Being a home owner comes with more responsibility than some people realize, and it can get overwhelming. There are certain aspects about your home that you may have overlooked, or just thought wasn’t important, like your HVAC system. Not paying attention to your HVAC can become very troublesome for your home and cause several issues.

Must-see landscape lighting designs include top-quality LED, Energy SMART and ENERGY STAR-rated products, as well as solar-powered specialty lighting and fashion-forward spot and flood lights.

1.  Professional Series transformers and Design Pro LED lighting from Kichler Lighting

12-volt LED path, spread, deck and patio lighting, water lights and wall washers are now available in a flattering warm white 2700K and 3000K from Kichler Lighting.

2.  LED “Luna” deck lights from Hinkley Lighting

Dimmable to 25% and available in attractive finish options:  Bronze, Light Almond, Satin White and Titanium, “Luna” deck lights from Hinkley Lighting provide a tailored, energy-efficient elegance to your landscape lighting design.

3.  “Telsa” Energy SMART flood and spot lights from WAC Lighting

“Telsa” Energy Smart LED and ENERGY STAR-rated outdoor floodlights provide superb illumination that goes the extra mile!

4. “Alumilux”  path lighting from ET2 Lighting

“Alumilux” path lighting from ET2 Lighting comes in a variety of style options to present your home or office exterior with Energy Smart LED illumination.

5.  Solar landscape lighting from Kenroy Home

“Seriously Solar” landscape lighting from Kenroy Home is the go-anywhere and go-everywhere option for highlighting outdoor areas from pathway to pond.

* “Seriously Solar” lanterns from Kenroy Home are versatile outdoor decor accents by day and instant table top or outdoor hanging lamps by night. Available in Blue (shown) or Red, these ceramic lanterns contain removable LED solar discs that will constantly store a charge when placed in optimal sunlight.

See all new landscape lighting designs at 1800lighting.com.  Send in a picture of your outdoor areas for a free consultation and novel landscape lighting ideas from the lighting professionals at Capitol Lighting.

If you’ve ever watched the show “Holmes on Homes” on HGTV, you’ve likely seen the problems associated with old or faulty wiring.  Mike Holmes tends to get very agitated by safety issues, and for good reason.  Each year, over 40,000 homes suffer fire damage due to home electrical problems.  These electrical fires account for hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.  And what’s the main culprit?  Old wiring!

If you live in a classic home built before 1940, chances are you have old wiring in the house.  You may have knob-and-tube or Romex wiring, both of which can become brittle over time.  The insulation dries out and starts to crumble, causing the inner wire to become exposed. The cloth insulation around the wire deteriorates with age and eventually becomes unsafe.

But perhaps one of the biggest threats of Romex and knob-and-tube wiring is that these types of wires aren’t grounded.  That means if one of your appliances shorts out, you could become the path to the ground for the electricity.

Even if your home is only 20 or 30 years old, you could still experience electrical problems at home due to a lack of capacity.  Most homes built more than 10 years ago are not designed to handle the amount of electronics we use today.  Think about it:  if your house was built in 1980, it was built before home PCs and laptops and HDTVs and surround sound and all of the other toys and gadgets we use today.  These appliances can draw a lot of power, and your current electrical wiring may not be up to the task.

If you own one of the one million houses in the DFW area that’s more than 20 years old, it’s a good idea to have a licensed electrician come out and take a look at the wiring.  He or she can make sure that your house will be safe and productive for many years.