For many people the basement is a place of escape and for others it is simply a place for storage. With all the room underneath you, you don’t want it to go to waste. Renovating your basement can greatly increase the value of your home if it is unfinished or in need of an update. One important point to remember is the electrical wiring hiding behind the walls.

If you bought your home and it was already finished, that work could have been done many years ago and you might be thinking it is time to update fixtures, paint, and maybe evening moving a wall. When you begin pulling things apart, be careful for loose or old wires. If the electrical work was not done right, there could be loose electrical wires that were not tied in properly.  The wiring can also be old and out of date. If you are moving walls or replacing fixtures and you are worried about the age of the wiring, have a licenced electrician come to inspect your wiring. If you are going to go through the effort of redoing your basement you want to make sure it is done right.

For those who have an unfinished basement you have a clean slate to work from. Once you start putting up the framing for rooms, you can start on the electrical rough in. This is the foundation for the electrical wires, which includes drilling holes in the framing and running the wires to where they need to go. If this is not done correctly it could leave you with a significant headache once your drywall is up and you have to punch a hole in the brand new wall.

When you are planning out your new layout, make not of where each outlet, light switch, and light fixture will be placed. This will help you plan out the electrical rough-in. If you have reached this point in your basement renovation and don’t know where to go from there – contact Expert Electric. Our electricians can help you with the planning and running the wires through your basement.

Most electrical panels are located in the basement. Prior to your renovation, you probably could easily access the panel. When you are putting up framing and drywall, be sure to leave enough room around the panel for it to easily open. You also want to make sure not to cover it with furniture that could prevent you from accessing it quickly. In the event that you need to turn on a tripped breaker or even turn off a circuit in an emergency, you don’t want to be struggling with furniture to get the panel open.

Before you renovate your basement, have a plan and be prepared.

An email from a customer on Wednesday made our week: “I’m really late in sending you a picture of my kitchen that Pegasus helped create. Every time I turn on the under cabinet lights,  I still get that great feeling from the first time. ” And what a beautiful kitchen it is:

Fluorescent T5 Thin-Inch Light Fixtures in her kitchen remodel. We were just as thrilled with the email she sent us in the midst of the remodel:

Just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with my experiences with your website, customer service and products. I hate to be long-winded, but it”s important for me to tell you about my search for under cabinet lighting. Because I’m spending lots of money on a remodel which included gutting the kitchen, I wanted to be sure to choose the best product for the lighting under the new cabinets.

After searching at the big box stores and getting no more info than what was written on the lighting display, I tried two local lighting specialty stores. Believe it or not, I was told at one of them by the manager that xenon doesn’t have a color temperature. (I decided he had to have been born and raised on a planet with different laws of physics.) No one could really help me at all and seemed totally disinterested in trying to sell me anything. Discouraged, I came home and Googled “under cabinet lighting.”

Your website is a window on the world of lighting! Oh, my goodness, the articles about lighting, the recommendations, the product descriptions!! I was totally elated, then began to think maybe it was just too good to be true, so I revisited your website a few more times over the next few days. Then…….just to be 100% sure…….I called your toll-free number and talked with a customer service representative. I told her that I wanted WHITE light for the under cabinet lighting: standard fluorescent is too blue, daylight and LED is too green and xenon seems too yellow, so I wanted to be sure to get a color temperature that would be white. I also wanted lighting that would produce as little heat as possible. She recommended the Thin-Inch with a color temp of 4100K. We talked about my previous experiences for a couple of minutes and I thanked her for being so helpful and we ended the call.

After all that, can you believe I was still a little nervous about ordering? A couple of days later, I decided to suck it up and take the plunge. So I measured all the spaces under the cabinets, made my list using your recommendations about installing under each cabinet and filling the under cabinet width and ordered online. The shipment arrived a day early which was a very pleasant surprise. The kitchen is now mostly finished.

But the best part of it all is what the under cabinet lighting does for the backsplash! It is AMAZING!! That awesome WHITE light is perfect…….no other word describes it. And after arguing with the electrician about the placement of the fixture at the front of the under cabinet space, not the back, he agreed that the front works best as your website recommends. My experience with Pegasus has been one of the best and easiest of this remodel. Thank you so much! I’m looking forward to having it all done and sending you photos.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lea, for reminding us why we do what we do!

We are so happy you love your new kitchen.

We’re already nearing the end of May. It’s hard to believe, I know. It can be a little uncomfortable to think about how quickly time passes. I’m here to help with a reminder that time’s rapid passing only means all the cool things about each season will reach your senses sooner.

This is an especially exciting time of year, at least for me. By this time, I have been spending a lot more time outdoors. Finally, the pallid, morose visage of a long winter has been touched by a little sun. Exercise has my energy levels up, and it seems like every evening, I’m exclaiming as if for the first time, “Man, it’s NICE outside.”

You’re like, “Where is this going?”

I want to show you some pictures of bugs! Fireflies, in particular. Even more specifically, I want to show you some long exposure digital photography of fireflies. Why? Because it’s really cool. Who doesn’t like chasing fireflies with a camera?

If you are one of our beloved regular readers, you might remember my posts about via audobonmagazine.org

Pretty cool, huh?

If you are not an electrician, you probably don’t pay a great deal of attention to the gray boxes inside or outside the home. Those rectangle boxes are filled with wires and breakers and for the average person, it is a lot of chaos that doesn’t mean a whole lot except that it has something to do with the electricity that goes to the home. When things go wrong with the electric panel, only a trained electrician in Beverly Hills, like those at The Electric Connection, should service the panel. The panel is the hub of the electricity that comes in from the main power grid and distributes it throughout your house.

Most panels will last for decades without any issues. However, there have been several brands and models that have been made in the 90s that are substandard. There are actually some serious safety issues with the panels. It isn’t something you are expected to know, but you can rely on a Beverly Hills electrician to inspect the current panel and let you know if you have one that has been recalled. While the electrician is there, a thorough inspection of the panel can also be performed. This will identify any issues that may be happening.

Another reason to service the electric panel is for an upgrade. Upgrades should only be completed by a certified electrician. Beverly Hills homeowners who need more power to a specific room or need to add a large appliance like a refrigerator, electric car charger or a new air conditioning unit will need to have their panel serviced and possibly upgraded. This is something an electrician can take care of. If you are unsure about the condition of your electric panel or want to have an upgrade performed, give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your appointment.