Looking for an electrician in Baltimore or Bethesda, MD? Perhaps you need one in Alexandria, VA or Washington, DC. No matter where in the DC Metropolitan area you need an electrician, make sure you enlist the services of a licensed electrician. There are many benefits of hiring licensed electricians, and learning about these benefits will help you determine if this is the right course of action for you.

Licensed electricians:

When you enlist the services of a licensed electrical contractor, you can be sure that the electrician is fully knowledgeable about the complex workings of the electrical system in your home. Many people think they can learn the skills needed to do minor household electrical work, but the truth is that your home’s electrical system is more complex than you realize. Our electricians are fully licensed and have years of experience completing electrical installations and repairs in homes throughout MD, VA, and DC. They have successfully completed rigorous training, which means they have the skill set necessary to handle any electrical issue.

A licensed electrician understands all the codes and regulations in place for residential and commercial electrical work. The National Electrical Code (NEC), or NFPA 70, is a regionally adoptable standard for the safe installation of electrical wiring and equipment in the United States. Rest assured that the electricians here at Kolb Electric have a thorough understanding of NEC requirements as it pertains to circuit breaker replacement, panel upgrades, surge protection, and more.

By trusting a licensed electrical contractor to take care of your residential or commercial electrical needs, you can feel confident knowing that the electrician will have all the tools and equipment necessary to complete the job—accurately and in a timely manner. Homeowners, in most cases, simply do not have the proper tools and equipment necessary to complete electrical jobs, small or large.

There’s a reason the NEC standard has been put into place for electrical work—it functions as a critical safety measure. Hiring a licensed electrical contractor is safer than if you were to do the job yourself. Working with electricity can be very dangerous, but skilled professionals understand how to complete electrical work safely.

Kolb Electric is a full-service electrical contractor providing electrical services, including troubleshooting, circuit breaker replacement, panel upgrades, and surge protection. We also offer installation of ceiling and attic fans, outdoor lighting, light switches, dimmers, and light fixtures.

We fully support and promote the continuing education of our expert electricians. Call us or contact us online so we can handle your electrical needs—we’ll get it right the first time around.

House wiring has undergone some dramatic changes in the last hundred years. What was once a relative luxury is now accessible (and even required) in just about everyone home in the country. That isn’t to say that all wiring is created and maintained equally, nor can we confidently say that any Des Moines home is safe for your family without giving it an on-site look.

If you’ve ever done a renovation or addition to your home, you know the nightmare that city and county building codes can be. It seems like someone at the city and county clerk’s office is sitting around all day dreaming up new ways to make your progress come to a screeching halt. While your home may not have been built anywhere near today’s level of code, it still works just fine. Right? Well, while some building codes may be a tad excessive, often they use technologies that the electricians of the past would love to have had a chance to use. While it may come as an inconvenience, remind yourself that the technology available today can keep you and your family safe in a number of impressive ways. From safer walls and greatly decreased risk of house fire to GFCI outlets that will automatically detect an unsafe circuit and trip the breaker, killing the power and potentially saving a life.

Homes built after the 1940s were made with far safer wiring than any before that. Hopefully, by now, any home that predates that period would be completely re-wired with a new electrical panel for the longevity of the home, but this is wishful thinking. Today, millions of homes across the country and a good deal in Des Moines are essentially ticking time bombs, putting all of those inside at risk for electrocution or worse. While we don’t want to spread fear heedlessly, if you are considering the purchase of, or currently own, an older home, then you should get in touch with a licensed electrician to check the safety of your electrical system. Hopefully, everything will look and respond correctly, but there could easily be opportunities for improving the safety of your home.

In addition to the much older homes in the Des Moines area, newer homes are home to their own problems. If you ever notice an outlet begin to stop working unexpectedly, hear a buzzing in the wall, or even feel a current running, then you should make calling an electrician your top priority. Thousands of homes catch fire every year due to poor or faulty wiring, making this nothing to wait on, ignore, or even attempt to DIY; electricians should handle any blatant problems with your house wiring to keep your home safe. With homes popping up in and around Des Moines, our electricians have seen a surprising number of errors that could have been avoided by a more attentive installation, but that is a blog for another time.

If you suspect that your home’s wiring may be facing some issues, it really isn’t worth delaying to get in touch with the local electricians at Electrical Gurus. We have the tools and experience necessary to quickly determine what, if anything, the problem may be and then implement a fix that will keep your family safe. We understand how important it is to find affordable, trustworthy service for your household, which is why we take each call seriously and employ only the best local electricians.

LEDs are at the forefront of light industry discussion because they are such a gamechanger when it comes to energy efficiency and lifespan. But how do recent developments to LED technology affect the everyday consumer? What’s the simplest way to navigate this uncharted territory when shopping for LED light bulbs? The very recent availability of an LED replacement for the common household incandescent lamp has created a world of new potential, and along with it a whole new set of standards. In this post, we will be discussing the various ways to distinguish between the different LED options.

Whether your home is old or new, there are probably some things you would like to change about it. While the layout and existing construction is often the first thing you think of, wouldn’t it be nice to make your work for you a bit more? If you have been dealing with a breaker that trips frequently or have to turn off everything in order to use a certain tool or appliance that is a bit of an energy hog, you could probably benefit from an electric panel upgrade. An electrician in Pasadena, like those at The Electric Connection, can help bring your home up to your electrical standards.

If your home is older (more than 50 years) it wouldn’t hurt to have an electrical inspection. During the inspection, the condition of your wiring will be evaluated to determine if your electrical problems may be due to faulty or deteriorating wires. You have to imagine 50 years ago, the average home had a handful of items that needed electricity. Today, almost every outlet in the house is in use with various computer cords, cell phone chargers and a long list of gadgets that make our lives easier.

Because of this, your Pasadena electrical needs are a little different and an electric panel upgrade will support all the gadgets you need and want without having to share outlets or unplug everything so you can use one appliance. In some cases, the panel itself may be just fine and you will just need an additional breaker installed. All of this can be determined after the electrician does the inspection and talks with you about what your needs are. From there, you can make a decision about what will work best for you. When you are ready or if you would like to learn more about an electric panel upgrade, give The Electric Connection a call today.

Typically electricity and water don’t play well together, but modern technology has given birth to lights that can not only get wet, but be fully submerged underwater.

Color-changing capability, energy efficiency and custom lighting effects ramp up the cool-factor even more. There’s no end to their creative applications, but I’ve found that some people are prime candidates for these innovative lights.

This is really important! Note that there can be vast distinctions between the different lights that are labeled “wet location lights.” A light fixture that can withstand rain may not be able to withstand full immersion. It all comes down to a vitally important specification called an Ingress Protection Rating (or IP Code). For the purposes of today’s post, we’ll be talking about lights that are IP-68 rated. (Read more about that via