A green home does not imply your home is actually the color green. It means you are doing your best to live in a home that relies on renewable sources like solar energy. Solar power is quickly growing in popularity as more people realize the extensive benefits to relying less on the power grid and more on energy that is free and readily available. There is no fear the sun is going to run out and you don’t have to worry about the sun raising its rates.

If you have ever thought about how you could do a little more for the environment while saving a few dollars, talk with your electrician. Glendale homeowners can count on The Electric Connection to provide them with valuable information and facts about solar energy.

So what is solar energy? Essentially, the sun’s rays are collected via solar panels. The energy is transformed into electricity to power your home. There are systems designed to store the energy your panels collect throughout the day. Your home will stay connected to the main power grid as a backup power source. You will not be without power, which is a misconception many people have. A basic system allows you to switch back and forth between solar energy and electricity from the main power grid.

Solar panels are not giant things that stick out like a sore thumb in your beautiful yard. They are aesthetically appealing and many are mounted right on your roof. Technology has made a lot of advancements and panels often blend right in with the rest of the roof. These are all things you can talk about with your electrician. Glendale residents have come to rely on the services of The Electric Connection for solar panel installation. If you are interested in having panels installed or would like to learn more about this energy option, give us a call today.

In typical fashion, Sedaris humorously depicts his family in order to illustrate his point. He remarks that if his father were a talking doll with a pull cord, who spoke his most common phrases whenever the cord was pulled, he would mechanically utter “Turn the damn light on!” followed by “Turn that damn light off!” This would be, of course, in reference to the overhead lights. David Sedaris remarks that the latter phrase – Turn that damn light off! – is one that has become a standard from his own lips.

He brings us to the center of his early family life, the kitchen table. We see his father sit down to eat the meal his mother has prepared and exclaim, seconds after sitting down, that he can’t see his food, and would someone please “Turn the damn light on!” This causes dismay. His mother prefers candlelight and always has candles at dinner. Once the overhead lights blast on, everyone looks “sallow.” The colors are all washed out. The gravy stains above the buffet again become visible and unforgivable. Once his father leaves, David and his siblings flick off the lights again and sit around the table in candlelight for hours, smoking cigarettes as a family unit.

“Everyone looked better in the soft glow of a candle,” writes Sedaris.

We are then led to his teenage bedroom and his dormitory, where Sedaris shows us that, as someone particularly attuned to the lighting in a given room, one who could actually achieve “shivers” from the way that sunlight played in slats on his well-made bed, he was inherently different from “other guys.” He was very neat and very concerned with aesthetics.

What made him different in his younger years is what unites him to his long-time life partner, Hugh. They have very different taste in books and movies but both abhor overhead lighting. He writes, “it’s enough to keep us together. Every night the candles are lit and placed on the kitchen table. In their glow I can see the person I met almost 25 years ago, young again, and dashing. The effect is even better when I take off my glasses, leaving nothing between him and the eyes I have ruined with a lifetime of reading in the dark.”

I think it’s very interesting the way Sedaris celebrates dimness like it’s a comfort, something to wrap around oneself in a too-bright world. The fantastic comfort of illusion, of softening, of flattering alteration, is something you might expect to be valued by a creative writer like Sedaris. I agree completely: Candlelight is great. However, I’m not a candlelight every night kind of guy.

Elon Musk’s vision of an entirely electric car market is coming into form.

Just a few years ago, a former Daimler chairman was quoted in an L.A. Times article by calling Tesla “a joke that can’t be taken seriously compared to the great car companies of Germany.” They aren’t laughing now after 325,000 buyers put down reservations for the Tesla Model 3 in its first week.

Already though, the cost of electric car batteries have dropped from $1,000 per kWh to $350 per kWh over the last five years. As the battery and thus the vehicle becomes more affordable, the presence of electric cars will only continue to grow.

With that has come the need for home charging stations.

Just about all electric vehicles will come with a Level 1 Charger. This is your baseline charging system, where the car connects with a 120V outlet in your home and takes about an entire night for a full charge.

If you’re mostly driving throughout the city, then that’s probably all you need. But if you’re always on the go, and use your electric vehicle for distance trips too, then you should look into a Level 2 Charging Station.

We need to quickly say that the chargers don’t actually increase the capacity of your car’s battery, that’s already established when it’s manufactured. Level 2 chargers simply direct more of your home’s current when you hook it up, enabling a much faster charging time.

To give an idea, the Nissan Leaf takes 25 hours for a full charge on a home outlet; with a Level 2 hook-up, it takes 7 hours. Or compare it to the Chevy Volt, the hybrid-electric vehicle that takes 11 hours on Level 1 and just 3.2 hours on Level 2.

Sticking with the Nissan Leaf, an all-night charge on Level 1 current will give it about 105 miles. If you drive more than that, you will be comforted with a Level 2 charge, which gives you the same mileage in half the time (4-5 hours with Level 2 Charging). This means you can go about your day without having to come home and charge, or have to find a public charging station to hook up to.

Good thing is, costs on installing residential stations are becoming more affordable. Many people go with the Level 2 charge off the bat and just factor it into the costs of buying the car.

In just about any home you visit, the kitchen is often the focal point and the most frequented area. Think about the amount of work that gets done in such a small amount of square footage. With massive appliances like a fridge, stove, or dishwasher doing hours of work a day, it is important that your home electrical system has been planned and installed properly to support this work force.

In the kitchen you have some of the most energy hungry appliances you can find in a home. The energy to keep these running comes from the electrical outlet. If the outlet is not designed to give the amount of electricity that the appliance requires there can cause damage to the appliance and to your home’s electrical system. For some of the main appliances in the kitchen the electrical outlets should be:

Of course with the size of the appliance these requirements can vary. As fridges become larger and stoves get more features, the appliance may require much more. It is important to check the requirements of your new appliances prior to installation. Make sure that you have an expert electrician check your outlets and compare them to the requirements of your new appliances.

To make sure appliances are getting the right energy requirements, you can follow the outlet to the electrical panel. When there is a heavy load on a circuit, it is important to check that the appliances are given their own circuit and that the wires behind the wall are up to code to support the capacity. If too many appliances are on the same circuit you can continuously trip the circuit causing larger problems in the long run. Also, if the wiring does not comply to code there is a chance of an electrical fire. This is a scary problem because it can hide behind the walls for years before it can happen.

If you are planning on purchasing new kitchen appliances or remodeling your kitchen make sure that you have done your homework. Review what your kitchen and home’s electrical system are capable of and what your new appliances require. The best way to know for sure is have an expert electrician do a thorough review before installing the new appliances. This can not only put your mind at ease, but avoid expensive bills in the future.