When you have something you are proud of displayed in your home or your office, you likely want to create a display that accentuates the item. Sometimes, you need the perfect lighting scheme to accent a piece of art, a work station or a meeting area. A simple light bulb in a fixture may not be enough. Have you thought about custom lighting?

You may be surprised to learn that custom lighting is often more energy efficient than the old standard fixtures and bulbs. Whether your goal is to light up a specific area with bright light or simply to create a soft glow, you will want to contact an electrician. Pasadena home and business owners can call on The Electric Connection to help establish a lighting scheme that fulfills your wants and needs.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to creating a design that suits your style and is functional. Your electrician can install recessed lighting, track lighting or a gorgeous chandelier-type fixture. Under counter LED lighting is a great way to shed light on countertops and costs very little to operate. While you are thinking about installing new fixtures, you may also want to talk about dimmer switches with your electrician. Licensed Pasadena electricians at can install dimmers throughout your home or office with very little trouble.

The installation of a dimmer switch can help save money on your electric bill, while giving you the freedom to control how much light is emitted at any given time. These are great for dining rooms, hallways and bathrooms. When you combine a dimmer switch with energy efficient CFL bulbs, you are really maximizing your new fixture. By reducing the amount of light being emitted from your bulb by 25 percent, you are creating a 25 percent savings. Give your friendly electrician, The Electric Connection, a call to see how you can start saving money.

If you need to add more light to the dark corners of your home—whether they are inside or outside—an electrician who specializes in custom lighting projects might be exactly what you need. The projects done by a licensed electrician can be customized to include all types of home lighting, including interior lighting, recessed lighting, landscape lighting as well as security lighting.

Your first step is deciding what style of lighting fixtures you’ll want to add to the interior or exterior of your home. Along with functionality, remember to choose lighting fixtures that complement the style of your home decor.

Once you’ve made the decision on what style of lighting fixtures you want, there’s one more step before finding the right electrician in Los Angeles.  That step is to purchase the lighting fixtures that you want to have installed. Now that you’ve made all of the decisions, it’s time to find the right electrician. Los Angeles residents and business know that they can count on The Electric Connection as a reliable and professional electrical contracting company that’s been in business for over 30 years.

We’ll be able to quickly install your new interior lighting or outdoor lights for you.  We’ll even rewire your entire home for you if necessary and bring your old wiring up to the current code requirements. We have years of experience when it comes to wiring installations as well as any other types of electrical services you might need such as new outlets, ceiling or bath fans, panel upgrades and more.

We’re fully licensed, bonded and insured electricians, and we’ll do it right the first time. Come visit us at: www.theelectricconnection.com today and see what we can do for you!

In this series, we’re helping you save energy at your homes and businesses, room by room.

We’re pulling out all the stops to give you the best tips to use in the bedroom – for energy-efficient lighting, that is!

1. Take a survey of all your light fixtures – table lamps, floor lamps, track lights, and any ceiling fans, chandeliers, or pendant lights. How many of these use incandescent light bulbs? If the answer is greater than zero, we’ve identified the first way you can cut down your energy consumption in the bedroom: Swap out all your incandescent household, chandelier, and reflector light bulbs for

Using only 0.3 watts of power, it won’t cost you more than $0.20 to operate each year. That’s 90% less than the traditional incandescent. Not to mention it has a 100,000-hour rated life!

4. What other light fixtures do you use? Wall-mounted reading lights? Shelf lights? Display lights? You can save even more energy by upgrading these fixtures to LED or fluorescent.

By Maddie Ogletree

What goes on behind the scenes of March Madness often goes unmentioned. The action is up front, while the lights and cameras are working hard in the background. Some major aspects of the March Madness experience happen without a hitch, and sometimes they’re the hardest to manage. No wonder there was a lighting mishap during the Super Bowl in 2013.

Amidst all the madness this March, take a moment to notice the electrical components powering the stadiums, such as:

The music and sound effects heard during the event can all be attributed to the thousands of cables running throughout stadiums across the country, linking the AV control rooms to the speakers above the court. When stadiums are built, every single cable is intricately installed to enable you to experience the sights and sounds of March Madness the way you’re able. Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, host of the Final Four and championship games, reports about 764,000 cables in their audio and video setup alone!

To ensure that the arena doesn’t go dark mid-play, backup generators are a must to make sure everything runs smoothly during the games. It might not be the first concern to pop into your mind, but in an emergency or accidental power failure backup generators are the heroes of the game. Most arenas are prepared for these events and have multiple generators ready to go in the event of a power failure.

How the stadium stays perfectly lit is not often considered, but it’s a necessity for these games that can be tough to power. Recently, NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas updated their lighting to a more sustainable system. The new system draws 337 kilowatts of energy at full power – 60 percent less than their previous system. That’s huge, especially when their stadium now houses more than 65,000 LEDs. Imagine keeping all of those lights functioning properly during the entire South Regional game.

Keeping up with the scores at games is easy with the giant screens present at every modern sports arena. But most people don’t realize the energy that is needed to show those replays on the big screen. While it does take quite a bit of energy, arenas are starting to focus on using sustainable sources of energy. The Moda Center, which will be hosting second and third round games for this year’s March Madness, purchases 100 percent renewable energy programs.