You may have heard the term GFCI from your electrician before. But what exactly does it mean? And is that type of outlet really necessary in your home or building?

We all know that water and electricity don’t mix. That’s what makes electrical outlets in kitchens, bathrooms, and other rooms where water is used so tricky. To reduce the chance of electrocutions, burns, and shocks, virtually all North American building codes require that ground fault circuit interrupter outlets (GFCIs) be installed where there is water nearby. GFCI outlets have a built-in circuit breaker that instantly stops the flow of electricity when it senses a surge.

A GFCI outlet not only helps keep you and your family or building occupants from getting shocks and burns, but it helps prevent electrical fires. In the even that there is an electrical fire, it can lessen the severity and any damage.

A GFCI outlet is important not only to meeting local building code requirements, but also to help prevent potentially-fatal accidents.

GFCI outlets are designed with a red button that activates the outlet after the built-in breaker is tripped, and a black button that tests the outlet to make sure that the breaker is working properly. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends that all ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets be tested in the following intervals:

To test your ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets, plug a lamp into the outlet. Turn the lamp on and push the black test button. If the lamp goes out, the outlet is working properly. If the lamp remains lit, contact a licensed electrician to evaluate the problem. Electrical and wiring issues make poor DIY projects and are best left to electricians who are trained to safely handle electrical current and wiring.

At Kolb Electric, we want to help you keep your home or building safe in the Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC areas. We can save you time by inspecting and testing all of the ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets in your interior space and addressing any electrical issues we may discover during the tests. To learn more about electrical safety and GFCI outlets and/or to schedule a service appointment, call us at 877 287-1179. We’ve been helping Mid-Atlantic homeowners like you with their electrical needs since 1925.

Are you in need of an electrician in Norwalk Iowa?  Call Custom Electrical Services!  We offer straightforward pricing and 24 hour service!  Our electricians in Norwalk have the training and skill needed to complete the simplest of task to the most lavish.  Note sure what your project will cost?  Our Norwalk, IA electricians can come to your home or business and provide you with a straightforward price.  We charge by the job not by the hour so you know upfront what the cost will be and not have to worry about the time it takes to complete.  You know your project will be in the best hands possible when choosing Custom Electrical Services.  We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee and a 5 year warranty.  Custom Electrical Services holds an A+ rating with the BBB.

We take our job serious.  We understand your home is your castle, our electricians will respect you and your home.  Do you know who will arrive for your electrical project?  Our electricians undergo a thorough background check and drug screen.  They wear the seal of safety which is performed by an independent 3rd party.  Our electricians take this certification serious and wear the badge with pride.

Ron Mealey founded Custom Electrical Services in 2005.  Working out of his home in Norwalk with no employees, Ron grew the company to one of the leading residential and light commercial contractors in the area.  To date Custom Electrical Services does over 5 million dollars in sales, wires over 300+ new homes and performs over 3,000 service calls each and every and is still growing.  Custom Electrical Services employees around 24 people.  Ron is a member of the Norwalk community and has Custom Electrical Services home office and warehouse located in Clive, Iowa.  Custom Electrical Services is a member of the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce.  Our electricians in Norwalk, participate in the annual 4th of July parade each and every year.

This is the time of year you need to be worrying about an active storm season. Sure, the weather is mild right now, but you never know what Mother Nature has in storm for us. It could be a rough winter with lots of storms that threaten to knock out the power. A power outage is slightly romantic until you have to go without electricity for hours. Trying to figure out how to make dinner or take a hot shower is not fun. You don’t have to deal with all the issues a power outage can cause if you give your electrician in Glendale a call. The crew at The Electric Connection knows you don’t want to go without power for several hours or days. There is a solution—a standby generator.

A standby generator is one of the best options to keep your home powered when the grid goes down. The size of generator you will need depends on what appliances you need to keep running and the overall size of your home. Your Glendale electrician can help you determine the wattage needed to keep essential lights on as well as keep your refrigerator and other appliances powered. If you are planning to run your furnace or AC in the summer, you will need a larger generator. Don’t worry about trying to figure out what you need. Leave it to your electrician. Glendale homeowners won’t have to worry about anything other than the maintenance schedule for the generator.

The electrician will take care of everything, including installing a transfer switch that ill automatically switch the generator on the moment the power goes out. You won’t have to worry about turning it on or running cords to the generator. It is all done for you. This means, your home will stay powered, even if you are not there to flip a switch. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your standby generator consultation.

Insect Vision: Ultraviolet, Color, and LED Light, Marianne Shockley Cruz and Rebecca Lindner from the University of Georgia’s Department of Entomology write, “Experimental work supports the idea that color perception exists in insects and that they are especially responsive to the shorter wavelengths of the visible spectrum and UV light.” Wavelengths are measured in nanometers, and shorter wavelengths of light (less than 550 nanometers) can indicate ultraviolet (UV), blue, or green colors. Cruz and Lindner also cite work that confirms the correlation between UV light from the sun and moon and how certain bugs navigate Earth. Another point to remember about bugs is that certain types, such as mosquitoes, are attracted to heat and have thermal receptors to help them find it. All of this information is helpful for determining why bugs flock to certain light sources.

The color that is emitted from a light source is important because of its ability to attract bugs. As previously stated, shorter wavelengths (UV, blue, and green light) are more visible to bugs than longer wavelengths (yellow, orange, and red light) and, therefore, will draw them closer. Incandescent, compact fluorescent (CFL), halogen, and high-intensity discharge (HID) lights emit UV radiation that is attractive to bugs, and since certain types of bugs navigate by UV light from the sun and moon, a closer, brighter source of UV light can disrupt their orientation and draw them in. LEDs produce very little to no UV light, which makes them less visible to bugs. However, it is still possible for an LED bulb to produce shorter wavelengths of light (bluish-white/cool white color), which will be more attractive to bugs. Therefore, when browsing for LED lights that will attract less bugs, it’s important to choose a fixture that emits more wavelengths that are above 550 nanometers, such as warm white, ultra warm white, or yellow lights.

CCT) instead of nanometers, it’s easy to tell if the bulb will be more or less visible to bugs. CCT is measured in Kelvin (K), and different temperatures on the Kelvin scale represent different colors. An LED bulb with a CCT below 3600K will emit warm or ultra warm white light that’s not easily seen by bugs. Bulbs with CCTs of 3600K and above will emit natural or cool white light that is more likely to attract bugs.

Incandescent, halogen, CFL, and HID bulbs waste most of the energy they consume—as much as 90 percent—in the form of heat. Bugs with thermal receptors can sense the heat released by these light sources. LED bulbs produce a minuscule amount of heat, which makes them less appealing to bugs.

Bug lights are simply light bulbs with a yellow coating that decreases the color temperature of emitted light. Because of the coating, bulbs will emit a peak wavelength of light that is around 550-600 nanometers. However, you don’t need a yellow-coated bulb to reduce the presence of bugs. LED lights that emit warm-colored illumination, such as yellow malibu light bulbs for landscape applications, or From top left to bottom right: incandescent bug light, yellow LED strip lights, yellow LED malibu light bulb installed in landscape fixture, and gold-tint LED filament bulbs

Ecologist Michael Justice performed an experiment to determine the type of residential light that attracts the least amount of bugs. He used six lighting types inside of an insect trap each night during the summer. Justice also made efforts to equalize the effects of weather and the moon’s irradiance. His LED Z-Bug Bulb™ from NEBO is a bug zapper and an LED bulb in one. The bulb emits white illumination from its top and ultraviolet (UV) light from its caged center. The UV light attracts mosquitoes and other insects toward the bulb’s high-voltage electric grid and kills them on contact.

Because different types of bugs see different wavelengths, it is never guaranteed that an LED light won’t attract them. However, most bugs are attracted to short wavelengths of light and are especially drawn to UV light; they can see it better, and some use it for navigation. Bulbs that emit more short wavelengths of light (cool white/bluish color) will attract more bugs. Lights that emit a majority of longer wavelengths (yellow/orange/red colors) are less visible. Heat can also draw bugs into an area. LED lights produce little to no UV light and a minuscule amount heat, which makes them less attractive to bugs—so long as they emit longer wavelengths of light.