A modern convenience often taken for granted, electric power, can be found everywhere. To route electricity from the power station to your wall outlet requires many steps. Residential house wiring includes a variety of wiring and control devices to ensure safe and reliable service.

Electricity in the home is distributed by means of branch circuits. Furthermore, each branch circuit is supplied via a circuit breaker sized per the expected load on the circuit. A typical lighting and receptacle circuit will be rated at 15A. Because of their size, larger loads like ovens, clothes dryers, and air conditioning units are given dedicated circuit breakers.

A typical home can have dozens of 15A circuits, and several 20A, 30A, or even 50A circuits. Yet the total of all these breakers is much more than the size of the main breaker. However, this is intentional. It’s highly unlikely that every circuit will be fully loaded at any one time, so a demand factor is taken into account to keep the main breaker at a reasonable size.

A wood-framed home will typically use solid copper non-metallic sheathed cable for the majority of wiring applications. Solid conductors are easy to terminate and cheaper than equivalent stranded wire. The AWG size of the wire is determined by the expected load on the circuit and by the size of the breaker protecting it. You should never connect a wire to a breaker that is too large to protect it, as an overloaded wire can easily catch fire.

Many of us know as the years go on families grow in number and size. Unfortunately, our homes don’t expand to make room for us all. To get that extra square footage or an extra room, a home addition is ideal. But it is important to remember that the additional room needs to be connected to the house perfectly in every way. There are many points to remember with home additions and its important that they are done right or you may need to end up redoing the room you just completed.

Whether you are looking at a kitchen expansion, a new bathroom, or a room addition, there are many things to keep in mind before you put the drywall on. The new space will new lighting, switches, outlets, and even temperature controls. Depending on the size of the space these items can require a significant amount of electricity. Adding this extra load to an existing circuit can bring that circuit over the limit. If this happens you are prone to power surges, electrical outages, and even fires. Depending on the size of your room you may need a new circuit in order to properly handle the new electrical load. This means doing an addition to your electrical panel. If not implemented properly, additions to the service panel can be messy and dangerous. Because the main service panel is the heart of your home’s electrical system you want it to be in the best shape it can be.

After reading this it can seem like a home addition is a larger undertaking than you previously imagined. That is why it is important to get professional help. There can be many code violations and hazards in your new home addition and you don’t want to close them up until you are sure you are safe. An expert electrician knows what to look for and what should be done to make everything right. And when it comes to electrical panel upgrades a professional can make sure that the panel does not become a dangerous container of wires.

If you are performing a home addition or room expansion, make sure that you are keeping your home safe and up to code. The last thing you want is to expand your home and lose most of it to an electrical fire. With an expert electrician you have peace of mind knowing that everything behind the walls is done correctly.

Lighting is an extremely important aspect of setting up a good home office. Because this is the area of your house where you'll be performing the most work, it needs to be lit in such a way that it facilitates concentration and reading, rather than making these tasks more difficult. It may seem like a basic consideration, but with a little more thought and insight you can get more out of this space than you normally would.

A lot of home improvement blogs will recommend putting your office in a place that gets lots of natural light. While this is certainly ideal if you're working on art projects or anything else that involves reading or looking at things on paper, the glare from daylight can make a computer screen virtually unreadable. It may be better in such circumstances to rely more on artificial light, with a few windows thrown in when you don't need to use your computer.

So what kind of lights should you use? It's a good question. Most people will settle for a desk lamp or lights that were built into the room when they moved in. Both of these options represent compromises, however. Desk lamps take up valuable space and make your work area look cluttered, and the built-in lights may not be ideally placed for your home office.

Energy-efficient residential homes are becoming increasingly popular in Canada which is good news for both the environment and our economy. Having an energy-efficient home also helps Canadians save big on their electricity bills. Expert Electric has been helping homeowners improve their home’s energy-efficiency for many years. For help on how to make your home more energy efficient, here are some actionable steps that you can take.

One of the best ways to make your home more energy efficient has to do with your home’s thermostat. Properly programming your home’s thermostat is essential in saving big on electricity costs. Many people overlook the impact of their home’s thermostat and leave it on all throughout the day, whether they are home or at work. By programming your thermostat to run only during the times when you are home, you will keep your home warm and see a big improvement in cost savings. Always remember to turn your home’s thermostat down when you are not at home. Your wallet will thank you.

Is your home properly insulated? Insulation is important in making your home more energy efficient. Insulation can help keep your home warm during the Winter months and keep your home cool in the Summer. Your home’s insulation is an important investment that can help you save lots of money in the long-term.

Make use of your home’s windows by pulling back the curtains and allowing the natural light to enter during the day. Sunlight is the most energy-efficient source of light in your home because it is free to use.

Making the switch (pun intended) to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can result in big cost-savings for your home. These lights are known to last longer and use up much less energy. Halogen light bulbs are another energy-efficient option for Canadians looking to reduce their electricity costs. Similar to CFLs and LEDs, these light bulbs last much longer than regular light bulbs and require less energy to operate. Make your home more energy-efficient by switching to one of these three types of light bulbs today.

For questions about how to make your home more energy-efficient, please contact Expert Electric today. We offer a variety of different residential and commercial electrical services including standby generator installations, ceiling fan installations, hot tub wiring and more. Call us today at 604-681-8338.

If you're like most Americans, you probably still have a quite a few incandescent lightbulbs throughout your home. Cheap, effective, and easy to use, incandescent lightbulbs provide the second most used form of lighting in the world today behind fluorescent bulbs. The history of the incandescent light bulb While Thomas Edison typically gets the credit for the invention of incandescent lightbulbs. He was far from the only person involved in their history. Technology and variations over the years include…

What are today's incandescent lightbulbs made of? Lightbulbs are comprised of a base with two metal contacts. These contacts connect to the ends of an electrical circuit and are attached to two stiff wires, which are then attached to a thin tungsten metal filament (about 6.5 feet long and one-hundredth of an inch thick formed into an inch long coil in the typical 60-watt bulb). The filament sits mid-bulb, held up by a glass mounting structure. The wires and filament are then enclosed in a glass bulb filled with an inert gas, such as argon, to reduce the loss of tungsten due to combustion. When connected to a power supply, current flows from one contact to another, through the wires and on to the filament where they heat up, creating visible light. Why they're being phased out Due to the incandescent light bulb's inefficient nature, which gives off 90 percent of energy as heat and only about 10 percent as visible light, it is giving way to the more advanced and efficient technologies cool light sources such as fluorescents and LEDs. The phase out of these bulbs by the government will help consumers:

Ready to update the incandescent lightbulbs in your home and save? Contact Mr. Electric® today. Mr. Electric offers an array of lighting solutions and upgrades to add beauty and value to your home.