Posts Tagged ‘Home and Electricians’

Uses Of Dimmer Switches

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Hmm...Dimmer switches help in creating a good environment in dinning room or home theater as per your choice. They are not so difficult to install. Once you decide to buy these dimmer switches for your home, have good knowledge about them.

Dimmer switches can only work with 120V incandescent bulbs and halogen bulbs. They can not be used with fluorescent bulbs and most compact fluorescent bulbs.

The basic reason behind this is that dimmer switches are meant to work with bulbs with wire filaments, which are present in 120V incandescent and halogen bulbs. On the other hand, fluorescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs contain a gas that requires certain amount of voltage to operate the light. Also for low voltage halogen bulbs, a special dimmer switch should be used.

Dimmer switches can be of two types- single pole and 3-way dimmer switches. In case you require a switch that you need to on/off from a single point then go for single pole switches and if you want to access the light through different switches then go for 3 way switch. But out of these switches only one will be dimmer switch.

Beautify Your Home With Different Lights

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Lighting can give a new look to your home. So this facet of home requires a special attention while building a new house or remodeling a house. A good light can set the mood or tone for each room of a house or the theme of entire house. Therefore, make a plan in advance for lighting your house and install fitting according to that.

Light has a great impact on look and feeling of a room. It can make the room looks more attractive. So choose all the lights of a room properly.

Various types of light that can be used in different rooms are- ceiling lights, natural light, up-lights and mid-range lights. You can choose different lights for different rooms as per requirement.

Ceiling lights are generally used in the mid of a room and they are installed in bedrooms, living room, entry area, basements and den. Ceiling lights might be recessed, therefore in addition to these recessed lights another light sources are also needed to be installed in these rooms.

Few special ceiling lights may be used to light a particular area in the room like a special corner. However, such lights are not enough for a single room and you need more lights in that room.

Decreasing Drafts Around The Electrical Outlets By Insulation

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

In order to save on your electric bills, you must take care of each and every electrical segment of your home. Often, the homeowners forget about the inspection of the minor electrical fixtures which in turn leads to peaking electric bills.

Most often, the heating and cooling devices of your home end up consuming a major share of the monthly power consumption. The homeowners feel helpless against such a scenario as the use of such devices becomes a necessity for them. Though you cannot stop using such equipments (air-conditioners, electric fireplaces, heaters, coolers etc) but you can work towards their higher efficiency.

The insulation of your electrical outlets and switches is one such issue that must be well apprehended. The electrical outlets and switches deprived of proper insulation lead to drafts which in turn reduce the efficiency of the heating or cooling devices of the concerned room. Well-insulated outlets and switches would maintain the warmth of a heater or the low temperature of an air-conditioner. Consequently, the power consumption by the concerned device would be dropped and you would have to pay a lesser electric bill.

Things You Can Do To Slash Your Utility Bills

Monday, December 21st, 2009

With increasing electric bills, people want to know some techniques to slash their electricity bills. Purchasing energy efficient light bulbs is certainly a major way to trim the fat from your electrical bill, but there are many other techniques that can help you. Here we will talk about those bulbs as well as some tips and ideas on how you can save energy and money on home lighting.

Start using compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). A compact fluorescent lamp of 15 watts can produce same lighting as produced by a conventional bulb of 60 watts. Hence, it uses only about one quarter of energy to produce the same amount of light as a standard incandescent bulb and they also last longer.

Use of three-way bulbs is also very beneficial. These bulbs can operate at three different wattage (e.g. 50 watts, 100 watts, and 150 watts), allowing you to choose the lowest wattage according to your needs. Always try to use the lowest wattage that can meet your requirements.

The fundamental step of saving light is to switch off the unused lights. If you will not switch off a light that is not used by anyone in the home then it will just add surplus units in your bill. It will be like you are paying for something that you have just not used.

How Smart Meters Help In Conserving Energy ?

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

In modern era each and every individual is using electronic devices in day to day life. We are now badly dependent on electricity and if it will continue like this only, one day electricity consumption will become more than generation. So to avoid such situation we should use energy saving devices such as Smart Meters. Let us now discuss how Smart Meters can change our life.

Smart Meter is an advanced Meter that transmits electricity consumption back to utility company through a network. By using this Meter utility providers can do better outage detection and more efficient power restoration.

Using a Smart Meter a consumer can save up to 10% of energy bills. They allow utility companies to offer multiple energy usage plans and different rate choices that will best meet consumer needs and offer options such as electricity discounts if you use more electricity in the evenings or on the weekends.

The customers who use Smart Meter are motivated to consume more electricity at peak times and less at non peak times. Using Smart Meter is an effective way to conserve electricity.

How Lighting Can Change The Look Of Your Room ?

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Are you bored of the same old looks of your room? Then it’s time for you to do something new like transforming the lighting system as it can give fresh look to your house.

If you are changing the lampshades of your living room, try to choose a single color theme to make it more appealing. No doubt changing lights give newer look to your room.

You can use table lamps also to divide the room into different areas. In a large living room you can have different lights for various portions, like a overhead lamp for dinning table, floor lamp for the portion where you sit. You can switch off the light which is not being used currently and like this you can save your electricity bills.

Dim lights make the environment romantic and is considered to be best for dinner time. So use these lights while dinner and save your electricity, for other things like reading, writing use bright light.