At Expert Electric we often get calls from our customers requesting chandelier installation. A chandelier is a great lighting option. Adding a new chandelier can do a lot to change the look and feel of a room. It adds style to your home while lighting effectively. A chandelier is basically a beautiful piece of illuminated art. The installation of a new chandelier will vary with the type and size you choose and the location it is to be installed in. Choosing the right chandelier is a very personal choice. But whatever chandelier you choose, your electrician, in almost all cases, can install it for you.

Ceiling Heights and Chandeliers

Advanced lighting control systems (ALCS) utilize electronic circuits with a programmable logic controller to automatically adjust lighting levels.  Program a number of variables and light requirements to get the lighting just perfect. This helps in providing the right amount of light where and when it is needed, hence improving energy efficiency and savings.

Advanced lighting control systems provide benefits like automatic scheduling and dimming. Turn lights off based on room occupancy and level of daylight. In so doing, the ALCS adjusts the light levels to match the requirements at any particular time. For example, when a room is empty, lights dim or go off completely. This saves on utility costs.

The sensors communicate with the lighting control system through wired or wireless connections. In some applications, sensors are integrated into the lighting control. While the wired network requires hand wiring of all the devices, the wireless communications use radio frequencies. Therefore several benefits exist over the wired network.

Wireless technology eliminates the need for wiring and is, therefore, cheaper, easy to implement and modify. It provides more flexibility while reducing the planning time for the electrical system. Wireless lighting controls are ideal for hard-to-reach lights. These include places where there are non-accessible or hard ceilings, basements, and other expensive or hard-to-wire areas.

The controller automatically adjusts the level of illumination based on one or a combination of the following variables.

The controls utilize room occupancy or proximity sensors to check for activity in the room or target area. If there is no activity, the controls automatically switch off or dim the lights. The system will then turn the lights to full brightness when room occupancy sensors detect someone within a defined space.

Different lighting levels are required based on the activity. In some applications such as warehouses, there is no need to keep all the lights on when areas are not in use. The lighting control systems will either turn off or dim most of the lights. Some advanced systems provide just enough light in the open spaces. Yet, more light becomes available near shelves where a worker might be picking up or replacing items.

Additional light is required during office hours when people are working. However, this isn’t necessary during the lunch break, or when offices are being cleaned. A combination of controls may be used here. Take advantage of daylight, dim or completely turning off the lights when more natural light filters into the room.

The programmable controls can be used to switch individual or groups of lights depending on time of day. These programs run 7 days a week. Consequently, there’s a separate schedule for weekdays, weekends, and holidays. In an office setup, a timer ensures that all lights, apart from security lights, are turned off at night, during the weekends and on holidays.

Instead of using the lamp at its maximum rating when new, the controls dim the light in certain cases. This reduces the normal wear and tear. As the lamp ages, its level of illumination will decrease. However, instead of the light level going down, the control will decrease the dimming level and maintain the required level of light.

So instead of powering the light at 100% and wasting energy with excess light that is not required, the controller ensures light is powered at a lower percentage. This ensures that required light is provided, but at a lower power consumption.

Factors considered when implementing a lighting system include the need for flexibility, facility size, floor plans, facility use, daylight hours, and building codes. Other considerations include the cost-effectiveness of the system, the ease of use, visual performance and comfort.

In addition to controlling the lights, the advanced lighting control systems help in determining the occupancy patterns. Moreover, the operating status of part or whole sections and the entire system’s performance is monitored. This provides business owners with an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the installation and make adjustments.

When you need electrical work done in your home or business, there are some key qualities to look for before making any hiring decisions. It is never a good idea to open a phone book and randomly pick a company or choose the first name that pops up on an internet search. You need to do a little research before you hire a Beverly Hills electrician to come into your home or business. At The Electric Connection, we work hard to live up to each of the following standards so our customers can feel confident giving us a call.

Licensed and Bonded

This is probably one of the most important elements. It is absolutely crucial you only hire an electrician who has been licensed through the state to do any electrical work. Failing to do so could end up costing you quite a bit of money down the road. If by some tragic chain of events the electrical work is faulty and causes a home fire, you could be risking your homeowner’s insurance coverage. Bonded electricians also protect you from incurring any additional costs that may arise from poor work that needs to be fixed.

Professional

When somebody comes into your home or business, you expect them to act and look like the professional you are paying for. Clean uniforms add to that professional look. Courteous and polite are other traits you will want to have in an electrician. Beverly Hills home and business owners will want to be able to converse with somebody who is respectful and will respect somebody else’s property.

Prompt

You need an electrician who will show up on time and get the job done in a timely fashion. You don’t have time to waste waiting around for an electrician to show up. Nor do you want to wait weeks to get a job completed.

Give The Electric Connection a call today and you can rest assured you will be getting an electrician who meets all these needs.

It’s full-on spring, and there seems to be a lot of activity in the landscape lighting world. That’s probably because landscape lighting is generally a great and affordable way to significantly improve the curb appeal of your home. Landscape lighting ideas abound on the internet, and, since it’s a popular season for landscape lights, I thought I would curate for you some of the best landscape lighting I have seen out there on the Web.

1. Wall Grazing at Its Finest

Wall grazing is a lighting technique in which light is cast up or down a wall in order to let the light and shadow play off the wall’s texture. Wall grazing works especially well on this wonderfully textured stone wall. Interesting walls like this almost demand uplights to play off their texture.

2. Cinematic Pond Beacon Situation

Very bright light on this structure in the middle of a pond creates a dramatic, almost cinematic effect. Bright uplights on the trees give some context to the attractive structure.

3. Variations on a Path

Using different styles of path light can make the walk to the house much more interesting. Never assume it’s law that all your path lights match. Mixing it up a little gives the eye a lot more to look at, and the outdoor lighting design looks more calculated, in a good way. Instead of the string of path lights that come in a pack, this is conscious design that makes every trip to the front door pleasant.

4. Variation on Variations on a Path

Another way you can break the monotony of path lighting is to place your path lights according to the visual features along the path, like plants or garden ornaments. Setting up the path lights to be spaced a little farther apart and placing them in different proximity to the path – now directly on the path, now set back near some interesting plants – leads the eye farther down the path, which creates a spectacle and gives the eye much more to admire.

5. Path Lighting without all the Path Lights

Landscape lighting doesn’t always have to include path lights. Here, adequate illumination and very attractive lighting design is achieved by uplighting trees and using downlights mounted on the house.

6. Moon Lighting: A Supernatural Experience?

Moonlighting is a technique in which lights are hidden higher up in trees to create an ambient effect. Pretty cool!

7. Under Counter Lights

One really cool outdoor lighting effect is under counter lighting. Led rope, tape, or LED tape rope hybrid can be run under the edge of counter, stone wall ledge, bar, island, or bridge to create a wonderful lighting effect. This is one application in which LED landscape lighting works really well.

8. Water + Lighting =  Awesome

What’s cooler than light fixtures giving an almost otherworldly beauty to outdoor water features? This is my personal favorite kind of landscape lighting. It just provides such a reliably relaxing and comfortable atmosphere. If your home is your sanctuary, you might want to consider this one-two-three punch of water, sound, and light.

9. Shadowy Magic

Moonlighting can also be used to create cool shadows on the path. See that light mounted up in that tree? It mimics the light of the moon, creating interesting shadows on the ground and enough ambient light to see where you’re walking. Great lighting design.

10. Lit Up Night Time Oasis

There are a lot of interesting things going on here. The space feels large and luxurious, in part because that uplight at the back draws the eye directly to the back edge of the space, making the whole spread look larger. The path lights around the perimeter draw attention to the landscaping. Of course, the star of this show is the cove lighting used around the bridge, making it look almost as if it is floating on light. Yes to this.

11. Epic Landscape Lighting in a Park

I mean, this pretty much speaks for itself. The high powered uplights illuminating the tall canopy creates an amazing effect. Not only is it beautiful, but it also represents the dual purpose of landscape lighting: To beautify and to make safer. Urban parks can be dangerous, but this one looks even more welcoming at night.