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.

Were you aware that the air quality inside your home can be worse than that of the outdoors? While this is especially prevalent in spring, fall isn’t exactly a walk in the park. The change of seasons kicks up many allergens and debris that can make even the healthiest person ill.

Before you think, “Well I change the air filter in my HVAC system on a regular basis, so isn’t that enough?” consider this: Your HVAC system’s air filter is there to protect the inside components of the system, not your indoor air.

So maybe you have an electronic air cleaner to take care of this problem. This type of air filter is incredibly beneficial. It works by removing microscopic impurities from your indoor air, such as dust, smoke, and smog, in addition to pet dander. Perhaps these seem like harmless particles to you—however, they can actually make you and your family ill.

Electronic air cleaners work best when you stay on top of cleaning the plates so that dirt doesn’t accumulate to a point that it becomes a problem. But if you have an electronic air cleaner, do you need a UV purifier?

While electronic air cleaners eliminate pollutants from the air, a UV air purifier kills certain contaminants within your ductwork before they even have a chance to enter the air. Most importantly, they eliminate microorganisms such as mold, mold spores, and other bacteria.

Microorganisms are not something that an electronic air cleaner can remove from the air. This doesn’t mean that electronic air cleaners are ineffective though—each type of air purifier eliminates the problem that the other one leaves. In other words, they work perfectly together for a comprehensive indoor air quality solution.

Christmas is upon us again and more than any other time of year, it’s the time of year where people put strain on their electrical system.  The lights on your house and the beautiful decorations you’ve been storing in your attic finally are brought out and plugged in for your friends and neighbors to view and appreciate.  And, of course, the vast majority of homes you visit have at least one Christmas tree.  Since most of these things are electrical, it’s probably not a surprise to you that, as a top Dallas electrician, I start getting a lot of calls this time of year.  Though it’s always nice to have the business with Christmas so close, I thought it’d be great to share with ways to avoid wiring problems with your Christmas decorations this year:

 In general, there are a few important tips that can help you avoid wiring problems.  If your lights look frayed or dangerous, they should always be replaced or repaired before using them, frayed wiring are hazardous.  You should take care that your electrical source is safe before you even begin the installation process.  To avoid the potential for overloads, you should have dedicated circuits installed for your holiday decorations.

Most importantly, you should never try to supply power for your lights without contacting a top Dallas electrician to help you install the necessary equipment and make the necessary safety precautions.  Short cuts are potentially dangerous. I can remember one example where a customer had supplied power to their lights by splicing an extension cord directly into their circuit breaker box!  Even worse, they’d shut the breaker box door, pinching the cabling!  Left unchecked, even if this hadn’t started a fire, damage from a power surge or overload could have easily destroyed their whole breaker, meaning they’d have to spend thousands to repair the damage at the absolute worst time of year!

We all know or at least heard that converting from Metal Halide (High Intensity Discharge) to LED will save you money.

But how much? Are there any other reasons or difference you should know about?

In this article, we break down all the factors that you should be aware of before making a decision to convert from Metal Halide to LED. Here are the 9 reasons we think LED wins over Metal Halide.

Let’s take a look at the information on a typical 400 watt metal halide bulb. While specifications may vary, a visit to a popular online website that sells Metal Halide bulbs shows that a brand new bulb has the following specifications:

We have just as many customers wanting to convert to LED because of maintenance savings as they do for energy savings. Think about what we discussed, over the life of the LED retrofit kit, a customer would have to do 5-6 Metal Halide replacements. The higher the installation height, the higher the cost of replacement. And if you have a facility loaded with lights, this becomes a significant budget amount every year that you must take into consideration. Now, we know that reduced maintenance time on lights does not translate into dollars saved because it is highly unlikely that people will lose their jobs over the fact there is much less work to do. However, these people will have time to now work on things that matter, like fixing the machines that make the company money instead on replacing lights that cost the company money.

When you take a measurement of light with a light meter, it reads lumens. And this measurement of all the lights that contribute to the light at that location creates a measurement called foot candles. But let’s think about that light that is being measured. Metal Halide creates all sorts of light, in all spectrum’s, visible or otherwise. This includes UV and IR spectrum’s, visible to the measuring device but not visible to the human eye. LED, on the other hand, does not produce UV and IR. Therefore, its readings using the same light meter is only picking up visible spectrum’s.

So there is a fun little test you can do. Have 2 light sources, LED and Metal Halide. And first ask, which one is brighter? And if the right LED source was selected, they should say LED. And then use a light meter, and the light meter may say the Metal Halide area is producing more foot candles. And so now you know part of the reason, but wait, there’s 2 other pieces of information you need to know.

Click here to see our infographic on Retrofitting vs Replacing.

Conclusion