Why is a bad GFCI outlet such a big deal? To put it simply, they exist to protect you from electrical shock. As required by electrical code, these outlets are in places within your house where there is an increased risk of electrocution. These include bathrooms, kitchens or outside (wherever water is likely to be present).

GFCI outlets come with a sensor designed to identify changes in current, which can indicate unsafe conditions or the risk of shock. There’s a breaker inside the outlet, which trips when there is a surge in current. This shuts down the power supplied to the outlet and any connected outlets, protecting you from electrical shocks.

GFCIs come with two buttons on them (usually black and red), with one serving to test the outlet and the other for resetting it after the breaker inside has tripped. A bad GFCI is a serious problem, as they are too important for you to ignore them for any amount of time. It is, therefore, crucial that you stay aware of when you might have an issue with one of yours.

In the majority of cases, a GFCI outlet protects you by not providing power. If there is an issue with an appliance plugged into it, the power would likely cut off long before you even get the chance to use it. When this happens, it can be easy to assume there’s something wrong with the outlet itself. But in many cases, its breaker tripped for a good reason. GFCIs are also designed to shut themselves off in the event of a person getting shocked, which isn’t always easy for it to determine with much accuracy. In other words, your GFCI outlet breaker might trip when you’re not actually in any danger.

The GFCI detects current that branches off from the intended circuit, even if the branches are small and harmless. This can include instances of a wire making contact with another component of the receptacle, which can be completely innocent. When the cause of a trip is a passing occurrence, you should be able to reset the outlet breaker with a simple push of the correct button.

Outlets can get worn out and lose some of their effectiveness over time. This also applies to GFCIs. If your GFCI outlet is tripping much more frequently than it should, it could mean it’s nearing the end of its lifespan. This is due to GFCI outlets losing the ability to adjust to changes in current as effectively as they used to. The result is that trips begin occurring for reasons that were never a problem in the past.

If your outlet breaker is tripping every time you use a hair dryer, and it never did that before, it’s a sure sign you have a bad GFCI outlet. If this becomes the case, it’s important to get it replaced as soon as possible! These outlets are too crucial a safety measure for you to delay on getting a new, functional one.

Over the years, our clients have asked many questions about their electrical systems; how to best care for them, what the cause of certain issues are, and more. We’ve compiled just a few of the most common questions we get below, with our responses.

A: Is the switch all the way in the “off” position? You have to feel it click off before you can reset it. If you are able to return it to the “on” position—you’ll feel another click—and it does not trip again, then you were successful. If it continues to trip, then there could be a chance that you have a short circuit or an overloaded circuit. Quite often, an electrical panel upgrade is the solution.

A: There are a number of possible reasons this can be occurring. First, check for a tripped circuit breaker. Then, if it’s a GFCI outlet, check for a reset button right on the outlet itself. Push that, if there is one. In the absence of either of these issues, then it may just be an old outlet that needs replacing. Just like any other electrical component, it can wear out over time and is usually no reason for huge concern.

Do, though, make sure you don’t smell or see any smoke or smoldering—this can be indicative of frayed wires starting an electrical fire. If you do detect smoke, your next step is to call the fire department.

Flickering can happen with certain types of lightbulbs and are sometimes not a cause for concern at all. However, if either of flickering or dimmer are occurring when you turn something on or an appliance cycles on in your home, then you probably have an overloaded electrical panel. Another possibility is that the lightbulbs you have installed in whatever fixture is creating the issues are not adequate bulbs for that fixture.

One of the main stays in Industrial and Commercial Lighting has been the Metal Halide Bulb. It is common in Indoor Fixtures, such as High Bays, Canopy Lights, Garage Lights and Low Bays. It is

So you have a Metal Halide (or even High Pressure Sodium) light, and you want to convert to LED. You’ve done your research, you’ve been inundated with marketing materials that tell you what is the most important thing to consider (coincidentally it probably is something they think is important). And now you are left to make a decision. New or retrofit? What new versus retrofit. We sell both. Our retrofits perform as well if not better than new fixtures, but not all retrofit kits can make that claim. However, if your fixtures are old, leak, and have seen their better days, then by all means replace them. It does not make sense to buy a new fixture that includes a retrofit kit inside of it like some vendors will try and sell you. The engineering of some of the new fixtures are fantastic. However, the real reason you would want to consider retrofitting is because you have a significant investment in fixtures. Why not keep that investment? Retrofitting is extremely cost effective, especially our Look for the DLC Premium Symbol, it’s different than the DLC Standard symbol. And that gives you the quick notification that the light you are looking at is the most efficient.

And why does that matter. It’s simple. It will save you a lot more money. Let me do three comparisons for you. First a retrofit kit designed at 97 lumens per watt to replace a 400W Metal Halide bulb, a second at 102 lumens per watt and ours at 155 lumens per watt. Lets keep everything else the same. Cost of electricity, hours of use. The only thing different you will notice is the watts consumed and the lumens produced. For the record, our retrofit kit uses the least amount of energy in this test BUT also produces the most amount of light. We will use 12 hours a day operating time and .12 kw.h electricity cost

Calculation 1: 97 lumens per watt retrofit head, 135 watts, 13164 lumens

Savings per fixture per year over 400 watt Metal Halide: $170.82

Calculation 2: 102 lumens per watt retrofit head, 143 watts, 14600 lumens

Savings per fixture per year over 400 watt Metal Halide: $166.62

OK, so between the competitor options, you are neck and neck, the difference is so minimal you can make your decision based on whose website you like more

Calculation 3: 155 lumens per watt retrofit head, 100 watts, 15,776 lumens (this is our LED Retrofit Kit)

Savings per fixture per year over 400 watt Metal Halide: $189.22

So there is clearly a $18.40 savings over the first LED retrofit option and a $22.60 savings per fixture over the second LED Retrofit option. And, we produce more light!

We have 3 mini LED Retrofit Kits, 30W, 45W and 60W designed to replace up to 250W Metal Halide. We have 3 standard sized retrofit kits, 75W, 100W and 120W designed to replace from 250 Watt to 400 Watt Metal Halide. We have 2 Large Retrofit Kits, 150W and 200W, designed to provide more light than a 400W Metal Halide up to 750W Metal Halide. And we have 3 Extra Large retrofit kits, 280W, 320W and 350W, designed to replace 1000W Metal Halide.

NEMA or the National Electrical Manufacturers Association has developed rating standards for electrical enclosures to ensure safety, compatibility and proper function of electrical products. These ratings provide the standards that help in defining the types of environments in which various electrical enclosures can be used. NEMA ratings frequently indicate a fixed enclosure’s ability to withstand certain environmental conditions.

NEMA ratings are mainly applied to fixed enclosures and are rarely applied to mobile devices. They have extremely stringent testing requirements to verify if the enclosures can be protected from external ice, oil immersion, corrosive materials, dust, water, etc. Each NEMA rating has different specifications; however, all of them are designed to protect electrical components, personnel and property from damage.

Importance of NEMA ratings

If you use any kind of electrical enclosure, it is important that you check its NEMA rating before installing it. There are a number of reasons why it is important to do so. Let us look at three reasons why NEMA ratings are important.

For the photo shown to the right, taken at night in a Texas ghost town, Danser assembled the following items: a powerful, handheld LED light; his Canon 5D Mark iii camera and Canon 16-35 mm L lens (at 16mm); Canon 580ex 2 flash; a red gel (piece of red cellophane to color the light of the flash); a tripod; and his girlfriend’s finger (to graciously hold down the shutter release button because he forgot his bulb release at home!).

Danser told Pegasus: “So, I set my camera on bulb mode and had my girlfriend hold down the shutter release button for 13 minutes, while the camera was very sturdy on the tripod. The place was pitch black except for the stars and the moon (very little ambient light pollution in the desert). As my girlfriend was keeping the shutter open, I walked to one side of the structure and methodically shined my flashlight (rated at 2000 lumens, so it’s pretty bright) all along the exterior and front facade of the building. This lasted for about five minutes before I turned the flashlight off and ran to the other side of the building and ‘painted’ for another five minutes.”

Danser said that one of the important tricks of light painting is to show off the textures of the buildings by shining his LED flashlight at an angle instead of from the camera position.

After “painting” the sides of the building for five minutes each, he ran inside and popped off about 10 red-gelled flashes to create the effect of a warm glow pouring out of the building.

When asked how he was able to run in and out of the building without showing up in the photo, Danser simply replied that “The camera could not ‘see’ me because I was moving quickly, and there wasn’t enough ambient light to expose me in the picture.” While popping off the gelled flashes in the building, he always made sure he was not visible to the camera.

After 13 minutes at an aperture of 2.8, Danser was able to get an excellent exposure of the night sky while having ample time to do all of the “light painting” that he had planned beforehand.

Soon I hope to try some light painting of my own with less expensive equipment to show you how anyone can adopt Danser’s technique. After all, light can be used in all kinds of art and photography projects.

In the meantime, check out this Danser’s website to see tons of beautiful experiments playing with—and painting with—light. Thanks, Matt!