The design process is complete, and the Thronedown Challenge is about to commence.  The votes will be cast and the crown awarded to the champion designer. Capitol Lighting followers can visit our company’s Facebook page to vote, while showroom customers and employees can get a live look at the renovations in order to choose their favorite design and cast their ballots.

This friendly competition between two northern New Jersey interior designers has involved weeks of hard work, resulting in a transformation of  both the men’s and ladies’ restrooms in Capitol Lighting’s Paramus store. The finalists were chosen based on their expertise; they each received a $2,000 project budget with lighting supplied by Quoizel and Feiss.

Before

After

Mannarino’s vision was to create something sophisticated, dramatic and tailored. Her step-by-step design process included:

The living room seems a little dim, you think. Here’s the DIY solution you cook up: you head over to the hardware store, buy a brighter bulb, screw it into the nearest lamp and bask in the incandescent glow. Easy, right?Not exactly. Using a lightbulb with higher-than-recommended wattage for a specific fixture is known as overlamping. This seemingly innocent practice is actually surprisingly dangerous, and is one of the leading causes of house fires in the United States — right up there with candles, smoking and cooking mishaps.

Overlamping is one of the most commonly overlooked mistakes a homeowner can make, and it can be deadly. A 2011 electrical fire that killed 11 people in Brisbane — the according to home improvement blogger Taryn Williford. When you place an incandescent bulb with wattage that’s too high in the socket of a lamp that cannot provide the required electrical output, the ensuing heat and intensity of the bulb can scorch or melt the socket and the insulation of the lamp's wiring.  

Now you have prime conditions for arc fault. An arc fault occurs when a spark jumps through the air between exposed wires. This sounds dangerous, yes? It is — in fact, the National Fire Protection Agency and the National Association of State Fire Marshals electrical power. A CFL often has a tubular shape atop the familiar screw-bottom.

An LED (light-emitting diode) light is directional, rather than radiant. This allows the LED to use much less energy than an incandescent light or even a CFL. LEDs can also directly replace incandescent bulbs in some cases.

CFLs use a much lower wattage than incandescent bulbs and create far less heat, making overlamping situations far less likely. LEDs also use much less electricity and even remain cool to the touch. The risks of overlamping are negligible.

There are drawbacks to any lighting solution. Incandescent (even halogen) lights are energy inefficient. CFLs are made from materials that are terrible for the environment. LEDs burn out at a quicker rate. The right light for you is the light that makes you most comfortable in your home — and that’s a decision you need to make.

If you live in Maryland, Northern Virginia or Washington, D.C. and need schedule electrical repair service online now.

We may be entering February, but if last year taught us anything, it’s that winter can throw us a few curve balls, even when the end of the season ought to be in sight. There is plenty more cold weather ahead of us, and likely some more snowfall to go with it. You need to know that your heating system in Boston, MA is not only to heat your home effectively, but also that it will do so efficiently. You don’t want to wait around in discomfort while you look forward to the start of spring, after all. That’s why we’ve put together a few tips to help you enjoy efficient heating in your home.

There are a lot of beautiful old homes in this part of the country. Of course, homes of this age were likely not constructed with the same attention paid to energy efficiency as newer ones are. Simply investing in some weather stripping with which to eliminate drafts in door and window frames can seriously help you to boost energy efficiency in your home. You may also want to consider wrapping your windows with plastic sealing, available at just about any hardware store, in order to help prevent drafts.

You may not realize just how huge of an impact your thermostat can have on the overall performance quality and efficiency of your HVAC system. Simply upgrading an old, outdated thermostat to a programmable model, for instance, means that you can come home to comfort every day, without maintaining that temperature in your house while it is empty for hours at a time. Program it to cater to your own personal schedule, and enjoy great comfort with increased efficiency.

Never convince yourself that you can skip over an annual heating maintenance service. Even if you didn’t have your system serviced going into winter, you should have it maintained at the close of the season. The time of the year doesn’t matter so much as the fact that it is serviced at least once a year. It’s not too late to ensure the success and efficiency of your heater with routine maintenance.