Have you recently had a home inspection completed or are you getting ready to purchase a home and don’t understand the inspection report? A certified electrician can remedy:

These problems may be eyesores, or perhaps you don’t notice them at all, but almost all of them can be hazardous and require immediate attention by a certified electrician. Before you start worrying about your latest home inspection and get knee-deep in all the repairs at once, ElectricMan can help you decode each project and give you a quote on needed repairs. Remember, it’s about your family’s safety, so it’s always best you pick your electrician based on the quality of work and his reputation rather than letting the seller pick the repairman.

If you suspect your home is subject to some of these problems, or for help interpreting your home inspection contact a certified electrician at ElectricMan today. ElectricMan is a trusted, local ElectricMan website and don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Twitter, YouTube.

Electricity is a staple in most homes today, and our reliance on it means that it’s important to learn how to handle it safely. Unfortunately, electrical fires and shocks aren’t as rare as you might think, but the good news is that most of them are completely preventable. By keeping a few basic ideas in mind, you can safeguard your home from electrical hazards and still enjoy helpful appliances and beautiful light fixtures!

Does one of these issues sound familiar to you? For residential and commercial electrical services in the Austin area, call Bryant Electric Service today!

When is it Time to Upgrade Your Electrical Work?

You can't see the electrical wiring in your home, but it’s integral to your day-to-day life. The electrical work behind your walls is responsible for lighting your home, powering your microwave and electric stove, running the air conditioning and so much more. So while your electrical work might be out of sight and out of mind, you'll definitely notice if something goes wrong. That's why you should prevent electrical problems before they start by evaluating your wiring and planning upgrades if your system turns out to be damaged, out-of-date, dangerous or otherwise not up to the standard required for modern homes.

Update Outdated or Dangerous Wiring

There are a number of reasons why your electrical work could be in need of an update. One of the most important, and potentially most expensive, is if you have an outdated wiring system running through your home. Homes built in the 1970s or earlier could have aluminum wiring, or even worse, knob and tube wiring – neither of which was designed to carry the amount of electricity necessary for today's households. If you have one of these systems in your home, you might be able to increase your home’s electrical capacity and improve its safety by replacing that infrastructure with modern copper wiring.

Even if you have a modern wiring system, problems like corrosion or damaged wiring may be undetected and worsening. That's a serious hazard hidden in your walls that you might not know about until it's too late. There could also be other dangers in your electrical work, like shoddy connections in your circuit box, too many outlets on a circuit, or a lack of proper grounding.

Look for Expert Guidance

If your electrical work seems like it's performing fine for now, that doesn’t mean there’s no reason to check it out. First and foremost, old wiring puts you at increased risk of an electric fire, which is a risk to both your property and your life. Furthermore, many home insurance agencies won't issue you coverage, or will charge increased premiums, if there is outdated electrical work. Old wiring also may not be up to your municipality's current local building code. Although existing homes are generally grandfathered into compliance if they don't meet new standards, you may be required to make updates to bring the system up to code if you perform any electrical work on your home in the future.

Properly evaluating the safety of a home electrical system is beyond the ability of most homeowners, let alone performing major upgrades like rewiring the home. If you have any doubts about the age or status of your home electrical work, call a qualified electrician today to advise you and make any necessary updates or repairs.

Insect Vision: Ultraviolet, Color, and LED Light, Marianne Shockley Cruz and Rebecca Lindner from the University of Georgia’s Department of Entomology write, “Experimental work supports the idea that color perception exists in insects and that they are especially responsive to the shorter wavelengths of the visible spectrum and UV light.” Wavelengths are measured in nanometers, and shorter wavelengths of light (less than 550 nanometers) can indicate ultraviolet (UV), blue, or green colors. Cruz and Lindner also cite work that confirms the correlation between UV light from the sun and moon and how certain bugs navigate Earth. Another point to remember about bugs is that certain types, such as mosquitoes, are attracted to heat and have thermal receptors to help them find it. All of this information is helpful for determining why bugs flock to certain light sources.

The color that is emitted from a light source is important because of its ability to attract bugs. As previously stated, shorter wavelengths (UV, blue, and green light) are more visible to bugs than longer wavelengths (yellow, orange, and red light) and, therefore, will draw them closer. Incandescent, compact fluorescent (CFL), halogen, and high-intensity discharge (HID) lights emit UV radiation that is attractive to bugs, and since certain types of bugs navigate by UV light from the sun and moon, a closer, brighter source of UV light can disrupt their orientation and draw them in. LEDs produce very little to no UV light, which makes them less visible to bugs. However, it is still possible for an LED bulb to produce shorter wavelengths of light (bluish-white/cool white color), which will be more attractive to bugs. Therefore, when browsing for LED lights that will attract less bugs, it’s important to choose a fixture that emits more wavelengths that are above 550 nanometers, such as warm white, ultra warm white, or yellow lights.

CCT) instead of nanometers, it’s easy to tell if the bulb will be more or less visible to bugs. CCT is measured in Kelvin (K), and different temperatures on the Kelvin scale represent different colors. An LED bulb with a CCT below 3600K will emit warm or ultra warm white light that’s not easily seen by bugs. Bulbs with CCTs of 3600K and above will emit natural or cool white light that is more likely to attract bugs.

Incandescent, halogen, CFL, and HID bulbs waste most of the energy they consume—as much as 90 percent—in the form of heat. Bugs with thermal receptors can sense the heat released by these light sources. LED bulbs produce a minuscule amount of heat, which makes them less appealing to bugs.

Bug lights are simply light bulbs with a yellow coating that decreases the color temperature of emitted light. Because of the coating, bulbs will emit a peak wavelength of light that is around 550-600 nanometers. However, you don’t need a yellow-coated bulb to reduce the presence of bugs. LED lights that emit warm-colored illumination, such as yellow malibu light bulbs for landscape applications, or From top left to bottom right: incandescent bug light, yellow LED strip lights, yellow LED malibu light bulb installed in landscape fixture, and gold-tint LED filament bulbs

Ecologist Michael Justice performed an experiment to determine the type of residential light that attracts the least amount of bugs. He used six lighting types inside of an insect trap each night during the summer. Justice also made efforts to equalize the effects of weather and the moon’s irradiance. His LED Z-Bug Bulb™ from NEBO is a bug zapper and an LED bulb in one. The bulb emits white illumination from its top and ultraviolet (UV) light from its caged center. The UV light attracts mosquitoes and other insects toward the bulb’s high-voltage electric grid and kills them on contact.

Because different types of bugs see different wavelengths, it is never guaranteed that an LED light won’t attract them. However, most bugs are attracted to short wavelengths of light and are especially drawn to UV light; they can see it better, and some use it for navigation. Bulbs that emit more short wavelengths of light (cool white/bluish color) will attract more bugs. Lights that emit a majority of longer wavelengths (yellow/orange/red colors) are less visible. Heat can also draw bugs into an area. LED lights produce little to no UV light and a minuscule amount heat, which makes them less attractive to bugs—so long as they emit longer wavelengths of light.