L.A. City engineers originally hoped that the LED bulbs would save 40% on electric bills. By the end of 2010, with 20,000 street lights switched over, the City experienced a surprising 55% savings in electricity on the new bulbs. The city has also found that the LED lights create brighter and more uniform visibility, reducing pockets of dark shadow that conventional street lights sometimes leave.

This is the largest LED street lighting project of its type in the world. Mayor Villaraigosa commented proudly, “We’re seeing L.A. lead the way.” The project is being funded, in part, by Federal stimulus dollars as well as the Clinton Foundation. Sarah Potts of the Clinton Foundation said, “The Clinton Climate Initiative was excited to work on this project mainly because L.A. was willing to be a mover on this. They were willing to set the bar for where energy efficiency street lighting could and should go. They took on a project that was much larger than any other cities were considering.”

If you want to go greener in your home or business, you can take steps that range from quick and simple to more ambitious:

Let’s make L.A. the greenest city on the planet!

–Kim Hopkins, Owner

The Electric Connection

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If you are doing work on your yard over the weekend, you can now get away with doing everything using only electricity. Lawnmowers, pressure washers, and other tools that commonly used gas can now be purchased in models powered by electricity. If you are using these electrical powered tools you need to ensure that you have electrical coverage around your home to plug them in. Here are some tips for having outdoor GFCI outlets installed in your home’s exterior.

Most homes come standard with a couple of outdoors outlets. Sometimes this is not enough and you will be restricted because the cable for your lawnmower or pressure washer can’t reach around the side of the home or to the back of your yard. When preparing to have an outdoor GFCI outlet installed, measure the length of your cables and the maximum distance you will need to go. You can then create the radius of coverage you will need and pin point the correct locations for the outlets. If you do not choose the optimal location you could end up installing more outlets then you need and will have to unplug during tasks to move outlets. This is inconvenient, so lets do it efficiently!

With a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), the outlet can detect if there a problem in the circuit such as contact with water or a person, and then the circuit will shut off. This is especially important outside, as the outlet is more susceptible to water, from rain and snow, car washing, and interaction from animals and children. It is also wise to have covers installed overtop of the outlet as well. This adds an extra layer of protection. The covers will need to be manually opened by yourself before use and prevent unwanted interaction.

As we usually recommend, double check that your existing wires and circuits can handle the additional outlets. The tools and equipment that make use of these outlets can demand a lot of power and if the outlet is installed on circuit that is already heavily loaded, you will be experiencing trips and electrical hazards to your home. An Expert Electrician will be able to identify the proper circuits to have the outlets installed on.

Using electricity offers convenience and efficiency. Make the most of it and be safe by having a professional, certified electrician install outdoor GFCI outlets on your home.

We all know or at least heard that converting from Metal Halide (High Intensity Discharge) to LED will save you money.

But how much? Are there any other reasons or difference you should know about?

In this article, we break down all the factors that you should be aware of before making a decision to convert from Metal Halide to LED. Here are the 9 reasons we think LED wins over Metal Halide.

Let’s take a look at the information on a typical 400 watt metal halide bulb. While specifications may vary, a visit to a popular online website that sells Metal Halide bulbs shows that a brand new bulb has the following specifications:

We have just as many customers wanting to convert to LED because of maintenance savings as they do for energy savings. Think about what we discussed, over the life of the LED retrofit kit, a customer would have to do 5-6 Metal Halide replacements. The higher the installation height, the higher the cost of replacement. And if you have a facility loaded with lights, this becomes a significant budget amount every year that you must take into consideration. Now, we know that reduced maintenance time on lights does not translate into dollars saved because it is highly unlikely that people will lose their jobs over the fact there is much less work to do. However, these people will have time to now work on things that matter, like fixing the machines that make the company money instead on replacing lights that cost the company money.

When you take a measurement of light with a light meter, it reads lumens. And this measurement of all the lights that contribute to the light at that location creates a measurement called foot candles. But let’s think about that light that is being measured. Metal Halide creates all sorts of light, in all spectrum’s, visible or otherwise. This includes UV and IR spectrum’s, visible to the measuring device but not visible to the human eye. LED, on the other hand, does not produce UV and IR. Therefore, its readings using the same light meter is only picking up visible spectrum’s.

So there is a fun little test you can do. Have 2 light sources, LED and Metal Halide. And first ask, which one is brighter? And if the right LED source was selected, they should say LED. And then use a light meter, and the light meter may say the Metal Halide area is producing more foot candles. And so now you know part of the reason, but wait, there’s 2 other pieces of information you need to know.

Click here to see our infographic on Retrofitting vs Replacing.

Conclusion

If you’re like us, you are proud of the artwork you’ve chosen to adorn the walls of your home or business. A framed movie poster, an original oil painting, or even a stylish wall hanging all serve to bring color, and life to a room. Make sure that the images that have been so carefully selected are seen in their full splendor with the right lighting.

Many people in the Alpharetta area have barns without pole barn lighting. It is still fairly common to see pole barns with no artificial lighting or traditional sodium lights installed. Both options can lead to unsafe situations.

Pole barns have many dark nooks and crannies and often have sharp objects stored in them. Sharp objects plus dark areas is a recipe for injury. To prevent potentially dangerous conditions, you should have a lighting system installed. It is especially important to get these lights installed before winter, as the days are shorter and nights are longer. The pole barn will be left through those long nights without natural or artificial lighting unless you have an electrician install illumination now.

Here are the options:

● Fluorescent Lights. Fluorescent lights are a good option for a relatively small space, especially if the ceilings are low. Fluorescent lights are cheap to buy and run. They are also fairly energy efficient, which means your electrical bill will be lower.

● Halide Lights. While fluorescent lights have long been popular for many residential and commercial applications, halide lights are relatively new. They have been around a few years but are not as common as fluorescent lights due to their more specialized nature. Though halide lights are stronger than fluorescent lights, they do have a few drawbacks. They are more expensive to buy and operate, and they take a while to reach full power after being turned on. Nonetheless, they’re likely the best option for large pole barns because of their power.