Although the holiday lighting season is still at least a month away, you are probably already digging around and planning your decorations for the season. Maybe you have already pulled out some of your Halloween decorations that require electricity and realized you are going to need some work done before it is time to pull out the twinkling lights. A Burbank electrician has some tips for you before you start plugging in your lights this year. If you have any questions, you can call The Electric Connection for help.

One of the most important rules of stringing lights together is not to connect more than three strands of lights. Doing so could overload the circuit and cause the breaker to trip. If you have a shortage of outlets, consider hiring an electrician. Burbank residents can have outdoor outlets installed that are designed to withstand the weather. The additional outlets outside are handy to have all year round. You won’t have to worry about running extension cords.

Speaking of extension cords; only use cords that are approved for outdoor use. Do not use cords that are damaged or have some of the protective insulation covering missing in areas. Wrapping the area with tape to compensate is never a good idea. Invest in the proper extension cord. A cord with several outlets is helpful. However, do not get carried away with hooking up numerous strands of lights are large yard ornaments. If the breaker trips, it is a sign the outlet is overloaded. Move some of your lights to a different outlet.

Outlet power stakes are a great option and many of them are equipped with timers and remote controls that allow you to turn on your lights without ever stepping foot outside. The power stakes are designed to protect the outlets from wet weather.

If you are ready to get your home ready for another holiday season filled with pretty lights, give The Electric Connection a call today.

Hydroelectric power is a technology which produces electricity via hydropower, or the energy released by moving water, such as for instance water moving through the course of a river or falling downhill. In the United States today, most hydroelectric power is generated by water flowing downhill, and most of this downhill flow is achieved via the construction of artificial dams. The dams are constructed so as to engender sufficient water outflow volume by way of creating a significant “head” or, that is, the difference in height between the water’s source (or crest) and the water’s outflow.

A significant enough “head” is necessary to produce a sufficiently useful flow of energy from the hydroelectric power source. This is why dams constructed for the purpose of creating hydroelectric power are built as high as is feasible. Within these dams there are turbines which receive the force of the water’s flow, and the turning of the blades of the turbines generates the electrical current which is transferred to long-distance power lines and transformed into electricity for use in homes and offices.

In addition to the dams there are some tidal harnesses which have been constructed. These draw electrical power from the flow of the tide along a coastal area. In the United States, there is a heightened interest in creating many more small, unobtrusive tidal flow hydroelectric power generators in rivers and large streams which would be used just for generating local electricity. In Canada, there is so much electricity generated by hydroelectric facilities that they simply say “hydro” to refer to any public electricity utility, even nuclear power. Norway and Iceland also generate nearly all of their citizens’ needed electricity by way of hydroelectric power.

North America has the greatest hydroelectric power capacity. Canada is the world’s leading nation in that regard, and the United States is the world’s second leading nation.

Except in nations that have a proportionate abundance of the right natural resources (i.e. a lot of water), hydroelectric power is used to handle the supplying of electricity during high peak loads. Today’s greatest single interest in harnessing more hydroelectric power resides in the fact that it is a renewable source, or “alternative source”, of electricity, since obviously the planet will never run out of water and it doesn’t matter if the water utilized is potable or not.

The big concern about using more hydroelectric power is that it may disrupt ecosystems too much if more facilities (especially dams) are installed. A secondary concern is that water demand for hydroelectric facilities sometimes conflicts with irrigation demands.

The Greeks were using hydroelectric power to turn water-wheels for the grinding of grain over 2,000 years ago. Hydroelectric power was “rediscovered” in the 18th century in the U.S. and western Europe.

The first modern hydroelectric dam was completed in 1882 on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin in the United States and could generate 12.5 kW of electrical power. It was based upon the ideas of American inventor Lester Allan Pelton, who invented a jet-free water turbine in 1880.