The Internet of Things is arriving in a big way. Smart thermostats, smart refrigerators, smart home security systems and more are all moving toward one integrated home system. One day soon, all your HVAC equipment, electrical work and appliances will be connected and in communication with each other. The next leap forward in smart homes is coming to your kitchen – the smart stove. Before you know it, your range top and oven will be sending you text messages when it's time to pull out the roast. Really.

Texting and Tweeting from the Oven

Smart stoves are quickly on their way to the marketplace. General Electric recently announced an initiative to bulk up the internet integration capabilities of its appliances. Stoves, for example, will soon be able to send you a text message once they've preheated, or cooked a meal for a specified amount of time. Not paying attention to your phone? The stove will also be able to flash the lights of whatever room you're in to give you the alert, if your other electrical work is hooked into the smart system.

The benefits don't stop there. If you leave the house and forget to turn the stove off, it can shut down automatically. It can also do this if the smoke detector goes off, potentially saving you from catastrophe. The smart stoves will also be able to interact with social media applications like Facebook, Twitter and Dropbox. That's right – soon your oven will be able to tweet out a photo of your perfect apple pie and you won't even have to lift a finger.

A New Way to Interact

Smart stoves are just the start. "Owners can create recipes that suit their lifestyle and integrate GE's connected appliances into the rest of their Internet-connected lives," Logan Garrett, a member of the Wi-Fi connected appliances team at GE Appliances, said to the Motley Fool. "We think this is the beginning of a new way for consumers to interact with their home appliances."

One day, smart kitchens could even come up with suggested recipes based on the ingredients you have on hand, which it would already know via inventory software. All you'd have to do is gather the items and mix them together. Technology already exists to determine when a dish is cooked properly, so the oven could handle the temperature and time settings all on its own.

If you need advice on how to get cutting edge technology into your kitchen to take the guesswork out of cooking, or need any other help with your electrical work, call an expert electrician today.

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.

The energy consumed by a single building or business can prove to be a huge overhead cost, especially for those buildings of a much larger size.

Starting the initiative to reduce energy consumption is becoming more and more common as the benefits become more and more clear. The benefits of reducing energy consumption is often times for one major reason, and that is to reduce overhead costs. By making switches (such as those listed here), you could realize a 50% or more reduction in overall energy usage in your facility.

Sound interesting? Learn how you can do that with the tips below…

Whatever lighting technology you have right now, if it isn’t LED, then you are probably consuming more energy than you have to be when it comes to your lighting system.

By converting to LED from a technology like fluorescent, you will easily realize a 30% reduction (on average) in energy consumption from your lights. Now, if you have lights such as metal halide or HPS (often used outside or in high ceiling lights), then you could realize even greater savings (by up to 75%)! This, in and of itself, can prove to be a major way to reduce energy usage in your buildings.

facility manager is, but it’s just a fact. Think, who knows more; someone who works with all the equipment everyday or someone who overlooks said worker? Probably the former, and that’s okay! But, just remember to ask them to be on the lookout for things and get them on-board with your efforts to reducing energy in your building. It will help a lot with your efforts!

Planting save energy in your building, but they are definitely the huge players that eat up a lot of energy. By changing just these 9 things, you will be able to put your efforts to the highest reward type initiatives.

Once you’ve switched these major energy consumers, you can then work on smaller areas of your building that are inefficient, just not as much as these 9 things.

What is one thing not listed here that you find to be a huge energy consumer? Comment it down below so we are all aware of it!

Low-voltage landscape lighting is a simple improvement that can make an enormous impact on the beauty and appearance of your home after dusk, as well as its safety and security. Installed along walkways, steps, and driveways, or directed up at trees, garden objects and walls, the typical low-voltage lighting system requires just three components: a transformer, low-voltage electrical cable, and the fixtures.

There are many ways that electrical fires can start in the home, any many ways they can be prevented. With all the tools on the market it can be hard to know what you should be using to protect your home. One important tool that you can use to prevent electrical fires is an arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI). An AFCI could prevent electrical shorts and damage on circuits around your home.

Arc faults occur when electricity leaves the circuit and the current travels to a different pathway. This can occur if a wire is cracked, cut, or broken. When the wire becomes exposed the electricity can travel out and into the surrounding objects. When the electricity makes contact it will heat up significantly which can cause a fire. If this arcing occurs in your home, chances are the surrounding materials are wood or insulation. Once an arc fire starts, it can do significant amount of damage before you are made aware by the sound of your detector.

An arc-fault circuit interrupter (ACFI) can be installed on receptacles and circuit breakers to shut off the flow of electricity when it detects an arc about to occur. Because arcs are a sudden surge of power, standard circuit breakers may not shut off before the arc occurs as they are designed to prevent short circuits and overloads. Sudden surges of power in the electrical system can occur when devices and appliances, like a vacuum cleaner or light switch, are turned on. These are normal occurrences, which will be detected by the ACFI and allowed. But the ACFI also monitors the circuit for dangerous arcing and is ready to shut off the flow of electricity immediately when it occurs.

While many homes in Canada may have ACFIs installed, it has not always been a requirement. For homes that have been built before new electrical code requirements in 2002, there are likely no ACFIs installed in the home. This makes you vulnerable to arcs that are more likely to occur in older homes due to aging wiring. Currently, it is standard to have ACFIs installed on all bedrooms.

Our Expert Elections are experienced in installing AFCIs. Our electricians can detect if there are AFCIs currently installed in your home, and which points of your electrical system are critical and should have an AFCI installed. If you are unsure about your homes protection, call your local Expert Electric at 604-681-8338.