Are you living on the edge when it comes to fire safety in your home? You need more than a keen eye and a sharp nose to act quickly and avoid a Three Stooges re-enactment in the event of a fire in your home. With the help of smoke detectors, you can avoid any unnecessary antics, reduce fire risks, and increase your response time.

Do you need to invest in smoke detectors? Look for these 10 signs:

Don’t be a stooge. Stay on top of fire safety for the protection of your family and home. Contact Mr. Electric® today for the rapid installation of working smoke detectors on every level of your home.

Choosing a style of lights for a particular room can be a very thought-provoking process. This is largely because each room typically has its own purpose, and lighting should be selected to best facilitate that purpose. For many more contemporary spaces, one of the favored lighting options is LED downlights. Many homeowners choose to install this type of light fitting into a variety of rooms around their homes, including bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchens to provide not only light, but a certain level of style.

Mounting

LED downlights are typically mounted to narrow openings in the ceiling of the chosen room. In most cases, this type of fixture will be completely hidden from view. As a result, it appears as if the light is coming from a hole in the ceiling. When you choose to have an electrician in Santa Monica install LED downlights for you, then you have a wide variety of different sizes, shapes and even colors to choose from. This is often used to accentuate different elements of a room, due to this type of lighting’s ability to focus light downward on a certain area.

Efficiency

LED downlighting is not only an attractive and effective source of light, but also very energy efficient. Because these fixtures use LED lights, they use very little electricity and emit almost no heat. This results in more comfortable spaces, and a functional light source at a very low operating cost.

Regardless of whether you are installing LED downlights or another type of lighting source, choosing an LED bulb to provide your light is always a smart decision. These high quality, long-lasting and energy efficient light bulbs will provide spectacular lighting to any area for many years to come. To learn more about LED lighting, or to talk to someone about installing some new fixtures, call one of our technicians at The Electric Connection. You can also get in touch with us through our website at www.theelectricconnection.com.

Electricity is something we use every single day, at home and in our workplace. Commercial and industrial establishments would never be able to function without it, and yet we take it for granted – at least until the time something goes wrong with it. While the electrical fixtures and fittings are all within sight, the wiring and other related installations are typically out of sight. This also means that we don’t really pay much attention to them at all.

What we don’t realise is that while most electrical issues seem like they have arisen out of the blue, there are almost always some warning signs. Electrical issues can result in electrical fires that can be extremely dangerous. Melted wiring is one of the commonest causes of electrical fires. There are a number of things that can lead to melting of electrical wiring, such as:

Electricity anywhere has an electromagnetic field; and the electricity flowing through the wires on your property is that way too. This electromagnetic field is at a certain level and that is why it isn’t really evident. However, at times there is an excessive build-up of electricity in the wiring on your property, which weakens the wires. If you don’t address this issue on time, the wiring will melt and result in arcing, and that is when you hear the crackling, hissing or buzzing sound emanating from wires.

All electrical installations are made to carry a certain amount of power load. Older structures tend to also have decades-old wiring; that is unable to bear the load of current-day, power guzzling electrical appliances and equipment.

If you run too many of these all at once on your property, it results in an overload in the system. Typically when this happens, the fuse connected to that particular circuit blows. If, for some reason, this doesn’t happen and the electricity continues to flow through the system, it will cause the old wiring to melt.

A short circuit is caused when a neutral wire comes in touch with a live wire. Just as in the case of a power overload, if this occurs, the fuse will blow and the electrical supply within that circuit will get disconnected. However, if this doesn’t take place & the electricity keeps flowing through the wires, they will get heated up and melt.

If you find anything out of the ordinary with the electrical installations in your home/commercial establishment, never defer calling in an electrician to check what the issue is. The signs to look out for are arcing in electrical installations, switches and powerpoints that are hot to the touch etc.

Attending to all these issues on time will ensure that you have less problems to deal with, later. Never forget that electrical issues can be very dangerous and the more you defer getting them checked, the more you endanger your safety and that of anyone who lives or works on your property.

The one way to prevent electrical issues from surfacing in this manner, is to opt for preventive electrical maintenance services. As part of these services, the electrician will come in at pre-decided intervals and thoroughly test all the electrical appliances, fixtures, installations and wiring on your premises. If he notices anything out of the ordinary, he will inform you about it and it can be fixed before the issue aggravates and poses a risk to life and property.

We at Allround Electrical are licensed and insured electrical contractors, and offer a range of electrical services to commercial and residential customers. For more information, contact our friendly team today at this number – 1300 169 263. You can also write to us at this email address. You may also reach us through this online contact form.

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Crystal chandeliers have come a long way from the days as traditional, stately pieces only enjoyed in the most formal of spaces and positioned to impress guests in the dining room or the foyer. Crystal’s are found in various lighting applications of all shapes and sizes and their sparkling, elegant affect is energizing areas of the home from powder room and office to kitchen and bath.

More crystal means more cleaning, but it does not have to be too taxing. A few simple guidelines will help to keep your crystal chandeliers looking their best.

How to clean it

If you do not wish to remove the crystal components from the piece, you can use a spray. After the piece is sprayed, wipe off the solution with white cotton gloves. Crystal chandelier manufacturer Schonbek recommends a solution of one part isopropyl alcohol to three parts distilled water, while Waterford’’s chief lighting designer Billy Canning says hot soapy water will do the trick. Both agree that special cleaning formulas aren’’t needed.

“A real no-no in the area of cleaning chandeliers: …If the chandelier is adorned with a traditional polished gold finish or polished silver finish but it i’s not stainless steel, people will use these sprays that you can buy,” says Eileen Schonbek Beer, Creative Director for Schonbek Worldwide Lighting. “Basically, what the manufacturers say is you spray the chandelier and let the stuff drip off, that cleans the crystal. But in fact what it does is ruin the frames of the chandelier.”

If more aggressive cleaning is needed, the crystal parts will need to be removed from the frame. The crystals can then be hand-washed in soapy water, rinsed clean and dried with a cloth. Schonbek provides trim diagrams that detail reassembly of the chandelier.

For dusting between cleanings, Schonbek recommends using a feather duster, lambswool duster or a make-up brush.

How often to clean it

In general, crystal should be cleaned every two to six months. The frequency of cleaning required depends on where it is used and how easy it is to get to the piece.  According to Canning, extremely large pieces like 20-foot chandeliers can get away with being cleaned only once a year.

Since crystal lighting is being featured in virtually every room of the house these days, some pieces may need more frequent cleanings based on their location. Chandeliers used in kitchens will need more detailed cleaning due to oil and grease buildup, as well as dust sticking to the components due to moisture from sinks and stoves.

“The beauty of crystal, of course, is the prismatic refraction of the light passing through the crystal ornament,” says Beer. “So the minute it’s got any kind of residue of dust or even moisture — like in moist climates in Florida — the humidity will cause dust to adhere to the crystal and the salt in the air will kind of make it cloudy. So you actually have to clean crystal pretty regularly.”

Maintaining a regular cleaning schedule for crystal will always keep it sparkling. Yet if a piece is neglected, all it takes is a little extra effort with the methods listed above to make it shine like new.

“In my personal experience, I have been asked by many auction houses to identify Waterford products many times,” says Canning. “In most cases the difficulty with identification would have been that the chandelier was allowed to get dirty and the crystal would appear dull. But in all cases, when properly cleaned, they can look as good as the day they were bought.”

For the Chore-Challenged

For customers who aren’t ready to get into the nitty gritty of cleaning their crystal by hand, suggest the Da Vinci chandelier from the Geometrix collection by Schonbek. The crystals stay attached to a stainless steel frame that can be placed directly in the dishwasher. The Da Vinci is available in a 10-inch or 36-inch diameter. The only Da Vinci that will not make it to the dishwasher is the dramatic 5-foot model.