How many times have you observed your neighbor using a weed-whacker that is connected to a series of four or five extension cords in order to reach the far corner of the yard? Probably plenty of times. When using a series of cords, be sure they are all the same rating, and check with the manufacturer or your local licensed electrical contractor to see if it is safe.

Extension cords are rated by the thickness of the wires inside using a standard known as AWG (American Wire Gauge).

Fuses and circuit breakers are part of any home or business that has electricity. These devices are extremely important to your safety, but what exactly are they?

It can be easy to take the technology around us for granted, and that includes the collection of strange switches in that metal box in the basement you never mess around with. You might have heard something about a “tripped circuit” or a “blown fuse,” possibly around the time the air conditioner shut off when someone plugged in a new appliance. But you might not be clear on what exactly these terms mean. Read on as we uncover the mysteries surrounding fuses and circuit breakers.

Circuit breakers and fuses (which can sometimes be found instead of breakers) are safety mechanisms put in place to ensure you don’t exceed certain current limits. If the wiring in a building has too much electrical current moving through it, these devices stop the flow of electricity until you address the problem.

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.

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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.

With that major storm from a couple weeks ago still fresh in everyone’s minds, more and more people in the Maryland, Virginia and DC area are starting to think about the benefits of installing a standby generator. Generators are still fairly new, however, and a lot of people still have questions about them.

To put it simply, generators supply backup power to your home when the grid goes down. Most standby generators are powered by gas or propane and are connected to your home’s main distribution panel via an automatic transfer switch. The generator constantly monitors incoming voltage, activating automatically when it senses a power outage. When it turns on, it also closes the line from the power company and opens its own line so you don’t accidentally get power coming from two sources. When the power comes back on, the generator shuts off and reopens the line so you get power back as usual.

Once used more by farmers, businesses and construction companies, generators have evolved significantly over the past decade from their loud, large and expensive roots and are now well suited for use in homes. Standby generators are quickly becoming even more popular than portable generators thanks to their ease of use, quiet operation and aesthetically pleasing design.

One of the most common misconceptions about standby generators is that they’re not affordable to most people. Fortunately, this is not true! Standby generators have come down in price significantly over the years. In fact, these days there are generators available from as small as three kilowatts to as large as 45 kilowatts! Smaller units provide supplementary emergency power for general lighting, a refrigerator, or an air-conditioning unit alone, but large units can run multiple AC units and provide power for other household needs such as appliances or sump pumps. The money you’ll save in spoiled food is practically enough to cover the cost!

Standby generators are becoming increasingly popular as part of new home construction, and while this is obviously an easier job, retrofits are still more popular. At Kolb Electric, we install Generac generators. Generac generators have a number of additional benefits compared to others on the market. They:

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!