If you want to achieve flexibility of loading different electrical appliances in your home, implement the following approaches. The electrical conduits practices recommended here meet NEC guidelines guaranteeing proper load growth for both commercial and residential buildings.

If you expect the load on your house, office, establishments, or other buildings to increase in future, consider using at least 12 AWG conductors. Ensure that they have protection of 20-amp circuit breakers and are designed with a 15-amp load standard each.

In addition, consider implementing these measures on wires and cables to increase the optimal performance of your circuit conductors.

To allow the normal length of lamp cords and other wire cables, the NEC Code recommends more than six feet of distance between the point on a wall and an appliance receptacle. In applications such as kitchen countertops, electricians should wire receptacle outlets some twelve feet or four feet apart.

The biggest challenge here is the difficulty in predicting how items such as furniture in your house will be arranged. Additionally, there may be an inadequate number of outlets at various locations. Evidence for this can be seen in the outlet power strips that today’s equipment use.

In locations where you can expect a huge load, such as computer workstations, offices, and home entertainment, the use of Quadruplex receptacles is an ideal solution. Reducing the number of receptacles that a single circuit uses will limit the installation and use of sensitive equipment. It also positively affects circuit conductors, voltage drop, chance of interaction, and reduces the likelihood of harmonics accumulating to harmful levels.

If your home has a large kitchen and multiple bathrooms, you need additional circuits that go beyond the minimums of the NEC Code. This effectively maintains the high-capacity appliances that characterize these rooms.

In addition, limit the number of use receptacles per circuit. For example, a 15-amp circuit can run 1800 Volt Amps when working at 100 per cent rate. While NEC recommends using circuits at 80 per cent rate, this translates to 1440 Volt Amps.

For some reasons, NEC requires a high number of circuits for use in most commercial and residential buildings. The Code recommends that sensitive electrical appliances, high-capacity loads, and equipment that cause poor quality of power obtain power from individual circuits. This separation eliminates the interference with equipment on a common circuit.

Where individual branch circuits are installed, the harmonicas generated in other circuits are shielded from coming in contact with sensitive equipment. In addition, this prevents the high neutral currents from sensitive electronic appliances to those circuits, effectively eliminating the likelihood of incorrect operation and voltage drop.

Raceways provide the ease of upgrading conductors efficiently and give electricians the freedom to pull conductors through a building. Therefore, let spare raceways and safety electrical material is installed during construction to allow an easy installation of conductors in the future.

As appliances and equipment advance over time, the lighting and switching mechanisms in your house or building should anticipate future modifications. For example, motion detectors and other electronic lighting devices require a small standby current to remain in their optimal state.

Therefore, install the following solutions for safety switches and lighting appliances right from building construction.

These applications are necessary if you want to reduce the load on the circuits in your house. If you have not implemented them yet, call a reputable electrician today to overhaul the electrical conduits. While this protects the electrical wiring from possible hazards, it also safeguards the assets in your house or building.

The National Weather Service is predicting a lighter hurricane season than normal this year, but that doesn’t mean everyone shouldn’t be prepared. As we’ve seen in the very recent past, it only takes one major storm to make landfall and throw everything into chaos. One of the best ways to prepare for a major storm is to make sure you have a properly maintained standby generator. Consumerreports.org has some excellent advice for those who are looking for or who already own standby generators—read on for some great tips!

Depending on what you plan on running in the event of a power outage, you’ll need a different size of generator:

Midsized standby generators (5k – 8.5k watts): standby generators of this size can power the refrigerator and sump pump as well as most lights in your home, a portable heater, computer, and heating system.

Large standby generators (10k to 15k watts): large standby generators can power everything a midsized standby generator can, along with a small water heater, central air conditioner, electric range, clothes washer, or electric dryer (although not all at once).

While we don’t often feel the brunt of major hurricanes around here, we still live in a risky area and it’s important that proper precautions are taken. Here is a list of hurricane preparedness tips from Ready.gov:

Before the hurricane:

When a hurricane is likely in your area:

During the storm:

After the storm:

We don’t often experience major hurricanes in our area, but it’s still important to be prepared! Kolb Electric sells and installs Generac generators, so if you want to be extra prepared this hurricane season, call us today!

If you’ve lived in the Washington, DC area for a while, you know how severe summer rains and winter storms can be. Too often, the result is a power outage that forces you to shut your home office down, puts your refrigerated goods at risk, and can even present a health hazard if someone in your household relies on oxygen to help them breathe. Fortunately, a home generator can bridge that gap between when the power goes out and when your service is restored.

Home generators offer a number of advantages to Maryland, Virginia, and DC homeowners, the largest of which include:

At Kolb Electric, we want to help you keep your electricity running even during the most severe Mid-Atlantic storms. To learn more about installing a standby generator in your Maryland, Northern Virginia, or Washington, DC home, call us at 877 287-1179 or click here to contact us online. We’ve been serving home and building owners in neighborhoods near you since 1925.

Damaged wiring, DIY repairs and faulty installations are all common electrical mistakes which if not corrected in time can be hazardous and lead to short circuits, injury and electrical fires. If you encounter any of these 7 mistakes in your house, fix them immediately as they pose a serious risk to life and property.