While many home improvements are well-suited for DIY projects, electrical work requires the skill and experience of a fully licensed electrician. The potential for injury and damage to your home from improperly-installed electrical circuits and fixtures is too great to risk doing the work yourself. In fact, we’ve written about the many dangers of DIY electrical wiring before.

To avoid issues and keep your home running properly, you’ll need to hire a qualified Maryland electrician. Experienced electrical contractors can help you properly install new outlets, wire a new addition or remodeled room, install a ceiling fan, and so much more.

Finding a qualified electrician among the large number of choices in the Maryland can seem daunting. However, there are several good places to look for Maryland electricians whose work you’ll be happy with.

Once you’ve found a few qualified electricians, you can narrow down your list by looking at only those who are licensed in the State of Maryland. You’ll also want to check out ratings on review sites, how many years the company has been in business, and available service offerings—such as 24-hour electrical service.

At Kolb Electric, we have a full staff of licensed Maryland electricians with experience in a variety of home repair and construction projects. To learn more about finding a qualified electrician in Maryland and/or to schedule an appointment with our experts, call us at 877 287-1179 or fill out an online contact form today. Check out our reviews to see what makes us a great choice for any project!

By: Sarah Trocolli

Father of electricity Nikola Tesla was known for being brilliant, quirky and driven in his pursuits to understand electricity, and after many experiments, Tesla eventually laid the ground work for the modern day Alternating Current electric supply system. As a tribute to Tesla and all the dads around the world, Mr. Electric® presents a few kid-friendly experiments exploring the basics of electricity for a fun Father’s Day activity. The kids can explore electrons, static electricity, voltaic batteries and other simple components of electricity – all under the safe supervision of their dads.

Level of difficulty: Easy

What you need: A dark room, fluorescent light bulb and a comb or woolen scarf.

What to do: Run the comb through your hair or through the wool scarf at least 20 times to let the electrons build on the comb. Then turn out the lights and hold the comb to the bottom of your florescent light bulb and watch the electrons charge the bulb. This is great for learning about electrons, and it can be a fun magic trick! For further explanation, click here.

Level of difficulty: Easy

What you need: Cornstarch, vegetable oil, mixing bowl, large spoon, balloon, and a measuring cup.

What to do: Blow up the balloon, tie it and then rub it on your hair. Mix a fourth cup of cornstarch and a fourth cup of vegetable oil into a mixing bowl, and then put the mixture on a spoon. Hold the spoon with the mixture on it near the balloon and watch the mixture gravitate towards the balloon. This experiment looks like a gooey monster stretching to touch the balloon, and it is a fun way to learn about static electricity! For further explanation, click here.  

Level of difficulty: Moderate

What you need: Distilled white vinegar, five pieces of copper wire, five galvanized nails, ice tray and one LED light

What to do: Wrap five nails with five pieces of copper wire and place them separately in the ice cube tray filled with vinegar. Create a circuit by placing the end of the copper wire not wrapped around the nail into the ice cube tray next to it until each section has one nail and one copper wire in it, and then place the LED light in the tray. You have just created a Voltaic battery! For further explanation, click here.

Level of difficulty: Challenging

What you need: Eight D-sized batteries, mason jar or other clear glass, electrical tape, pie pan, scissors, toilet paper tube, mechanical pencil refills and two sets of small alligator clips.

What to do: Connect the batteries positive to negative to create train of batteries. Place the toilet paper tube in the center of the pie pan and using electrical tape, attach the alligator clips and mechanical pencil refills to the tube. Place the mason jar/glass over the tube and connect the other end of the clips to the batteries. After the batteries have a few minutes to charge the circuit the mechanical refills will begin to glow and you will have a DIY light bulb. This is a great way to show that household items can be used in an innovative way. Exercise caution, as this experiment exerts heat and can cause the glass to become very warm. For further instruction, click here.

We hope these electrical experiments provide an enjoyable experience for dads and kids to spend quality time together while learning lots and having fun. Thank you to all the fathers who enlighten children and empower the thinkers of tomorrow. Happy Father’s Day from everyone at Mr. Electric!

The lighting industry has been busy as ever this month, from the slow-climbing successes of LED adoption to the discovery of new galaxies. Have you kept up? Allow us to offer a taste…

It’s only a matter of time before LEDs make serious headway into the retrofit market. Forbes predicts that by 2021, LEDs will make up approximately half of all retrofits in a market where they currently only make up about 5%. Read more…

Cree and Home Depot recently partnered to offer more affordable LED light bulbs to consumers. Nasdaq predicts that Wal-Mart will soon follow, based on a recent announcement from GE about lowering the price of their Great Value LEDs (sold at Wal-Mart). Image via houzz.com

There is an art to proper bathroom lighting, and it involves a lot more strategy than you’d think! For one, this author adamantly believes you should not light a mirror from above because it casts unsightly shadows on your face. Read more…