Electricians provide a wide variety of services from tracking down the rogue outlet that keeps tripping the breaker to installing ceiling fans or lighting. Additionally, an electrician can install new home wiring or repair problems that already exist and need to be addressed. Sometimes you inherit electrical problems when you move into a pre-existing home that need to be resolved. Here are some signs that you may need to hire an electrician to upgrade the wiring in your home.

Unlike many other appliances or home features, age isn’t always the best indicator for when wiring needs to be updated. That being said, having an electrician come out to inspect the entire electrical system and having that information on hand is important. If you suspect that something may be wrong, don’t know when the last time an inspection was done, or your home was built in a year that used suspect electrical systems, call your Top Rated Local® electrician today.

The next time you get the chance, take a good, long look at your home’s outlets. What do they look like? Do they have three-prongs or only two? If you have a variety of two-pronged outlets it’s time to give an electrician a call. Two-prong outlets are ungrounded, unlike three-prong, which means that they can be a fire hazard. The outlets either need to be changed to three-prong and attached with a grounding wire or they need to be replaced by GFCI outlets in order to protect homeowners. An electrician is best to evaluate your specific home’s needs.

Above we mentioned homes being built during years that have suspect electrical elements. Aluminum wiring is the perfect example of this. During the 1960s and 70s, many homes were constructed utilizing aluminum wiring instead of copper. Over time, aluminum wiring will loosen, making it easier for fires to start when the outlet is in use. An electrician can let you know if your home is at risk and what to do about it.

Contact the Electrical Gurus if you think your home may need a wiring upgrade!

High bay fixtures are a critical part to any high ceiling building. Since these high bays require such large lumen output, the cost to run them can be high. By converting to LED high bays, you are able to reduce your energy consumption in your most energy intensive fixtures by up to 75%.

In this post, we are going to cover (non-comparatively) 5 top types of LED high bay lights for this year, 2017. While not every item on this list will apply to you and your building, there will surely be one or two for your needs if you currently use high bay lights in your facility.

If at any time you come across a question, want more information, or are actually interested in implementing LED into your building;

These traditional commercial high bay lighting fixtures look a lot like what we think a normal high bay should look like. They are reminiscent of traditional style Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium high bays and offer your typical round high bay look.

These high bay LED fixtures can replace both 400W and 1000W Metal Halide. The smallest unit is 80W producing 10,240 lumens. There is a 160W unit producing 19,200 lumens. This would be a good 400W Metal Halide replacement. And the largest unit at 400W produces 51,200 lumens. That’s 128 lumens/watt. And, USA Made backed with a 10 year warranty.

These LED high bay Lighting fixtures look a lot like a troffer style panel. The advantages of this type of fixture are the LEDs are spread over a larger area. This has 2 main advantages – Great light distribution and large heat sink. It is important to realize these lights are particularly good at light distribution, creating an even distribution.

These high bay LEDs can replace both 400W and 1000W Metal Halide. The smallest unit is 120W producing 15,360 lumens. There is a 150W unit producing 19,200 lumens and the largest unit at 300W produces 38,400 lumens. USA Made backed with a 10 year warranty like the traditional style high bay.

A retrofit kit utilizes your existing fixture and replaces the bulb and ballast with the LED head and the LED driver. These retrofits can be significantly more economical than replacing the entire fixture, for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. One of which being it’s cheaper to buy. Another being it’s (typically) cheaper to install as well. For this reason, our high bay retrofit kits HAD to make it on the list of the best high bay lighting options.

If you live in a sunny climate like we enjoy here in southern California, you might be considering adding solar panels to your home. Home solar arrays are becoming increasingly popular, but is it the right choice for you? Perhaps understanding the reasons to install solar panels might help you make up your mind. Here are a few of the reasons you should install solar panels now:

1. They’ve Never Been More Efficient – Solar panels are now far more efficient at converting solar energy, with at least 12 percent of the available solar energy on their surfaces converted into power. Combine that with dropping prices, now below $6 per megawatt, and the cost of investing in solar has never been lower.

2. Incentives and Tax Breaks – With a variety of federal, state and local incentives, you can now cut the low prices on solar even further. The federal government offers a credit of up to 30 percent off the cost of your system. Add the ample fiscal incentives offered in the state of California to create a truly winning proposition.

3. Stability During Climbing Energy Prices – Electricity climbs an average of five percent a year, while your solar panels will give you the same amount of energy every year, meaning that your saving actually grows with time.

4. Greater Property Value – More people are recognizing the value of solar panels and are looking for homes that have this built in power source. You can be sure that a solar array will add value to your home.

If those reasons aren’t quite enough, you’ll be convinced once you explore the possibility of solar leasing that gives you the potential to install and purchase a home with no money down. Not every home owner is eligible but if you are, you can enjoy growing savings at no initial cost. Call us today to see if you’re ready and qualified for solar leasing.

So when customers ask us how many ‘Watts” do I need to replace an existing light source, we always convert them to lumens.

•  Pay special attention to the lumens per watt of a fixture. IT DOES MATTER. A LED product at 135 lumens/watt will consume far less energy than a LED product producing 97 lumens/watt. Not all LED solutions are the same. (remember, always buy on the lumens you need, never on the watts you think you need.).

•  To calculate lumens per watt, take the total number of lumens a product produces and divide it by the watts it consumes.

For indoor fixtures, figure on:

utility company. You can check if a product is DLC Qualified on the DesignLights Consortium website. DLC has rebates for Commercial LED Lighting and Industrial LED Lighting

•  Rebates with DLC Premium should be higher than rebates with DLC Standard. Your utility company is typically who provides the rebates and sets the rebate amounts.  Check their website.

•  All UL Listed or ETL Listed.

•  Replacing the light parts of an existing fixture with the a Retrofit unit will not void the UL/ETL Listing of the fixture. However, the exception to this rule are explosion proof rated fixtures (ie. Class I Div 2). Never retrofit a certified explosion proof fixture. UL1598C does not cover these types of retrofits.

•  ETL Listing is the same as UL Listing. They perform the same test, and the certification is the same. The only difference is that the company who performs the test.