When you flick on the light switch, what happens? If you’re thinking “the room lights up… hopefully,” then you’re probably missing out on an opportunity for breathtaking lighting to do so much more than just let you see in the dark.

Your home should look intentional and deliberate, not just functional. Lighting is one of the best, easiest, and most easily ignored ways to make your home go from “nice place,” to “oh wow.” Seriously! Think back to the first time you saw under-cabinet lighting, for instance. Wow, talk about a way to get the most out of a space, while still showing off the best aspects out of the kitchen. That is exactly the effect that an inspired electrician can create, simply by optimizing your layout to handle some really nifty things with lighting. Even if you don’t decide to pull the trigger on the uplighting for your soon-to-come artwork, having the ability to add that in with little effort later thanks to a box hidden in the wall (just in case) takes almost no effort on our part, but can make a tremendous difference in your home’s perception, and value, down the road.

Light doesn’t just shine from one direction. Even sunlight is seen in the form of reflection, direct contact, and general ambient lighting. These simple principles are the same that should be used and recreated in your home. Your home should mirror that breathtaking view you saw on your favorite vacation, when the sunlight shone just so; conjure up that image, then imagine the architecture of your home and how it could be better illuminated. If you’re drawing a blank, don’t worry, that’s what our experienced electricians are here for. We’ll happily handle the up lighting, room lighting, and ambient lighting to create the effect that you’re looking for, even if you don’t really know how to explain it or where the circuits need to run. While all of this sounds expensive, creating a couple of extra lighting lines is simple when you’re already committing to work on your home, but becomes much more difficult later; always take advantage of the opportunity to bring an electrician and find out what is possible – 9 times out of 10, we find that homeowners who do this thank themselves for it later.

One of the biggest mistakes that builders and general contractors make is doing the bare minimum for lighting, leaving the home with nothing but a few can lights either dimly lighting the room or blinding everyone inside. Don’t let your lights let you down, or you’ll find that all your painting and furniture efforts just seem to fall flat of that wow factor you’re looking for.

Contact Electrical Gurus in Des Moines for the inspired, experienced service you need to create artistically inspired lighting for your home. When done right, you’ll find an incredible amount of value in a couple of lighting changes.

Although the great bamboo may look more like a tree and its strength and height do measure up, it is actually classified as a grass plant.  It is the largest of the grass plants and one of the fastest growing plants on earth. Bring the natural essence and lucky aura of the bamboo plant into your environment.

New lamp styles weave natural bamboo into ingenious illumination.  Here are some of the top pics to update your home or office environment with the latest nature-loving styles:

•ELK Lighting brings the “Modern Organics” collection to light…

Bamboo rings graceful and light in the “Modern Organics” wall sconce from ELK Lighting.

Bamboo strands present a natural linear elegance to the “Modern Organics” pendant from ELK Lighting.

•Wildwood Lamps emboldens portables with a natural bamboo flair in grand fashion…

“Intricate Bamboo Splits” table lamp from Wildwood Lamps

“Inlaid Bamboo” table lamp, a handsome combination with real wood and bamboo from Wildwood

•Oggetti Luce rocks the bamboo-style with glass hand-screened in Germany…

The “BAMBDRUM” pendant  features elegant shoots of bamboo hand-screened in Germany and available in white or green glass from Oggetti Luce.

The “BAMBOO” table lamp from Oggetti Luce

•Minka Aire’s ceiling fans breeze in naturally with comfort and sophistication…

All-weather bamboo blades make the grade with Minka Aire.

•From Murray Feiss, natural bamboo pendants are attracting major attention…

“Denmark” pendant orbs in natural bamboo from Murray Feiss

•Justice Lighting’s bamboo-embossed series yields the most flattering illumination…

“Limoges” wall sconce features bamboo glass embossed in porcelain from Justice Lighting

•Meyda Lighting’s bamboo chandelier makes a giant tropical presentation…

“Banana Bamboo” chandelier from Meyda Lighting

•Frederick Ramond’s “Zen” series is still growing strong…

“Zen” LED natural bamboo chandelier from Fredrick Ramond is the ultimate in eco-friendly, sustainable design.

Visit a Capitol Lighting showroom or 1800lighting.com to see these and more custom crafted lighting designs inspired by nature.

Is your home struggling to keep up with the present digital age? Our ever increasing dependence on technology and all its gadgets makes ever increasing demands of the electricity in our home. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you consider an electric service panel upgrade in Fairfax, VA.

Musical Outlets

Do you find yourself having to unplug one item in order to use another? If you’ve purchased or inherited a home that’s more than ten years old, this is probably the case. Older homes weren’t built to withstand cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and all the digital things we take for granted now.

Dueling Surge Protectors

Energy deregulation gives consumers choices when it comes to the companies that provide their home electricity. Suppliers can compete for your electricity dollars in a variety of ways, offering low prices, short and long-term contracts, fixed or variable rates, and a choice in how your energy is generated. The sheer volume of options can seem so complicated that you need to ask an electrician to help you tangle out the pros and cons of the available plans. One area in particular that can trip up consumers has to do with whether the source of their electricity is green or renewable. Read on to learn the difference.

Green Customers are Loyal Customers

Currently, 15 states plus Washington, D.C. have active electricity deregulation programs, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and these states are largely concentrated in the Northeast. Consumers who live in deregulated states are likely to be flooded with energy offers, often promising electricity that is derived from green or renewable sources. Purchasing this environmentally friendly power usually costs a bit more than electricity that comes from more traditional sources like coal, but some homeowners like to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.

Those customers who go green are valuable to the supplier because they are less likely to jump ship based on the availability of a cheaper energy source. "A customer on a renewable-energy product has actively decided what is important to them and has selected their supplier accordingly," Ritchie Hudson, Pennsylvania chairman of the Retail Energy Supply Association, said to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A Question of Semantics

However, while many suppliers and consumers treat green and renewable sources of electricity as synonymous, there is a distinction. Green energy is that which comes from specific sources that have the highest environmental benefit, including solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and small hydroelectric sources, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, renewable energy “includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish,” which includes all the green options but also other sources such as large hydroelectric dams, which present certain environmental tradeoffs.

That means that if you really want to limit your impact on the Earth as much as possible, go green in lieu of simply choosing renewable energy. You can further refine your choices by asking about the specific source of the electricity, if you have a preference for solar, wind or another option.

Ask an Electrician About Your Options

Deregulated energy markets give you flexibility, but can also sow consumer confusion. If you need help deciphering the offerings of your state's electricity providers, ask an electrician who can walk you through your choices.

Handing over the responsibility of planning the layout of your home to the builder can be a huge relief. However, by doing so, you are leaving the builder with a hazy idea about your requirements. And this matters a lot especially in the case of electrical and lighting layouts.

The electrical and lighting plans of your home are as important as all the other plans. So before commencing the construction, consider adding these 6 essential points in the layout.

Follow this simple rule for every room and space in and around your house. Start with the functionality of that room or space. Next decide on the configuration of furniture in that area. And then, draft the lighting and electrical layout accordingly. In this way, you will not over-light or under-light any portion of your home.

Also, you can either consult an expert or do an in-depth research about the current lighting trends in the market. No matter how much you love a certain lighting trend, if it’s outdated, there’s a good chance that it won’t complement the current design elements of your house.

Security, lighting, cooling, heating – there are multiple control panels which you may find essential for your home. So decide on the specific types and number of these panels early. Doing so will help you mark their exact and convenient locations, in the layout itself, and save you a lot of hassles later.

These are the kind of electrical elements which most of the people would want to keep out of their sight. But, that might not be a practical thing to do in some of the cases. For your bathrooms, you might want to hide the power points inside the cabinets. However, when you need to use your hair dryer, you will have to keep the door of the cabinet open. And if it is a face cabinet, you won’t be able to use the mirror. Small things like this make a huge difference to your routine activities. For art aficionados, imagine the dismay of seeing a power point right next to their prized possession of a famous work of art. Hence, it would be wise to decide and ink in the places for power points in the electrical layout itself.

Imagine opening your garage door and fumbling your way to the switch board to turn on the lights. And, the irritation your guests might face while trying to figure out the correct switch required. Exactly the reason, why you should think of automated lighting. And as for the switches, you can replace them with customized images of pantry, garage, laundry etc. This kind of detailing goes a long way in making your life more convenient and your home more comfortable for your family and guests.

Outdoor spaces of homes have today become an intrinsic part of their inhabitant’s social lives. If this holds true for you as well, you should definitely factor in illumination of areas such as decks, patios, pools etc., in the electrical and lighting layout. An ideal choice would be weather proof electrical outlets. Whether you want to accent foliage, light a pathway, overhead lighting and ground-level outlets for the swimming pool, it is essential that you chalk in all of your needs in the electrical and lighting plans.

Documenting the placements of electrical and lighting elements is a must. Be it written plans and drawings, or photographs. These records will save you a lot of trouble in future, when you need to do any type of renovation or even repairs.

All the above mentioned aspects will help you plan every small and big electrical and lighting aspect of your home effectively. So save yourself a lot of trouble and unnecessary expenses which might arise in future, if you don’t plan the electrical and lighting aspects of your home at the design stage itself.