We know your family’s safety is important to you, but have you ensured their electrical safety? The amount of electricity running through your home has enough power to cause death if electrocuted.  Implementing a few simple tips regarding your cords and plugs, outlets, and circuit breakers could potentially prevent injuries or fires in your home.

Cords & Plugs

All your electrical appliances have cords, and being a daily item, many times we overlook any wear-and-tear that could potentially be a safety hazard to your family and home. Make it a habit to check each appliance’s cords and plugs before every use. Check your cords for any frays, cracks or kinks. If they are damaged, replace the power cord before use; such exposures could be a fire hazard.

Also, make sure to be using your cords appropriately. As much as you want to tuck away or hide your cords, never staple or nail cords in position! Try using tape or twist ties to secure your cords safely. Also, refrain from running your cords through doorways or under rugs, this could cause damage to the cord or cause overheating. Instead try using an extension cord to safely reach that desired location in your home. Although, extension cords are not intended for permanent use, this should only be a temporary solution. Consider rewiring if you are really tied to having your appliance in a specific out-of-reach position.

Outlets

Once you are confident that your cords are safe, now you need to ensure that your outlets are also safe. Every outlet should have its wires covered by a secure plate and if you have children, make sure your unused outlets are covered with a childproof cap. Avoid using multiple adaptors or power strips, which can overload your outlets and cause fire hazards. Instead, relocate your appliances to another outlet.

For outlets located near a water sources like your bathroom and kitchen, you should check to make sure that your home is equipped with a GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlet. This is a fairly new technology of which is now mandatory in all new houses built. A GFCI will protect your family from electrical shock if it ever comes in contact with water.

Circuit Breaker

Your circuit breaker protects electrical wiring from overheating or catching fire. If too much electricity is passed through a certain fuse it will “blow;” breaking the flow of electricity. If this happens, the fuse needs to be replaced – make sure to find the right size fuse to allow the appropriate flow of electricity. Your circuit breaker should always be easily accessible and all members of your family should be aware of its location and how to use it when the time comes.

Your electrical appliances, outlets and circuit breakers are constantly changing over time so make sure to be checking them regularly. Make this a household habit for your whole family. If you notice any signs of electrical issues such as dimming or flickering lights, unusual sizzling or buzzing sounds, or if your circuit breaker is continuously tripping, call an electrician from Expert Electric at 604-681-8338. One of our experienced electricians will gladly examine your home for any electrical concerns.

Your family’s safety is our top priority!

When you are not familiar with certain things, like the electrical in your home, you will have a hard time trying to identify what it is you need to make your home safe. If you have no electrical training, a light switch that doesn’t work or a breaker that pops frequently means nothing to you. You don’t know if it means you need to call an electrician or simply ignore the problem and chalk it up to a fluke. But then, it happens again and it becomes apparent something isn’t right. That means it is time call an electrician. Beverly Hills residents can count on The Electric Connection to provide prompt service when it comes to their electrical needs.

What you may not realize is the symptoms, like tripping breakers or outlets that are dead, are an indication there is something going on with the electric panel. This is something you probably wouldn’t be able to diagnose by yourself. You will need an experienced electrician in Beverly Hills to investigate the problem.

There are a couple of different reasons why you would need to upgrade your electric panel. The first is if it is too small for your electricity demands. If your home is older, this could be the case. 50 years ago, we didn’t have nearly as many appliances and techno gadgets that required electricity. The homes simply were not built for the demands we have today. Another reason you may need an electric panel upgrade is if the panel is old or still uses fuses. We have come a long way in the world of electrical equipment and there are much safer ways of powering your home than there were even 20 years ago. If you suspect your electric panel may be causing some of the electrical problems in your home, give The Electric Connection a call today.

We still have a lot of cold weather to come in the months ahead. We’re encouraging homeowners to schedule their annual heating service as soon as possible, if they haven’t already. It’s not too late, and this preventative maintenance service can help you, your family, and your budget in a few different ways.

This fall, one of the most important things you can do for your home is to get a heating system inspection. During an inspection, a technician will look for issues affecting the performance of your heater.

More importantly, they’ll look for anything that compromises your safety. That includes poor gas connections, faulty electrical wiring, improper ventilation, blocked vents, and a cracked heat exchanger. Carbon monoxide poisoning is a real threat when you own a fuel-burning heater, and it’s so important that you have technicians give you the okay to keep using the heat.

With a complete safety inspection, you don’t have to worry so much about your heating system breaking down suddenly in the middle of winter. If this is something that’s happened to you before (or even if it hasn’t), you know that this is something you really want to avoid.

Heating systems are most likely to break down when they’re working their hardest. Make things easier on yourself for the winter by scheduling heating maintenance ne in the fall.

When a heater gets a thorough tune-up, you can feel confident that the system is running smoothly. And that can mean greater efficiency. Your heating system is able to run smoothly with a cleaned out blower wheel, tightened electrical connections, and other adjustments your technician may make.

That translates to lower bills. And if you complete this service every year, no matter how old your heating equipment is, you can maintain high efficiency levels for years, as heaters that receive regular maintenance are more likely to last for a long time to come.

It’s hard to imagine life without electricity. Those rare times when the power goes out entirely serve as reminders of how much we depend on our electrical systems to get us through the day (and night). You need to take special care of the electricity in your home with prompt repairs whenever they are needed.

A school, whether its grade school or a college campus, can use up a lot of energy during the day. From heating the building to inefficient lighting fixtures in the building; a school that is running 8-10 hours a day can prove to be a huge consumer of energy and thus; a high overhead to maintain.

This post is specifically for those whom work for a school or college campus that can either make the decisions, or can recommend new ideas to those who do make these types of decisions. The overall goal of this post is to bring the most actionable energy saving ideas for schools so that you can start looking into them immediately.

We are going to be covering 15 practical tips and ways that you can start saving energy in schools and become a greener, more sustainable facility overall. Here they are…

hallways, classrooms, and really anywhere with lower ceilings that are flat.

This technology is, more often than not, fluorescent. Believe it or not, this actually isn’t the most energy efficient lighting technology out there. So what is you ask?

Well, LED technology is by far the most efficient luminaire on the market today. By switching from fluorescent to LED, you will be able to realize a 30% reduction in energy usage associated with your tube lights.

As for you parking lot and sports fields, you can make the switch away from technologies like metal halide or HPS over to LED and realize every greater energy savings by up to 75%! Talk about a lot of energy being reduced.

And no, screen savers don’t save energy. But, what does save energy more-so than a screen saver is the “sleep” function that every computer has. On top of that, next time you plan on upgrading your computers, make sure you buy Energy Star qualified ones. This means they’ve passed some energy efficiency tests and are much more energy efficient than non-qualified computers are (same with your lighting system, make sure it is Energy Star or building commissioning, you get every single last area of your school inspected to ensure it is running exactly how it was designed to run. A lot of times we overlook things that are unique issues to your school, and no matter how long of a list we read on ways to conserve energy at school; we will never see everything. So our tip for you is to bring in a professional to do a full building commissioning audit, and let them tell you what is up.

Face it, a lot of classes happen during broad daylight and by not using up that free light from outside is a pure waste. By opening blinds to there fullest (when appropriate) you can reduce the amount of lights you need on by nearly half, depending on the day and time of year.

Just make sure to remind everyone to do this otherwise, you’ll never will with this tactic. Remember: you need to get the school on board or else you can only do so much.

Alternatively to just opening the blinds and windows, installing skylights into virtually any area of the building can be an even more effective way of getting the most natural light into your building. This is probably most beneficial for areas that would otherwise have no natural light whatsoever, such as hallways or interior rooms.

We’ve already brought up some points about your heating system, but here is yet another. Think about how often students are in the hallways, not nearly as much as they are in classrooms, right? So, why not make an initiative to heat the classrooms and stop heating those huge hallways that waste tons of heat to the outside from all those doors being opened.

Just make sure that everyone is closing their doors if you do decide to go this route. Likewise, you could install doors that automatically close which will prevent random doors from being forgotten about.

Although this won’t directly save your school energy, it sure does help reduce both waste and energy associated with creating new materials. The most simple way to start the promotion of recycling at school is simple; make it readily available. If you aren’t putting recycle bins next to every trash bin, most people won’t go out of there way to recycle so they will just throw it away and let it go to the landfill.

A step further would even to start investment in solar technology can be hefty, but rebates and grants are out there to make it a more affordable option that ever. On top of that, you are becoming a role model to the community by showcasing what conserving energy can do when used with solar energy technology. Let solar generate your building a positive ROI all while conversing the planets resources.

We think the list could endless of all the possible ways to save energy in school, so we must of forgot some. Be sure to comment down below your energy conservation tips that will help out school facilities become greener!

Conclusion

All of these tips are exactly how energy efficient schools are becoming more sustainable, reducing ongoing costs, and generating a positive atmosphere and educational system for students and generations to come.

Don’t let the upfront costs scare you, instead look at the bigger picture. If you have to invest money now to save 10x later, isn’t it worth it? All of these things will do just that, improve the bottom line. And not only are we doing that, but we help the environment out just a little bit too. Sounds like a win-win to us! Just remember that saving energy at school doesn’t have to be hard, just take it step by step and you will slowly see the results of your efforts build up!

Anyways, to wrap it up we’d like to invite you to share any of your own energy conservation tips for schools that you may have done or even just thought of that may benefit other schools across the globe. Share your tips in the comments below, you never know who it may help. And remember, an energy saving school is a happy school!