Someone would think that a bulb is a bulb is a bulb; well that isn’t really the case. Anyone who has bought a light bulb will know that there is a large variety to choose from. These bulbs don’t vary only in terms of their illuminating power, size and application, but in type as well. It can be quite a challenge to choose the right light bulb for your home.

However, it’s important to understand that something which is in vogue need not always be the best solution for your home, your energy bills or even the environment. You should be aware of the different types of bulbs available in the market and what their properties are.

This will help you make a more well-informed choice and will help you save on energy costs too. When you are choosing bulbs for your home the factors you should keep in view are the upfront cost, light output, the settings and fixtures the bulbs can be used in, energy efficiency and how environment-friendly they are.

When it comes to home lighting in Australia, there are 4 different types of bulbs you can choose from. Let’s take a look at their features and how they stand up against each other in terms of efficiency, cost & environment-friendliness. Just as home design trends come and go, so also is there a change in home lighting trends.

The upfront costs for these bulbs are very low (it’s also why they are so popular), but they are expensive to run. These bulbs produce a warm light and are a good option for lesser used areas like a laundry or bathroom. The Government doesn’t really recommend using these for general home lighting as they are inefficient and because their running costs are higher. In fact, the Government is also making every effort to phase out these bulbs. They are doing this by introducing MEPS (minimum energy performance standards) for all lighting products.

These bulbs use tungsten elements and have higher efficiency levels compared to incandescent ones; they are longer lasting too. Unfortunately, there are many disadvantages to halogen lights. Typically, these lights are best used to light smaller areas that require focused lighting. However, most people tend to use them to light larger spaces and they end up consuming much more electricity than they should. The Government is phasing out certain types of halogen lights too.

These are a very popular choice and many homeowners use them. They are energy-efficient, have a lifespan that’s 4-10 times longer than that of any incandescent bulb and are available in cool/neutral/warm tones. They are more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but are far cheaper to run in the long term.

Today, these are proving to be a highly efficient alternative to CFLs or incandescent bulbs. Their initial cost is significantly higher, but they offer 80% energy efficiency and last for a number of years. Since they last for so long, they are easy to maintain and are a good home lighting choice.

For any additional information about the different types of bulbs and advice on which type will be best suited for your usage and home, call Allround Electrical at 1300 169 263 and speak with our experts. We can provide you the best electrical solutions at the most reasonable pricing. You can also drop us a line via email or use this contact form and we will revert without delay.

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As the winter months approach, it’s time to start making your plan for potential power outages that often come with the yearly DMV snowfall. With the Farmer’s Almanac predicting a particularly harsh winter, the sounder the plan is, the more comfortable you’ll be when the cold hits!

Perhaps the best strategy to prevent against home blackouts is to install a stand-by generator. A standby generator supply backup power to your home when the grid goes down, keeping your home toasty and warm against the cold outside. But what else can a standby generator help your home with? Let the experts at Kolb Electric help!

Obviously, the best thing about a standby generator is that it will provide electricity to your home when your power goes out. But aside from that, it has a few distinct advantages over your basic generator that requires a manual start. A standby generator:

Despite common conception, standby generators are actually very affordable. These days, there are standby generators available from as small as three kilowatts, which are both affordable and powerful enough to provide supplementary emergency power to essential electrical systems.

Standby generators are safer, more reliable, and less expensive to run than portable generators and require no input on your part—they start and stop automatically. If you live in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, DC and want to install a standby generator in your home, call Kolb Electric today!

Having smoke alarms is one of the essential ways you can protect your family in your home. The NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) has estimated that nearly 70 percent of those who perish in a house fire were in homes where there was no smoke alarm. Additionally, it is estimated that nearly one thousand deaths per year could be prevented by installing smoke alarms in every home. Learn more about the considerations you must make regarding smoke alarms and then call a Los Angeles electrical company, such as The Electric Connection, to install this important device today.

Building Codes

There are building codes that mandate the installation of smoke alarms. These are developed at both the state and local level. Since there are so many codes and requirements you must keep in mind, it is recommended that you find an electrician in Los Angeles that has a thorough knowledge of NFPA 72 – National Fire Alarm Code as well as these local ordinances.

Location

It is important not only to have a smoke detector, but also to install enough and install them in a proper location. It’s important to install the number of smoke detectors that are required in your area. Additionally, connecting the detectors, means that there will be an early warning if a fire breaks out in another part of the home. When working with an electrician, Los Angeles residents should request that the detector be mounted on the ceiling or high on the wall.

Power Source

A smoke alarm can operate on batteries, electrical systems or a combination. An alarm that operates on both is most desirable, since it protects you even if there is a power outage or dead battery situation. Testing your smoke alarm regularly is vitally important to make certain it will be there for you when you need it.

If you want to talk to a Los Angeles Electrician about installing a smoke alarm system in your home, visit us at ElectricConnection.com or call us at The Electric Connection today.

Super Bright LEDs employs skilled engineers and experts to test LED lights before they’re sold. Our in-house test lab is stocked with numerous pieces of equipment that provide important specifications about each product, such as brightness, color temperature, and operating temperature. Testing methods include the use of integrating spheres, spectrometers, Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) cameras, and an environmental chamber. In addition to this equipment, our technicians perform burn-in tests and durability tests that can last anywhere from two weeks to several months.

CCT, and

Our state-of-the-art environmental testing chamber utilizes a 30-cubic-foot enclosure to reproduce the full ranges of temperature and relative humidity found within commercial and industrial LED lighting applications. Data collection (photometric & electrical) occurs while a device-under-test cycles through specified environmental extremes. Chamber temperature ranges from negative 35° C (negative 31° F)  to 200° C (392° F), and humidity ranges from 10 to 95 percent.

To ensure that our products will perform under normal and extreme conditions—and to have a little fun—our technicians put them through a round of applicable tests. A selection of LED lights is time tested in the environment that each product is designed for. For example, waterproof boat lights are submerged in water, and weather-resistant landscape lights are installed outside. Depending on the type of product and its impact/weather rating, our technicians might drop, run over, freeze, burn, or even saw it in half to test the product’s durability.

Businesses as we all know, are always thinking about the bottom line. From ways to increase revenues to ways to decrease expenses, it’s all critical stuff for any company to pay attention to.

That’s exactly why we are creating this post on energy saving tips for businesses and companies alike. And while not every business in every building will be able to implement every single tip on this list, there should be numerous ones that will be highly relevant to your business.

Saving energy will allow you to reduce overhead expenses, enhance your public view as a “going green” company (which you could use as a marketing play), or even just have better piece of mind knowing your buildings are just that much greener.

Without further ado, here is the first on the list (out of 25)…

1. Upgrade to a LED lighting system. The benefits of LED technology far surpass any other lighting technology commonly used in buildings or fluorescent, metal halide, HPS, etc). reducing the amount of energy that is going to power those lights as well.

4. Install sky lights. How about all of that natural light that is going to waste otherwise? By installing sky lights in areas where natural lighting would otherwise not get to (e.g hallways and inner rooms), you open yourself up to some huge savings by not having to have nearly as many lights on during the daytime.

5. Switch to green web hosting. This is a huge one for those companies who have lots of traffic and do a lot of business through their website. spam email has a carbon footprint? Although this won’t save your company any money, it will definitely reduce the carbon footprint associated with your company.

14. Only purchase ENERGY STAR equipment. By purchasing office equipment that is ENERGY STAR qualified, you are buying into products that are proven to be more energy efficient than those that aren’t.

15. Switch over to laptops. Desktops are always plugged in, and that can mean a lot of energy consumption. By switching to laptops, you will use 1/4th the energy associated with powering your computers.

16. Update your insulation. Those nasty drafts aren’t only uncomfortable to your employees and / or visitors, but they are also wasting a lot of energy. If you can, consider updating your insulation to stop the escape of that warm (or cold) air you are paying to output.

17. Update your windows. While you are at it, updating your windows to ones that don’t have any leaks in them will stop those drafts too. Both of these go hand in hand, and together will reduce a lot of temperature control going to waste.

18. Hold a virtual meeting. If you have days designated for meetings and not much else, then why power your entire building (and make everyone drive) if you could easily have everyone stay at home? Your employees will probably appreciate it, and you are going to save a lot of energy for that day. Technology these days makes it a whole lot easier to save on energy for business and buildings alike.

19. Take advantage of tax credits. All of this effort on saving energy will not only save you in overhead costs, but it could also phantom load is basically energy that is being consumed through a product that is entirely off. The simple solution is to unplug everything when it is not in use. Alternatively, you could shut off the power to an entire room or area when it’s not in use to ensure no phantom load waste is occurring.

23. Reduce hot water usage. By installing efficient faucets, you will reduce the amount of water that is wasted. And if you do heat that water, reducing the waste of it will reduce the amount of energy you use to heat that water.