In most offices, hallways, and other lower level and flat ceiling environments you will find some sort of tube lighting in place. The most common technology that is found to be used is currently fluorescent, but after this post that might slowly change for some because this alternatives to fluorescent office lighting and all of those other uses listed above is going to change your mind on which technology is the truly efficient one.

Although it is completely harmless while in the tube itself, accidents always happen. When a fluorescent tube is broken, a LED fluorescent tube alternative, you will skip this issue entirely because LED technology does not require any sort of mercury to work!

While LED technology is pretty much good to go in a greater range of temperatures, fluorescent lamps only works at it’s peak performance when it is in room temperature type environments. So LED technology is much more flexible in which temperatures it can operate properly at, fluorescents are only suitable for inside only applications. But even then, LED still wins for all of these other reasons listed on this post! And a thing to remember is that fluorescent technology isn’t better than LED is indoors, it’s just that it only works optimally at room temperatures. But when you replace fluorescent light with LED, you still get all the benefits that LED brings and they aren’t picky about the temperature at all.

When you hear the words non-directional, what exactly does that mean to you? Well, in the world of lighting it basically means that such fixture emits lights 360 degrees (or in all directions). This causes 30-40% of all the light being emitted by a fluorescent tube to be wasted due to the trait it carries of non-directional emission of light. With LED, it has directional lighting which allows you to direct the light where it needs to go and isn’t going to waste being emitted 360 degrees.

Let alone all of the other benefits that a a return on investment when you start looking at what contact us with any questions you have!

This week, I participated in a weekly twitter chat calledTweetChat, with whom I have no affiliation but do use) Wednesdays at 2 p.m. EST and use the hashtag #KBTribeChat. Information about the interesting conversation. One of the questions was about using lighting to personal kitchens and baths. Of course, this got me very excited. I inadvertently learned that Twitter is great if you have a little that you kind of want to say. It’s terrible when you have a LOT that you REALLY want to say. That 140 character limit becomes a cruel, tyrannical constraint. So I thought to myself: You’ll just have to wait until you get back home to the blog, where you can write actual paragraphs, to answer this question. Ahhh. It feels good now to have a little room to stretch out.

So, how can you use lighting to personalize a space? Here are 4 things to keep in mind.

1) Fixture and Light Source

Everyone wants to save money.  With the economy, still slow and unemployment high, family and business budgets are tight.  Thus, we’re all looking for ways to lower our bills, and there aren’t many bills more devastating to budgets than the electric bill.  Not to mention those bills during a brutal Texas summer.

At the same time, people are finally beginning to understand that the damage we do to our environment is harmful in the long run, and are trying to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.  A lot of the time it seems like we must choose between saving money and helping the earth.  That is simply not the case when we’re talking about options for lighting your home or business.  The employees of my Plano electrical service tell you that you can actually do both at the same time, and that it‘s as simple as changing a light bulb!

Light bulb shopping has changed a lot in the last ten years.  Our choices are no longer limited to the incandescent (and sometimes halogen) bulbs we all grew up with.  Today fluorescent CFL lights are available in almost every store, and LED lights are starting to become more widely available as well. These bulbs use far less energy to create the same amount of light, which ultimately means less energy you have to pay for.  The savings can be seen with a single bulb.

For example, if you replace just one 60-watt incandescent bulb you use four hours each day with a 12-watt LED equivalent, you’ll wind up saving almost $10 a year on average! These bulbs can save you money and hassle in ways you might not think of at first.  For instance, LED and CFL bulbs produce very little heat when compared to an incandescent bulb which means that they don’t attract insects, and that your air conditioner doesn’t have another heat source in your house to cool down.

There are electrical benefits to having cooler bulbs too: less heat being generated by light bulbs means that there’s less heat stress being placed on the sockets and fixtures they’re attached to.  Less stress on the fixtures means that they have a much longer life, and that you’re saving money you’d otherwise have to spend on repairing or replacing them.

All these choices beg the question of which type of bulb is better.  From an electrician’s view, they’re both superior to the old kind of bulbs.  Personally, I think LED lights are superior to fluorescent CFL lights right now.  The technology that makes CFL bulbs work is still primitive.  Think of what cell phones looked like in the 1980‘s compared to today; right now, the CFL bulbs you can buy are the fluorescent bulb version of those old brick phones. LED lights have very distinct advantages:

These reasons are why I generally recommend LED bulbs; they’re more earth-friendly, easy to dispose of, use less energy than even CFL bulbs, and last a very long time.  They can be more expensive than other bulbs, but you’ll save enough money on your power bills in the long run to come out well ahead!

If you own or manage apartments or offices, how can you tell whether your Beverly Hills electrician is treating you right? I’ve been providing electrical services to property managers and owners for over 30 years in the Beverly Hills and surrounding areas and have learned a lot about what they really need and want and how to treat them right. There are eight benefits that your electrician should provide you if are a property manager.

1) The electrical contractor should be easy to reach. A live person should always answer the phone during business hours. After hours, there should be an emergency number that you can call.

2) If you have an urgent electrical situation, your electrical company should handle it right away. Let’s say that one of your office buildings loses its exterior lights at 8 p.m. on Sunday night. You want an electrician who can fix it, whether it’s as simple as flipping on a circuit breaker or whether troubleshooting is needed to find where bare wires are touching. The electrical company should be large enough that it can send you experienced and knowledgeable electricians right away to get the lights back on.

3) Your electrician should quote you prices in advance of doing work. If you want something new installed, the electrician should be able to give you a price up front in writing once he’s seen the job. New installations include, for example, a new light fixture, a rewire of an apartment, an electrical panel upgrade, or installing any other new electrical equipment.

If there’s something broken, for example, an electrical outlet that no longer works, he’ll want to charge you per hour for troubleshooting. However, within about an hour, he should either have fixed it or have figured out the problem and be ready to give you a written estimate for fixing it.

4) You should be able to trust that the electrician has the judgment to give you accurate estimates. For example, the doorbell for one of your apartment units has broken. Even though door bells look small and simple, in this case, looks can be deceptive. Hunting for an electrical short or loose wire somewhere in the walls could turn into a larger project. Your electrician should have the judgment to realize this and give you an accurate estimate early on so that you can decide if you want to go ahead.

5) The electrician should act professionally with your tenants. Electricians should have a friendly, professional manner with tenants. They should also have the training to give information to tenants on a need-to-know basis, knowing what to say and what not to. For example, an electrician should start by saying something like, “The management company asked us to come out to get your power back on for you.” The electrician should know not to say, “The wiring in your apartment is scary. I’m going to recommend a rewire to the management before it burns down!”

6) The electrician should make sure that you know when the job is done. When the electrician finishes, he should check that everything works, clean up after himself, and if the tenants are home, let them know that the job is done. He should also tell you.

7) The electrician in Beverly Hills should keep you posted on the condition of the electrical in your units. Let’s say that you asked the electrician to add a circuit for a computer. He adds the circuit, but also notices that a bedroom has no smoke detector. Or the tenants might tell him that at night, when a hair dryer is turned on in the lit bathroom, the circuit breaker trips off. Without saying anything to the tenant that would obligate you to do electrical work, the electrician should give you a heads up.

8 ) The electrical office should provide you with accurate bills. Bills should arrive when expected with the detail needed to provide you with a clear accounting for the property owners. Paperwork should be smooth and simple, just as the electrical work should be smooth and complete. During business hours, an office manager should be available to answer any questions about billing.

If your electrician gets the job done, charges honest and reasonable rates, and offers you these eight benefits, you’ve found a keeper. Keep his contact information at hand and you’ll know who to call the next time you have an electrical problem.

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