Here at Kolb Electric, we’re excited that Christmas is coming up soon—families throughout MD, DC, and VA have already started putting up their beautifully decorated Christmas trees. This time of the year also means that families in the area will decorate their homes with beautiful outdoor lighting to celebrate Christmas. Now, hundreds of homes each year are damaged as a result of faulty electrical wiring during the holiday season. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) states that each year fires occurring during this season claim the lives of over 400 people, injure 1,650 more, and cause over $990 million in damage.

Fortunately, there are some simple outdoor Christmas lighting safety tips we recommend you follow to ensure a safe and happy holiday. By following these precautionary lighting tips, individuals can minimize the risk of becoming a holiday fire casualty. You can trust us—we’ve been offering lighting help to our customers since 1925!

We recommend that you following these outdoor Christmas lighting safety tips to avoid a catastrophe this holiday season. If you do require Christmas lighting help, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The baseball season has started, NASCAR has revved up for the summer and football is right around the corner. All these sports, at one time, could only be enjoyed during the day. Mr. Electric®, a company committed to powering tomorrow, looked at how electricity and lights changed sports forever.

On the night of September 28, 1892, the game of football was changed forever when Wyoming Seminary played Mansfield State Normal School in the first-ever night game. The game lasted 20 minutes, consisted of a total of ten plays and ended with neither team scoring. The game ended early due to several players getting hurt by running into light poles caused by the insufficient lighting system. The first night game West of the Mississippi was played in Kansas by the now, Wichita State, and Sterling College in 1905. With upgraded lighting systems many games are now played at night. On September 28, 1992, Monday Night Football celebrated “100 years under the lights” in a game featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams.

Baseball was behind football when it came to playing at night. Though teams had played at night since the 1880s, many teams did not make it common practice until many years later. The first ever Major League Baseball game to be played at night took place on May 24, 1935, in Cincinnati when the Cincinnati Reds played the Philadelphia Phillies. The Chicago Cubs were the last Major League Baseball team to finally host a game at night in their home stadium of Wrigley Field. The game took place on August 9, 1988. The World Series had its first night game in 1977. Now, every Major League Baseball stadium has lights and night games are a common occurrence.

Bristol Motor Speedway was the first NASCAR track to have lights installed for night races in 1992. In order for night racing to take place in NASCAR lights had to be designed that would not blind the drivers as they raced around the track. Bristol was one of the first tracks to have night racing. Since 1992, many tracks have added lights for night racing. Some of the most popular night races take place at Kansas City, Richmond, Charlotte and Bristol Speedways. None of these sports would be where they are today without the advent of electricity and intelligently designed lighting systems.

Wiring, cabling, and NM cable (romex) have changed over the years.  Depending on the age of your home it will most likely represent the type of wiring you have throughout your walls, ceilings, and floors.  Have one of our trained professionals identify the type and condition of the wiring in your home.  Older homes can have knob and tube wiring, cloth covered, and various PVC coated types of wiring.  Our electricians can perform an “electrical rewire” eliminating old and outdated and even dangerous wiring.  Like most things in life wiring can have a life span also.  People often take for granted the condition of the wiring in there home.  Only noting the condition of the old wiring when something happens or its to late. Take the time have your homes wiring inspected from one of our licensed electricians that specialize in old wiring.

Do you live in an older home with original wiring?  Chances are your home does not have the necessary circuits and ampacity to handle todays electrical demands.  Modern day demands were not figured in your homes original electrical plans.  Your wiring may have not been planed for dishwashers, high powered microwaves, garbage disposals, powerful vacuum motors, and all the electronics, lighting, and gadgets we have in our homes today.  Without the proper dedicated circuits, your homes wiring can be come overloaded.  Combine overloaded wiring with outdated fuses, breakers boxes and you have a set up for disaster.  Many older breaker type boxes do not trip or stop the flow of electricity at proper level or ampacity.  If you have a circuit that has had an appliance added to it or is generally just overloaded. The breaker may be allowing to much current to go through the wiring causing it to heat up and bake the wires insulation over time.  This heating of the cable can make the insulation on the wire become brittle even crack which can lead to a short circuit or spark causing a fire.

Our electricians can provide you with a safe and cost effective solution to your homes older wiring.  Our electricians are experts at electrical rewires and specialize in older homes.  They have many specialized tools and unique tools designed to get to wiring to the necessary places without damaging your homes walls or ceilings.  Tools such as wall cameras, fish rods, magnetic wire pullers, fish tapes, and wire tracers can be used to perform electrical rewires more efficiently and safely then ever before.  We can pull the proper permits for any city or county in the state of Iowa.  If you live in Des Moines, Ankney, Norwalk, West Des Moines, Altoona, Indianola, Ames, Grimes, Johnston or any Des Moines metro city we can help you with your homes electrical wiring every step of the way.