In our previous blog, we covered some of the benefits your home may enjoy by installing outdoor lighting, such as flood lights or accent lighting; however, running permanent electrical to the corners of your property is more complicated than just draping an extension cord to the desired lighting area. Often, lighting and other external electrical elements require electrical trenching to safely run power lines underground, and the season for safely and easily digging these trenches is quickly drawing to a close.

There’s never a good time to dig up your yard, but fall is far from the worst time. By choosing to install necessary subterranean power lines during the fall, you can enjoy these benefits:

Getting your yard equipped with subterranean wiring is no small feat: It requires careful planning and expert execution. Between local and regional zoning codes, inspection parameters and availability, and overall safety and execution of the work, each electrical trenching is a big job that requires expertise and knowledge. Some of the things our Des Moines electricians offer homeowners looking for electrical trenching include:

Reach out to Electrical Gurus today, before winter sets in and causes delays in your outdoor plans! By getting a jump on the work with our expert electricians, your yard will be ready to go well before summer comes.

Get in touch with our Des Moines electricians today!

It finally feels like summer outside - at least most days of the week - and homeowners across the Mid Atlantic are sitting out on their decks and patios late into the evening now that it is finally warm out. As a result, many homeowners are taking out their extension cords and stringing them through storm doors and beneath windows so that they can power outdoor lamps, radios or other devices. If you don't have a power outlet on the side of your house, you may be tempted to do this, but this practice is less than ideal in most situations.

Placing any cord underneath a door or window jam increases the prevalence of wear on the wire, which may cause the protective layer of insulation around the electrical currents to be weakened. Every time you slam the door to your back porch, you could be creating the risk of sparking or arcing. The results of this will be costly damage if a fire sparks - not to mention potentially fatal.

Ever considered utilizing solar energy in your Maryland home? If not, you might give it a glance. Not only is solar energy tech really quite cool, it boasts some unique benefits as well. But, of course, like any decision you make about the home, it all really boils down to its effectiveness, and possibly more importantly, the cost.

At Kolb Electric, we want to bring you all of the latest information and tech! Our team is excited about the advent of solar energy, and sharing what we know is just part of the superior service we provide.

When being used? Practically nothing, aside from maintenance. For solar energy, it’s all about the installation. While solar power isn’t exactly a new thing, implementing it in a larger capacity in United States homes kind of is. In a mainstream sense, at least. Preppers, ingenuitive farmers, and tech nerds have been using it for years.

So, as a reasonably newer need, solar tech installation, such as panels and solar-supported equipment are understandably rather expensive. Assume your home uses the US average amount of electricity (between 600 and 800 kWh) per month. With this estimate, assume you’re wanting you fully solar your home.

You’d be looking at anywhere between $20,000 to $40,000. Do understand that this is a very broad estimate, as individual factors about your home can lower or raise that drastically. There is an endless number of variables involved here, including how much power you want, how large your home is, your solar energy needs, etc.

You would also have to take into account maintenance, as solar equipment will require very specialised training and tools to keep working at maximum potential. Bottom line, how much does solar energy cost? Next to nothing, if anything at all. The equipment, on the other hand, we…it’s an investment.

But Is Solar Energy Worth It in Washington, DC?

Above is a map of average energy savings in the US, courtesy of Energysage.

Depending on exactly how you’re going to utilize the solar power, probably yes. Especially (and almost exclusively) if you intend to make your current home permanent. As in you plan on staying there for fifteen, twenty years. To find more exact answers and suss out whether solar power might be something you’re interested, we would highly recommend consulting an energy specialist.

Need superior electrical services in Maryland, DC, or Virginia? Contact Kolb today!