We, of course, love lighting. Layers of light help to brighten any space, highlight certain aspects of a room, and help set the mood. Justin Krutz, a blogger for Palatin Remodeling, sent us this guest post with interior design decorating tips to help you brighten your home beyond just lighting. Thanks Justin!

Custom Electrical Services has electricians in Waukee.  We serve Waukee Iowa 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  Have an unexpected electrical emergency?  You can call us anytime at 515-669-3418 24 hours a day to speak with a live representative.  Or submit an online work request here.

We provide hundreds of electrical services in Waukee.  Custom Electrical Services wires over 250 new construction homes every year and performs thousands of service calls.  We have the man power and experience to perform virtually any electrical project you may have.  From the simplest of projects to the most lavish.  We can help!

We offer upfront pricing on your electrical project.  Our Waukee electricians and estimators are trained to give you the most accurate bid possible.  We can give you a fair and honest flat rate cost so that you know what the job will cost before the work begins.

Custom Electrical Services has an A+ rating with the BBB so you can trust your project is in the best hands possible.  Please check out our rating here.  Our 24 hour Waukee electrician can also accept credit cards for those unexpected and non budgeted repairs!

As much as some good task lighting and a ceiling full of recessed cans will make a room come alive, there’s nothing like airy, natural light. You can change your home’s color, its style, and even its structure, but when it comes to the amount of sun you get, you can rarely change much. How much natural light you home receives depends on so many different factors both in and outside of your house – the direction your home faces, the topography and structures around, the number of windows you have – these can be costly or just impossible to fix.

So, when you’re on the market for a new house, be sure to consider the lighting potential of any dwelling – lest you end up with a dungeon, or an oven.

Here are some questions to keep in mind when scoping out a new property:

Normally, south-facing homes get sun at the front of the house, and for most of the day. They tend to be brighter and warmer. A house that faces north gets light at the back and is cooler and darker. This may be especially important to note depending on your climate. When it’s cool most of the year, you may want a house that’s naturally a little warmer, if it’s warm for most of the year, you may prefer a house that doesn’t make you cook.

Also be sure to take a look around your property and note what could potentially affect your light. Does your house face an open field, or another row of houses? Are you at the base of a hill that will cast a shadow for most of the day, or at the top, almost always exposed to sunlight? These factors will influence the brightness in your home, and also the temperature.

Once your house is built, it can be costly and time-consuming to add or remove windows. So, before taking the plunge and becoming a home owner, make sure to consider the size, shape, and placement of your windows, and what that means for the home’s natural light levels.

Are there large trees close to the house blocking out the light? Will a close-by lake reflect directly into your windows? Are the windows crazy tiny or just too big? Be sure to consider modifications – window coverings you’ll have to buy, foliage you’ll have to trim – and whether or not they would make a difference.

You will be spending a lot more time indoors over the next few months as we ride out yet another winter. You will want to do what you can to ensure your family is as safe as possible inside your home. There are a few things you can do today to provide an extra layer of safety. Your Beverly Hills electrician is here to help you. You can count on the team at The Electric Connection to provide you with a knowledgeable, experienced electrician to take care of the following safety features for your home.

• Replace your old, standard outlets in the kitchen and bathroom areas with GFCI outlets. These are designed to cut the electricity the second the circuit is interrupted. These outlets are especially handy in areas where water is present, like the kitchen and bathroom. If an appliance is accidentally dropped in water, the breaker will trip, cutting off the electricity and reducing the risk of electric shock.

• Have hard-wired smoke detectors installed. These smoke detectors rely on your home’s main power rather than a battery. Dead or missing batteries in smoke detectors are often to blame for late warnings in the event of a house fire. The detectors are all interconnected so when one goes off, the rest of the alarms are sounded. You will need the installation completed by a professional electrician. Beverly Hills homeowners will feel better knowing the wiring was handled by somebody trained to work with electrical wiring.

• Carbon monoxide detectors are also handy devices that every home should have. If you use natural gas for your heat or have a woodstove, a carbon monoxide detector can warn you to unsafe levels of carbon monoxide in the home.

Your home is somewhere you should feel safe. These rather easy and inexpensive safety features can eliminate some of the risks in your home. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your safety enhancements.

A hefty amount of our readers here on the MyLEDLightingGuide’s official blog consists of facility managers (along with contractors, government employees, and other decision makers). This post is made specifically for the facility managers and building owners out there to help keep you up to date and fresh on the latest news and opportunities for you and your buildings.

This list of 14 blogs will consist of some popular and most likely already heard of publications, along with a few lesser known places that you still may find extremely interesting. Picking a few from this list is definitely the first step to keeping up to date and staying ahead with your work.

There will be a brief description along with a URL for each blog / magazine listed, and it should give you a good idea or not if that facility management resource will benefit you more-so or not than others listed here. Now, let’s get started with this list…

2. Buildings.com

Another very popular publication which covers a lot of useful topics and products that any building decision maker should be aware of to create a more efficient and overall better workplace. They also have many courses and webinar on topics like life cycle costs, energy management, lighting, security, and more.

4. Maintenance World

As the name suggests, this blog leans on the side of maintenance based topics. Although, they often talk about topics that are important to any facility manager, such as cooling an industrial sized area. That is just a glimpse of the type of stuff this blog publishes, so reading more on what they offer may be important to seeing if this blog is worth your time or not!

6. FM World

FM World seems to put a lot of their attention on news, but all are topics that are probably very relevant to you and your tasks as a FM. They also (like many other of these blogs on this list) offer many different white papers which carry tons of valuable information in them. Along with professional interviews, webinars, and other pieces of content they are very well rounded in the variety of things that they offer.

8. The Built Environment

They don’t only talk about the environment and green buildings, but surprisingly they publish a lot about facility managers and how to become a better one in general. You can thank Michel Theriault for this great resource, as he is the brains behind it all. He also offers services such as consulting and training for FM staff, so if a budget allows and you want to become a better FM; that’s always an option!

10. Building Automation Monthly

Phil Zito is the creator and sole person behind Building Automation Monthly. He writes about and educates on the topics solely regarding building automation systems. No time for reading? Phil offers a Podcast which covers many different great topics as well. So, next time you are driving or taking a flight you might want to listen in to his podcast!

12. The fmguru blog

Although this blog doesn’t seem to be updated as often as many others on this list; their past and current posts are a good read. They are definitely insightful and thought provoking on the tasks and purposes of a facility manager.

14. i-FM.net

Like their headline says, “if you’re in FM, you need to be on i-FM.” They offer tons of content through news, interviews, top 50 list of great and relevant companies, and overall great resources.

Missed any that you think is worthy of being added? Be sure to comment them down below, this list is always being updated!

Final Words

There you have it, 14 (and growing) facility manager blogs, magazines, and resources that will hopefully make you an informed, up to date, and more educated facility manager overall. Our #1 tip for you is to pick two or three from this list that really peak your interest, and make it a ritual to check in on them often for the latest content that they offer.

Again, if we missed one that you think should be added; feel free to comment it down below for consideration!

Want more of our topics for facility managers? Here are some: