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.

Your electrical panel serves as the entry point for the electricity being provided to your home from your electrical utility. It also functions as an electrical safety device that will turn off an electrical circuit if there is too much current. Excess levels of electricity can lead to fire or electrical shock. Although you can often tell which circuit is malfunctioning by looking at your breaker box, it can make things much easier if you take the time to label all of your circuits or fuses. This way, you know which switch goes to which area of your home, regardless of whether or not that particular breaker has visibly tripped.

Most newer homes use circuit breakers in order to protect the different areas of the house. Some older homes, however, may still have fuses. If your home still has a fusebox, consider calling a local Pasadena electrician to inspect your electrical system. This is often the sign of an undersized electrical service. If you have a breaker panel, just follow the below steps to restore power to the area of your home that has been affected.

Excess electrical current passing through a circuit will cause your circuit breaker to trip, effectively stopping the current from flowing anymore. When this happens, the switch will move to a neutral position, which is between the ON and the OFF position. To return power to this circuit, all that you have to do is flip the switch all the way to the OFF position and then back to the ON position. Before doing this, it is good practice to turn off or unplug all appliances in the circuit.

Now that the power is back on, you can continue to use your circuit as usual. If you have continuous issues, however, you should call our technicians at The Electric Connection for assistance. We are always more than happy to lend a helping hand. You can also get more information through our website at www.theelectricconnection.com.