Nearly every single person living in the United States relies on the electrical grid. It's how electricity gets from the power plant to your home, powering your devices and appliances. With no grid, none of the electrical work in your home will function – no television, no air conditioning and no electric lights. Our grid is changing, however, taking advantage of evolving technology on both the distribution and consumer side of the equation. Read on to learn more about how our electrical grid will evolve to meets the needs of the 21st century.

How to Balance Supply and Demand

The electrical grid is not a single object, but rather a giant network of power plants and transmission lines that spans the entire nation. In order for electricity to flow from the generating stations into your home’s electrical work, the grid needs to be able to meet the demand at any given time and place. This can be an enormous challenge – if there is too little production, consumers can be subject to annoying and damaging brownouts. Ramping up generation to meet variable demand is expensive and inefficient, however.

Some utilities solve the problem with time-of-day pricing, charging more during the day and less at night to smooth out demand. Smart technology, however, will allow us to fine-tune the grid even further to increase efficiency, improve communication and mitigate blackouts or other power outages.

Smart Meters and Dispersed Generation

Smart meters are one of the first steps toward our new grid. These meters track residential electrical consumption in real time and can communicate with the utility company instantaneously. They can allow producers to better predict demand, respond immediately to dips and spikes, and further refine variable pricing structures that incentivize people to use less electricity during peak hours. Smart meters also give homeowners the power to see where and when they are putting the most stress on their electrical work, allowing them to adjust their behavior strategically.

Changes are coming to the generation side as well. Traditionally, the electrical grid is powered by large, centralized power plants, but residential solar installations mean that generation is becoming more widely distributed. Wind generation is also becoming an ever-larger factor in our nation's energy supply. This means that the grid needs to be updated to become more flexible and adaptable, but there is a large payoff in sight – the more dispersed that power generation becomes, the more resilient the grid will be in the event of an outage, with smaller regions able to supply themselves with emergency power if they are cut off from the centralized system.

Makes Tomorrow's Energy Grid Work for You

No one knows exactly what the power grid will look like 100 years from now, but the nation is well on its way to updating its electrical infrastructure to meet the needs of this century. If you have any concerns about how your electrical work will interface with the power grid of the future, or need any other work done on the wiring and circuitry in your home, call an expert electrician today.

Fuses and circuit breakers are part of any home or business that has electricity. These devices are extremely important to your safety, but what exactly are they?

It can be easy to take the technology around us for granted, and that includes the collection of strange switches in that metal box in the basement you never mess around with. You might have heard something about a “tripped circuit” or a “blown fuse,” possibly around the time the air conditioner shut off when someone plugged in a new appliance. But you might not be clear on what exactly these terms mean. Read on as we uncover the mysteries surrounding fuses and circuit breakers.

Circuit breakers and fuses (which can sometimes be found instead of breakers) are safety mechanisms put in place to ensure you don’t exceed certain current limits. If the wiring in a building has too much electrical current moving through it, these devices stop the flow of electricity until you address the problem.

Commercial buildings such as ones that house a large number of offices also consume a significant amount of electricity. Most businesses look for ways and means of saving electricity and making their premises more energy-efficient. There are numerous ways in which you can optimise energy-efficiency on your commercial premises.

For instance you can install high grade insulation, install energy-efficient windows and doors, get blinds, drapes and curtains; and use UV-resistant glass film on the window panes etc. While all of these are important aspects, it’s also very important that you incorporate some cost-saving electrical solutions for your commercial building, such as:

Most people try various energy- saving methods in an effort to reduce their utility bills, but one of the simplest ways of lowering your energy usage is to make the most of natural light. This process of allowing the sun’s rays to light up indoor spaces is referred to as daylighting. It can help reduce your buildings energy requirements, while also improving the health & productivity of your employees.

With more and more emphasis being placed on renewable energy sources, especially options such as home solar panel systems, many homeowners are wondering whether or not they can do the work themselves in order to save a few dollars. Although many of the basic concepts of a solar power system may seem rather simple, it is important to get local solar panel installers involved so that you can ensure that the system that you are installing is appropriate for your needs, that it follows all local codes, and that it is properly and safely installed.

The cost of solar panels is by far one of the main reasons why anyone would look into the option of installing solar panels themselves. Having a professional installation team work in conjunction with a local electrician, however, can make a huge difference in the overall health and life of your solar power system. This is especially true if you are connecting your solar panel array to your electrical service panel. Performing a step like this requires very specialized skills, tools, and knowledge and could result in very serious injury or death if not done properly.

All in all, choosing to install solar panels on your home is one of the best ways to reduce your overall dependency on traditional electricity sources. It can also help to reduce greenhouse emissions and lower your carbon footprint. To make this type of project even more attractive are all of the credits, incentives and different payment options that are helping to make green energy technologies more accessible than ever before. For any questions regarding the purchase, lease or installation of solar panels, please browse through the solar power info that we have here. You can also contact us at any time.