It has been six months since I started writing for the Light Reading blog, and boy has it gone by quickly. It’s hard to believe that I have written almost 50 posts! To mark this occasion, here are the six blog posts YOU liked best during my last six months of blogging.

1. via Strobel Design Build

In retrospect, I can see why this has been such a hit with the Light Reading readership. I mean, when it comes toMinions Web

This post was one of those visual, inspirational posts that I enjoy reading on other blogs. Instead of giving step by step instructions, this blog post shows you a bunch on interesting things that people have done with LED Matthew Danser Photography

This was my first blog post for Pegasus! In it, I interview Austin, TX photographer Matthew Danser to find out how he “paints” with light in his photos. We learn some interested photography tricks – tricks that I try out in the next most popular post.

5.

In this post I take some of Danser’s suggestions and experiment with “light painting” in my apartment at night. There’s lots of fun stuff here, and things get a little weird with my designs, but hey! It was an experiment! No stuffed animals were hurt during this photo shoot.

6.

New rules will soon be in place to govern fossil fuel usage and cut carbon pollution coming from America's power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed the plan last year, and it is expected to be finalized this summer. Most of the rules have to do with the generation of electricity, so it might not be obvious that the plan would have implications for the average consumer. As it turns out, the EPA plan could make a big difference in homeowners' utility bills – hopefully a positive one.

Reduction in Energy Bills

While many people fear that new clean energy rules will cause the retail price of electricity to skyrocket, experts are predicting otherwise. According to an analysis by the National Resources Defense Council, low and fixed-income households should actually see their utility bills fall by an average of 8 percent. In total, the group suggests that consumers could save as much as $37.4 billion on their electricity bills by 2020.

Why such a rosy picture? As the nation switches to more sustainable energy sources like wind, the costs of production will fall. Furthermore, since the fuel price for wind and solar is zero, consumers will be shielded from volatile prices of coal and natural gas, which can make electricity bills vary widely. What's more, the Clean Power Plan will promote investment in household energy efficiency to encourage families to reduce their own consumption.

A Boost to the Economy

Some think tanks are also predicting a boost to the economy as we transition to a cleaner energy grid, with jobs available to build and maintain the emerging infrastructure. People will be needed to work on windmills and solar installations, for example.

"The most important takeaway from our analysis is that, after accounting for the various ways in which the Clean Power Plan puts upward and downward pressure on employment, we find a net increase in jobs,” Industrial Economics Principal Jason Price said to UtilityDrive.com, forecasting a net gain of 74,000 jobs in 2020 and as many as 273,000 jobs by 2040.

Health and Climate Concerns

There should also be ancillary benefits to the EPA plan. Cutting down on fossil fuel emissions means less pollution in the air near ground level, too, so people should suffer from fewer related health problems. NRDC predicts that the change will prevent up to 6,600 premature deaths, 150,000 asthma attacks in children and 3,300 heart attacks.

In addition, the less carbon the nation burns, the less we accelerate climate change, which is poised to cause unpredictable but inevitably expensive disruptions in familiar weather patterns.

All in all, nobody knows for sure what will happen with the new EPA rules, since they haven't been finalized yet. However, if the experts' predictions are anywhere close to reality, Americans will be able to celebrate cheaper and more environmentally-friendly energy in the not-too-distant future.

There’s been a lot of questions about Federal Pacific Electric Panels.  The Dallas Morning News ran an article on the potential of fire that these panels possess.  As an Electrical Contractor with 27 years experience, I can tell you first hand that these electrical panels are unpredictable and unsafe.  We had a customer who was renting a house and was having an electrical problem. We told her it was due to her electrical panel.  This Federal Pacific Panel was overheating and beginning to melt.  We informed her that she needed to change it.  She got back in touch with us Sunday night to schedule for Monday morning to have the panel replaced.  We told her we would be there at 9am and she said she had to drop her kids off at school and would prefer a 9:30am appointment.  When we showed up at 9:30, she showed up at the same time and we were both greeted by the Fire Department trying to put out the fire in her home due to the electrical panel.

Failure of these panels is not an “if,” but “when.”  A quick evaluation by a licensed and knowledgeable electrician can make a big difference.  Don’t gamble on your security, call and get the free evaluation today!

ElectricMan Inc. is one of Dallas’ most trusted electricians. Nick Schaeffer, Mr. ElectricMan himself, has quite the resume for a master electrician. He started the company by himself in 2004 and hasn’t looked back since! For more information about Electricman’s list of electrical repair services, please visit www.ElectricManInc.com

By Blake Daniel, Franchisee of Mr. Electric of West Fort Worth

Whether it’s due to thunderstorms in the spring, ice storms in the winter, or blazing heat and power distribution regulation in the summer, the electricity supplied to your home can be unstable at times. This makes your home vulnerable to power surges.

Preventing power surge damage has traditionally been left to the consumer to guess what to do. Do you buy numerous surge protectors and power strips? Do you spend time running around the house during a lightning storm unplugging everything in sight, while putting yourself at risk for electrical shock? Or, do you rely on your homeowner’s insurance policy to cover any power surge losses that may occur?

Now there is no need to worry, you can protect your investments by preventing power surge damage with a Whole House Panel Surge Protector, the heart of industrial protection for your home. There are features not seen in the marketplace until now, creating a main zone of protection and acts as your first line of defense while stopping power surges before they can enter the house through the transmission lines.

As the main line of defense, a Whole House Panel Surge Protector prevents high-energy power surges from ever entering into your home and protects your electrical panel, motor-driven, and other AC-powered appliances in your home against power surge damage.

While this is not a one-unit, full coverage surge protector, as there are many ways in which you can receive a surge, you can be confident that your electrical panel and most electrical items in your house are covered. If you would like more information on how to protect your house from power surges, ask your local Mr. Electric service professional.