During a lightning storm, the safest place to be is indoors. However, there are still several safety precautions one needs to take to stay safe in your own home. The three most common ways lightning can enter your home are through a direct strike, through inner/outer wires and pipes, and through the ground.

To know how at risk your home is during a storm, you can use a guideline that meteorologists call “The 30-30 Rule.” If you see lightning and then hear thunder within 30 seconds, move indoors and take necessary safety precautions. This typically indicates that a storm is fewer than 6 miles away, which is close enough for a lightning strike. Then, stay indoors for at least 30 minutes after you hear the last clap of thunder at the end of the storm.

The following guidelines can give you additional protection against electrical injuries during harsh, stormy weather:

Injuries caused by lightning strikes are more common than most people realize, but the above considerations and safety guidelines can help secure both you and your home during inclement weather.

Every year it seems that the home is becoming “smarter” and more “automated”. We have televisions that can be interacted with remotely, speakers we can play in another room, and thermostats that can be adjusted across the country. These programmable and remotely adjustable thermostats are not only convenient, but they are efficient.

Most homes that haven’t seen electrical upgrades in a few years are likely equipped with an older thermostat that has to be adjusted manually. This has been acceptable for many years as we integrated the adjusting of the thermometer into our nightly routines. Each night before going to sleep many people would lower the thermometer to reduce their electrical usage at night.

Now, with programmable thermostats you can set schedules so that it automatically increases or decreases the temperature in the home. This helps build the optimal schedule for your home and reduce electrical waste by heating the home only when it is needed.

With the increased adoption of smart devices and wi-fi in homes all over the world, “smart” thermostats are the latest and greatest in home automation. These little devices connect through the home’s wi-fi network, which allows you to control them through a smart phone app. This enables them to be adjusted from anywhere. For example, if a day trip is going long and you won’t be home until late in the evening, you can lower the temperature in the home earlier than scheduled to maximize efficiency. With your home’s thermostat at the touch of a finger anywhere – savings are completely in your control.

Installing a new thermostat can seem like an easy job, but once the old one is removed the amount of wires can be overwhelming to the average handyman. Depending on the age of the home and wiring, the wires going to the thermostat may need to be upgraded for compatibility with the new thermostat. When shopping for a new thermostat don’t just review the features of the product, but ensure you are familiar with the specifications and requirements. For assistance in understanding the requirements of a new thermostat and electrical installation, contact your local Expert Electric.

There are many different ways to start saving on electricity in your home. Smart decisions can lead to big decreases in monthly energy bill. Smart thermostats are just one of the ways that savings can be put back in your hands. Contact you local Expert Electric at 604-681-8338 for more information.

One of the easiest ways to dress up your space and update the style is by changing your chandelier. Before you run out the door in search of the perfect chandelier, make sure you know the dimensions of your space. An appropriately sized chandelier should serve as a beautifying focal point that fits seamlessly into your overall design scheme.

For a room without furniture: Add the length and width of your room in feet, and then convert that number to inches. For example, a room that is 12 feet by 14 feet (12 + 14 = 26) would require a chandelier this is approximately 26 inches wide.

For a room with furniture: If you already have a dining room table in the space, the width of your chandelier should be about a foot smaller than the width of your table. This will leave a 6-inch clearance from the outer edge of the chandelier to the table’s edge.

The bottom of your chandelier should rest at least 30-34 inches above the tabletop. Adjust according to personal preference, fixture style and ceiling height. It is okay to hang your chandelier a bit higher in dining rooms with cathedral ceilings.

Chandelier height should be about three inches for each foot of ceiling height, so for a room with a standard 8-foot ceiling (3 x 8 = 24), choose a chandelier with an approximate height of 24 inches.

Did you know that your video game habit is an energy hog? The costs aren’t limited to the price of your console and games – the Xbox One and other gaming systems actually draw a large amount of electricity. In response to criticism about how much power the Xbox consumes, Microsoft is reaching out to help consumers cut down on their product's energy profile with one small change that could save gamers $250 million per year.

Power-Guzzling Standby Mode

The big problem with the Xbox comes during its standby mode. By design, the system is never actually off, which provides gamers with two major benefits: They can start it up instantly with no load time, and the device downloads updates in the background when the console isn't being used, so you never have to sit around waiting for that annoying status bar to finish loading.

Unfortunately, the “instant-on” feature uses a shocking amount of electricity – up to 40 percent of the total consumed by the Xbox, according to the National Resources Defense Council.

“While the device is reasonably efficient when playing a game, that is more than offset by its power-guzzling ‘Instant On’ standby mode that is enabled by default,” Noah Horowitz wrote on the NRDC blog.

Last year, the NRDC released a study which found that the energy consumed nationwide by the three most popular consoles – PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo's Wii U – reaches as much as 11 billion kilowatt-hours annually, enough to power Houston, Texas for a year.

Microsoft Responds

The criticism must have stung, because Microsoft is now making an extra effort to remind gamers of the console's energy saving mode, which does not have the same features as instant-on but can save consumers $6 to $15 per year. With 7 million consoles and counting in the U.S., that adds up in a big way.

"While we believe Instant-on provides the best experience for our fans, we also believe in providing consumer choice which is why we offered the ‘Energy-saving’ mode," Microsoft wrote in a recent blog post. “By providing multiple power states in Xbox One and empowering our fans with choice, we sought to balance energy efficiency and functionality. At the same time, we know many Xbox One fans are vigilant about their household’s energy consumption; after all, environmental leadership often begins at home.”

The company also previously made changes to reduce power consumption during instant-on mode by one third.

Look for Energy Savings

To change your Xbox so it uses the energy saving option, look in the “power & start up” menu under settings. Fifteen dollars might not sound like a lot, but with so many Xbox fans, the energy savings really add up.

If you really want to go the extra mile with your Xbox and other electronics, just unplug them when you aren't using them. That gets around the matter of stand-by mode altogether and can help you save a decent chunk of change by avoiding energy vampires.