A house fire starts every 85 seconds in the United States, the majority of which are caused by malfunctioning electrical systems. Just the thought of a fire starting behind your walls while you sleep is terrifying. Fortunately, most electrical emergencies manifest themselves in more subtle ways before they end up causing a catastrophe. The secret is to be able to recognize the signs of a burgeoning electrical emergency and know the proper steps to contain the problem until your local electrical contractor can get out to your home to repair it.

If it’s already obvious you have an electrical emergency and you need help now, call Kolb Electric at 877-287-1179 for fast, effective 24-hour service.

Electrical emergencies are nothing to be cavalier about. If you have encountered one of the above problems or have another electrical emergency on your hands, it’s time to call in a licensed electrician.

Kolb Electric has been helping Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC home and building owners with all their electrical needs for over 90 years. We have a full staff of fully trained and experienced electricians and offer 24-hour emergency service. We understand that some electrical problems just can’t wait for bankers’ hours.

Call us at 877 287-1179 for help with any electrical emergency.

Smart technology is poised to take over the home appliance market. We already have smart thermostats, smart lighting and even smart refrigerators. If that's not enough for you, there are some new contenders on the market that allow you to turn any electrical device in the home into a smart item. The best part is that it's a simple DIY experience – no need to find an electrician to hook it up. It’s the smart plug, a small box that you plug into your home's outlets. From there, you can use your smart phone to control whatever light, television or other electronic appliance routed through the smart plug. Read on to learn more about these remarkable efficiency devices.

Control and Monitor Your Electronics

There are a variety of smart plug options on the market: The Satechi IQ Plug, the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch, the D-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug and the Valta Starter Kit, among others. The cost and functionality of the different brands vary, but they all operate on a similar principle – allowing you to set schedules and remotely control whatever device you choose.

The smart plugs connect to your phone via Bluetooth or wireless Internet, so you can switch them on or off from anywhere in the home – or even from the other side of the country if you have an internet-optimized model. You can also program schedules so the plug automatically activates an appliance at appointed times – turning a coffee maker on first thing in the morning, for example, or switching on a space heater before you go to bed in a chilly part of the house.

Retro Meets Modern

The upshot is that there's no need to wait for cutting-edge smart devices to come out to keep your home on the cutting edge of technology. Imagine impressing your neighbor by demonstrating the new smart functionality of a retro 1950s television, or your old Victrola vinyl player.

Smart plugs also monitor how much electricity a given device uses and when, so you can make informed choices about increasing your energy efficiency though disaggregation, breaking it down appliance by appliance. You can also save energy by using the smart plug to turn off the power to devices when you aren't actively using them, preventing your electricity bills from skyrocketing due to always-on settings or “energy vampires.”

Savings and Control All at Once

If you have additional questions about smart plugs and how they work, find an electrician who can show you their utility and functionality. With surprisingly little effort, you can harness their power to save energy and control devices all throughout your home.

Last month, I wrote via www.bet.com

2) A Dwarf Makes Giant News

Astronomers are given the spotlight as they announce that Pluto, the dwarf planet with a changing orbit, has passed Neptune to become the ninth planet from the Sun. It had been the eighth farthest since 1979. Of course, we now know that Pluto is not a planet at all but some kind of ball of rock and ice. 

 4) Re-imagining Literary History

Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman win the Writers Guild Award for SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. Also nominated were Robert Rodat for SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and Andrew Niccol for THE TRUMAN SHOW.

6) You’re Still the One

Shania Twain wins a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “You’re Still the One,” in which the Twain passionately announces, “We’re still together, still going strong.”

9) Run to the Hills

Gloriously, and to the headbanging delight of metal heads across the globe, Iron Maiden announces that singer Bruce Dickinson has rejoined the band. 

11) The Tumultuous Days Continue for Kid Dynamite

Early in the month, Mike Tyson is sentenced to four years in prison for assaulting two motorists after a traffic accident in 1998. The judge gives him only one year of jail time, followed by two years of probation and a $5000 fine. Days after he begins his sentence at the Montgomery County Detention Center, he is put in solitary confinement for throwing a TV in the general direction of some guards. He is released from solitary after about six days.

13) Return Mail

TLC releases their third album, FANMAIL, after a five year hiatus. The new album sells 318,000 copies in its first week, and it becomes clear to the world that TLC “don’t want no scrubs.”

15) The Dawning of the Age of the File Share

The Artist Formerly Known as Prince makes headlines a second time as he files a lawsuit against nine websites for copyright and trademark infringement. He accuses websites of selling bootlegged recordings and offering unauthorized song downloads.

You hear a lot of suggestions and general chatter about making the change from traditional incandescent bulbs to LED. And while we at Kolb Electric generally agree, we noticed something when hopping around on the web. You can find a lot of answers why this is a good idea. But none of it is really…simple. You get charts, math, and massive walls of text, and you know that deep down, somewhere in there lies your answer. If only you could get your eyes to stop glazing over. So we decided to lay it down layman style for our consumers, letting you know the why in a short, succinct bit of information!

There are a few aspects that overall make LED the superior option. Longevity is good, as these lights tend to last much longer, thus need to be purchased less often. They’re also environmentally friendly, and that’s nice too. But when it comes down to it, you care about the efficiency. And this lies in the wattage of the two lighting types.

Light wattage strictly refers to how much energy a light requires to generate lumens (the unit we use to measure light). The big secret between these two light sources lies all in how they generate lumens:

To make it clear, let’s use an example: A standard incandescent bulb generally uses 60 watts of power to generate light. You can get the same amount of light from an LED, for a mere six to eight watts.

So there’s the big answer. The average light wattage of an LED is more desirable, since it requires demonstrably less energy to produce light. The longevity and environmental-friendliness are basically the icing on the technological cake!