Although you may not think that an electrical malfunction is liable to happen to you, studies have shown that the majority of all house fires result from some sort of electrical malfunction. Furthermore, many of the homeowners affected by these fires reported that something seemed somewhat wrong, but unimportant. As a result, the issue was ignored, leading to a catastrophic fire. Because of this, it is very important to address any electrical odors or other issues that could eventually lead to dangerous shock or fire. Never underestimate the power of your electrical system, and be familiar with the signs and symptoms below that could signal a dangerous electrical problem.

Frequently Tripped Circuit Breakers

If a circuit breaker in your home trips constantly, you should treat this as a potentially serious electrical issue. Whenever this happens, there are a variety of things that you can do. You should, however, start by calling an electrician in Burbank to discuss the problem. Your circuit breaker is designed to stop the flow of electricity into your home whenever dangerous or inconsistent levels of electricity are detected. This could happen because of an overloaded circuit, short circuit or ground fault. Check to see if your circuit is overloaded, and then call your electrician. This could be much more than a minor annoyance.

Outdated Electrical Systems (Fuse Boxes)

If your home is still equipped with an older fuse box, you should call your Burbank electrician to have them perform an electrical service upgrade. Because these systems were not designed to handle the electrical load that we require today, fuses blow frequently and can result in dangerous situations.

Other Warning Signs:

You owe it to yourself to keep your electrical system as safe as possible. If you experience any of these signs and symptoms, or just feel like something might be wrong, call The Electric Connection today.

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Summer is the perfect time to complete partial kitchen remodels. You don’t have to do a lot to give your kitchen a facelift. Little things like updating the paint, hardware on the cupboards and drawers and lighting can make your kitchen look fresh and new again without a lot of time, energy or expense. Many of the little fix-it jobs you can handle yourself like repainting or adding fresh hardware. Other jobs that involve electricity should be left to an electrician in Glendale. The team at The Electric Connection is here to help you make your kitchen new again with the installation of under-cabinet LED lighting.

LEDs are the latest and greatest lighting revolution. They are extremely bright and require very little juice or electricity in this case, to run. Less electricity is always a welcome benefit and will end up saving you money on your monthly electric bill. There are a couple of different options available to you when it comes to having LEDs installed under your cabinets. You can go with a fixture that contains a few super-bright LEDs or you can opt for a light strip. The flexible light strips are often more convenient because you can choose just how much light you want illuminating your counter space. Sometimes you need a little and sometimes you need a lot.

After you have chosen your LED fixture, you will want to hire an electrician licensed to work on Glendale electrical projects to complete the installation of the light strips if that is your choice. The electrician will go about installing the lights by wiring the strips to a plug that you can plug and unplug as necessary. These light strips can be placed anywhere in your home, really. Your bathroom, hallway and closet spaces are all ideal places to add a little more light. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your LED installation.

Science fiction aficionados may appreciate today’s blog post on one of the fundamental ingredients needed to create an other-worldly retreat where you can … well, space-out. From childhood bedrooms to multi-million dollar estates, science fiction has been the motivation for some of the most amazing spaces ever. Call it your Star Wars Sanctuary, Asimov Alcove, or Halo Haven, sci-fi rooms all have similar characteristics that give it their “universal” appeal. LIGHT.

One of the most popular settings for a fictional future is in outer-space. A black landscape, interrupted only by the flickering of shining planets & stars is the perfect backdrop for sci-fi design. LED fiber optic ceiling lights will make you look like you’re in space.

Patience and attention to detail will go a long way when installing these kits. You’ll find detailed instructions Make a home-made star constellation projector with star printables and a flashlight to mark real constellations!

Did you know that today is National Science Fiction Day, as well as Isaac Asimov’s birthday? 

You might think that there's not a whole lot that you can personally do to save money on your energy bill. After all, you need to shower, cook, use the lights at night and wash and dry your clothes -- all which take up electrical energy. You might be surprised to learn that there are small things that you can do to help save energy at home and in the process save money on your electric bill. 

1. Pack more efficiently

You pack more than just clothes for your next vacation. You also pack items into your freezer and refrigerator. Much like improper packing for your vacation will leave you with less room, not packing your refrigerator and freezer the right way can wind up using more energy. 

In general, a full refrigerator and freezer are more energy efficient. The more empty space there is in these appliances, the more space warm air has to replace each time you open the door. 

If you don't want to keep your freezer and refrigerator full of food, containers with water can be a great substitute. You can also try keeping the most used items by the door. 

2. Watch out for vampire power

Is your home a haven for vampire power? Vampire power, also called standby power, among other names, refers to the power that appliances used when they are plugged in but in standby mode or turned off. Some examples of common culprits of vampire power include televisions, computers and chargers for cell phones and other electronics. 

Put bigger electronics, such as computers and televisions, on power strips and get into the habit of flipping them off when you're finished with them. Unplug smaller electronics and your chargers when you aren't using them. Plugging up unused outlets helps stop the leakage of outside air into your home. 

3. Schedule a home audit

Nearly all homeowners want to save energy but few think that their home is a bastion of energy efficiency. An energy audit by a professional energy auditor can pinpoint the problem areas in your home and provide affordable ways to address them. Paying for the weatherization of your home can be expensive upfront. The long term energy savings as well as any tax breaks offered by the government can help you pay for it. 

LED lighting is truly an upgrade.  Home owners and businesses alike can keep more of there hard earned money by simply changing from incandescent bulbs to energy efficient LED bulbs.  While the upfront cost of the LED lamps is substantially higher, the long term cost savings from the energy efficient LED lamps is more than worth the upgrade.

If you don’t have the budget to replace all your old incandescent lamps try replacing just the most heavily used ones.  Or lamps in hard to reach areas such as eves or above stairs.  Kitchens tend to be one of the areas in a home that have the lights on the longest.  And with most kitchens having recessed can lighting in them, kitchens are one of the easiest locations to upgrade to LED lighting.  There is a lot of quality LED lamps available on the market today.  With major companies such as Sylvania and Feit offering dimmable long lasting LED lamps.

Choosing the right LED lamps can be a complicated task if you don’t know what your looking for.  With LED lamp packaging displaying words like, lumens, wattage, and color spectrum, choosing the right lamps is overwhelming for some.

Wattage is how most people judge the amount of light they want for the particular fixture.  However, lumens is the true measurement of the amount of visible light LED lamp will give off.  A typical 60 watt incandescent lamps will give off around 520 lumens and last on average 2800 hours.  While a quality LED 12 watt lamp can give off around 800 lumens and last around 25,000 hours.  Some LED lamp manufactures have put on there packaging what wattage of incandescent lamp there LED lamp is designed to replace.  This helps to take some of the confusion out of choosing the right bulb.

The right color spectrum can make a huge difference in the way a room looks.  Color spectrum or as some people call it lamp temperature, is the color of the light the lamp gives off.  When LED lamps were first released they gave off a very cool or bluish color versus the more yellow or warm color of traditional incandescent lamps.  Now days LED lamp manufactures have a more perfected color that the lamps give off.  Often you will not be able to tell a difference between the color of an incandescent lamp and a quality warm white LED lamp.

You must also choose if you want to be able to dim your new LED lamp.  Dimmable LED lamps often cost more than non dimmable lamps, some as much as 40% more.  Dimmable led lamps give you the ability to choose how much lumens the lamp gives off via your wall mounted dimmer switch.  Dimming your LED lamps helps to reduce energy usage which saves you money on your power bill.  Using an approved dimmer for the LED lamp is a critical factor.  LED lamp manufactures and a list of approved dimmers for there product that can often be found in the directions or the manufactures website.

By now we all should know that switching from incandescent lamps to LED lamps can be a substantial savings.  But how much can you really save?  If you figured an average of 25 LED lamps per household and factored in average usage over 50,000 hours you would save around $6,700.00 in energy cost per home.  Add in the cost of time and maintenance to change the old incandescent lamps and the saving grows even bigger from there.

With businesses typically having more lights and increased hour usage switching to LED makes perfect sense.  With many power companies such as Mid American Energy offering rebates to help offset the cost of upgrading the LED.  A recent LED upgrade project we completed is Hoodz of Central Iowa.  The LED lighting helps reduce energy consumption, heat, and

maintenance cost. While they choose an ultra modern high efficient LED fixture for this project, often changing the existing lighting from commercial fluorescents to LED linear lamps can be an option as well.

Mid American Energy is even upgrading street lighting with LED.  They are starting to replace more than 100,000 Des Moines area street lights with new LED street lighting.  The project is excepted to take 10 years and save 35 to 50 percent in energy and reproduce carbon monoxide emissions by as much as 22,000 tons per year.   More on the LED street lighting upgrade can be found on KCCI’s post here.

Installing LED lighting from the initial construction phase of a business is now becoming more and more common.  A recent project Custom Electrical Services completed in West Des Moines Iowa for R2 Financial Strategies 2nd floor build out used all LED lighting throughout there new space.