Unite to Light, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing low-cost solar lighting to global communities without electricity, and were humbled to learn just how much lighting is taken for granted. Recently, Mark and Valerie Malangko sent us a note of thanks along with heartwarming photos as the lights were handed out to the students at St. Augustine’s Secondary and Technical School, one by one.

We are proud to have played a small part in this huge effort to bring light to deserving students across the globe, and we thank all of our customers that celebrated with us by contributing to this terrific cause.

Learn about the Pegasus Lighting Bring the Light Campaign at www.unite-to-light.org.

This is the time of year you need to be worrying about an active storm season. Sure, the weather is mild right now, but you never know what Mother Nature has in storm for us. It could be a rough winter with lots of storms that threaten to knock out the power. A power outage is slightly romantic until you have to go without electricity for hours. Trying to figure out how to make dinner or take a hot shower is not fun. You don’t have to deal with all the issues a power outage can cause if you give your electrician in Glendale a call. The crew at The Electric Connection knows you don’t want to go without power for several hours or days. There is a solution—a standby generator.

A standby generator is one of the best options to keep your home powered when the grid goes down. The size of generator you will need depends on what appliances you need to keep running and the overall size of your home. Your Glendale electrician can help you determine the wattage needed to keep essential lights on as well as keep your refrigerator and other appliances powered. If you are planning to run your furnace or AC in the summer, you will need a larger generator. Don’t worry about trying to figure out what you need. Leave it to your electrician. Glendale homeowners won’t have to worry about anything other than the maintenance schedule for the generator.

The electrician will take care of everything, including installing a transfer switch that ill automatically switch the generator on the moment the power goes out. You won’t have to worry about turning it on or running cords to the generator. It is all done for you. This means, your home will stay powered, even if you are not there to flip a switch. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your standby generator consultation.

Electrical motors are wonderful devices that are used in a myriad of ways, making things easier in our daily lives as well as a wide range of industrial applications. When these gadgets fail, work often grinds to a halt till they’re back up and running, and the reasons for electrical motor failure can range from the commonplace to the bizarre.

While the list of possible causes can go on forever, we’ll take a look at some of the most common ones here:

Exposure to high heat is a top culprit for all kinds of equipment failure, and ranks as the number one reason for motor malfunctions and deterioration. Optimal running temperatures extend motor life, which is why they should be your first priority.

In fact, most of the other possible reasons for electrical motor malfunctions also lead to the generation of extra heat. A rise of even a few degrees can cause trouble over time, and if motor windings are exposed to an extra 10° C of heat, the life of their insulation drops by half!

Dimmers are relatively old devices. Granville Woods patented a “Safety Dimmer” in 1896 in order to substantially reduce energy usage. Saving energy is actually the first reason on our list of reasons why you should install dimmer switches throughout your home.

The biggest advantage to dimmer switches is that they can reduce energy consumption and costs by allowing you greater control over your lighting. Traditional light switches only have two options—on (100% power) and off (0% power). However, if you want to save electricity, you have an entire spectrum of settings in between to choose from. For example, if your family is watching a movie in the living room, you don’t need the lights all the way up to see where the popcorn bowl is. Instead of leaving the living room light on during the entire movie, you can turn it down to maybe 40%.

One of the benefits of controlling the amount of power your lightbulb gets is also controlling the ambiance. In the above example, the family watching the movie managed the level of lighting in the room, allowing the living room to turn into a makeshift theater. Likewise, if a couple wanted to have a romantic dinner, they could lower the lighting in the dining room to 30% instead of relying on the dim illumination of a couple of candles.