It might be tempting to save money by doing the job yourself, but only a licensed electrician should attempt an electrical panel change out. The panel is a critical part of your home’s electrical system, as it supplies the electricity that powers the entire structure. As such, changing one out is a very complicated process, one which should only be undertaken by a professional. Electrical work is always dangerous, and an electrical panel change out is even more so. In fact, in some cities, it is illegal for anyone other than a professional to attempt it.

Any room, area, facility, or outdoors space you need to illuminate should be done so with quality lighting. The benefits of quality lights far surpass going cheap on your lighting fixtures just to save a few dollars. The importance of quality such as metal halide have a rather short lifespan compared to it’s competing technology, LED. LED gymnasium lights, and just LED lighting in general, prove to have a much longer lifespan. This lifespan can be 2-3 and sometimes even 4 times longer than other light sources such as metal halide.

This can allow for less frequent purchasing of new lights to replace old and burnt out ones, which will allow you to better realize a better ROI by investing in LED over metal halide or other similar technologies. This also indirectly reduces your maintenance costs by lowering the amount of time you have to pay someone to switch out burnt out bulbs. This can allow you to reduce your maintenance costs related to your lighting for gym areas by 2-3 times, which will just add on to the benefits that LED can bring to your facility.

While saving money through lighting efficiency, longer life spans, and less maintenance costs is great; it shouldn’t be achieved while decreasing the quality of light produced in your facility by your lighting system. Luckily, LED products allow for proper lighting in a wide range of applications, even your gymnasium. This allows you to create exceptionally safe areas that will keep visitors aware of all there surroundings.

Did you know that LED lights that are efficient called the DLC (DesignLights Consortium). This is an organization that qualifies commercial lighting products based on it’s quality and efficiency. There are both standard and premium qualifications, and premium typically yields higher rebates and thus higher ROI over standard qualified products. Although both are still good and are always recommended for any industrial lighting purchase because being qualified is better than not at all. Without being qualified, we recommend you stay far away from any light that isn’t DLC qualified for various reasons including it not being verified to be a “good” product.

If it isn’t clear by now, the answer is obvious. LED can, will, and should be bringing your gymnasium area all of the benefits that the technology offers.

From efficient, to quality and rebates; there is almost no reason why you should choose other gym lighting technologies over LED gym lights.

More importantly regarding safety of all visitors; LEDs will ensure your areas are properly illuminated with a wealthy amount of light, and won’t be under lit. Also since LEDs will never buzz nor flicker, you will never face that annoying issue that other technologies will do, not even near the end of it’s lifespan. And as you know, buzzing or flickering lights can cause annoyance and less focus, which is never good for a gymnasium environment.

Conclusion

There you have it, what quality LED lights can and will do for your gym. LEDs are also a great option for all of your other lighting needs, such as school rooms, hallways, write in to one of our professionals for some answers.

Every year it seems that the home is becoming “smarter” and more “automated”. We have televisions that can be interacted with remotely, speakers we can play in another room, and thermostats that can be adjusted across the country. These programmable and remotely adjustable thermostats are not only convenient, but they are efficient.

Most homes that haven’t seen electrical upgrades in a few years are likely equipped with an older thermostat that has to be adjusted manually. This has been acceptable for many years as we integrated the adjusting of the thermometer into our nightly routines. Each night before going to sleep many people would lower the thermometer to reduce their electrical usage at night.

Now, with programmable thermostats you can set schedules so that it automatically increases or decreases the temperature in the home. This helps build the optimal schedule for your home and reduce electrical waste by heating the home only when it is needed.

With the increased adoption of smart devices and wi-fi in homes all over the world, “smart” thermostats are the latest and greatest in home automation. These little devices connect through the home’s wi-fi network, which allows you to control them through a smart phone app. This enables them to be adjusted from anywhere. For example, if a day trip is going long and you won’t be home until late in the evening, you can lower the temperature in the home earlier than scheduled to maximize efficiency. With your home’s thermostat at the touch of a finger anywhere – savings are completely in your control.

Installing a new thermostat can seem like an easy job, but once the old one is removed the amount of wires can be overwhelming to the average handyman. Depending on the age of the home and wiring, the wires going to the thermostat may need to be upgraded for compatibility with the new thermostat. When shopping for a new thermostat don’t just review the features of the product, but ensure you are familiar with the specifications and requirements. For assistance in understanding the requirements of a new thermostat and electrical installation, contact your local Expert Electric.

There are many different ways to start saving on electricity in your home. Smart decisions can lead to big decreases in monthly energy bill. Smart thermostats are just one of the ways that savings can be put back in your hands. Contact you local Expert Electric at 604-681-8338 for more information.

The good news is that heating systems in modern homes are safer than they’ve ever been before. But while many people never experience any major risk to their safety due to a furnace or boiler, it’s still a possibility. Any heating system that uses combustion to work, like a natural gas furnace, could potentially leak a dangerous gas called carbon monoxide (CO, for short) into the home.

The heat exchanger is where combustion produces a flame as natural gas ignites. This heat is contained within a heat exchanger made of aluminum or steel. It is essentially a curved tube, and the smoke and carbon monoxide byproducts vent through the other end and out of the house. Air blows over the heat exchanger to heat up and is sent to the ducts running throughout the home.

Unfortunately, over time, the heat exchanger can become damaged. This is especially true if you have anyone but a professional technician work on your furnace, but it can also happen with time. You should have HVAC technicians inspect your heating system each and every year to check for leaks and cracks.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas. That means you wouldn’t have many ways to notice if it were in your home. It is poisonous, and sometimes people don’t know about it until people in the house start to get sick.

Carbon monoxide detectors save lives. A CO detector near each room where people sleep (and throughout your living spaces) should be tested each month and replaced every 5-10 years. You should also replace the batteries for your CO and smoke alarms every 6 months (even if the test works).