Many Pittsburgh natives fondly recall the weather beacon atop the Gulf Tower with its flashing neon lights that indicated the weather forecast. The security guard in the building’s lobby would read the weather report in the local paper and switch the lights to red or blue, solid or blinking.

However, this six story pyramid’s neon display used as much energy as 24 homes, and during the energy crisis in the ‘70s, Gulf Oil decided to turn off the lights. When the crisis was over, the lights no longer worked.

Fast-forward a few decades: the building’s owners, inspired by the Empire State Building’s LED displays, decided to reignite the much adored landmark. With new LED technology, the award-winning lighting duo Chris Popowich and Cindy Limauro have enhanced the tower’s former glory with 730 foot-long strips of LEDs that can dazzle in a rainbow of colors.

The newly named KDKA-TV Weather Beacon usually provides a detailed weather display of Pittsburgh’s current conditions including temperature, precipitation, humidity, and wind speed:

As a Top Plano Electrician, I know better than anyone how powerful and useful electricity is. It also makes me more aware of what most people tend to ignore or forget: electricity is dangerous. Electricians are required by law to carry insurance, and for good reasons. Electric current is capable of starting fires and destroying your property and equipment in a matter of moments. The proper safety precautions really can save lives, and there‘s always something we can do to improve home safety.

One of the most important precautions is located in your electrical panel: the circuit breaker. It is designed to keep you from using more electricity than the wiring or receptacle can handle at one time, what we refer to as overcurrent protection. This protects your wiring from taking on too much current, which can cause the coating around your wiring to melt, the leading cause of electrical fires. Circuit breakers serve another purpose as well; not only to protect from surges coming from outside your home, but from potential hazards within it as well. Current flowing through a failed piece of equipment or appliance can cause sparks, which have the potential to start fires or damage other electrical devices. A properly functioning circuit breaker can shut off the power to this device. It’s very important, however, that you use a circuit breaker of the proper size for the circuit to ensure that your wiring is properly protected.

Circuit breakers come in specialty varieties as well; the most important are ground fault circuit breakers (GFCI), for wet locations, and arc fault circuit breakers (AFCI). AFCI’s, in particular, can help prevent some of the most common dangerous situations in your home.

I’ve dealt with plenty of cases where electrical fires have started because people ran an extension cord under the carpet, so that they can power the lamp in the center of the room. Over time, people walking over the cord stretches out the wiring, making it so thin that the current overloads the thinly stretched wire, creating an arc fault; the electricity “jumps” the wire, completing the circuit in a way the cord can’t handle and generating heat that starts a fire. Arc fault circuit breakers prevent this by shutting the circuit down when the arc fault occurs.

So what do you need to know about arc fault circuit breakers? To start with, by code AFCI’s should be installed on any circuit that isn’t protected by a GFCI or directly wired into an appliance. It’s in your best interest to have your safety devices routinely inspected to maintain their optimum performance and capabilities; in particular, your circuit breakers should be inspected at least once a year. The inspection process is quick and relatively inexpensive, and something that simple really can save the lives of you and your family.

As a Dallas Electrician will be familiar with standard wiring practices and will know the proper way to test the circuit that they will be working on to ensure that it is safe.

Another huge benefit to using a licensed electrician for your home electrical work is that they will be well versed in all of the building and safety codes required to make sure the job is done right. The reason that this is important is two-fold. First, it is legally required to adhere to all building and safety codes, and if you ever intend on selling your home or having it inspected for any other reason, a DIY Electrical repair or addition will cause your home to fail inspection if building and safety codes are not followed to the letter, generally costing you more money later down the line to have an improperly performed job repaired. Secondly, and even more important, is the fact that building and safety codes are put in place for a reason. If you are not familiar with these codes or do not follow them, you are putting yourself and your family at risk of electrical shock, electrical fires, and injury or death due to a faulty repair.

Were you the lucky recipient of a fabulous hot tub this holiday season? If so, you are probably eager to have it set up as soon as possible. It may be the middle of winter, but the California weather makes it the perfect time of year to enjoy the hot water while enjoying the brisk night air after a long day. It is a relaxing experience and you are likely eager to get to it. You will need to call a Burbank electrician to schedule your install appointment. The friendly team at The Electric Connection is on hand and ready to take your call.

It is imperative you do not try and install the hot tub by yourself. There are some technical things that must be done in order to install the hot tub properly. The first order of business is to have an electrician come out and check your electric panel to determine if you have the space needed to install an additional 240-volt outlet. That is what your hot tub will need to operate. If you don’t have the available space in your current electric panel for the additional breaker, you will need an electric panel upgrade. When the electrician does the initial inspection, he or she will let you know what you will need.

The hot tub will need to be hard-wired to your home’s main electric by an electrician. Burbank residents will also need to check with their county to determine what permits are needed for a hot tub installation. Depending on where you plan on placing the hot tub, the wiring from the hot tub to the home will need to buried. Keep this in mind as you decide where you want your hot tub. If you are ready to get your new hot tub up and running, give The Electric Connection a call today.