As you prepare to spend a lot more time indoors this winter, it is the time to think about making some home improvements that will make your home a little more comfortable and appealing. If you are going to be holed up inside your home, you want to make it as inviting as possible. Sometimes, a little facelift can totally change the look and feel of a room. A new coat of paint, refinishing the floors and adding new lighting are fairly inexpensive home improvement projects that breathe new life into your old space. If you have ever dreamed about a shiny, glass chandelier in your foyer or dining room, now is a great time to make that dream come true with the help of an electrician in Pasadena. The team at The Electric Connection can help you make your goal of adding new lighting a reality.

Chandeliers range from very basic to very elegant. You will get the freedom to choose the perfect fixture for your home’s personality. Spend some time choosing the right chandelier that is functional as well as aesthetically appealing. Once you have chosen the perfect chandelier, give you electrician a call to discuss placement.

If there is an existing light fixture in the room, it is a fairly easy job of switching the old light out and installing the new chandelier. If there isn’t an existing fixture, you will need to have an experienced electrician take care of any Pasadena electrical wiring needed to power the light. This will be discussed with you. At the time of installation, it is a good idea to have a dimmer switch installed as well. Some chandeliers are equipped with several lights can really brighten up an area. You may not always need that much light. A dimmer will give you the ability to adjust the lighting based on your needs. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your chandelier installation.

Every year, dozens of people are injured as a result of unsafe conditions created by faulty electrical panels. With winter fast approaching and more people plugging in space heaters and turning on heating systems, this is a perfect time to go over a few ways to make sure your electrical panel is working properly. Be on the lookout for the following signs that your panel is overloaded:

By this, we mean both full-on outages and things like tripped breakers and flickering lights. Your electrical panel is designed to handle only so much, and if your breakers trip frequently, this could be a sign that you’re overloaded. Storms with heavy rains, wind, and lightning can also cause panels to temporarily overload.

Sparks when you go to plug something in or coming directly from the panel are a sure sign that something is seriously wrong with your panel. As soon as you see one, turn on the power and examine your panel for burning smells or indications of smoke. Even if you don’t see any, call an electrician just to be on the safe side.

It’s natural for things like switch plates, wall outlet covers, cords, even plugs to get a little warm when current is flowing through them. If they get too hot to touch, however, this is a definite sign that something is wrong. Cut the power and contact an electrician as soon as possible.

If you can hear buzzing sounds coming from your electrical panel, there may be an overload or you may have worn parts in need of replacement. The buzzing can be a sign of mechanical vibration or electrical contacts arcing. It could also be coming from the bimetallic strip that trips the breaker.

If the insulation material on any of your wiring is cut, damaged, or cracked, this can be an indication of an electrical current overload. As soon as you notice this, replace the wiring—it can be a major fire hazard.

Electrical fires increase significantly during the winter, so now is a perfect time to take a look at your electrical panel and make sure it’s operating safely. And if you need electrical maintenance in Maryland, DC, or Virginia, call Kolb Electric today!

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Strips with more LEDs per foot will consume more power.

In short, if maximum energy efficiency is what’s most important to you, choose a light strip with smaller LEDs and fewer LEDs.

In order to ensure your LED power supply doesn’t overheat and fail prematurely, we use this general rule of thumb:

Make sure the total wattage of your LED strip lighting is at least 20 percent less than the power supply’s rated wattage.

For example, if you have an LED strip light that requires 80 watts of power to run, you’ll need a power supply that’s rated for at least 96 watts.

The vast majority of our strips include wattage per foot right on their product pages.

power supplies range from six watts to 1,500 watts for compatibility with a wide variety of LED strip lights.

Let’s take a look at an example:

It’s important to verify that the voltage of the power supply you choose is compatible with the voltage of your LED strip lighting. Also, be sure that the power supply’s input voltage matches that of the location it will be installed in. If you have an LED strip with 12-volt DC operation that you wish to use in a 120-volt AC home wiring system, you’ll need a power supply that includes 120 volts in its input range and has 12-volt DC output.

Another factor to take into account for longer runs is voltage drop. A significant voltage drop is present after a certain distance of LED strip. After this distance, there will not be enough voltage present to light the next length of strip. This varies depending on the type of strip and length being used. Usually, a single-density strip (nine or less LEDs per foot) will need to run back to a power source every 32 13/16 feet (10 meters). A high-density strip (18 or more LEDs per foot) will need to run back to a power source every 16 3/8 feet (5 meters). Please refer to “Max Run” in the specifications table of the strip light to determine how many can be run continuously without a parallel run back to power.

3) the 4) if you want your strip to be dimmable

power supply calculator on the product pages of all of our LED strip lights!

There are a few steps involved:

Step 1: Select your strip and the length you need.

Step 3: Click the green “Power Supply Calculator” tab, and select your product by choosing it from the list OR by pasting the exact part number in the search bar.

Step 4: Enter the number of strips at the desired length you’ve selected and voila! You’ll see a list of all compatible power supplies with the best match at the top of the list!

When dealing with electronics, safety is paramount, and you want everything to work like it’s supposed to. So if you’re still not sure which power supply to use for your LED strip lighting project, just reach out to our technical support team or customer service department at 866-590-3533. Our teams are available from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. CDT Monday-Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT on Friday.