothermal, wind, and solar. DWP expects that by 2020, 0% will be generated from coal and 40% will be generated from renewables. Those are the facts about electricity in L.A. — and, I assure you, my being an electrician doesn’t give me any bias on the subject!

My next car will be an EV. In the meantime I’m lending my support to the cause by installing EV chargers for those in L.A. who are beating me to it and have already bought their electric cars.

Click here to read more.

It’s no secret that incandescent lights are on their way out—they’re incredibly wasteful, have relatively short lifespans, and are much better at producing heat than light. This leaves us with two alternatives: LED and CFL bulbs. And while CFL bulbs have been steadily gaining traction in many homes in our area over the last several years, some experts see them as little more than a stopgap measure before LED lights become more commercially viable. So what’s the real story? Should you go out and buy up all the CFL bulbs before they’re phased out or should you hold out for LEDs?

The US Department of Energy put together an extremely thorough, 50-page analysis comparing LED and CFL bulbs, which we definitely recommend checking out if you’re interested. In our comparison, we’ll be looking at the following aspects of CFL and LED bulbs:

Note: unless otherwise noted, our comparisons are based on using 30 bulbs simultaneously. So without further ado, let’s take a look at what distinguishes CFL and LED bulbs and which you should install in your home:

Thanks to DesignRecycleInc.com for the information in this chart!

Based on the chart, the clear winner seems to be LED bulbs. And it gets even better—Phillips is expected to release a new LED bulb that gets 200 lumens/watt, more than twice as good as the best LED on the market today. If that bulb performs as expected, it could allow LEDs to declare a decisive victory over other options.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of LED lights, don’t wait—call Kolb Electric today!