Switching from a traditional fuel-powered vehicle to an electric car or hybrid can save you money and reduce harmful emissions, reducing not only your carbon footprint, but also the amount of money you spend on gas. Electric and hybrid-electric cars can travel an average of 100 miles on just 25-40 kWh before requiring a recharge.

One of the misconceptions associated with electric cars is that it can be difficult or inconvenient to find a charging station. With an electric car home charging station, you don’t have to search for a place to recharge your car. Bryant Electric Service can install your home charging station and show you how to use it; we also install office and commercial charging systems.

Electric car charging stations aren’t one-size-fits-all; our Austin electric service professionals will help you choose the best volt level for your needs. Options include:

The biggest benefit of having an electric-car home charging station is the convenience. You will not need to travel anywhere to charge your car and you will beat the lines for electric vehicle charging stations. As electric cars become more popular electric vehicle charging stations are becoming more crowded with cars.

Bryant Electric Service is your residential electrical services expert in Austin, Texas. If you’re interested in smart home technology for your house, contact us today! We can help you learn more about your home electric vehicle charging options!

The holiday season is a magical time, when everyone’s spirits lift and goodwill is shown to all. This buoyant mood is magnified by the sparkling Christmas lights we use to decorate our homes and with it comes the rise in energy use as a result.

Don’t let rising energy costs prevent you from decking your home in the finest lighting fashions of the season. Instead, follow these tips to reduce energy use during the holidays.

LED lights are highly energy efficient. Compared to a string of traditional holiday lights, a string with Energy Star LED bulbs uses up to 90 percent less electricity, and the light LEDs produce is just as bright.

Another advantage is that LEDs won’t burn out. Due to their high durability, you won’t spend the first hour of stringing lights hunting down and replacing burned-out bulbs. Using these lights indoors, you won’t have to worry as much about fire hazards because they run much cooler than incandescent bulbs.

LEDs not only save energy, they come in a marvelous array of twinkling, fading light effects to make your holiday display sparkle. Traditional light strings have given way to LED ropes, spotlights, and even laser light shows.

There’s no need to light your display when no one can appreciate it. Instead of burning the lights all day and night, just turn them on when it’s dark and the neighborhood is busy. This way, everyone enjoys the display and you save energy.

By automatically controlling your lights, your energy savings can be even higher. Instead of relying on your memory to turn the lights on and off, use an automation system, such as HomeWorks from Lutron, to do it for you. Such a system offers benefits beyond turning lights on and off; it can improve lighting use throughout your home and provide added exterior security.

Even a modest display of holiday lights can consume a lot of energy. You may choose to only light your Christmas tree, but you can do it economically. However, because of the latest advances in energy-saving lights, you don’t have to limit yourself to a few lights on a tree.

Hang strings of LED sparklers from the eaves, trim the evergreen in the front yard, and install a few lighted reindeer or a Santa Claus on the lawn. Get into the holiday spirit without breaking the bank and contact Bryant Electric Service today for your lighting needs.

When you are purchasing a home, it goes without saying that you want to be sure the house is structurally sound, and that there are no lurking problems that will surface later and burn a hole in your pocket. It’s why many people get a building inspection and pest inspection done before they sign on the dotted line. While all of this sounds good, what most people aren’t aware of is that they can and should get an energy audit done too.

An electrical audit analyses the major components of the house structure; this includes:

In short, it gives you a very detailed picture about how the buildings works as a whole. For a couple of hundred dollars, you can get an energy audit done from a professional. This audit can save you a significant amount of money in the long term; it identifies the features in the house that require correction to enhance the energy-efficiency. At times, the energy audit results can play a pivotal role in your decision of whether you should invest in a particular property or not.

If you find that a house lacks in energy efficiency, but you still want to buy it, the audit results can become a bargaining tool; it may help you get the seller fix the problem, or you may be able to get the property at a much lower price. No matter which way you look at it; getting an electrical audit is a very good idea. In addition to the ones mentioned above, there are a number of other benefits to getting an electrical audit done, such as:

The simple fact is that spaces that are energy-efficient are also more comfortable to live in. Energy-efficiency upgrades will ensure that the heat will be evenly distributed across the home and your home will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

If the indoor air quality in your home is poor, it can cause allergies as well as other health problems. When you choose to get an electrical audit done, the professionals that are conducting the audit, carefully analyse the ventilation in your home and also recommend what can be done to improve the indoor air quality.

Energy efficiency may seem like an isolated aspect in the sustainability of your home. But when discrepancies in the building structure come to the fore during an energy audit, it’s indicative of the fact that many features are constructed poorly and that they will fail before their time. Once you have the audit results, you will get a clearer idea about what will have to do be done to improve the building envelope as a whole.

When you are hiring the services of an electrical/energy auditor, you should keep in view the fact that not every one of them uses the tools and follows the required processes while the audit is being conducted. Ideally, the auditor should use tools such as a duct blower, an infrared camera as well as a blower door.

The blower door is essentially a fan that has to be mounted on the doorframe. It efficiently depressurises & pressurises the home to measure what the air leakage is like. The duct blower performs the same function, but is attached to the ducting in the house. The infrared camera helps detect air leakage in the walls and the heat losses too.

For more information about electrical audits and the best electrical solutions, call Allround Electrical at 1300 169 263. You can also drop us a line via email or by filling out this contact form.

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Most kids are extremely curious and want to know how things work and will also take items apart if they are able to; it’s no different when they are around electrical fittings, fixtures and appliances. If you have toddlers in your home, it’s best to get electrical safety fittings installed where there are powerpoints and electrical outlets. However, if you have slightly older kids, it’s important that you teach your kids some basic electrical safety; here are some tips you can keep in view:

If you are concerned about your kids playing safely and without any accidents around electrical installations, fixtures and appliances either in the indoor and outdoor areas of your home or in the neighbouring areas, here are pointers you should go over with them:

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.