Working from home is not only convenient but it is economical. Many people run businesses out of their homes and for those of you who are thinking about doing the same – you can too. Change a room in your home into a fully functioning office with our help.

One thing that most businesses have is a phone number. You may not want your business calls being directed to your home phone number otherwise you will have family members answering for you and after-hours business calls you may not have wanted to answer. We can help install a separate phone line in your office so you can have a dedicated, business phone number. This way your business and home communication are completely independent from each other.

When designing and setting up your home office, keep in mind which electronics are going where and how much power they will require. If you have a laser or large sized printer in your office, it may have a heavy draw on your power supply. Ensure that the circuit that your home office is on and the GFCI outlet can handle the load of your printer, computer, and any other electronics you need. You don’t want to trip the breaker and cause a power outage by printing out a document for one of your clients. Have one of our expert electricians review the wiring setup and test the outlet before you set up your electronics.

If you’re having meetings in your office, a proper lighting set up is important. Sometimes your office can be located in an area of the home that does not receive sufficient exterior light. Having a dimly lit room for meetings can disrupt the workflow and make it uncomfortable for all attendees. Assess the light levels at different intervals to see if you require improvements in your overhead lighting. Installing pot lights or track lights can create a comfortable atmosphere and makes it much easier to work.

When you setup your office at home you were likely thinking about economics and efficiency. With our help we can make sure that you are making the most out of your home office and that it is a place of efficiency that doesn’t overflow into your down time.

One of the easiest ways to dress up your space and update the style is by changing your chandelier. Before you run out the door in search of the perfect chandelier, make sure you know the dimensions of your space. An appropriately sized chandelier should serve as a beautifying focal point that fits seamlessly into your overall design scheme.

For a room without furniture: Add the length and width of your room in feet, and then convert that number to inches. For example, a room that is 12 feet by 14 feet (12 + 14 = 26) would require a chandelier this is approximately 26 inches wide.

For a room with furniture: If you already have a dining room table in the space, the width of your chandelier should be about a foot smaller than the width of your table. This will leave a 6-inch clearance from the outer edge of the chandelier to the table’s edge.

The bottom of your chandelier should rest at least 30-34 inches above the tabletop. Adjust according to personal preference, fixture style and ceiling height. It is okay to hang your chandelier a bit higher in dining rooms with cathedral ceilings.

Chandelier height should be about three inches for each foot of ceiling height, so for a room with a standard 8-foot ceiling (3 x 8 = 24), choose a chandelier with an approximate height of 24 inches.

Last week, we focused on electrical safety for babies and how you can baby-proof your home. When children are merely toddlers and learning to crawl or walk, their adventurous spirits can sometimes be a danger, especially when electrical appliances, wires, and plugs are in the picture. This week, we’re going to expand our efforts to include children of all ages. As your kid continues to grow, in both height and in their adventure, your home may become a greater danger zone as they can now reach kitchen appliances, electrical switches, curling irons, and virtually any other electrical device located in just about any location.

We want to share with you some of our top electrical safety tips that you can pass on to your kids to keep them out of harm’s way. It’s important to remind your children that there is nothing wrong with having an adventurous spirit, but they should always be vigilant and cautious, avoiding anything and everything that could potentially cause harm.

As the rest of the world is observing Discovery Channel®’s legendary Shark Week 2014, we at Mr. Electric® took it upon ourselves to set aside this time to celebrate what we have endearingly termed Spark Week. While the fascinating facts and featured film clips of the mystifying creatures are fun and interesting to watch, we believe the electric spark is just as deserving of our appreciation for a week as sharks are – especially taking into consideration that electricity wouldn’t exist without it.

As far back as 600 BC, a Greek philosopher by the name of Thales of Miletus discovered that when amber is rubbed with a cloth, it can be electrified and attract other objects and produce sparks. German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz made the association of sparks with electrical phenomena in 1671. There were some more experiments performed in 1708 by Samuel Wall with amber rubbed with cloth to produce sparks. And finally, the story we are all familiar with, in 1972 Thomas-Francois Dalibard and Benjamin Franklin each independently demonstrated that lighting and electricity were the same thing. Ben even extracted sparks from a cloud during a thunderstorm with his famous kite experiment.

The discovery of the electric spark encouraged electrical research. Once scientists began to understand how electric sparks occurred in nature, the question became how that power could be harnessed and controlled. This was the beginning of electricity.

Spark plugs begin the combustion in your car’s engine, allowing you to start your car every morning. The discovery of the electric spark led to the development of spark-gap transmitters. While these transmitters are no longer used in radio communication today, they played a large part in the beginning of wireless communication. Without sparks, you would have a much harder time driving, listening to music, and even seeing in the dark. The discovery of sparks is one of the most important scientific advances in history, so don’t forget to celebrate Spark Week!

Electrical transformers are machines that transfer electricity from one circuit to another with changing voltage level but no frequency change. Today, they are designed to use AC supply, which means that fluctuation in supply voltage is impacted by the fluctuation in the current. So, an increase in current will bring about an increase in the voltage and vice versa.

Transformers help to improve safety and efficiency of power systems by raising and lowering voltage levels where needed. They are used in a wide range of residential and industrial applications, primarily and perhaps most importantly in the distribution and regulation of power across long distances.

An electrical transformer uses Faraday’s electromagnetic induction law to work – “Rate of change of flux linkage with respect to time is directly proportional to the induced EMF in a conductor or coil”.