For some reason, some homeowners seem to think that their ceiling fans are more fashionable than they are functional. This could not be further from the truth, though. While your ceiling fans are not going to actively cool the air in your home, as an air conditioner will, they are able to help distribute cooled air throughout the house more effectively. This can help to make your home feel more comfortable, allowing you to raise the temperature at the thermostat a bit. They also use far less energy than ACs, so put them to use, rather than your air conditioner, on stuffy nights that aren’t quite intolerably hot.

Not only will ventilating your home when the sun goes down help you to boost the quality of the air in your home, but it can also take a serious amount of strain off of your air conditioning system. It sounds simple, but simply shutting down your AC and opening up the windows when the air outside cools down can make a big difference. Close the windows early in the morning when you wake up in order to trap cool air therein.

While there are many ways in which you may go about cooling your home more efficiently, the best is simply to dial our number and to schedule routine air conditioning maintenance service. Our professional technicians will thoroughly inspect your system and tune it up as needed. This will allow it to cool your home with as little energy consumption as possible. Contact us today to schedule maintenance with professional technicians you can trust.

When you hear something a lot, you tend to brush it off. Warnings about changing the batteries in your smoke detector are heard so often, it is easy to push the advice to the bottom of your to do list. When the smoke detector beeps incessantly, it is easier to pull the battery out with the idea you will put a new one in tomorrow. All of these seemingly innocent plans can actually be extremely dangerous. You never know when a fire will break out in your home and often times, it happens when the batteries are out of the smoke detectors. A good option for every home is to have hard-wired smoke detectors installed by a Los Angeles electrician like those at The Electric Connection.

Hard-wired smoke detectors remove the risk of a fire going undetected by a smoke detector without batteries. The smoke detectors are wired directly into the home’s main power by an electrician. Los Angeles homeowners will take comfort in knowing that as long as the power is on, the smoke detectors are functioning. There is a place to batteries in the detectors to act as a backup system should there be a power outage. This ensures the home is always protected, even if somebody borrowed the battery out of the smoke alarm.

You should invest in at least one hard-wired smoke detector on each floor and in the garage of your home. Another benefit to having these devices installed by a Los Angeles electrician is the fact they are all interconnected. When one alarm is sounded, all of the detectors will go off. This means if there is smoke detected in the garage, you will know about it if you are upstairs in your room. These tools can save lives. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your smoke detector installation.

Modern technology has significantly changed the process of getting a quote for solar panel installation, much less the technology itself. If you’re contemplating a solar array at your home, you can translate your speculation into a firm quote in a very short amount of time.

It all starts when you call us. We’ll use satellite pictures of your home to get an idea of the available square footage for an array. Some sides of your roof are going to be better than others for sun exposure, depending on the orientation of your home. Using the surfaces that face the sun first, we can reduce the overall cost of installation.

Understanding your goals with a solar array are critical. Do you plan on going off the grid completely? Or are you more interested in subsidizing your energy bill? Of course, the more extensive your aspirations with a solar array, the larger such an array will be. In some cases, it might be necessary to install more complex infrastructure to accommodate a system that meets your needs.

With that information, we can move forward with quotes into the realm of financing. Traditionally, investing in a solar array is a big investment, but times are changing. Gracious tax rebates and incentive programs exist to give homeowners unprecedented savings on solar installations. Depending on the area you live in, these deals can amount to a solar leasing arrangement with little to no money down. The cost of the array is paid back over the years, as you enjoy decreased energy bills.

As you can see, turning your dreams of a solar installation into reality can happen very quickly, when you talk to the right people. Let us help you explore the potential of a solar array at your home. It all starts with a quick phone call and it could change your energy bill for the rest of your life.

The choice of a LED product is guided by watching specifications tables. Here is one table accompanied by the explanation of the features. The result should be a good lighting solution that is leaving a green ecological footprint. A good lighting solution is emitting enough light that the tasks in space can be conducted properly. First the lumens of the fixture (responsible for brightness in the room), the CRI (how good is the lighting concept representing colors), color temperature (how is the ambience in the room) and lumen per watt (efficiency of the system) are recommended to be watched. These criteria are responsible for a good lighting quality and energy efficient solution.

The other features are necessary information too. They serve further details about the fixture, the setup and maintenance of the lighting system.

(1) Type: The products name is a detail for purchasing the fixture

(2) Wattage: Defines the energy consumption of the fixture, which is important for the electrician and the ecological footprint of the system (referring to Lumens per Watts)

(3) CRI: Important character in areas where colors should be truly represented. For applications where people are involved, a CRI lower than 70 is not recommended. In shopping areas a CRI of 90 and higher is applicable.

(4) Lumens: responsible for the brightness in a room. The more lumens, the brighter the fixture is illuminating the space.

(5) Lumen per Watt: Efficiency of the lighting system. The higher the lm/W the better the ecological footprint of the product.

(6) Lumen Maintenance: how fast LEDs lose their brightness compared to new products (most manufacturers refer to the time when most of the LEDs reach 70% and less of the initial lumen output)

(7) Color Temperature: defines the mood or ambience in a room. Low quality lighting fixtures mostly have a very cool color temperature as these LEDs are more efficient than warm white LED products. A color temperature higher than 6000K is not recommended for a lot of areas.

(8) Beam Angle: the light is radiated into the indicated beam angle. LEDs are direct light sources with typical beam angles of 120° till 180°.

(9) Life Hours: defines the lifetime of a LED product. LEDs last 50,000h up to 100,000h.

(10) Replaces: a helpful information for replacing conventional light sources

(11) Working Voltage: high quality LED products have an integrated driver, Retrofit Solutions are delivered with the suitable ballast already.

(12) Frequency: detail about the admitted voltage frequency

(13) Power Factor: Efficiency of the ballast

(14) THD: Total harmonic distortion is describing the distortion caused by ballasts and other inductive loads of the input current on alternating current (AC) power systems

(15) Operating Temperature: The light source is operating under the mentioned conditions according to the manufacturer datasheet, other temperatures will cause the light source to fail or work not properly (e.g. light loss, different color temperature)

(16) IP Rating: the protection of the light source, ballast and wiring against liquids and solid objects

(17) Dimmable: dimming is the change in light source brightness, mostly undertaken by smart controls

(18) Dimensions: the fixture’s size, important for the definition of the mounting position and space

(19) Net Weight: the fixture’s weight, important for the mounting construction, e.g.ceiling strongness needs to be considered

(20) Housing: the housing is the surrounding of the light source and ballast, the higher the IP rating, the better the protection against liquids and solid objects which is important in car washes for example, the coating is important in swimming halls where the luminaires are exposed to chloride and humid conditions

(21) Mounting: possible mounting ways like pendant, surface or hock mount

(22) Warranty: how long after purchasing, the products are ensured working properly