Whether you love the winter season or you aren’t a fan, there’s one thing that can’t be denied—winter is downright expensive. With your heating system roaring, the holidays coming up, and longer nights, you can find yourself neck deep in utility costs in a real hurry. Looking for easy, effective ways to reduce your energy costs this season? If so, the experts at Hoffman Electrical have you covered!

Our certified electricians have been proudly serving Tampa and the surrounding areas for decades. When it comes to quality service and products, we’re just hard to beat! And above all else, our experts are here to help. Sometimes that means electrical repair and installation, and sometimes that means just some good old fashioned useful tips.

Tripped circuit breaker: many of us have experienced them at some point in our homes, yet instead of asking ourselves, “Why Do Breakers Trip?”, we reset the breaker without much thought. Before flipping the switch back over to the “ON” position, however, it’s important to understand why the breaker tripped in the first place, and what can be done to keep it from happening again.

Ignoring a Tripped Breaker is Not a Good Idea

Because of the many reasons why your circuit breaker could be tripping, and because of the purpose of the circuit breaker, you should never take a tripped breaker lightly. It’s important to understand that the circuit breaker is a safety device; simply switching the circuit back on without investigating the culprit can become costly in the long run and, in many cases, extremely dangerous.

A hefty amount of our readers here on the MyLEDLightingGuide’s official blog consists of facility managers (along with contractors, government employees, and other decision makers). This post is made specifically for the facility managers and building owners out there to help keep you up to date and fresh on the latest news and opportunities for you and your buildings.

This list of 14 blogs will consist of some popular and most likely already heard of publications, along with a few lesser known places that you still may find extremely interesting. Picking a few from this list is definitely the first step to keeping up to date and staying ahead with your work.

There will be a brief description along with a URL for each blog / magazine listed, and it should give you a good idea or not if that facility management resource will benefit you more-so or not than others listed here. Now, let’s get started with this list…

2. Buildings.com

Another very popular publication which covers a lot of useful topics and products that any building decision maker should be aware of to create a more efficient and overall better workplace. They also have many courses and webinar on topics like life cycle costs, energy management, lighting, security, and more.

4. Maintenance World

As the name suggests, this blog leans on the side of maintenance based topics. Although, they often talk about topics that are important to any facility manager, such as cooling an industrial sized area. That is just a glimpse of the type of stuff this blog publishes, so reading more on what they offer may be important to seeing if this blog is worth your time or not!

6. FM World

FM World seems to put a lot of their attention on news, but all are topics that are probably very relevant to you and your tasks as a FM. They also (like many other of these blogs on this list) offer many different white papers which carry tons of valuable information in them. Along with professional interviews, webinars, and other pieces of content they are very well rounded in the variety of things that they offer.

8. The Built Environment

They don’t only talk about the environment and green buildings, but surprisingly they publish a lot about facility managers and how to become a better one in general. You can thank Michel Theriault for this great resource, as he is the brains behind it all. He also offers services such as consulting and training for FM staff, so if a budget allows and you want to become a better FM; that’s always an option!

10. Building Automation Monthly

Phil Zito is the creator and sole person behind Building Automation Monthly. He writes about and educates on the topics solely regarding building automation systems. No time for reading? Phil offers a Podcast which covers many different great topics as well. So, next time you are driving or taking a flight you might want to listen in to his podcast!

12. The fmguru blog

Although this blog doesn’t seem to be updated as often as many others on this list; their past and current posts are a good read. They are definitely insightful and thought provoking on the tasks and purposes of a facility manager.

14. i-FM.net

Like their headline says, “if you’re in FM, you need to be on i-FM.” They offer tons of content through news, interviews, top 50 list of great and relevant companies, and overall great resources.

Missed any that you think is worthy of being added? Be sure to comment them down below, this list is always being updated!

Final Words

There you have it, 14 (and growing) facility manager blogs, magazines, and resources that will hopefully make you an informed, up to date, and more educated facility manager overall. Our #1 tip for you is to pick two or three from this list that really peak your interest, and make it a ritual to check in on them often for the latest content that they offer.

Again, if we missed one that you think should be added; feel free to comment it down below for consideration!

Want more of our topics for facility managers? Here are some:

If you are looking at your electricity bill and trying to determine where your money is going you need to know what appliances are using the most electricity. This will help you make better decisions about where to cut back in your home to truly make a difference on your electric bill. A Pasadena electrician has a list of the top 10 energy users in your home. If you would like to learn more about buying energy efficient appliances or other ways to save on your electric bill, give The Electric Connection a call today.

1-The biggest electricity user in your house is your air conditioning. With the height of summer just around the corner, it is time to start thinking of better, more energy efficient ways to cool your home. You can have a ceiling fan installed by an electrician. Pasadena homeowners can still stay cool without relying solely on the air conditioner.

2-Your refrigerator is next on the list. While you can’t really do without a refrigerator, you can invest in one that is more energy efficient than your existing one.

3-Space heaters, if you use them, are also big electricity users. Consider investing in an infrared heater.

4-Water heaters use a lot of electricity. You can reduce the need for the heater to constantly heat the water by ensuring it is insulated. Reduce the temperature on your water heater a few degrees as well.

5-Lighting is your next issue to tackle. You can save money on lighting by switching to LEDs and CFLs. Making sure lights are off when nobody is in the room and installing dimmer switches are also helpful.

These are just a few things you can do to reduce your electric bill. Making a few changes today can start saving you money on your next electric bill. Give The Electric Connection a call today to schedule your ceiling fan installation.

Electricity is something we use every single day, at home and in our workplace. Commercial and industrial establishments would never be able to function without it, and yet we take it for granted – at least until the time something goes wrong with it. While the electrical fixtures and fittings are all within sight, the wiring and other related installations are typically out of sight. This also means that we don’t really pay much attention to them at all.

What we don’t realise is that while most electrical issues seem like they have arisen out of the blue, there are almost always some warning signs. Electrical issues can result in electrical fires that can be extremely dangerous. Melted wiring is one of the commonest causes of electrical fires. There are a number of things that can lead to melting of electrical wiring, such as:

Electricity anywhere has an electromagnetic field; and the electricity flowing through the wires on your property is that way too. This electromagnetic field is at a certain level and that is why it isn’t really evident. However, at times there is an excessive build-up of electricity in the wiring on your property, which weakens the wires. If you don’t address this issue on time, the wiring will melt and result in arcing, and that is when you hear the crackling, hissing or buzzing sound emanating from wires.

All electrical installations are made to carry a certain amount of power load. Older structures tend to also have decades-old wiring; that is unable to bear the load of current-day, power guzzling electrical appliances and equipment.

If you run too many of these all at once on your property, it results in an overload in the system. Typically when this happens, the fuse connected to that particular circuit blows. If, for some reason, this doesn’t happen and the electricity continues to flow through the system, it will cause the old wiring to melt.

A short circuit is caused when a neutral wire comes in touch with a live wire. Just as in the case of a power overload, if this occurs, the fuse will blow and the electrical supply within that circuit will get disconnected. However, if this doesn’t take place & the electricity keeps flowing through the wires, they will get heated up and melt.

If you find anything out of the ordinary with the electrical installations in your home/commercial establishment, never defer calling in an electrician to check what the issue is. The signs to look out for are arcing in electrical installations, switches and powerpoints that are hot to the touch etc.

Attending to all these issues on time will ensure that you have less problems to deal with, later. Never forget that electrical issues can be very dangerous and the more you defer getting them checked, the more you endanger your safety and that of anyone who lives or works on your property.

The one way to prevent electrical issues from surfacing in this manner, is to opt for preventive electrical maintenance services. As part of these services, the electrician will come in at pre-decided intervals and thoroughly test all the electrical appliances, fixtures, installations and wiring on your premises. If he notices anything out of the ordinary, he will inform you about it and it can be fixed before the issue aggravates and poses a risk to life and property.

We at Allround Electrical are licensed and insured electrical contractors, and offer a range of electrical services to commercial and residential customers. For more information, contact our friendly team today at this number – 1300 169 263. You can also write to us at this email address. You may also reach us through this online contact form.

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