A significant number of homes in Baltimore and Bethesda, MD, Alexandria, VA, and Washington, DC built between the mid-1960s and the first half of the 1970s have hazardous aluminum wiring rather than copper. During that time, aluminum wiring was considered safe to use and viewed as a cost-saving measure. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) now believes aluminum wiring poses a safety hazard in homes that still have this type of wiring.

The biggest danger associated with aluminum wiring is that unanticipated fire hazards arise from the oxidation and deterioration caused at the points where aluminum wiring is connected at outlets, light fixtures, and splices. While this can cause overheating and arching that won’t trip a circuit breaker, it can cause a fire. Aluminum wiring was used in an estimated 2 million homes between 1965 and 1973—and many of these homes are located in the MD, VA, and DC area.

If you’re concerned about dangerous aluminum wiring, pay attention to the following warning signs:

All of these signs indicate a potential fire hazard for standard aluminum wiring.

Aluminum wiring should be thoroughly evaluated by a qualified electrician who is experienced in inspecting and correcting wiring problems. The CPSC recommends a few methods for correction. The first is to rewire the home with copper wire, an expensive option that really only makes sense if the homeowner is already in the process of completely remodeling or doing deep renovations. The second option is to use the Copalum crimp method to correct the problem. This involves attaching a piece of copper wire to the existing aluminum wire with a specially designed metal sleeve and powered crimping tool. It is a permanent repair option that will eliminate the dangers posed by aluminum wiring. A third option is to use a UL listed copper to aluminum connector to attach a copper wire to the existing aluminum wire.

Only an experienced electrician can accurately determine the level of danger a home with aluminum wiring faces, and then fix the problem in an efficient, timely manner.

If your home has aluminum wiring, we recommend that you call Kolb Electric or contact us online. We will send one of our expert electricians out to evaluate the aluminum wiring in your home to determine the best option to make your home as safe as possible. We’ve been serving Baltimore and Bethesda, MD as well as Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC since 1925. You can count on our experienced electricians to get the job done right the first time.

There was a time when buying light bulbs used to be a much easier task than it is today. Then along came LED, CFL, and light bulbs bent on reducing energy. With this, the good old incandescent started losing their place on our bulb holders. Gone are the days when finding a bulb for your home just meant looking at the wattage on the box. If a bulb was rated 100 watts, you knew it would be 25% brighter than a 75-watt one.

An entirely new rating system is now used and this has been giving shoppers grief for quite a while. At the center of this confusion is the word ‘lumens,’ which appears along its older and more familiar cousin ‘watts.’ Learning about lumens is the price you pay to help keep our planet safe. Don’t worry, though. We will tell you everything you need to know about the new lights rating system.

Lumens are units used to measure how much light a bulb puts out. Watts measure how much electrical power the bulb uses. With incandescent bulbs, the expected brightness pretty much depended on the wattage of the bulb. One lumen is equal to the amount of light given out by a birthday candle.

The idea with energy saver bulbs is to use fewer watts and produce more power. Incandescent bulbs produced by different companies are pretty uniform. On the other hand, energy saver bulbs are so varied, you don’t know if two 50 watt bulbs will be equally bright. This is why CFL and LED bulbs have lumen figures printed on them while incandescent varieties only have wattage.

When you hear “lumen per watt”, think miles per gallon. This is a measure of efficiency. It measures how many lumens of electricity a bulb can produce when using up one watt of electricity. This is the factor that should interest you the most when you are buying light bulbs. The first step is to figure out the brightness you want in lumens. If you want a brighter room, go for a bulb with more lumens. To dim it down, consider a bulb with a smaller lumen rating. Also, find the lumens per watt rating to determine which bulb has the greatest efficiency. Usually, the lumens per watt rating is an average, as bulbs reduce in efficiency with time. The lumen per watt rating is calculated by dividing the brightness in lumens a bulb offers by the number of watts it takes to produce.

Watts can be converted into lumens by multiplying the lumens per watt rating by the brightness.

The Federal Trade Commission now requires a product information summary, called the Lighting Facts label, to be attached to every lighting product. Another label that you should be on the lookout for is the Energy Star mark. The system was created by the Environmental Protection Authority in 1992 to govern the energy consumption of various household and industrial appliances. When it comes to lighting, this mark is put on bulbs that have met a certain lumen per watts threshold. This mark effectively spells impending doom for incandescent bulbs because they do not come anywhere near fulfilling these new efficiency ratings. If you are not into reading the fine prints and making calculations, the Energy Star logo will make your life easier. Look for the label on light bulbs to ensure you are getting a good deal.

The chart below can help to understand the Energy Star system.

This chart is an excellent indicator of how incandescents measure up to energy savers.

Aside from the fact that you have one more bullet in your trivia arsenal, your hunt for light bulbs should now return to the simple task it should be.

Are you still struggling to lower your electric bill? Maybe you have made a conscious effort to turn off lights and shorten your showers and you are not seeing that big of a difference. There is more you can do that will not change the way you go about your daily routine. It is by reducing your phantom power usage. What is phantom power, you ask? An electrician in Glendale, like those at The Electric Connection is here to explain what phantom power is and why it is costing you money every month.

Phantom power is the electricity that is used by anything that is plugged in. Your toaster, your cell phone charger and even your television are all pulling a small current even when they are not powered on. Just because you shut off your television, it doesn’t mean it isn’t using electricity. To reduce phantom power, you will need to unplug things that you are not using. When you leave for work in the morning or before you go to bed at night, unplug anything you won’t be using. You may discover you don’t use your toaster for a week.

Phantom power isn’t costing you a ton of money, but when you reduce the amount of phantom power you are pulling, you can help add to the savings you have already implemented. By combining your phantom power reduction, limiting the lights and taking shorter showers, you can save more than 20 dollars a month on your Glendale electrical bill. As you know, every dollar saved counts. You can help make reducing your phantom power a little easier by using power strips in areas where there are several items that are plugged in, like your entertainment area or computer area. Unplugging a single power strip is much easier than unplugging numerous devices. If you have any questions about phantom power or would like to learn more about energy savings, give The Electric Connection a call today.