Cost, energy savings, maintenance and aesthetics must all be taken into account to optimize your budget and bring out the best in your home with the finest lighting design.

1.   Fluorescent and CFL (compact fluorescent) lamps work well in areas that require cooler, energy-efficient general illumination, such as undercabinet lighting and cove lighting in kitchens or flush-mount ceiling fixtures in garages and basements.

2.  Low-voltage halogen lamps are best for accent lighting and to provide luxurious illumination in areas of the home that call for a more up-scaled look, such as living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms and master bathrooms.

3.  For task lighting, choose LED (light-emitting diode) desk lamps, reading lamps, track lighting and mini-pendants. Bulbrite’s Generation 3 dimmable LED lamps provide great color rendering and light output, perfect for track and recessed fixtures. 

 4.  LED lamps are becoming the standard for outdoor lighting, too, due to their low-maintenance and high energy-efficiency. Although the initial cost for LED lamps is considerably higher, you will find tremendous long-term savings in energy, maintenance and replacement costs—especially in areas where illumination is frequently needed such as outdoor security lighting.

5.  Incandescent lamps are still popular for portable lighting and ceiling fixtures to provide pleasant general illumination.  Aim for energy-efficient incandescent:  Bulbrite’s Eco-Friendly Halogen A19 standard bulb is energy-saving, fully dimmable and available in clear or soft white.

Note:  Do not skimp and buy bulbs of lesser quality, because substandard bulbs may emit a poor quality of light and may burn out prematurely.  Purchase your lighting from a reputable dealer who will stand behind the quality of their merchandise.

For more information on updating your home with quality, energy-efficient lighting, visit a Capitol Lighting showroom and meet with a professional lighting consultant.

Prisons and correctional facilities are full of security threats, it’s just common sense.

That is why it’s a major task and a seemingly forever ongoing one to try everything in the book to reduce threats and increase security for everyone in, near, or even outside the facility.

Today we wanted to address how we can solve 2 major correctional lighting system and things you should look out for when finding fixtures perfect for your building and budget.

Firstly, a LED prison lighting system will reduce indirect stress and irritability in both inmates and staff.

Secondly, LEDs within correctional buildings will improve detection of movement, which we all know is crucial.

How you ask? Well, lets talk about each one individually and break it down a bit more than just one sentence. From there, we will talk about how to go about making the conversion over to LED, like we mentioned at the start.

Have you ever been around a light that was flickering and or buzzing? It can get annoying, and fast. Imagine living under these conditions, everyday all day; no break other than a few hours when you go outside. Sounds like no fun, and it can lead to some serious stress and irritability issues for both inmates and staff.

For obvious reasons, additional stress on inmates will never produce a good outcome for anyone. But, another important point is that this can effect your staff and guards too. It can affect their ability to perform at full capacity, which in combination with highly irritable inmates is not a good mix whatsoever.

With LED technology, they will never be susceptible to flickering nor buzzing. Not even near the end of the lights lifespan will they flicker or buzz, unlike other technologies commonly still used in such facilities. Thus, you can avoid any stress or irritability which may be caused from flickering / buzzing lights.

If you can’t tell where everyone is at every second, you’ve got an issue. This is especially important for outdoors during the time when it is dark out. Sure, some light is better than none; but why jeopardize your operations with a flickering light when you could upgrade to LED and get rid of the issue entirely?

As you may or may not know, flickering lights make it harder to not only detect movement, but also identify humans. Think of a strobe light, it’s a bit harder to actually make out what is going on entirely. This holds true with a flickering light, even if it isn’t as bad as a strobe light is.

Here we are going to list a couple of the other major general benefits that LED technology offers over other technologies such as metal halide, HPS, fluorescent, and similar.

There are really only two routes you can take, LED retrofit lighting kit will work perfectly. On top of that, retrofitting is a much cheaper option (typically) then a full replacement is. So, if you don’t need to fully replace then stick with retrofit kit LEDs and you will save a lot on your lighting system investment.

Conclusion

Flaws can always be picked at, especially in such tedious and unpredictable environments like the one we are discussing in this topic.

There are several new models of electric powered cars becoming available as well as others in development.  These electric powered vehicles are the wave of the future.  But, right now, they are expensive (the cost upfront is still significantly higher than their combustion engine counterparts), and there are certain qualities about them that still make people a little bit hesitant to make the switch to a car that needs a charger rather than a tank full of gasoline.

No one can argue that these vehicles offer some significant advantages over cars that run on gasoline, which should seriously be considered high selling points if you’re considering buying an electric car in the near future.  They have the ability to significantly reduce air pollution in metropolitan areas because they have zero tail pipe emissions.  They also have the ability to help decrease our incredible dependency on oil.  It also turns out that electric motors are much more efficient than internal combustible engines – the amount of energy lost in the process of converting electricity into usable motor power is much less in an electric engine than in the standard engine.

Some of the problems that these electrical cars have had in the past (and still make people nervous) have been overcome or are in the process of being overcome.  Initially, the small motors meant slow acceleration.  However, the current electric motors really don’t accelerate significantly slower than other motors.  The batteries that these cars use have also evolved over time and now offer a much better range than early models.

The issues of range anxiety and worrying about charging your car more often than is really convenient most likely won’t disappear completely until there are enough people out there driving electric cars to prove that charging them is no more inconvenient than having to stop at a gas station to fill up regularly, but these are the cars of the future, and the future is closer than most people realize.

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High school graduation has come and gone, and now graduates are left with the tough decision of where they want to go and what they want to do with their lives. Enrolling in college, beginning a career or attending trade school are the usual options students choose from. With so many potential directions to go, Mr. Electric wants to power students’ tomorrow by giving graduates reasons to become an electrician. Take a look and see for yourself – you just might be convinced that becoming an electrician is meant for you.

Students who pursue a career as an electrician earn money while receiving on-the-job training. Most trades require you to complete an apprenticeship program before you are allowed to be licensed and work on your own. This allows you to work, learn, and get paid.

In an ever-competitive job market, it is nice to know you can always find work. Skilled electricians are always in demand.

Because it is not your regular suit and tie job, most people don’t consider the monetary benefits of becoming an electrician.  The pay is good and there are opportunities for pay increases the longer you are in the trade. Master electricians can make $100,000 a year.

Everyday as an electrician is different. It is a job suited for someone who wants to learn a trade, work in different locations on a daily basis, and learn how to use many types of equipment. If you're convinced your next career is as an electrician, contact Mr. Electric to ask about positions available in your area!  

Central forced air heating is by far the most popular kind of Zone heating, also called zone control heating, is a system of dampers installed in the ductwork of your home. The dampers are basically large valves that can open and shut to direct air flow. A damper is installed at each room junction, effectively splitting the house into a number of isolated zones. A thermostat is installed in each room with a damper, allowing that room total control over the air flow into it.

Zone heating is often installed to remedy the two problems mentioned above. Normal central air heating is inaccurate in which rooms it heats, so zone heating isolates each room to allow precise control over their climates. Central air heating causes a lot of uneven hot and cold spots, due to its reliance on a single thermostat. Zone heating compensates for this by installing many thermostats, ensuring that each room can be set to the comfort level of whoever occupies it.

By solving these two issues, zone heating saves energy and makes the rooms in your home more comfortable to be in.