Christmas is upon us again and more than any other time of year, it’s the time of year where people put strain on their electrical system.  The lights on your house and the beautiful decorations you’ve been storing in your attic finally are brought out and plugged in for your friends and neighbors to view and appreciate.  And, of course, the vast majority of homes you visit have at least one Christmas tree.  Since most of these things are electrical, it’s probably not a surprise to you that, as a top Dallas electrician, I start getting a lot of calls this time of year.  Though it’s always nice to have the business with Christmas so close, I thought it’d be great to share with ways to avoid wiring problems with your Christmas decorations this year:

 In general, there are a few important tips that can help you avoid wiring problems.  If your lights look frayed or dangerous, they should always be replaced or repaired before using them, frayed wiring are hazardous.  You should take care that your electrical source is safe before you even begin the installation process.  To avoid the potential for overloads, you should have dedicated circuits installed for your holiday decorations.

Most importantly, you should never try to supply power for your lights without contacting a top Dallas electrician to help you install the necessary equipment and make the necessary safety precautions.  Short cuts are potentially dangerous. I can remember one example where a customer had supplied power to their lights by splicing an extension cord directly into their circuit breaker box!  Even worse, they’d shut the breaker box door, pinching the cabling!  Left unchecked, even if this hadn’t started a fire, damage from a power surge or overload could have easily destroyed their whole breaker, meaning they’d have to spend thousands to repair the damage at the absolute worst time of year!

Sometimes the biggest challenge in saving energy is knowing where to start. Your monthly gas and electric bills come in big lump sums, so how can you identify the best opportunities to reduce your consumption? One of the smartest ways to get a clear idea of your energy consumption is to break it down appliance by appliance.

Disaggregation Technology

You can get a general idea of how much electricity your household devices use by reading the wattage labels and tracking how much time they are in use. However, to get an accurate picture of your household energy consumption, you need advanced technology that can break out and analyze exactly how much energy is being consumed by each appliance and device.

That's the gist of a recent report prepared by the energy startup Bidgely in cooperation with Pacific Gas & Electric. They teamed up to study 850 customers who were given a device that provided real-time readings on how much electricity their various appliances were using. The device used information it pulled from the home's smart meters to break down consumption for things like air conditioners, refrigerators and clothes dryers.

The data then allowed homeowners to make changes as to how and when they used their equipment, and the results were dramatic – households reduced their consumption by an average of 7.7 percent.

More Savings to Come

Most impressively, those gains came solely through behavioral changes. There remains much room for improvement if homeowners use the system to identify energy hogs in their households and replace inefficient appliances with newer, more efficient models.

Furthermore, the test was limited to people who already use time-of-day energy pricing, who tend to be savvier consumers when it comes to energy use.

“By definition, these people have already optimized some of their energy consumption in the home,” Bidgely CEO Abhay Gupta said to Greentechmedia. “We were able to demonstrate 7.7 percent energy savings on this time-of-use customer base. Imagine what we could do with a non-optimized home.”

Make Disaggregation Work for You

Bidgely is not the only company getting into the energy disaggregation game. Greentechmedia identifies others, like PlotWatt and Smappee, who are pushing into the market to provide the technology to help people save.

If you're interested in learning more about disaggregation or to find out if any of the companies are offering programs in your area, contact your local electrician, who can steer you towards the option that works best for your family.