With the winter months closing in, there are some things you need to know before you pull out that portable electric heater. Sure your feet may get cold under your desk or your bathroom is a little cooler than you would like in the morning, but before you plug in that space heater you need to get informed. These are some tips from your Santa Monica electrician when using any space heaters this winter.

Your space heater should be placed as close to the center of the room as possible to ensure nothing comes in contact with the heater. You don’t want furniture, drapes, paper products or anything else touching the heater and creating a fire hazard.

Ventilation is crucial to any electrical appliance. It needs room to breathe so to speak. Heaters should never be placed up against a wall or any other surface. Anything electrical needs proper ventilation. This can be taken care of by an electrician. Santa Monica homeowners who are not sure what is needed should definitely contact a professional.

The last consideration when pulling out the space heaters this winter is the cord condition. Before you plug anything in, check the cord to make sure it is not frayed or damaged in any way. This can be a major fire hazard if there are any loose or exposed wires or areas where the insulation around the cord is thin. The heater should be plugged directly into an outlet and never an extension cord. The cord should also run along a wall or somewhere out of the way of foot traffic to avoid it becoming damaged.

These tips can be applied to any electrical appliance. If you have any more concerns or questions about a space heater, give The Electric Connection a call today. We are here to answer any questions you may have.

When looking for a home a lot of homebuyers flip the light switches, check the outlets, briefly look at the electrical panel, and think that the electrical system is perfectly fine. However, this is not always the case and it is important to have an expert come in for inspection.

Your home’s electrical system will age, just like your plumbing, roof,  air conditioning and heating system.  Those systems can have unexpected issues and problems, and so can your home’s electrical system.

Over ten years, the reliability of your homes’ electrical system can deteriorate greatly. Certain components can expire, like smoke detectors. Other items can wear out and not function properly like light switches, receptacles can wear and lose retention, GFCI outlets and smoke detectors may not be operable and may not be there when you need them most. Here are a few electrical components that can change over time and here is some information regarding other problems associated with older homes electrical systems.

A ten year checkup is a good idea. We always will perform a complete inspection with every service call. But if you haven’t needed to call in an electrician for a while, it’s a good idea to have one come in at least every ten years and provide a comprehensive check of your electrical systems.

For some reason, some homeowners seem to think that their ceiling fans are more fashionable than they are functional. This could not be further from the truth, though. While your ceiling fans are not going to actively cool the air in your home, as an air conditioner will, they are able to help distribute cooled air throughout the house more effectively. This can help to make your home feel more comfortable, allowing you to raise the temperature at the thermostat a bit. They also use far less energy than ACs, so put them to use, rather than your air conditioner, on stuffy nights that aren’t quite intolerably hot.

Not only will ventilating your home when the sun goes down help you to boost the quality of the air in your home, but it can also take a serious amount of strain off of your air conditioning system. It sounds simple, but simply shutting down your AC and opening up the windows when the air outside cools down can make a big difference. Close the windows early in the morning when you wake up in order to trap cool air therein.

While there are many ways in which you may go about cooling your home more efficiently, the best is simply to dial our number and to schedule routine air conditioning maintenance service. Our professional technicians will thoroughly inspect your system and tune it up as needed. This will allow it to cool your home with as little energy consumption as possible. Contact us today to schedule maintenance with professional technicians you can trust.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911). Her bio is beyond the scope of this entry, but I encourage you to follow the link and check her out. Get a little perspective on life today by reading a paragraph about this amazing human being and poet.

Harper’s poem, “Let the Light Enter,” depicts light in an interesting and fresh way, fresh still, even 100 years after her death. Poetry, generally speaking, is like a vast collection of opportunities to learn about yourself and the world in which you live. I invite you to take a minute to read “Let the Light Enter.”

The Dying Words of Goethe

He just urgently wants to watch the “balmy sunshine/ Play around” his deathbed. He just wants to experience the sensation of light doing it’s thing. “More light!” he demands. It strongly suggests that appreciating and enjoying the beauty of light is what Goethe, a lifelong thinker and poet who lived from 1749 to 1832, finds most worthy of his final precious minutes. That’s a big deal. In choosing between the pleasure of thoughts and the pleasure of the material world, he chooses the latter. It’s like all the things that seem to separate us from the natural world are shown to be false in the final moments. Think of a dog lying on a rock in the sun. Maybe that’s the purest state of being, just lying there, not thinking much, and enjoying the pleasure of the light, the sound of a brook. And maybe that’s why Goethe wants to pass away in such a state.