Do you own electrical equipment that is overheating? If you’ve noticed any of your electrical devices, like a toaster or a radio, overheating you may have a serious electrical problem on your hands. Fortunately, at Kolb Electric, we have just the tools to diagnose and fix the problem.

Overheating of electrical devices can be caused by a number of problems. From faulty wiring to an outdated electrical system, it’s important to get to the bottom of an overheating electrical device.

At Kolb Electric, we offer thermographic inspections for your home or business. A thermographic electrical inspection will test the equipment’s temperature against the temperature of surrounding components. Significant variations in temperature indicate electrical problems in your appliances and equipment. Temperature abnormalities are often due to defective or failing components. By catching problems early on, they can be corrected before they can cause even greater damage later.

If you manage a home-based business that relies on several pieces of electrical equipment, it is especially important that you routinely schedule thermographic electrical inspections in MD, VA, or DC in order to prevent your important equipment from malfunctioning.

A thermographic inspection is completely non-contact and safe to perform on energized electrical systems. Thermographic electrical inspections can be conducted while your equipment is still in operation, which means you won’t lose time by having to shut down your equipment.

When combined with traditional home inspection techniques, the infrared thermography inspection method reveals considerably more about your house than can be seen with conventional inspection tools. Some things our infrared thermography inspections have detected include:

Water leaks: using an infrared camera to scan the inside of your home can reveal moisture leakage around plumbing systems, the roof, any windows, etc. We’ll be able to see them because areas with more moisture will appear darker than surrounding warmer, dry areas.

Insulation deficiencies: our scanners will reveal large temperature differences within your home where insulation is deficient or absent.

Roof leaks: we’ll be able to spot water and moisture intrusion and accumulation below the surface of your roof, which can help you pinpoint leaks and lessen their effects before they do major damage to your home.

Electrical system problems: one of the best things about an infrared thermography scan is that it helps you see any deficiencies in your electrical system, including loose connections that could cause certain appliances to run inefficiently (or to not run at all).

Structural issues: finally, infrared thermography scans will help locate structural issues within your home, including poor heat transfer, bad conductivity, and more. We may even be able to detect missing or damaged structural components.

For all your infrared thermography needs in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, contact the electricians at Kolb Electric today—877-287-1179877-287-1179 or click here!

They are lights that rely on LEDs (a light-emitting diode) as their source of illumination. In a majority of the cases, the lighting stems from either a fluorescent or an incandescent light bulb. LED lights have a good reputation for being a lot more efficient than traditional light bulbs, and they can also be inserted into more traditional lamps and light sources, where they may be utilized as other regular light bulbs.

If you are a consumer in the market for some lights, you should understand that there are a bunch of benefits that the consumer will obtain by choosing these kinds of lights over other sorts of lights available on the market. For one thing, these sorts of lights are known to consume a lot less energy than other kinds of light bulbs, and they are known to be as much as 300 percent more efficient than a CFL or a compact fluorescent light. In addition, LED lights are up to 1000 percent more efficient when compared to an incandescent light bulb. They come with an extremely long life, relatively speaking, which translates to around 50,000 hours of usage at approximately 50 percent of their initial power, according to the Wise Geek website, anyway. If you want to work this out in terms that are more practical and applicable to everyday life, you can think of it in this way: This will equal around 8 hours per day for some 13 years at approximately 70 percent of power. By way of comparison, you should realize that the average 60-watt incandescent light bulb will only last around 1000 hours!

Furthermore, in terms of pure safety, LED lights can’t be beat. Here is an example of that. Consider this: These types of lights come without any toxins such as mercury or other unsafe materials. In addition, they are also known to be free from any emission of ultraviolet or UV heat, thereby failing to attract any insects, which is very much a welcome piece of news to people who are troubled by pesky insects! Further, these sorts of light bulbs fail to produce a lot of heat, meaning they are cool to the touch.

Of course, not everything with these kinds of lights is advantageous. For example, the price tag on LED lights is quite high, and they are known to be heat sensitive. This means that these sorts of lights can either fade or stop working altogether if they are not utilized with either a consistent or a steadfast current. Finally, utilizing them as a part of room lighting may be unbeneficial, too, since they are meant to be utilized more for room lighting situations.

As a DC or Maryland resident, electricity and natural gas are deregulated, giving you the option to choose your energy suppliers. Virginia residents can choose their natural gas supplier, but electricity is not deregulated in the state.

Deregulation occurred back in 1999 when the Electricity Competition Act passed with the hopes of introducing competition for Pepco, the primary electricity provider in DC. Nearly 170 companies are now licensed as alternative energy suppliers in DC.

In theory, increasing competition is a great plan. It allows you to comparison shop and choose the best alternative energy supplier based on rates, customer service, and other factors.

Unfortunately, this also sets the stage for unscrupulous alternative energy suppliers to pitch low rates by phone, direct mail, and door-to-door salesmen—only to charge more than the customer was originally paying. Learning how to spot these phony propositions can help you choose a legitimate alternative energy supplier!

Hundreds of DC residents make complaints about alternative energy suppliers every year. According to a recent Washington Post article, Starion Energy is one such company that’s had its fair share of complaints in recent years. The article reports that in some cases, the switch to Starion has caused customers’ electricity bills to increase by more than 50 percent—despite having agreed to make the change for money-saving purposes.

Since alternative energy suppliers are prohibited from “engaging in…unlawful, misleading or deceptive” marketing tactics under District law, customer complaints are taken very seriously. If you have had a bad experience with an alternative energy supplier, file a complaint with the DC Office of the People’s Counsel.

Despite the bad press a handful of alternative energy suppliers have received, there are plenty of legitimate electricity suppliers in the DC area:

Even with shady suppliers ruled out, you still have dozens of legitimate options. Narrow down your selection by:

At Kolb Electric, we want our Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC customers to save as much energy as possible. By lowering your consumption each month, you lower your bills! Contact us today for more tips to keep your electricity bills down—or check out our blog with more great electricity saving tips.

Here in the MD/DC/VA area, it’s not uncommon for us to lose power when a summer storm rips through. And while these outages sometimes last only a few hours, storms that have occurred over the past several summers have left people in the dark for several days at a time. At Kolb Electric, we’re big fans of Generac generators—they are among the most reliable systems available, and they’re the only ones we install. That said, there are a few things you should consider if you’re thinking about installing a standby generator:

You can’t stretch the amount of power that generators supply, so make sure you receive an NEC (National Electric Code) approved load calculation with each proposal. Kolb Electric will provide this calculation with our estimate.

Standby generators must be permitted prior to installation and inspected following installation. Kolb Electric will do the work of acquiring the necessary permits for you, and we want to remind everyone not to have your system installed by a contractor who says they can do it with no permit. HOA requirements and approval processes vary, but key concerns often come down to noise and location.

In the event that your standby generator installation does not require a permit, make sure to ask if it will be installed up to NEC code.

Some people install generators to keep the essential functions of their home running, such as the refrigerator and a few lights. Others install theirs to be able to carry on with life as if nothing had happened. Before you install a standby generator, decide what you’ll want to run and what you can do without. Remember—too much capacity will needlessly inflate the cost of your system, so try to be realistic when deciding.

At Kolb Electric, we’re committed to installing your generator efficiently and effectively. Even so, the generator installation process can get hung up at different phases, such as permitting, and may take up to a few weeks to complete—especially during the busy summer months. Don’t wait until a major storm has been forecast before you install your standby generator! Try to do it during the spring or fall, before you need it (and, more importantly, before everyone else needs it!).

What type of generator will you be installing? Air cooled or liquid cooled? Is it natural gas or propane? Will you be receiving a gas meter upgrade? At Kolb Electric, we’ll talk you through your options and help make sure your standby generator does everything you need it to.

Whenever you have any sort of electrical work done, you’re not just buying the system—you’re also buying the company doing the install. With this in mind, it’s important that you know their qualifications as well as those of the technicians who will be installing your generator. Ask the following questions:

Kolb Electric has been in business since 1925, and all of our staff is licensed and trained to install Generac generators.

Standby generators require on-going annual maintenance, which Kolb Electric will provide with a service agreement. Make sure you also register your Generac generator with the manufacturer for warranty claims.

The lowest bid may sound appealing, but the deepest discounts won’t offset the costs of correcting an improper installation. When you see a huge price difference from one company to the rest, you can be sure something is being left out: load calculations, size inspections, and gas meter upgradesare just some of the areas where some unscrupulous contractors may cut corners and leave you up the creek when the big one hits.

Standby generators are designed to protect your biggest investment: your home. Take the time to get accurate answers regarding your system to keep your family safe.

If you’re thinking about installing a Generac generator in your home, call Kolb Electric today!