What would our lives be like without electricity? Electricity is a necessary utility in today’s world, required for a variety of work and entertainment tasks and to power the appliances used throughout the home. However, if your wiring is not set up properly, you may be facing an electrical hazard that could cause a family member to become injured or start an electrical fire.

In general, you should follow standard safety procedures around the home to prevent problems, like shutting off the power from the service panel before attempting any electrical repairs and making sure not to overload electrical outlets. Furthermore, any unusual power surge or unusual behavior from your lights and appliances indicates a problem that requires immediate attention from an electrician. The following guide contains just a few indications that your home may be at risk for a major electrical issue.

The GFCI outlet helps protect you and your family members from electrical shocks. You may recognize this type of outlet—equipped with both a “test” and “reset” button—from the inside of many kitchens. These are located in the kitchen because, as we all know, water and electricity do not mix. Water interrupts the regular flow of electrical current so that it may flow through you instead. When the GFCI outlet senses that the electrical current is not flowing as it should, it immediately shuts off. If this type of outlet is missing from your bathroom or kitchen, you should call an electrician as soon as possible.

Another cause for immediate electrical repair is excessively hot dimmer switches. If you have dimmer switches in your home and one or more feels very hot to the touch, this is not normal. It most likely means that the dimmer switch is overloaded, exceeding the maximum allowable wattage.

If the circuit breaker seems to frequently trip for no reason, it could indicate an overloaded circuit or a short circuit. This can be caused by something plugged into an outlet or by the wiring itself.

analysis released by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, from 2003 to 2015, New York spent an average of $1.9 million per inch of snow. The city’s average annual cost over the past 14 years has been $95.5 million. One way to cut costs is to invest in LED snow plow lights. While it might cost more initially to replace halogen or incandescent bulbs with LEDs, the long-term payoff is worth it. LED snow plow lights can last 25 times longer than standard bulbs and fixtures, which means a significant reduction in maintenance and replacement costs.

LED snow plow lights are available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. From beacons, first state to use green lights on their snow plows, and they have also started using multiple color combinations, including amber, green, and white. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland, and the Yukon are using blue/amber combination lights to increase the visibility of their plows. All of these colors and color combinations are available in LED lights. The list below includes some of many LED lights that are perfect for snow plows in any part of the world.

The times, they are a-changin'. President Obama recently announced the details of his highly anticipated Clean Power Plan, a measure aimed at reducing the country's harmful fossil fuel emissions and limiting our contribution to climate change. The plan, when fully implemented, should reduce carbon emissions by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Read on to learn more about the Clean Power Plan and what it means for you.

Lower Prices at the Meter

The Clean Power Plan was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, under the authority granted by the Clean Air Act. It imposes sharp limits on the types of energy production that power the nation's electrical work, but grants flexibility to states in how they act to meet those limits. In general, the plan encourages a shift away from burning coal during energy generation, while states have the option of upping their renewable energy production, using nuclear energy, increasing their efficiency or relying more on natural gas.

The good news for homeowners is that the plan is projected to decrease the bills you pay to power your residential electrical work. An analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that the average home electricity bill could fall by as much as 8 percent, and consumers could save up to $37.4 billion overall in electricity by 2020. The rationale for the savings is that renewable fuel sources cost less to run over time once the initial infrastructure is in place. Also, the plan encourages investments in household energy efficiency, which means that you may come to be less reliant on your home electrical work without substantially changing your behavior.

Clean Air for Breathing

The Clean Power Plan has another ancillary effect that has nothing to do with electrical work: it should cut down on air pollution and create a healthier breathing environment. For example, while we rely on the ozone level high in the sky to block harmful sun rays, ozone at ground level is known by another name – smog. It is created when sunlight interacts with pollutants and can be very harmful to our health. The plan should reduce smog levels and provide us with cleaner air to breathe.

Furthermore, one of the biggest signs of climate change is unusually hot and dry weather in certain parts of the country, which can lead to out-of-control wildfires and harmful particulates that damage your lungs. Strange weather patterns have also been blamed for an increase in allergies this year. By slowing the pace of climate change and keeping harmful pollutants out of the air, the Clean Power Plan can help you breathe easy.

If you have any concerns about the effect the Clean Power Plan will have on your energy prices or electrical work, call a knowledgeable electrician today.

Some electrical repairs just can't wait. If you discover loose wiring, a faulty circuit or other problem in your home electrical system, it is essential to call an electrician immediately. At best, electrical problems can be annoying. At worst, they can damage your appliances or even start a fire in your home. That's why it's so important to have savings on hand so you don't feel compelled to delay emergency electrical repairs. Unfortunately, far too many families are not prepared financially to cover this type of emergency.

Emergency Savings Not Cutting the Mustard

The savings profile of the average American family leaves a lot to be desired. A recent report pointed out that 25 percent of homeowners in the United States don't have any money at all saved to protect themselves in case they need an emergency electrical repair or other home service. What's more, about half of the families that do have savings have less than $1,000, which might not be enough to cover a major bill.

And you never know when you might need help. In fact, nine percent of households said they had a problem with a circuit, switch or outlet in the past year, according to the report. Unless you are already an accomplished electrician, these are not problems you can address by yourself – you need to hire a professional in order to protect the safety of your home and your family. If you don't have any savings, that means borrowing money or putting off a repair – a dangerous prospect.

Make Sure You Have Money When You Need it

Follow these tips to increase the odds that you have cash on hand when you need it:

Expert Electricians Keep You in Safe Hands

Maintenance and repairs on your wiring and circuits are tasks you simply cannot put off. Whether the electrical work you need is routine or a true emergency, call upon a professional electrician to get the job done safely and promptly.

Explosion proof fixtures are a necessity for environments which output potentially explosive or flammable fumes, produce dust of dirt in the air, or similar situations in which a gas could enter the fixture and cause damage to the light or well-being of the facility.

If you are currently running or working with a facility which requires these explosion proof light fixtures, the list of 3 must-haves below will clear the air and hopefully set you on the right track to ensuring you have the proper setup and design.

First on the list, we are going to talk about the actual technology within the fixture and why it is so important.

While a big part of vapor proof lights is the actual fixture and its design, we think the luminaire within the fixture is equally as important.

We simply can’t recommend any other technology other than LED because we truly believe in it. To give you a little bit of insight on industrial LEDs, here are some of the reasons why companies of all sorts are converting to LED:

As you can see, just from these three main benefits that all sorts of facilities are realizing can really be game changing in terms of savings.

For these reasons (and more), we thought it was a must to have it first on the list.

Interested in learning more? Find Class 1 Div 2. For this reason, we suggest you always inquire with a reputable and knowledgeable company that offers and deals with explosion proof lighting when inquiring about your lighting project.

If you can’t find a reputable company to ask your questions, just LED explosion proofs offer the long-term solution is clear.

Especially when you consider in rebates, your initial upfront investment can be reduced greatly. While these rebates do vary from place to place, they are most often available when you buy DLC qualified fixtures. Not only are DLC qualified fixtures going to make you more eligible for rebates through your utility company, but they also provide other benefits. The biggest benefit of buying DLC qualified lights is they have ben tried and tested and, in most cases, do what they claim. In a busy world of lighting, not all products do exactly what they say. This is most common when a light is not qualified by something like the DLC.

Our main advice is this; to get the best value buy only DLC qualified fixtures. If you don’t, you may actually end up spending more upfront (by not getting any rebates) as well as more energy usage overtime, due to a less efficient build.

Another major cost saver can come through retrofitting. The only time you can retrofit is if your fixture is still functional and can fit a LED retrofit in it. If you do not match these requirements, then a full replacement will (typically) be required.

If you can, we suggest you retrofit. It saves money in two ways: retrofit kits are cheaper than full fixture replacements and the cost to retrofit is typically less time consuming and thus, less expensive.

In Summary

We know that a sensitive environment can be stressful to deal with, especially when it comes to the lighting system and the safety of the facility.

The above 3 must-haves are just the beginning, and each situation can vary greatly. As always, we suggest you consult with some lighting professionals to truly discover what you may require for your facility and operations.