Like the rest of the country, property values in Des Moines continue to rebound from the housing recession that caused so many headaches and heartbreaks. With the housing market in Polk County on the rise, many residents in the area are purchasing homes and immediately starting on renovation projects to even further increase the value of their home. However, while many people can get instantly excited to start remodeling a kitchen as part of their new home’s makeover, one thing that is often overlooked is the house’s wiring. If you have recently purchased a home or are considering doing so, it is important to call a residential electrician to inspect the residence’s current wiring structure and possibly conduct an entire house re-wiring.

Older homes were not built with the anticipation of modern appliances, and therefore purchasing and renovating an older home will most certainly require an electrician to properly prepare for your new stainless steel appliances. Additionally, homes built in the early part of the 20th century were not equipped to handle conveniences we now take for granted, such as deep freezes and clothes dryers. While many of us keep deep freezes to stock up on staples such as ground beef and expect to be able to dry our family’s clothing without heading to a laundromat, it is extremely important to ensure your home has the proper electrical services before plugging in. Your best bet is to call a local electrician you can trust, and in Des Moines, that means calling Electrical Gurus. Our licensed electricians are experts in house wiring, and we can help you be certain that your new home is ready for your appliances.

Many of us have considered underfloor heating, especially when we step into the bathroom during a harsh Des Moines winter. Today, our electricians will share many benefits to underfloor heating that you may not have considered. You may find that there is more to underfloor heating than simply a warmer bathroom floor (although that is nice).

Underfloor heating spreads evenly dispersed, rising heat throughout your room’s flooring; heat emanating from the floor warms the air, which then rises toward the ceiling before cooling and falling, only to encounter more warm, rising air. This creates a pocket of cool air stuck in the ceiling of your room, leaving the space from floor to head height a comfortable, warm temperature. Additionally, since the heat doesn’t come from a single source (vent, radiator, etc.), there are no hot or cool spots in the room, the entire space is even heated.

Each room that has an underfloor heating system installed will have its own corresponding thermostat, which effectively removes the need to heat each room to achieve a desired temperature in a single room. For instance, during the night, your home could be relatively cool, except in bedrooms; likewise, certain floors can be kept at a cooler temperature when not in use during daylight hours. This can heavily cut down on energy costs when compared to inefficient whole-house heating systems.

The homes of today are more open and airy than ever, with open-concept living dominating real estate markets across the country. Open spaces are notoriously difficult to heat with radiation or forced air systems, which can create undesirable warm and cool zones in the space. By contrast, underfloor heating works excellently in larger, more open spaces.

In addition to the better, steady stream of heat found in your rooms, you will enjoy a comfortable warming underfoot. While this may seem like a feeling reserved for luxury homes, many other countries use underfloor heaters almost exclusively in new construction for its comfort and efficiency. You will no longer have to hope and wait for the furnace or radiator to kick on for warmth to flood your room, instead you will enjoy a steady stream of warmth coming from beneath.

If you’ve ever renovated a home with radiator or ventilation heating, you’ve undoubtedly had to deal with relocating or working around existing HVAC lines. Unlike traditional heating systems, underfloor heating poses little-to-no issues when renovating or remodeling your rooms. Plus, since professionally installed underfloor heating is compatible with most flooring types, you won’t find yourself limited in choices for placing an all-new flooring over your heating system.

Underfloor heating may require a bit more planning and investment to install than fixing an old furnace system would, but the benefits you can gain by adding it to one or more rooms in your home are worth the effort. Be sure to consult one of our Des Moines electricians with your plans for underfloor heating prior to construction for best results, advice, and electrical installation.

Get in touch with our Des Moines electricians today!

Tired of breaking the bank just to keep up with the Joneses? Forget fancy cars and other status symbols. How about a way to maintain a friendly neighborly competition that actually involves saving money instead of spending? Americans have a wealth of resources at their disposal to empower families to cut back on energy consumption and reduce their electricity bills, but we don't do a stellar job of taking advantage of that information. Recent research, however, has shown that homeowners are more likely to take efficiency measures with their electrical work when they can compare their own consumption to that of their neighbors.

Whose Bill is the Lowest?

The experiment took place last summer, when the Vermont utility company Green Mountain Power worked with Opower, a software company that specializes in behavioral economics. During very hot days when air conditioning use was expected to be high, the utility reached out to customers with tips on reducing the amount of energy they need to power their home electrical work.

Afterward, the utility gave a report which ranked households in the neighborhood based on how well they had done on cutting back. By the end of the summer, electricity consumption among Green Mountain customers had dropped by five percent during hot days. That's some serious savings!

Peer Pressure at its Best

That five percent resulted from simple behavioral changes like bumping the thermostat up a few degrees and using curtains to block out sunlight during the hottest part of the day – no major investments or new equipment needed, just a little peer pressure. This research should be useful in helping understand what motivates people to save energy in order to develop more effective outreach programs for utility companies around the country.

One of the big takeaways is that the utility didn't give its customers any kind of incentives or payments to change their behavior – just the money they saved through efficiency, and the bragging rights of being more conservation-minded than their neighbors.

"Some of the decisions we make are not entirely rational, and they are due to a lack of context," Kevin Hamilton, Opower's vice president of marketing, said to Utility Drive, "and by providing that context you can encourage individuals to adjust their usage in ways that can benefit both the customer and the utility as well."

Little Changes Mean Big Savings

People come up with all kinds of reasons not to implement efficiency measures: It costs too much in initial capital, they are too busy to think about it, or they simply don't think the savings are worthwhile. But the reality is that even making small behavioral changes can add up in the long run.

If you want to decrease the cost of your electrical work and impress your neighbors, have a qualified home services technician perform an energy audit on your house to identify the most cost-effective ways for you to cut back.