Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a top-tier electrician in Columbia, Maryland? Maybe you’re looking for a new, exciting and rewarding career. Or maybe you just want to know what it is that makes Kolb Electric’s certified electricians so darn good at what they do! In either case, the answer to this question is a two-parter.

There is, of course, a practical aspect. Education, training and all of the necessities of being a bona fide electrician. But there are some personality and professionalism requirements, as well.

An electrician has to become highly versed in a ton of information. You may think it’s a lot of “this plug goes here”, and yes, there are some pretty simple connections to make. But electricians actually learn way, way more than just basics. A successful electrician must learn:

As an aside, we would like to point out that if you ever consider undergoing training to be a certified electrician, do not ignore safety and first aid training. A lot of our job is about how to avoid setting ourselves, or others on fire.

Where Do I Start?

There are a few methods of receiving electrician training. Kolb reccomends trade schools or a community college, as there are plenty of them that offer excellent courses in Maryland. Training will involve years of classroom study, practical applications and apprenticeship before you can acquire certification. Sound like a lot? It is, but it is entirely worth it, and everyone needs to know that you’re completely trained!

So aside from the extensive training, what makes a Kolb electrician great at what they do? A lot of it comes down to attitude, willingness to serve well, and professionalism. A successful electrician in Columbia is:

Another important thing to keep in mind as an electrician is that training never ends! Technology is always changing (often very rapidly), and staying on top of all of the latest technology, trends and techniques is one of the primary goals of a successful electrician. Besides, learning new things is fun, and keeps the job interesting!

Our teams at Kolb are extensively trained, highly effective and very skilled at what they do. If you need electrical services including repair, installation, replacement, rewiring or anything else, you can call on Kolb!

Any business knows that productivity is key to growth, let alone staying afloat. Whether you are talking about a production line, a traveling salesperson, and yes even your office space; productivity is going to be the main driving factor which will allow your business to not only stay in business, but also experience growth year over year, month over month.

Here we are going to describe 23 ways to improve office productivity which will in turn allow you to realize higher profits, more output, and less money being wasted to lost productivity.

First on the list? Improving office productivity through computer applications:

Science proves that taking more breaks allows us to be more productive.

How does that work if we technically will have less “work time” by taking all these breaks?

It gives us time to collect our thoughts, time to let our mind roam, and even some time to talk and bounce ideas off of others.

So, instead of making employees hate working because you limit them to one break a day; let them take a short one every hour or two and watch the ideas and productivity outputs increase!

Not only should you be organizing your desk, but also the entire office.

A cleared out area allows for a clear mind to work at much higher levels of clarity. Whether you have a cubical office design or a more open concept; requiring all areas of the office to be clear on either a weekly or daily basis should be a must.

Sure, not everyone likes to clear. But, if you give employees 10-15 minutes to clean their area at the end of every day I’m sure most people will be happy to do so (especially if you explain it is part of your initiative to improve productivity in the office)!

Some people have a habit of checking their email every 10 minutes while they are waiting for someone important to get back to them.

In reality, the likelihood of them replying back right away even if you get back to them quick is slim. On top of that, it seems down right desperate.

By implementing 2-3 time periods (again, depending on the department) that people should check their email; you will end the constant refreshing of email pages by a lot of your work force. This allows people to get back to work and pay much more attention to their work at hand.

There can be multiple things wrong with your lighting system that might be throwing off people in the office.

First of all, if you have fluorescent lights then you might just have a few (or a lot) of lights in your office that flicker or even worse, buzz. This can cause eye stress, annoyance, and a general distraction.

On top of that, you may have either an under-lit or over-lit office. Both are bad, and it’s up to you to find the optimal light output for your office. This can be done by surveying employees on your lighting system and going from there.

Lastly, low quality light can be an issue. An easy way to not only improve the quality of light but also get rid of flickering and buzzing light issues is by upgrading your reduce your energy usage by up to 30% or so. Sounds like a win-win situation here!

Not only will they help with productivity, but they will also clean the air of toxins which will keep the air fresh and not-so-stuffy.

Stop making it so difficult to get around. Make it easy to get to the bathroom, to the trash, or even to an outlet.

Time is money, and if people are having to spend time just to get to the most basic things you aren’t setting up your office for success (literally).

Using office design to increase productivity can be difficult, sure. But it doesn’t have to be all that complex. You could even get some people together to brainstorm what could be done to best optimize the space you have to best serve efficiency in the office. So while there will never be the “best office design for productivity” hack or tip (due to all offices being different), you can always use some general guidelines and common sense to help you out.

Wherever the noise may be coming from, while it may not effect everyone it may be effecting some people.

Now, this can be an easy fix if the noise is coming from within the office. To solve this issue, all you need to do is address the area of concern and fix it. But, what if the noise is coming externally on a frequent basis?

Well, you can do either of two things. Firstly, you can try to address or confront the external noise producer and see if there is anyway for it to stop at least during your time of work. If that doesn’t work, then you might need to install sound proofing technology into your walls. This can get pricey sure, but you’ve got to weight the benefits of having less noise in the office versus the cost it is going to be to make the upgrade.

Although you might think that you won’t be able to get everything in if you shorten meetings, you would be mistaken!

In fact, having shorter meetings make them much more focused and thus; more productive. Even if you have two meetings over one a week because they are shorter, it is much better to have two 10 minute meetings over one 30 minute one that lacks purpose.

On top of that, do you really need to have a meeting? Or, are you just holding meetings to “have a meeting?” If it is the latter, try scheduling meetings only when they are needed, rather just out of habit.

Looking for ways to motivate the office into getting stuff done? 43Folders.com and it’s a simple concept: work for ten minutes, break for 2, then repeat this 5 times (or an hour).

You might say, “are you mad?! No way I’ll let my employees take a break every 10 minutes.” But here it out…

Maybe you shouldn’t implement this tactic specifically, but make a variation that works for your needs but still allows for productivity to be most optimal. And yes, there will be times when extreme concentration is required for more than 10-20 minutes, and obviously this doesn’t have to be a “set in stone” type deal. Instead, make it a generally accepted practice to partake in such method of break and work balancing.

(We already talked about more breaks in #3, but we thought this hack was worthy of its own).

Have you ever listed a job listing opportunity with one of the qualifications as “multitasking?” If so, you’ve got it all wrong. In fact, you should be listing a qualifications as “the ability to be laser focused on one thing at a time.”

Multitasking Parkinson’s law” in short says that we will fill whatever time is allotted to complete a given task.

Why do you think people with a 3 month deadline to get a presentation done still find themselves struggling to get it ready to go last minute? Because they will fill the entire time they are given to finish it. This goes with any task, and if you shorten the time allotted to finish tasks you will see more getting done because people will work to fill the allotted time given.

This of course can be used too far and not given enough time to get things done with all the proper due diligence required. Finding a good balance of long enough but not TOO long will be difficult, but start looking into deadlines and what exactly defines how far out they get set and start thinking about setting shorter (yet still doable) deadlines.

Studies show that standing will not only improve health, but it will also improve productivity. Focus goes up and thus more work can get done.

call center workers showed that pollution in the office reduced productivity levels. As you can imagine, pollution is a major issue in a lot of places, especially in bigger cities.

Although the beautiful spring weather is giving you a nice break on your electric bill, it is always important you learn more ways to cut down your energy usage. This summer is going to be a hot one. You need to get ahead of the game by learning some useful tips and tricks for staying cool this summer without turning your thermostat down and running up your electric bill. An electrician in Los Angeles has those tips for you. If you need any more questions answered, the team at The Electric Connection can certainly help you.

Check out the following 5 ways you can reduce your electric bill and stay cool this summer.

1-If you haven’t done so already, switch out your old incandescent bulbs to the more energy efficient LEDs or CFLs. Your lighting needs account for about 20 percent of your electric bill. By changing out those old bulbs, you could save quite a bit of money. If you have an old light fixture, considering having it changed out by an electrician. Los Angeles residents will soon see it was worth the investment.

2-Invest in some heavy curtains or consider having your south-facing windows tinted. This can cut down on the heat produced by the sun hitting the glass.

3-Have a ceiling fan installed by a Los Angeles electrician to help reduce cooling costs. A fan in the main living area and in each bedroom can help keep you cool without running up your electric bill.

4-Use a crockpot to cook meals on really hot days. This will reduce the heat generated by the oven or stove.

5-Do not use your dryer during the day. Consider drying clothes outside or run the dryer in the early mornings and late evenings.

If you need a new ceiling fan installed or have any additional questions, give the team at The Electric Connection a call today.

How many light bulbs have you changed in your lifetime? It’s a simple action, and often one that we don’t put much thought into, but what if the simple act of changing a light bulb could make a profound impact on the environment, and the well-being of future generations?  As experienced www.EnergyStar.gov:

“If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a light bulb that’s earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars.”

Think about the changes that you can make by simply replacing the outdated incandescent bulbs in your home as they burn out with one of the Alternative Lighting Solutions below. Here are some details on a couple of the most popular Alternative Lighting Solutions available.

Compact Fluorescent Lamp: Modern CFL bulbs for use in homes consist of a curved fluorescent tube and electronic ballast in a single unit, designed as a direct replacement for standard blubs. They use 3-4 times less power than comparable incandescent bulbs. These are great options to replace your standard light bulbs, but they do have a few small drawbacks. According to an article by PopularMechanics.com, while CFL’s do have a much longer lifespan than standard bulbs, they often lose some of their brightness long before their expected lifespan is up, and this is increased in fixtures that don’t allow for efficient cooling of the ballast located in the base of the bulb. Another documented fact about CFL bulbs is that they do contain mercury, which means that they must be disposed of properly by taking them your local approved recycling center. You wouldn’t throw a battery out with the daily trash would you? So you shouldn’t throw these out either.

Light Emitting Diodes: LED’s are a form of “solid state” lighting that have become available recently to homeowners as an incandescent and CFL replacement. Using small light emitting diodes mounted directly to circuit boards, these are highly efficient, and have fewer parts prone to failure, allowing for an expected realistic lifespan of 20,000 to 30,000 hours, when operated at recommended temperatures. While initial costs for these bulbs are higher than incandescent and CFL options, long term energy savings are where this alternative lighting option truly shines, with the average LED bulb using approximately 12-17% of the energy that it takes to run an incandescent bulb of similar output, the end result is a bulb that costs drastically less to power over time.

As a point of comparison, here is a simple chart of the energy usage of LED and CFL bulbs compared to incandescent bulbs, and the output associated with them:

Lighting technology has changed a lot in the past decade, and it is pretty amazing to see what could be on the horizon for future lighting innovations. Take this for example. While most homes will never need this amount of output, it’s pretty impressive to see that something the size of a Christmas tree light, like this plasma bulb, can put out more light, more efficiently, than the giant bulbs that we use in street lamps!

The great thing about these changes is that they aren’t something that requires a huge change in your lifestyle, so they are some of the easiest ways possible to help the environment, and lower electric bills while you are at it!

About ElectricMan Inc.

For some, flickering lights are an annoyance and can be a distraction. Others don’t notice the inconsistency in the lights. But, that fluctuation in light can signal problems in the circuitry or light fixtures in one’s home. Depending on the source of the problem, it could lead to serious safety issues in a home.

All lights flicker to some extent, based on the amount of power that is coming into the lines in your home.  If your lights flash or flicker regularly, it’s often a sign that there’s a problem – either in connection or power use. Situational flickering – like when an air conditioner starts – is a sign that there’s an issue with power supply. Simply put, the dip of the lights when the AC unit starts up occurs because the AC pulls the available electricity supply from the light. It’s usually temporary. It may also be a sign that the outdoor AC unit isn’t wired for maximum amperage. If the flickering lights aren’t related to a large appliance powering up and running, it’s a sign that there are issues – home may be brighter and more comfortable.