Rewiring a home is no easy task, and not one that you would probably willingly take on yourself—nor should you. However, sometimes whole-house rewiring is necessary in order to improve daily electrical use and to increase home safety. This type of job requires a team of expert electricians who are licensed and trained in this type of electrical service.

The demand for electricity in our homes has dramatically increased since the 1980s, and seems to only be rising. In addition to more powerful appliances, there are constant technological advances and new devices out on the market, all requiring electricity to run.

Even if your home is only a couple decades old, it could very well need a wiring upgrade, as this heightened demand for power can easily overwhelm an older wiring system. Additionally, if your home is over 5 decades old and still has its original copper wiring, you and your family could be in danger of fire risks and power surges.

Below are a few signs that indicate you could be in need of whole-house rewiring:

You have aluminum wiring: In the mid-60s through the mid-70s, aluminum wiring replaced copper wiring. However, aluminum wiring can overheat and cause fires, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. If you’ve confirmed that you home was built during this time, you’ll want to consult with a professional electrician.

Your circuit breakers are constantly tripping: Have you found yourself habitually going to the circuit breaker panel to reset tripped breakers? If this is the case, it could be a sign from your home that its electrical system can’t handle the current demands being placed on it.

You’ve noticed charred, discolored outlets: Marks such as these are indicative of electrical fires caused by shorts within the outlet. At the very least, the outlet will need an upgrade, but it’s best to replace all the wiring.

There is an acrid smell in the air: Have you noticed a burning smell when you turn on the lights in your home, with no clear source? Then it’s time to call an electrician, because something could be wrong with your home’s wiring and it will need replacement.

We all know or at least heard that converting from Metal Halide (High Intensity Discharge) to LED will save you money.

But how much? Are there any other reasons or difference you should know about?

In this article, we break down all the factors that you should be aware of before making a decision to convert from Metal Halide to LED. Here are the 9 reasons we think LED wins over Metal Halide.

Let’s take a look at the information on a typical 400 watt metal halide bulb. While specifications may vary, a visit to a popular online website that sells Metal Halide bulbs shows that a brand new bulb has the following specifications:

We have just as many customers wanting to convert to LED because of maintenance savings as they do for energy savings. Think about what we discussed, over the life of the LED retrofit kit, a customer would have to do 5-6 Metal Halide replacements. The higher the installation height, the higher the cost of replacement. And if you have a facility loaded with lights, this becomes a significant budget amount every year that you must take into consideration. Now, we know that reduced maintenance time on lights does not translate into dollars saved because it is highly unlikely that people will lose their jobs over the fact there is much less work to do. However, these people will have time to now work on things that matter, like fixing the machines that make the company money instead on replacing lights that cost the company money.

When you take a measurement of light with a light meter, it reads lumens. And this measurement of all the lights that contribute to the light at that location creates a measurement called foot candles. But let’s think about that light that is being measured. Metal Halide creates all sorts of light, in all spectrum’s, visible or otherwise. This includes UV and IR spectrum’s, visible to the measuring device but not visible to the human eye. LED, on the other hand, does not produce UV and IR. Therefore, its readings using the same light meter is only picking up visible spectrum’s.

So there is a fun little test you can do. Have 2 light sources, LED and Metal Halide. And first ask, which one is brighter? And if the right LED source was selected, they should say LED. And then use a light meter, and the light meter may say the Metal Halide area is producing more foot candles. And so now you know part of the reason, but wait, there’s 2 other pieces of information you need to know.

Click here to see our infographic on Retrofitting vs Replacing.

Conclusion