Every home uses energy in some way, shape, or form. For most of the population, this energy comes in the form of electricity from the power grid. According to Dayton Power & Light, an average of 46 percent of a home’s energy consumption goes into heating and cooling the home. Another 12 percent of energy consumption goes into lighting. While many individuals may think that all energy efficiency improvements are made through construction changes, like new windows, there are plenty of upgrades that can be made on the electrical system to improve your energy usage. Take a look at how a residential electrician can help you today.

We all forget to turn off the lights when we leave the room from time to time. Or perhaps you leave your back porch light on all night for safety. These habits can be a large energy drain but they don’t have to be. Motion sensor lighting, especially for exterior or commercial uses, can make a home much more efficient by turning the lights on when you need them and off when you don’t.

While your first thought may not be about needing the local residential electrician when you upgrade to ENERGY STAR® appliances, it may be a phone call you have to make anyway. Upgrading appliances such as the washer, dryer, or air conditioning unit may also mean addressing the power output of your home. Even ENERGY STAR appliances run on more wattage than older appliances used to and therefore the upgrade may put a strain on your electrical system and circuit breaker.

The residential electricians at Electrical Gurus can provide you with an energy efficiency evaluation of your home to help you identify your biggest electricity drains and how you can improve upon them. Contact us today!

When it comes to residential electrical work, most people just call up an electrician without a second thought. And for good reason – working with electricity can be difficult and dangerous if not done properly. However, there are some simple jobs that amateur electricians can perform on their own if they have basic tools and experience. Read on for tips on how to run electrical wiring behind your walls without tearing up your home.

It’s never a good idea to use electricity around water; bathroom spaces always have a certain amount of humidity and steam as well as water in them. You may end up using electrical devices such as hair dryers and shavers when you are in this bathroom and the shower and bathtub areas always have some water. These can prove to be an electrocution hazard or a fire hazard and it’s important to be extra careful when you are using any electrical appliances in the bathroom.

We all need water to maintain health and hygiene. However, it’s also an excellent conductor of electricity. This means you can easily experience shock when you are standing in a water puddle and touch an electrical appliance. If your skin in wet, that gives the electricity an easier path and it can pass through your body in an unhindered manner.

That can be extremely dangerous as electrical shock can cause heart arrhythmia, burns and can damage your nervous system and lead to death too. If the grounding is improper or if the wiring is poorly installed, that can start a fire as well. And so, it is crucial to maintain electrical safety when you are in bathroom spaces.

Here are some useful tips to you can follow to avoid an emergency:

BMW, Honda, Ford, Mitsubishi and Nissan all offer full electric vehicles; however, despite the groundbreaking technology introduced in the new crop of electric cars, sales of pure electric cars that run off of a battery alone have risen by only about 6% from the same time a year prior, according to Edmunds.com, the leading automobile information company.  An analyst from Edmunds.com believes that what he calls “range anxiety” prevents most consumers from purchasing fully electric vehicles. It is also widely believed that this slow increase is due in part to the high prices of these vehicles. Furthermore, there is very little public charging infrastructure, which can make using an electric vehicle as a primary vehicle difficult for many consumers.

The sales of hybrid vehicles, on the other hand, are going through the roof. These automobiles travel using their battery power until a traditional gas engine turns on. One of the main reasons that hybrids are doing so well is because of the plethora of options. Hybrid vehicles eliminate much of the anxiety associated with limited range due to their ability to use a gasoline engine in addition to their plug-in battery. The proposed Ford C-Max Energi, for example, can drive for approximately 20 miles on electricity alone and an additional 530 miles with its gasoline engine. This makes them not only practical for everyday use, but also for longer trips. As a result of the variety of options and advancement of the technologies in these vehicles, sales have soared 381% in the first half of this year.

Although pure electric vehicle sales are lagging behind those of hybrid sales, it is important to remember that the technologies used in these vehicles are still relatively new, and with time are likely to advance very quickly as demand and interest in these vehicles grow. Because of this projected increase in demand and technology, a licensed electrician such as The Electric Connection expects to install many electric vehicle charging ports over the next few years. It is very common for a Los Angeles electrician to install easy to use charging stations right in your own garage.

In addition to Toyota’s new plug-in version of the Prius which can be charged with the assistance of a charging port installed by an electrician in Los Angeles, Chevrolet has introduced the Volt, and Ford will be releasing the C-Max Energi hybrid, which will be coming out in late 2012.

For more information on electric vehicle charging and electric vehicle technologies, you can read more at TheElectricConnection.com