A house fire starts every 85 seconds in the United States, the majority of which are caused by malfunctioning electrical systems. Just the thought of a fire starting behind your walls while you sleep is terrifying. Fortunately, most electrical emergencies manifest themselves in more subtle ways before they end up causing a catastrophe. The secret is to be able to recognize the signs of a burgeoning electrical emergency and know the proper steps to contain the problem until your local electrical contractor can get out to your home to repair it.

If it’s already obvious you have an electrical emergency and you need help now, call Kolb Electric at 877-287-1179 for fast, effective 24-hour service.

Electrical emergencies are nothing to be cavalier about. If you have encountered one of the above problems or have another electrical emergency on your hands, it’s time to call in a licensed electrician.

Kolb Electric has been helping Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC home and building owners with all their electrical needs for over 90 years. We have a full staff of fully trained and experienced electricians and offer 24-hour emergency service. We understand that some electrical problems just can’t wait for bankers’ hours.

Call us at 877 287-1179 for help with any electrical emergency.

As a rule, the bottom of any hanging light should be at least 6’8″ off the ground – unless it’s over a table or island. When you have an 8′ ceiling, this doesn’t give you a whole lot of room to play. If you long for the grand impact of a decorative

A room with a single light fixture is depressing. Kick the shadows by adding multiple light sources. A few stylish flush-mount ceiling lights. Some table lamps. An accent light here or there. When you have multiple lights shining in different directions, the space will feel lighter and more open. Make sure to place ceiling lights at least 3′ from the wall, any closer and harsh shadows will make your ceiling seem lower. 

Everyone wants to save money.  With the economy, still slow and unemployment high, family and business budgets are tight.  Thus, we’re all looking for ways to lower our bills, and there aren’t many bills more devastating to budgets than the electric bill.  Not to mention those bills during a brutal Texas summer.

At the same time, people are finally beginning to understand that the damage we do to our environment is harmful in the long run, and are trying to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.  A lot of the time it seems like we must choose between saving money and helping the earth.  That is simply not the case when we’re talking about options for lighting your home or business.  The employees of my Plano electrical service tell you that you can actually do both at the same time, and that it‘s as simple as changing a light bulb!

Light bulb shopping has changed a lot in the last ten years.  Our choices are no longer limited to the incandescent (and sometimes halogen) bulbs we all grew up with.  Today fluorescent CFL lights are available in almost every store, and LED lights are starting to become more widely available as well. These bulbs use far less energy to create the same amount of light, which ultimately means less energy you have to pay for.  The savings can be seen with a single bulb.

For example, if you replace just one 60-watt incandescent bulb you use four hours each day with a 12-watt LED equivalent, you’ll wind up saving almost $10 a year on average! These bulbs can save you money and hassle in ways you might not think of at first.  For instance, LED and CFL bulbs produce very little heat when compared to an incandescent bulb which means that they don’t attract insects, and that your air conditioner doesn’t have another heat source in your house to cool down.

There are electrical benefits to having cooler bulbs too: less heat being generated by light bulbs means that there’s less heat stress being placed on the sockets and fixtures they’re attached to.  Less stress on the fixtures means that they have a much longer life, and that you’re saving money you’d otherwise have to spend on repairing or replacing them.

All these choices beg the question of which type of bulb is better.  From an electrician’s view, they’re both superior to the old kind of bulbs.  Personally, I think LED lights are superior to fluorescent CFL lights right now.  The technology that makes CFL bulbs work is still primitive.  Think of what cell phones looked like in the 1980‘s compared to today; right now, the CFL bulbs you can buy are the fluorescent bulb version of those old brick phones. LED lights have very distinct advantages:

These reasons are why I generally recommend LED bulbs; they’re more earth-friendly, easy to dispose of, use less energy than even CFL bulbs, and last a very long time.  They can be more expensive than other bulbs, but you’ll save enough money on your power bills in the long run to come out well ahead!

stimulating sensors in the eye that then send signals to our internal clock. It also Nobel Prize in Physics. So how can someone suffering from insomnia enjoy the technology that this marvelous invention forged?

“If you can block blue light, you can actually create something called circadian darkness or virtual darkness” says Researcher Dan Pardi in an Studies have shown that by wearing these amber-tinted glasses, you can produce almost as much melatonin as if it were pitch black, even in a fully lit room or while looking at a bright screen on your tv, phone or tablet.

We’ve been in business since 1993, so we’ve heard just about every question in the book when it comes to light sources. “How much longer does an LED light last than a fluorescent, on average?” “Which light sources are dimmable?” “What exactly is xenon lighting?”

We created this infographic to address those questions and more – all of the FAQ’s that we hear related to choosing a light source. You’ll find an overview of how each one works, a color temperature comparison scale, pros & cons, estimated lifetime, and a few more general tips. Let us know what you think!

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