When it comes to home repair and renovations, many people attempt to handle their home improvement on their own when it should be left to the experts. Due to the abundance of television shows depicting do-it-yourself couples attempting to renovate old properties and the consistent bombardment of commercials from big box home improvement stores, fixing anything around your Des Moines home seems like something you should be able to handle yourself. Whether you are a seasoned handyman who has been handling home repairs on your own for years or an inexperienced homeowner working the kinks out of your first home, there are a number of tasks that absolutely must be left to the professionals because errors and mistakes could lead to severe injuries that could even prove to be fatal. Many of these scenarios require the work of a residential electrician, and a common one is electrical trenching.

Electrical trenching is the excavation of your property to prepare for electrical installation, and it could end in tragedy if you do not call an expert. While digging a ditch does not seem like something that would require a residential electrician, it is especially necessary when handling electrical issues. A residential electrician will not only be experienced in handling the electrical trenching, but they are also aware of the safety precautions. Under your lawn, various utility lines are running ranging from water to gas to electric. And if you were to damage one of these services, not only would you be at fault, but you would also be placing yourself in grave danger.

Do not start digging up your yard without first consulting an expert residential electrician. When you need electrical trenching in Des Moines, call the Electrical Guru’s at 515-446-7040 so we can safely and professionally handle the electrical trenching for your home.

GE, Osram, Sylvania and Philips are some of the big names of lighting business. Look at how the market for modern energy efficient lamps is developing and one wonders if the lighting Industry is going the way the computer industry did.

When computers burst on to the scene, they redefined efficiency measures. A new computer was a considerable investment but it more than made up for its cost by increasing productivity or by reducing cost. Companies using computers could also use this fact as a branding tool – defining themselves as progressive corporations.

The demand for energy efficient lighting products has meant that incandescent bulbs now belong in a museum and not in homes and offices. LED lighting technology is quickly decimating old records of energy efficiency and long service life. The improvement in this technology render peak light output data obsolete every year. Energy efficient LED bulbs and tubes cost more up front but like computers more than make up for their cost through energy savings, lower maintenance costs and green branding.

This is how the computer business unfolded.

Given its strong technological capabilities, IBM was once the undisputed leader in computers. Then IBM made a decision that some call a strategic blunder. They outsourced their software development to Microsoft, which was then a small start up. Chip development became the forte of Intel. Soon IBM clones flooded the market. It was possible to buy chips, software and other components from different manufacturers and assemble them. These conditions created a fertile ground for entrepreneurs and many computer assembling and selling businesses came up quickly. Simultaneously, a host of software companies came up for developing specialized products like desktop publishing and anti-virus programs. Consumers benefited but IBM lost its dominance of the computer market.

Look at what is happening in the lighting industry.

This is how the LED bulb you love reaches your light fixture.

1.       Scientists in Universities, government funded labs and private companies work to break new ground in light output and longevity. They experiment with new semiconductor materials and manufacturing technologies to produce the best product at the lowest price.

2.       Using the knowledge generated in the labs, specialized companies like CREE produce High luminous output LEDs.

3.       Companies like ‘Seesmart’ excelling in fixture design assemble high quality LEDs into fixtures of suitable wattage and light output. They ensure that operating temperatures are low and light spread is even by marrying the best LEDs, optical diffusers and heat management systems. They also ensure that the lights are in accordance with UL testing guidelines.

4.       MyLEDLightingGuide understands LED lighting and brings these super efficient lights to buyers. We sample lights from multiple manufacturers and select those that make for the best price performance combination.

5.       Our secure e-commerce platform enables consumers to choose the product best suited to their needs from the comfort and safety of their homes and offices. They do not need to go through tons of brochures printed on paper or drive down to retail outlets. The chosen product is shipped to the buyer and helps him improve the performance of his/ her business or reduce home energy bills.

As with computers, new tech companies are coming up with pioneering technological products for remote lighting management and intelligent lighting controls. The parallels are too many and the business will probably develop as the computer industry did – adding efficiencies, earning foreign exchange and establishing world leading best practices in the bargain.

That LED light bulb manufacturers shall be the stalwarts of the new age of eco-friendly lighting is beyond doubt. GE, Sylvania, Phillips, Osram and other big names of the lighting industry are trying their hand at marketing LED lights. However, these big name lighting companies are going to face a lot of competition from smaller manufacturers and customer focused retailers like MyLEDLightingGuide. The reach of our E-commerce platform renders their distribution muscle redundant negating one the main advantages enjoyed by these big players. Intelligent customers do not choose brand name products blindly. Instead they like to see, study, analyze and understand evidence about the benefits of the product they have chosen to invest their money in. This is where our ROI calculator, data analysis and knowledge articles prove to be of great value.

The world of lighting seems ready for democratization.

It used to be that the moon and the stars were the brightest bulbs in the sky. But as anyone who’s flown across a city at night knows, these days, there are an awful lot of outdoor lights shining up from the ground.

Many people assume that an orange nighttime sky is just ugly, not harmful. But recently scientific studies have suggested that light pollution is more than an annoyance; it’s destroying wildlife, damaging human health and costing us a lot of extra money.

That’s why a growing number of cities and towns across the United States are drafting ordinances to try to bring the night sky back. They’re requiring that all new outdoor lighting fixtures that are installed – both commercial and residential – only shine light down onto the place that needs to be lit, not up into the atmosphere.

Known as the Dark Sky movement, these ordinances vary from town to town, but often the requirements are similar. No outdoor lighting fixtures can shine any light above a horizontal line. Instead, everything must shine down.

“We’re not saying you can’t have that aesthetic value, you just light it from the top down,” explains Johanna Duffek, Sections Coordinator with the International Dark Sky Association, a Tucson, AZ-based non-profit group that’s at the forefront of the movement.

Although the original purpose of The International Dark Sky Association was to keep the night sky pristine for astronomers, today the Dark Sky movement is gaining ground because more consumers are interested in reducing their energy usage, and when you’re not wasting light that’s going up into the sky, you can use a lower wattage bulb to achieve the same level of exterior lighting.

For example, if a homeowner used an outdoor sconce that had openings on the top and the bottom, he’d have to use a 100-watt bulb. But if he switches to a Dark Sky fixture that only allows light to shine from the bottom of the fixture, the homeowner could use a 40-watt bulb.

“It’s a more efficient use of light,” explains Tom Patterson, Director of Product Development at Hinkley Lighting, which already offers some Dark Sky light fixtures. “You can use a third of the wattage or half of the wattage and get the same amount of lumens.”

Patterson says consumer awareness of the Dark Sky movement is still very low, but he said awareness has been growing among local government leaders, and that is forcing the manufacturers to come out with more and more Dark Sky-friendly outdoor fixtures.

“Now in Arizona, in all the new construction, you’re going to have to meet the dark sky qualifications,” Patterson says. “It’s catching a little bit more momentum.” Hinkley, for example, advertises that it can make about 25 percent of its outdoor lighting fixtures Dark Sky compliant. Retailers are charged about $15 to $20 to change a regular fixture to a Dark Sky fixture.

Currently, there is no official government standard for a Dark Sky fixture, but the International Dark Sky Association has been in talks with the Department of Energy to incorporate the Dark Sky philosophy into the Energy Star program.

The International Dark Sky Association also independently evaluates fixtures from manufacturers and awards a seal of approval to all of those that meet its requirements.

So far, Duffek says the International Dark Sky Association has awarded Fixture Seals of Approval to 75 different lighting manufacturers, and while many of those have been commercial applications, Duffek says the organization is hoping to increase participation among residential lighting manufacturers.

Hubbardton Forge, for example, makes a sconce that has received the Dark Sky Fixture Seal of Approval that features a slate-colored ceramic shield around the light bulb that forces the light down. And the Minka Group has several outdoor lights with metal crowns that block the upward light.

Both Patterson and Duffek say the biggest resistance to Dark Sky fixtures isn’t coming from manufacturers but from homeowners who are afraid that less exterior lighting around their house will make them less safe.

But Duffek said homeowners need to understand that blocking light from going into the sky doesn’t mean blocking all exterior lighting. Duffek says the Dark Sky movement suggests homeowners buy outdoor lights with movement sensors that will go on if someone enters your yard, which can help alert you to danger and keep your energy usage down at the same time.

“When you keep the lighting on all the time, all you’re doing is lighting for the bad guys,” Duffek says.

Duffek says the biggest challenge now is to educate the public about the benefits of reducing light pollution and encouraging manufacturers to continue to design compliant fixtures.

“We always try to present it as a win, win, win solution,” she says.