Tangled wires are a pain in the neck. That's true whether you're managing multiple devices at your computer desk, trying to find space at a cluttered kitchen counter or juggling power tools at your workbench. One way to bring order to chaos is to create an overhead power strip, a project you can DIY with some very simple electrical work. Read on for some tips to get started.

A Simple Solution for Your Electrical Work

To create the most basic version of an overhead power strip, all you really need is a piece of wood, some screws, and a mountable power strip (look for one that has slots for screw heads in the bottom). For added convenience, a plastic raceway or access to a router tool will be helpful to secure the power strip's cord to the wood.

The first step, in that case, is to either use the router to cut a slot in the wood that can hold the cord, or attach the raceway to the wood for the same purpose. Make sure you leave room to attach the power strip itself, and there is enough cord left at the other end to reach the nearest outlet.

Securely Installing the Strip

Next, measure how far apart the screw slots are on the back of the power strip, and mark the distance out on the wood. Install appropriately-sized screws at the marked spots, leaving some clearance under the screw head so the power strip can easily slide on and off. Test out the setup and make sure that the strip fits and can hang securely upside down – if it's loose, you may have to adjust some of the screws.

Finally, you need to decide how to mount your overhead power strip. Options include hanging it under a kitchen cabinet or shelf on the workbench, affixing it to a wall, or using a post to hang it closer to the center of a room. Remember, this power strip is for your convenience, so you want to position it where it will be most useful.

Customize the Power Strip to Your Convenience

Of course, once you get the idea for how to hang a power strip, you can then customize it to your liking – for example, putting a hinge on the end allows you to swing it back against the wall when you aren't using it. You can also branch out with many of the modern, innovative power strip models on the market to customize your workspace even further.

For help keeping your cords in order, or assistance with any other electrical work, contact an expert electrician today.

The future of electricity production in the United States is very much in flux. When President Obama introduced his Clean Power Plan, it was an indication that the days of fossil fuel dominance could be on the wane. If coal, oil and natural gas are on their way out as the nation's primary energy sources, however, what will fill the void?

The Game-Changing Energy Option

Renewable resource technologies like wind and solar are an option, or perhaps a resurgence of nuclear fission energy could fill the space left by fossil fuels. There is another dark horse in the market, though – a technology that has long teased cheap, clean fuel but to this day has not yet delivered: nuclear fusion. Although fusion has so far failed to live up to its rosy promises, some analysts believe it could reach the U.S. market in a decade and change the way we power our electrical work forever.

Big names like Lockheed Martin, Amazon, Microsoft and others are all working on or sponsoring various fusion projects that at least have a chance to go commercial. The potential payoff is simply too big to ignore. A functional fusion generator could create power without burning fossil fuels or creating harmful emissions or waste, with no danger of meltdown and at a far greater efficiency than wind or solar. We could power the entire country's electrical work in a green, inexpensive manner.

How Fusion Works

In a way, fusion is already the most common source of energy on Earth – it's how the sun produces the heat and light that help sustain life on our planet. Fusion in the sun occurs when the nuclei of hydrogen atoms bond together to make helium. Humans have been trying for decades to create a similar power source here on Earth, on a much smaller scale, but so far without success. As one popular saying tells us, fusion power is thirty years in the future, and always will be.

However, researchers and entrepreneurs aren't willing to throw in the towel. Scientists are trying to create fusion using other fuels, like deuterium oxide, of which a single gram can create enough energy to power a home's electrical work for a year. The problem is, to create fusion on Earth, we need to create extremely high temperatures (think 100 million degrees Celsius) and don't currently have a way to do it without consuming far more energy than we create.

New Technology Leading the Way

The firms working on fusion today are breaking out new technologies, pumping gas into vacuum chambers to create plasma and bombarding it with microwaves to raise the temperature. Whether anyone can make the process viable in a cost-effective and large-scale way is yet to be seen.

Fusion could be just around the corner, or it could still be a long ways off. In the meantime, if you want to learn about cheaper or more efficient ways to power your home electrical work today, call an expert electrician who can lay out the options available in your area.