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.

When your saying goodbye to guests in the evening, you don’t want to send them out in the dark to fumble their way back to their vehicle. Without proper outdoor lighting your front yard can be riddled with hazards at night. Installing outdoor and landscape lighting can add safety in a number of ways as well as add pleasing aesthetics to your home at night.

Outdoor lighting can add functionality in a number of ways – it can illuminate potential tripping hazards, deter criminals, and add a pleasing look to your home at night. The trick is to have the lights positioned correctly to have the desired effects. When placing your outdoor lighting keep these areas in mind:

Installation of outdoor lighting can be different depending on the type of landscape lighting you choose. If you are using solar powered or battery powered you will not require any additional electrical work. If you are looking to install electrical lamps and fixtures on the outside your home or along a pathway it will require the wire to run underground, because of the high voltage, to the home’s electrical system. If you are unsure of how your new outdoor lighting connects to your home, or want to prepare to install new lighting, have an expert electrician do the installation for you.

Three common sources of outdoor lighting are fluorescent lamps, metal halide, and LED lighting. Fluorescent lamps are designed to run efficiently, but can have trouble starting in certain temperatures. Metal halide are highly efficient within a temperature range, but require approximately a minute to warm up – not ideal for motion lights. LED lighting is a popular choice because they are highly efficient, require no warm up time, and the bulb lasts longest, but this all comes at a higher cost.

Outdoor and landscape lighting is very important and something every homeowner should keep in mind. With so many options out there, it can be difficult to know where to start and what will work.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Federal Pacific Electrical Company (FPE) installed electrical panels in millions of homes across the country. Unfortunately, these electrical panels are basically recipes for disaster—over the years, electricians and home inspectors have found that FPE panels often fail to protect homes from overcurrent or short circuits. The danger seems to happen randomly: even if panels have been installed and working properly for years, a single incident can quickly cause the panel to overheat and create a major fire hazard.

Remember—circuit panels trip in response to unusual surges of electricity. If they fail to trip, as FPE panels often do, those electrical surges cannot be stopped or shut off manually and will move through your home until they run out of fuel or until the wires burn out. This could cause the panel to overheat and catch fire, leading to a potentially serious disaster.

FPE panels may not be up to modern safety codes – electrical safety standards have been updated significantly since the 1980s, and experts say that FPE panels, which were produced from the 50s and into the 80s, do not meet these updated standards. Some of the deficiencies noted by home inspectors include:

FPE panels may have serious design flaws – not only do FPE panels not meet modern safety standards, but they also came with some serious design flaws that weren’t even common among panels built around the same time. Some of the most significant flaws include:

FPE panels may have manufacturing defects – as if that weren’t enough, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has noted a number of defects that make FPE panels unfit for homes, including weak materials used to construct the breakers that may prevent them from tripping and could cause the panel to catch fire.

If you live in an older home and you’re worried your panel might be a danger, call Kolb Electric. Our trained electricians are familiar with the potential hazards of FPE and other outdated panels and can replace your existing panel with a modern panel that will keep your home safe for decades.

For more information about circuit panel replacement in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, DC, call Kolb Electric today.

Regardless of bends, twists, or turns, Example of a cut line on LED strip lights

2. You will now have two LED strip lights. Carefully peel back the end portion of the paper strip covering the strip’s adhesive backing, and then remove the 3M VHB adhesive from the solder pads on the bottom side of one of the strips. The strip with its adhesive peeled back will be the top strip when soldered.

5. Align the non-tinned strip segment (strip with adhesive removed) directly over the newly tinned pads, and apply heat. Hold the soldering iron in place until the solder remelts and begins to flow. To strengthen the bond and improve visual appeal, a small portion of solder can be added to the top pad.

The LED strip lights are now connected, and power should flow through the entire length of the strip.

The following steps demonstrate how to split and solder a run of non-weatherproof two-conductor or connecting wires. Peel away the blue wire so that only the positive (red), negative (black), and control (green) wires are left.

*No wires should be peeled away if you’re joining single-color or standard RGB light strips.

3. Properly heat your soldering iron. For best results, clean and tin the tip of the iron immediately before soldering. To tin the iron, touch solder to both sides of the iron’s tip.

4. Next you will need to tin the solder pads on both ends of the split strip light. When soldering, always apply heat to the target area on the strip and not directly to the solder. Once sufficient heat has been applied to the area, start introducing solder.

The LED strip lights are now connected, and power should flow through the entire length of the strip.

The following steps demonstrate how to split, solder, and reseal a

3. Follow steps two through five located at the top of this post for soldering a standard RGB strip light.

4. To reseal the strip light, apply

The LED strip lights are now connected, and power should flow through the entire length of the weatherproof strip.