Nothing is quite so exciting as building a new home, especially when you're building your dream home to custom designs to suit every need your family could ever hope for. The rooms are placed the way you want them and the traffic flow is paced the way you want it. One aspect which is often overlooked but should be planned is the electric system for your new house. The electric system is more intricate than simply providing an outlet wherever you think you may want a light, but instead requires forethought and planning.

With the evolution of energy-efficient LED lighting came an endless source of creative costume ideas. Small, cool & colorful lights now come in portable, battery-operated packages where the only thing stopping you is your imagination! This Halloween season, we’ve rounded up a handful of our favorite costume creations using a variety of light sources.

Mutant Cyborg Halloween Pumpkin

Part robot, part pumpkin, this crafty mutation is all ingenuity.

Glowy Zoey 

When Royce Hutain filmed and published this short clip of his daughter in her new home-made costume, it was an overnight sensation, even generating a call from the Jimmy Kimmel show. Hutain didn’t invent the LED light costume, so why the sudden fame? Maybe it’s the toddler waddle, all lit up in it’s glory. Or maybe it’s the chuckle of the gratified parents trying to keep the camera steady that just makes us crack up. Whatever it is, it’s absolutely brilliant. You can So Sew Easy

Any little girl can feel like a Princess with this delightful little light-up dress by light-up fairy wings! 

Jawa Costume

The poor Jawa, always back burner to the cool Jedi costume with LED Lightsabers, finally gets his turn in the spotlight in an adorable get-up complete with glowing eyes made out of orange LEDs. Make your own with this via via string lights.

Littlest Firefly

It is not news that LED is becoming the new standard in saving money on your lighting bill. But with every new technology, the options are endless and plentiful, and sometimes clever marketing hides what really is important. If you understand the technology, its easy. If your new to the technology, you have to try and determine what is or isn’t important. Which makes the purchase decision even harder for those trying to navigate this maze of product availability and specifications. And to confuse the consumer even more, there is a lot of data being presented that is not created based on any agreed to standard. Read 10 different product brochures on what the marketers believe is the proper solution to replace 1000W Metal Halide and you will read everything from a low as 26,000 lumens to 70,000 lumens. Or what one manufacturer calls day white is total different than what another manufacturer thinks day white is. The best advice we can give the consumer is walk through the same process we do when we select our products to sell. We look for quality, performance, efficiency and great engineering. Let’s break that down to what that means.

Are the LED Lights UL or ETL Listed. This is the safety test. No one wants an unsafe product. The product must be able to perform without any chance of hazard. Are the lights DLC or Energy Star Rated? DLC (DesignLights Consortium) is a performance standard that makes sure the lights are efficient and perform at a high standard. It typically applies only to LED lights, but lately the standard has been broadened to include lighting controls. Energy Star is a consumer standard that applies to many products including small LED screw in bulbs. Up until recently, DLC did not have a provision for screw in bulbs, but has recently changed to allow some screw in LED bulbs.

Are the factories ISO Qualified? A lot aren’t, a lot say they are but aren’t. Some will say they abide by the ISO standards. What does that mean? Some will come up with their own marketing buzz words that sound great on paper and are very clever, but aren’t ISO certified.  To us, ISO certification gives us the peace of mind that the products we supply our customers are built and tested in an exacting and consistent manner with the least amount of risk of failure.