As a rule, the bottom of any hanging light should be at least 6’8″ off the ground – unless it’s over a table or island. When you have an 8′ ceiling, this doesn’t give you a whole lot of room to play. If you long for the grand impact of a decorative

A room with a single light fixture is depressing. Kick the shadows by adding multiple light sources. A few stylish flush-mount ceiling lights. Some table lamps. An accent light here or there. When you have multiple lights shining in different directions, the space will feel lighter and more open. Make sure to place ceiling lights at least 3′ from the wall, any closer and harsh shadows will make your ceiling seem lower. 

Electronics are some of the most expensive investments in any home. So how can you be sure you’re safely protecting them from electrical surges? With a whole-home surge protector, you can rest easy that all of your electronics and appliances are protected in the event of a lightning strike or electrical surge.

A whole-home surge protector is installed in your main electrical panel in order to cut off potential electrical surges from flowing into your home’s internal wiring. Whole-home surge protectors can protect up to 40,000 amps of current flowing into your home. When an electrical surge takes place, the device detects the excess energy and safely diverts the surge through the home’s grounding path. This will protect your home from:

This provides an easy, catch-all system that ensures every plug in your home is safe from a surge. Never have to worry about plugging your expensive electronics into standard plug-in surge protectors.

According to the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, the Maryland/Virginia/Washington, DC area is considered at moderate risk for lightning strikes. These, along with other powerful weather events, are strong enough to fry both large and small electronics, including:

By investing in full-home surge protectors, you save yourself the risk of potentially paying thousands to replace your expensive electronic devices and appliances. Don’t suffer later when you can prevent damage up-front!

It is important that typically, it is recommended that you double protect against electric damage by also using standard wall surge protectors. This will make sure that no matter how strong the electrical surge is that hits your home, your valuable electronics will stay safe.

Everyone from the National Fire Protection Association to the Institute for Business and Home Safety recommends the use of whole-house surge protection. Fortunately, great whole-home surge protection is available and affordable! For maximum protection, you’ll want to install a whole-home surge protector at the circuit breaker box and supplement it with smaller surge protectors on individual outlets. A whole-house surge protector can protect your home from up to 40,000 amps of current (normal household power is between 200 to 300 amps). When something like a lightning strike causes such a surge, the surge protector detects the excess current and safely diverts it through the house’s grounding path. Whole-house surge protection provides homeowners in MD, DC, and VA peace of mind when a powerful thunderstorm passes the area.

Kolbe Electric’s electrician team can easily install a top-of-the-line surge protector with ease. Our whole-house surge protectors usually come with lifetime warranties and added protections for possible losses. This means your electronics are double-protected against future loss due to electrical surge! Call Kolb Electric today to learn more about our whole-house surge suppressors for your Maryland, Washington, DC, or Virginia home.

If you were to go back in time and tell someone living in the 1960s that aluminum wiring replacement in Fairfax, VA is the best choice they can make, they may be a little confused. Fifty years ago, aluminum wiring was in. Copper spiked in price and many new homes built during that time were equipped with aluminum wiring under the belief that it was the more cost-efficient option. However, cost-efficiency did not equal safety, as homes with aluminum wiring proved more at risk for electrical fires. Speed up fifty years and in a 2016 world, aluminum wiring is now incredibly unsafe.

We all know that switching off the lights when not in use is a good thing; but we often leave the lights on even when we leave a room or aren’t using a particular space. This can result in an increase in our utility bills in the long term.

In many urban houses, electricity is wasted more than it is used. There are a number of devices on the market today that save a considerable amount of energy. Installing these controls would help in decreasing your bill in a significant way. Here are some of the devices that help save energy in your home:

These devices are largely used for security lighting installation. They detect movement and will switch on the lights connected to the system. They can be installed on the porch as well as the indoor spaces of your home. Installing different types of security lights in the outdoor and indoor areas of your home can be expensive.

However, installing motion detectors on your lawn or on floodlights directed towards your porch will add to the security of your property and help save electricity as well. The lights won’t consume an excess amount of energy and will be switched on only when any motion is detected. They can be customized to be turned off during the daytime.

LED lights are up to 80% more energy-efficient when compared to traditional lighting. The latter generate heat which results in energy-loss. However, in the case of LED lights, only around 5% of the energy gets converted into heat and more than 95% is converted into light. They are environment-friendly and an 84 watt fluorescent bulb can be replaced with a 34 watt LED and will emit the same amount of light. While the upfront cost of LED bulbs is higher than that of halogen or fluorescent bulbs, they can last for up to 50,000 hours and provide value in the long term.

This is a more technologically sophisticated version of motion detectors. These sensors are specially designed for indoor spaces. They turn on the lights automatically when someone enters the room, and turn them off when they leave. Ultrasonic sensors can pick up sounds and detect if someone is in the room; they trigger the lighting system in the room. But these sensors aren’t of much use in quiet environments. Infrared sensors are useful in these settings as they detect both – body heat as well as movement.

These devices are installed in areas such as basements, where artificial light is needed and there is less of ambient light. These sensors turn off the lights when they detect daylight and automatically turn them on when it gets dark; this saves a lot of energy. Many of these products can be customized to your needs. You can change the level of brightness at which the lights get switched off and on. These technologically advanced devices add to the energy-efficiency of your property.