Department of Energy. In the summer, keep your thermostat at a minimum of 78°F—no higher. And in the winter, try 68°F.

Most people are actually perfectly comfortable at this temperature—more so than they may think. When elderly relatives or small children live in the home, these settings may not be possible, but they can help most people save money while they are home.

Here is one of the most common misconceptions about heating and air conditioning systems: turning down the temperature all the way will help the home cool off faster, and turning the heat up as high as possible warms a home faster. This simply isn’t the case.

With time, lower temperatures will make the house colder, but it won’t happen any faster. Your air conditioner runs nonstop to reach the setting on the temperature, which is less than what you need to be comfortable. Then, you end up paying way more than you should, and you may not really be comfortable.

The same is true when you continuously get up to adjust the thermostat settings. The AC/heater simply becomes overworked, and this is something you want to avoid. Use your programmable thermostat to keep temperatures stable instead.

When you leave the home, it’s important to use the programming settings on your thermostat to keep temperatures about 10° lower (in the winter) or higher (when it’s hot outside). This way, you don’t waste energy cooling or heating a home that is unoccupied.

However, you don’t want to change the temperature by too much. Let’s say it’s summer and you are away for the day. You shut off the AC completely and turn it on when it gets home. Now, the air conditioner has to work hard to get back up to speed, which may use up even more energy than keeping it at a higher temperature for the day.

Many people are unsure of how to effectively use their thermostats for energy efficiency. Get to know your thermostat by spending some time reading the thermostat. You may be able to use programming options to set different schedules on weekends and weekdays, or to make changes throughout the day.

If your thermostat is over 10 years old, it may be time for a new one. New smart thermostats allow you to set schedules or make changes directly from your smartphone. Ask a local technician about your options.

As expected this year, the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland’s Winter has lived up to the hype. With arctic outflow warnings and extremely strong winds on the horizon, the likelihood of power outages occurring has increased tenfold. One of the best solutions to the threat of power outages is a standby emergency generator installation. The licensed electricians at Expert Electric have been installing standby emergency generators in residential homes for many years and can help keep your home powered in the occurrence of an unforeseen power outage. To provide you with a better understanding of standby emergency generators, Expert Electric answers some of the most important questions regarding them below:

A standby emergency generator does not require electricity to power household electrical appliances. Most standby emergency generators run on natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas which means they are unaffected by power outages. When Expert Electric installs a generator, the first main breaker is connected to the home’s load center while the other is connected to the generator. The generator panel is then connected to circuits for critical electrical loads such as a home’s larger appliances (furnace, refrigerator, lights).

A standby emergency generator can keep your home’s most important appliances powered during lengthy power outages. A generator can keep your refrigerator cool, reducing the likelihood of food spoiling and needing to be discarded. A generator can also power your home’s lights and heat source which are critical during the Winter months.

Determining the type of standby emergency generator that is right for a home often depends on the size of the home and the amount of appliances that will need to remain powered during an outage. It is best to determine which appliances you absolutely cannot live without during a power outage. Once you have identified these items, the licensed electricians at Expert Electric can help determine which type is best.

The main benefit of a standby emergency generator installation is power. Depending on the length of the occurrence, power outages can be extremely inconvenient, discomforting and costly. A generator allows homeowners to keep all of their main appliances powered and their families safe during an outage.

If you have any questions about standby emergency generator installations, please contact the licensed electricians at Expert Electric today. We offer a large variety of professional electrical services for both residential homes and commercial buildings. It is important to ensure that your home or commercial building is prepared for the extreme weather conditions forecasted for the remainder of Winter. For tips on how to keep your home warm in the Winter and Winter electrical safety, check out our list of past blog articles.

When I talk to people about LED lights, the response is often the same: “That’s very exciting. LEDs are really cool. But they’re so expensive.” While you can say the prices of LEDs are going down, and you can promise that once you buy an LED it will save loads of energy, this doesn’t change the fact that many LED lights and light fixtures still cost a pretty penny.

But finally, LEDs are becoming less expensive. Today, you can buy a high quality LED A lamp for well under $50, and many kinds of LED fixtures for around that price as well. For today’s blog post, I’ve come up with a list of my 10 favorite LED task lights that cost less than 60 bucks each.  If you’ve never used an LED light fixture before, give one of these a whirl and I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

1. The LED Flexible Work Light – $29.90

The electrical field is one that has seen a number of remarkable discoveries over the decades. One very important lesson has been the aspect of grounding of electrical currents. It’s true that we need electricity for almost everything in our daily lives and can’t even imagine a world without it. However, it continues to be one of the most dangerous elements on earth. If you haven’t already properly grounded your home’s electrical systems, you are taking a significant risk by not doing so.

Every electrical circuit has an active wire which supplies power; there is also a neutral wire which is responsible for carrying the power back. There is a third wire (grounding wire) that can be attached to the power outlets & the electrical appliances and devices; this wire is connected securely to the ground in your breaker box.

This third wire is the additional path that the electrical current can pass through to be safely returned to the ground, in case there is a short circuit; this prevents any harm being caused to anyone. In the event that a short circuit occurs, the current flows through into this grounding wire and it’s when you notice a tripped circuit breaker or a blown fuse in the electrical main board on your property. If this wire hadn’t been grounded, it would have resulted in a fatal shock.

This is one of the most important reasons to ground electrical currents. It’s the best way to protect your family members from electrical surges when they are operating any electrical appliances in the house. In case a lightning strike causes an electrical surge on your property it can result in extremely high electrical voltages in your system. When the wiring has the proper grounding, all the excess electricity gets diverted into the earth, rather than burning everything that’s connected to your electrical system.

When your installation is grounded, it becomes very easy for the power to get directed exactly to where you need it; this allows the electrical currents to efficiently & safely travel across your home’s electrical system.

A properly grounded system makes it much easier for the power to be distributed in the right amount to the right places. This plays a significant role in ensuring that there is no overload in the circuits. The earth becomes the common reference point for all the different sources of voltage in an electrical system.

One of the primary reasons why grounding is extremely effective in keeping you safe is because the earth is an excellent conductor, and electricity always takes the path that has the least resistance. When you ground your electrical system, you are giving it a path that it can easily take, rather than into you; this can potentially save your life.

If your home’s electrical system isn’t properly grounded, you are just risking the appliances and equipment that are connected to your system, being burnt beyond repair. If the situation gets out of control that can also result in a fire risking your property and causing physical injury, sometimes even death.

The electrical system in your home will function well and stay in a good condition only when it is maintained well and has the right installations; and safety should be your priority. If the wiring on your property isn’t connected well or of the materials and installations are of a poor quality that can result in a dangerous situation.