How many light bulbs have you changed in your lifetime? It’s a simple action, and often one that we don’t put much thought into, but what if the simple act of changing a light bulb could make a profound impact on the environment, and the well-being of future generations?  As experienced www.EnergyStar.gov:

“If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a light bulb that’s earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars.”

Think about the changes that you can make by simply replacing the outdated incandescent bulbs in your home as they burn out with one of the Alternative Lighting Solutions below. Here are some details on a couple of the most popular Alternative Lighting Solutions available.

Compact Fluorescent Lamp: Modern CFL bulbs for use in homes consist of a curved fluorescent tube and electronic ballast in a single unit, designed as a direct replacement for standard blubs. They use 3-4 times less power than comparable incandescent bulbs. These are great options to replace your standard light bulbs, but they do have a few small drawbacks. According to an article by PopularMechanics.com, while CFL’s do have a much longer lifespan than standard bulbs, they often lose some of their brightness long before their expected lifespan is up, and this is increased in fixtures that don’t allow for efficient cooling of the ballast located in the base of the bulb. Another documented fact about CFL bulbs is that they do contain mercury, which means that they must be disposed of properly by taking them your local approved recycling center. You wouldn’t throw a battery out with the daily trash would you? So you shouldn’t throw these out either.

Light Emitting Diodes: LED’s are a form of “solid state” lighting that have become available recently to homeowners as an incandescent and CFL replacement. Using small light emitting diodes mounted directly to circuit boards, these are highly efficient, and have fewer parts prone to failure, allowing for an expected realistic lifespan of 20,000 to 30,000 hours, when operated at recommended temperatures. While initial costs for these bulbs are higher than incandescent and CFL options, long term energy savings are where this alternative lighting option truly shines, with the average LED bulb using approximately 12-17% of the energy that it takes to run an incandescent bulb of similar output, the end result is a bulb that costs drastically less to power over time.

As a point of comparison, here is a simple chart of the energy usage of LED and CFL bulbs compared to incandescent bulbs, and the output associated with them:

Lighting technology has changed a lot in the past decade, and it is pretty amazing to see what could be on the horizon for future lighting innovations. Take this for example. While most homes will never need this amount of output, it’s pretty impressive to see that something the size of a Christmas tree light, like this plasma bulb, can put out more light, more efficiently, than the giant bulbs that we use in street lamps!

The great thing about these changes is that they aren’t something that requires a huge change in your lifestyle, so they are some of the easiest ways possible to help the environment, and lower electric bills while you are at it!

About ElectricMan Inc.

An electrical circuit is the necessary pathway required to provide power to your appliances, gadgets and electronics. Each circuit is a closed loop system that is formed by wires, a power source, load, a switch and some sort of circuit protection. The electricity flows from the power source, into the circuit and ultimately into the object that it is plugged into. After the electricity has provided the necessary power to the device, it then flows back to the original electrical source, allowing the circuit to keep the electrical current flowing in a smooth manner. There are three different types of electrical circuits: the parallel circuit, the series circuit and the series-parallel circuit.

How Do They Work?

An electrician in Santa Monica installs an electrical panel that is then broken into several circuits that provide power to your home. Whenever you plug a device into an electrical outlet, or flip a switch, you are accessing electricity that is flowing through that particular circuit. By plugging in or flipping a switch, you are essentially completing the circuit. This allows power to flow freely from the positive terminal of the power source, through the wire, and back to the negative terminal. This allows us to provide on-demand electricity to our light bulbs, televisions, appliances and other electronics.

Types of Circuits

The simplest type of circuit is the series circuit, because it provides only one possible path for electrical current. If this circuit is broken at any point along this path, none of the devices on the circuit will work. A parallel circuit, on the other hand, contains more than one path for electrical current. If one of the paths is broken, electricity can still flow to other portions of the circuit. A series-parallel circuit combines these two circuit types. Some portions of the circuit are parallel, and some are attached in series. If one of the series circuits breaks, it will shut off power to anything in that circuit. If a parallel circuit breaks, all other parallel circuits will continue to function as normal.

As an electrician Santa Monica, The Electric Connection installs and maintains electrical circuits on a daily basis. For more information, or questions about our services, visit our main website at www.theelectricconnection.com.

The electrical system of a home is often a greatly underrated, underappreciated, and under cared for part of any home. As long as it’s working, why worry? However, your electrical system can very easily cause big problems if it hasn’t been cared for. Buying a home is a big investment, and you shouldn’t leave anything to chance. Depending on what your home inspection says when you get it back, it’s never a bad idea to ask for a licensed electrician to come out and do an electrical system inspection prior to committing to the purchase so that you know exactly what you’re getting. Consider the following reasons you definitely want to ask for an electrical system inspection before committing to a home purchase in Longview.

It’s important to have a circuit breaker panel inspected regularly, including when you’re looking to buy a home. The circuit breaker panel is a critical safety feature for any home electrical system. Your electrician will check to make sure it’s in working order, that there are no recalls on it, and that there is plenty of power in order to power all the appliances and more. Making sure this critical element of the home is working properly is the most important part of an electrical system inspection.

When you have an electrical inspection completed on a prospective home to buy, you’ll get a good sense of what the current state of the electrical system looks like. This will give you a good idea if you will have to invest in the electrical system in the future and when that may need to happen.

Your electrician can help you figure out if you’re making a good investment from that side of the home buying experience. Electrical problems can quickly add up to large sums of money if you end up having to replace much of the wiring, outlets, and lighting fixtures in order to improve the house and reduce any chance of an electrical fire. Understanding what the electrical risks are will help you know if the house will be worth the money or not.

Often times, when you buy an older home, you may be considering adding a dishwasher, upgrading the washer and dryer, or opting to either add or upgrade the air conditioning system. These are all great ideas to add value to your home, however, an upgrade can quickly turn into a much larger project when you need to install a new electric panel or upgrade the wiring because it can’t currently support your home improvement projects.

Older homes have a very distinctive look and feel and some people prefer to invest in older properties, rather than in a newer one. These homes have an old world charm and offer great value too. But most of these homes also have older installations and some basic upgrades and improvements can give them a new lease of life.

While most property owners do get the house painted, add new features and furniture etc. very few consider getting the extension cord doesn’t have the capacity to power multiple devices simultaneously. The safest thing to do is to get more powerpoints installed at the time you get the rewiring done. When you are planning this installation, take into account the number of appliances used in your home and get that number of (or more) power points fitted in the different rooms.