Homes that were built more than 10 to 20 years ago are likely not equipped with the much safer grounded-fault circuit interrupter outlets in the kitchen and bathroom areas. GFCI outlets are ideal for use in areas where there is potential for an appliance to be exposed to water. Everybody knows water and electricity don’t mix. But, we need our gadgets and just try to be extra careful. Unfortunately, accidents happen. A Los Angeles electrician, like those at The Electric Connection, can help you protect not only yourself, but your family members from suffering serious injury when one of those little accidents happen.

The difference between the standard outlet and the GFCI outlets is the safety feature that cuts power to the appliance the second there is an interruption in the flow of electricity from the outlet to the appliance. The breaker will be tripped if the circuit does not flow along the correct path and is interrupted by your body for example. This protects you from suffering an electric shock. If you accidentally drop the blow dryer into the sink while the water is running, it could be an extremely dicey situation if the dryer is plugged into one of the old-style outlets. Power will continue to run to the dryer until the water shorts it out. You would risk receiving an electric shock if you tried to grab the blow dryer out of the sink while the electricity is still flowing.

If you would like to protect your family from these kinds of accidents, call an electrician. Los Angeles homeowners can have current outlets in the kitchen and bathrooms replaced with GFCI outlets without a lot of hassle. These outlets are great for anywhere in the house and can also prevent shock from wires that have been damaged by rodents chewing through or that have been ran over by the vacuum. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your outlet upgrade.

Does your circuit breaker keep tripping? Do you constantly have to go through the process of resetting your breaker to get your necessary electrical systems back on? At Kolb Electric, we know this is one of the more frustrating electrical issues you can deal with on a regular basis.

So what causes a tripped circuit breaker? An overloaded circuit is the most common reason for a breaker tripping and usually happens when a circuit has more electrical load connected to it than it really should have. Let’s say you have a 15 Amp circuit breaker that is protecting a 15 Amp circuit. If 20 Amps of current start flowing through it because a toaster, TV, radio, and space heater were all connected to the same circuit and were on at the same time, then what you’re left with are tripped circuit breakers aimed to prevent overheating of the circuit.

In four easy steps, you can reset your circuit breaker. You need to:

If your breaker continues to trip even after resetting it, there could be an issue with your electrical system. This means it’s time for you to contact a quality electrician in Virginia who can uncover the source of the problem, which could be due to one of the following:

At Kolb Electric, we have specialized in providing professional electrical service since our establishment in 1925. Impeccable customer service and attention to detail has allowed us to become one of the top electricians in Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, and all of Northern VA. We can help you end your tripped circuit breaker headache once and for all—contact us today!

The year of 2017 brings along more advancements in the commercial lighting space. And in a world in which things are changing so rapidly with lighting technology in virtually every way, it can be difficult to get everything you need to know in one place. For this reason, we’ve created this post in hopes of helping you get a rough guideline of the actual stadium lighting costs for the current year, 2017. Along with that, giving you the outlets to research more on the topic and get you one step closer to getting the most efficient and ROI focused technology illuminating your fields.

This post will be broken into two parts; the typical costs associated with the physical light itself and everything related to buying stadium lights. Secondly, the typical costs to powering your lights and how certain technologies may save you more money than others and how you can go about getting the highest return on investment when choosing a lighting technology and brand to go with.

To start off, we are going to cover the technical terminology of stadium lighting.

Firstly, stadium lighting is the simple term for high mast lighting. other technical terms, there are far too many to cover here. But, we think you should know the definition of lumens as we will be using it quite often. To explain, a Click here to view more about the pros and cons of both and which one is better for you.

All in all, it is too variable to give a definitive price to all situations. Keep in mind though, that a comparable LED fixture could cost double but, cut energy consumption by nearly 75% in some cases.

Since we seriously believe LED is the best option for stadiums and sports fields to illuminate their place, we are going to use that as our example (and recommendation).

Let’s keep it simple so you can use our example to get a rough idea what it will cost to run your lights.

Let’s say you have 10 lights. Currently, your high masts are metal halide and use 1,500 watts per fixture. Now, let’s say you are looking for a more efficient technology and you come across LED. You find a comparable light which will output the same amount of light (or lumens), and only consumes 400 watts per fixture.

In total, the metal halide lights are consuming 15,000 watts in total (when in use) and the LEDs would (if chosen) be using only 5,000 watts. That is 3 times less energy, which can lead to some great savings. This reduction from 1,500 watts to 500 watts per fixture is the exact reason fields both small and large fields are converting to LED over other technologies like metal halide and HPS.

For example, we often find that fields that convert to LED with us from metal halide or HPS high mast pole lights realize a payback of their investment in as little as 1 year. Additionally, since LEDs last much longer they get to realize these cost savings for much longer and thus; a much higher ROI over the lifespan of the light.

Additionally, since LEDs last longer they enjoy an additional benefit of less maintenance requirements. This allows more cost savings as an indirect benefit of LED high mast lighting.

Tips for Reducing Costs

We hope this post has answered your questions regarding most sports field lighting costs, if not, either use our contact information above or leave a comment below and a commercial lighting professional will personally reply to your questions and input.