Your living room is arguably the most special place in your home. It’s the place where everyone gathers to watch television shows and movies, to  battle it out in board games or video games,  to listen to music over the stereo, and to simply relax after a long day.  Because you spend so much of your free time in your living room, why not make it more energy efficient? When you commit to following energy efficient practices at home, you’ll not only help the environment, you’ll help your bank account too. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, a day devoted to all things green, turn your living room green too!

Follow these simple tips on improving your living room’s efficiency:

Do you remember what your television from your childhood looked like? For starters, your household probably had only one, and it certainly wasn’t in anyone’s bedroom. For years, most of us relied on heavy, box-like systems to entertain us. The televisions of today are significantly larger and their resolutions much clearer. While they’re bigger and better than ever, they’re also using more energy. ENERGY STAR televisions are on average 25 percent more efficient than other models.

Among the more obvious pieces of electrical safety advice you may have encountered is to never saw the third prong off of an electrical plug in order to fit it into a two-prong outlet. But just because we can recognize that as a self-evidently bad idea doesn’t mean everyone knows why it’s dangerous.

Two-prong outlets have only two wires: a hot wire and a neutral wire. But a three-prong outlet also has a ground wire, which is a safe place for unexpected bursts of current to go when they occur. Without that connection between the ground wire and the plug, wild current can go anywhere: into your electrical device, where sensitive components can be destroyed, or worse, into your body. Shock and electrocution are more likely to occur when no ground wire is present.

Moving On Up

Three-prong outlets didn’t become standard in North American homes until the late 1960s, so while modern homes should be in good shape, there are plenty of homes out there with old two-prong outlets.

As a quick fix, you might be tempted to use adapters that convert two-prong outlets to fit three-prong plugs. You should resist the urge to use these so-called “cheater plugs”, however -- the ground wire is there for safety, and simply bypassing it creates a potentially serious hazard.

Instead, you should seriously consider upgrading the outlet if you need to regularly use three-prong plugs in that area. If you live in an older home where most of the outlets are two-prong, this is an upgrade you’ll need to do sooner or later.

When it comes to upgrading two-prong outlets, there are two basic options. The best choice is to have ground wires installed so that the outlets are fully up to the current standard. Unfortunately, this can involve several hours of electrical service and may require some cutting into walls, depending on how many outlets are being upgraded and how the home is configured. It may be a big undertaking, but it’s a quality investment in your home and safety.

A cheaper alternative is to upgrade to a ground fault circuit interrupter outlet, or GFCI. These outlets are capable of shutting themselves off if an electrical shock risk is present, but they won’t protect sensitive electronics from surge damage. The trade-off is that there’s no need to run a ground wire.

Out With the Old, In With the Old?

If you don’t like either of these options but you’re having trouble with a two-prong outlet, it’s technically not a violation of code to replace the outlet with another two-prong version. Just keep in mind that this arrangement leaves both people and electronics vulnerable, so use these outlets with care and consider making a plan to upgrade later.

Ready to upgrade those old outlets? Start the process today by scheduling a no-obligation consultation with your licensed, local electricians.

We are all quite aware that ever since B. Franklin decided to go outside with his kite in the midst of a thunderstorm, this thing called electricity pretty much rules our life. To understand this, you must recall what it felt like that one time your power went out for the entire day. This meant nothing worked, no computer, no refrigerator, no television and not to mention no Wi-Fi!

We know that electricity plays an important role in people’s lives from the moment they wake up to the time they go to sleep. Since electricity is always available, people usually don’t think twice about how important it is in terms of complementing their lives. Electricity makes our lives comfortable. People are so accustomed to using electricity in a range of activities. When at home, electricity is used for lighting, air conditioning, , cooking food, using computers, watching TV, and operating other appliances and devices. With the help of electricity, people function better at night because electricity has enabled them to see even through the dark. Gee, thanks Benjamin Franklin!

However, there might come times when you should find yourself encountering problems with the wiring or any other electrical work. Often, homeowners decide to feed their ego when they think these are problems they can easily fix on their own, which is highly untrue. Whenever someone who lacks knowledge, experience and training to deal with electrical issues deals with electrical issues, it has catastrophic results.

Before you decide to put your hand inside the fuse box, you must know how power works, how it moves and what could happen should you be electrocuted. I am guessing these are things you didn’t think about as you didn’t even consider the possibility of something going wrong. Don’t fret, as you can easily call in a certified electrician.

Underrated as they may be, they are the reason the wiring in your house doesn’t go bonkers and burns your house. Certified electricians not only know their work inside out but they also adhere to the best practices and follow the guidelines and rules laid down by the state. You can rest assured they will deliver a level of service that ensures peace of mind for you.

Remember José from two blocks down? He hired an electrician who wasn’t certified and he had to get whole new electrical wiring done for his house at a great cost. Do you want to be that guy?

To conclude, there are numerous benefits of hiring a certified electrician for any electrical work you have around the house. Even the government trusts their capability, so why shouldn’t you! So, before you call the first electrician you find in the directory, ask whether or not they are licensed.

Now when most people would be shy asking, and most electricians offended when asked for a licence, you should know it is within your rights to ask for it. Should something go wrong, you are liable legally while certified and licensed electricians take full responsibility for their work and the leading ones guarantee the quality of their work. Now, think about that the next time you feel shy or reserved asking for a licence when hiring an electrician for electrical work. It will go a long way, my friend.

Smoke detectors are very crucial pieces of safety equipment in your home and it is now also mandatory in NSW that residential properties have at least one smoke alarm on every storey. Not many people are aware of this, but a large percentage of fires in homes cause massive destruction because the smoke detectors didn’t function the way they should have.

The unfortunate fact is that we almost always take these fixtures for granted; we get them installed and rarely even notice they are there on the ceiling until they get set off accidently or when their batteries go dead. Improperly installed smoke detectors or even poorly-maintained ones will only end up letting you down exactly when you need them.

It’s important that you make smoke detector maintenance a part and parcel of your regular home maintenance routine. There two main types of smoke alarms used on residential properties:

These have minuscule quantities of radioactive material that reacts to the particles that are emitted when a fire breaks out, and that sets-off the alarm. These alarms are extremely effective in the detection of fast-flaming fires in which there isn’t too much of visible smoke.

These have photocells with a light beam that shines away from the cell. If smoke enters its test chamber, the smoke particles scatter some of the light; this hits the cell and triggers the alarm. These types of smoke detectors are ideal for detecting smouldering/smoky fires, which is how residential fires typically are.

Regardless of the types of alarms installed on your property, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes annually to ensure that these devices are in a working order at all times. The few steps you should take are:

Aside from the regular maintenance, it’s also very important that you consider how many smoke detectors you have and how they are powered. The best way to increase the effectiveness and safety of these devices is to upgrade your home’s smoke detection setup. The things to focus on are: