A power surge is an increase in voltage flowing through your electrical units that rise above the standard voltage levels (120 Volts). These surges can be caused by lightning, high-powered electrical devices (elevators, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc), faulty wiring or even problems with your utility company’s equipment. Inevitably, these are all occurrences that we cannot prevent ourselves, so how can you protect your home and equipment from these damaging power surges?

Surge Protector

A simple solution is plugging in your electronics into a surge protector. A surge protector is a device used to protect your electronics from damaging power surges. However, many people use this tool for a much more obvious function, to plug in multiple components into one outlet, not knowing its protective capabilities. You most likely use at least one surge protector in your home already. But how does it work? How do you know that you are providing the top quality protection for your important devices?

How it Works

As you know, your surge protector pulls electrical currents from one outlet and passes them through all the electrical devices plugged into the surge protector. This aside, the more important feature of this device is its metal oxide varistor (MOV) component, which diverts extra voltage and preventing it from damaging your electronics. This MOV acts in different ways depending on the voltage flow to provide your devices consistent access to adequate levels of power. If the MOV indicates high levels of voltage, it will reduce the resistance and if the voltages are low it will create a higher resistance. However, it is important to be aware that these MOV’s can also burn out. By investing in a power surge with an indicator light you will always be able to determine whether or not it’s functioning appropriately.

In our next blog, Power Surge Protection: What to Look For, we will be discussing how and where to use your surge protector and purchasing tips for finding a quality protector. For more information on power surges and how to protect your equipment, contact the experts at Expert Electric. 604-681-8338

Fact: There are 7 species of sea turtles and 6 of those are found in the United States and all 6 are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Sadly, they typically end up being eaten by predators or die from not being able to enter the water quickly enough. To combat the reduced population, regulations have been made to help protect the nesting areas of the turtles on beaches.  A special LED light that uses amber colored LEDs that have longer wavelengths undetectable to turtles are now being used to illuminate coastal areas.  This allows hatch-lings to not be distracted by the street lights and enter the ocean just as nature intended! How amazing!

When you think of electrical work, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? We’d like to think that Kolb Electric is the first thing that pops up. But hey, we’re realists. You think of stress, you think of frustration, and mostly think of the money involved. With this in mind, it can be pretty easy to want to contact that “friend of a friend” that dabbles in electric work, right?

Well, the experts at Kolb would like to have a little talk about that. And not just the DIY buddy you may have; we’d like to discuss disreputable and unofficial Baltimore electrician “companies” as well. Trust our word we we say these kinds of solutions can do more harm than good!

Need an electrician in Baltimore? Save the stress and contact Kolb Electric!

We’ve discussed this at length in the past, so we’ll stick to the cliff notes here. Disreputable electricians in Baltimore are any that lack current, in-state licensing. Those that carry no official, genuine documents, and those that operate from unmarked vehicles. These types of companies also often ask for cash up front, and are just as likely to disappear as to do the project they were hired for.

When you’re looking to hire electricians in Baltimore, keep in mind that you’re putting a huge amount of your personal assets and heath on the line. By dealing with a company that isn’t recognized, you risk:

Beyond dodging all of those issues we listed above, working with professional, certified electricians will net you:

If you’re looking to hire electricians in Baltimore that can provide you with peerless, effective electrical services, look no further. Contact the experts at Kolb today to set your appointment!

Tired of breaking the bank just to keep up with the Joneses? Forget fancy cars and other status symbols. How about a way to maintain a friendly neighborly competition that actually involves saving money instead of spending? Americans have a wealth of resources at their disposal to empower families to cut back on energy consumption and reduce their electricity bills, but we don't do a stellar job of taking advantage of that information. Recent research, however, has shown that homeowners are more likely to take efficiency measures with their electrical work when they can compare their own consumption to that of their neighbors.

Whose Bill is the Lowest?

The experiment took place last summer, when the Vermont utility company Green Mountain Power worked with Opower, a software company that specializes in behavioral economics. During very hot days when air conditioning use was expected to be high, the utility reached out to customers with tips on reducing the amount of energy they need to power their home electrical work.

Afterward, the utility gave a report which ranked households in the neighborhood based on how well they had done on cutting back. By the end of the summer, electricity consumption among Green Mountain customers had dropped by five percent during hot days. That's some serious savings!

Peer Pressure at its Best

That five percent resulted from simple behavioral changes like bumping the thermostat up a few degrees and using curtains to block out sunlight during the hottest part of the day – no major investments or new equipment needed, just a little peer pressure. This research should be useful in helping understand what motivates people to save energy in order to develop more effective outreach programs for utility companies around the country.

One of the big takeaways is that the utility didn't give its customers any kind of incentives or payments to change their behavior – just the money they saved through efficiency, and the bragging rights of being more conservation-minded than their neighbors.

"Some of the decisions we make are not entirely rational, and they are due to a lack of context," Kevin Hamilton, Opower's vice president of marketing, said to Utility Drive, "and by providing that context you can encourage individuals to adjust their usage in ways that can benefit both the customer and the utility as well."

Little Changes Mean Big Savings

People come up with all kinds of reasons not to implement efficiency measures: It costs too much in initial capital, they are too busy to think about it, or they simply don't think the savings are worthwhile. But the reality is that even making small behavioral changes can add up in the long run.

If you want to decrease the cost of your electrical work and impress your neighbors, have a qualified home services technician perform an energy audit on your house to identify the most cost-effective ways for you to cut back.