Dallas electricians like ElectricMan Inc. can help correct your existing electrical problems or provide assistance with installation.

There are ways to prevent electrical problems in a new home, and the electricians at ElectricMan can help, so consult someone knowledgeable before you begin your home improvement. What are some ways to prevent electric fires in your home?

There are over 53,000 electric fires in the U.S. each year, but these can easily be prevented with the help of a whole house surge protector. Surge protectors prevent the discharge of excess electricity due to lightening storms or blown circuits. If your home is prone to electrical surges, a whole house surge protector may be just what you need to prevent an electrical fire.

A GFCI outlet is a device which increases safety by reducing the risk of electric shocks. Most building codes now require that GFCI outlets be installed in wet areas like bathrooms, kitchens, garages, laundry rooms, and outdoor areas. GFCI outlets monitor for current imbalances and break the circuit if such an imbalance occurs. They are an important safety measure and should be installed whenever there is water and electricity.

Looking to hire the best electrician you possibly can in MD, DC or VA? We don’t blame you. As the economy faces serious challenges and uncertainties, families are forced to live on a stricter budget. Companies throughout the DC Metropolitan area must also operate on a much tighter budget than years past. It only makes sense for you to wonder exactly how to hire an electrician. You want to hire a reliable, quality electrician who can answer your questions and solve any electrical problems you may be having. Here at Kolb Electric, we thought it would be helpful to create a guide for selecting the best electrician.

There are so many electricians in the MD, DC and VA market that it can be difficult selecting one!. To make a list of prospective contractors, get recommendations from your family and friends. If you cannot get any, search online to compile a list of local electrical contractors. This is an important first step in finding the best electrician to meet your needs.

After you’ve prepared a short list of prospective electrical contractors, you may still be wondering how to hire an electrician. One thing you can do is to check the licensing credentials of these electrical contractors. The best electricians are trained, skilled and experienced. You can use the Internet to determine whether a prospective electrical contractor is licensed or not, and you can also check whether the license is still valid or not. An electrician without a license or with an invalid license should raise big red flags!

You should also use the Internet to read reviews posted by others who have some experience working with the prospective electricians you have on your list. This is an excellent way to determine the best electrician for you. However, you should approach these results with a grain of salt. Someone with a bad experience is more likely to post something negative online than someone who has had a great experience. Always put more stock in what you’ve heard from family and friends.

When you reach the point where you have a list of just a few quality prospective electrical contractors, the next step is to contact them so you can secure and compare quotes. Keep track of exactly what services the contractors claim they will provide when compiling quotes. Since your list now features only quality contractors, cost is the next factor you should focus on.

Finally, in order to really know you’re hiring the best electrician you can, ask a lot of questions to prospective contractors. The quality of their answers can go a long way in helping you hire the best electrician. Ask contractors what experience they have dealing specifically with the electrical problem you have.

We hope this helps you better understand how to hire an electrician. There are several steps involved, but they are all essential to helping you select the best electrician you possibly can!

At Kolb Electric, we have specialized in providing professional electrical service since 1925. Impeccable customer service and attention to detail has allowed us to become one of the best electricians in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia. Our electricians are:

Contact Kolb Electric for all of your electrical needs. Our licensed, professional electricians are ready to service you 24 hours a day, for all of your commercial and residential electrical needs. No job is too small or large!

By providing early warning in the event of fire, smoke detectors can allow you and your family sufficient time to reach safety. Experts report that you can increase your chances of surviving in a home fire by 50% simply by having smoke detectors. Click here for more information about installing  smoke detectors in Los Angeles, my electrical company’s service area.

If your house was built before 1950, it likely has electrical wires with cloth insulation. Over time, the cloth dries out and becomes brittle. Eventually, it crumbles off the wire, exposing bare wires that can short-circuit and cause shocks or fires. Old cloth-insulated wires should be replaced with plastic-insulated wires. Plastic insulation lasts indefinitely and completely resolves the safety issue. Click here for more information about replacing cloth  wiring insulation.

The National Electrical Code requires that outlets in the vicinity of water be equipped with a device called a “Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter” or GFCI (also called GFI). GFCIs are required in all bathrooms, kitchens, garages, pools, and some outdoor areas. GFCIs can protect your family against deadly electrical shocks and are inexpensive to install. Click here for more information about GFCIs and GFIs.

Knob & Tube wiring gets its name from the white ceramic knobs around which wires were wound and the short ceramic tubes through which wires were guided. This type of wiring is usually found in homes built before 1935. In the Los Angeles and some other parts of the country, knob and tube can sometimes be seen in houses built as late as 1950. My electrical company specializes in replacing Knob and Tube wiring in the L.A. area — much of it is in Pasadena and other parts of the San Gabriel Valley.

Knob & Tube systems use old cloth-insulated wires and are not grounded. We strongly recommend that Knob & Tube wiring be replaced to eliminate fire and electrical shock hazards.

An electrical surge is a sudden increase in power that flows through electrical wires. Surges can cause damage to computers, phones, entertainment systems, microwaves, stoves, fridges, washers – any device that has electronic components such as sensors and timers. Today, that’s most appliances. A Whole House Surge Protector can save your appliances and electronic devices and save you thousands of dollars in damage.

Look for our $50 discount coupon for the installation of whole house surge protectors at www.theelectricconnection.com.

A properly grounded electrical system routes occasional leaking electricity through a “ground wire” into the ground. Without grounding, excess electricity can cause fires, damage to electrical appliances and computers, and also shocks to residents.

Older homes built under earlier electrical codes will often have outlets for two-prong plugs. This is often an indication of an ungrounded electrical system. Sometimes, the outlets have been replaced with the modern three-prong type, but without actually adding a ground wire. This can make it appear that the system is grounded when it’s not.

Even when your wiring system has a ground wire, the grounding may fail due to loose or corroded connections and splices. A qualified electrician can check your wiring with a special tester to determine if it’s fully grounded. The Electric Connection offers this testing as a free service with every electrical job that we do in the L.A. area.

There is now conclusive evidence that both Zinsco and Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) “Stab-Lok” electrical panels can fail. (Electrical panels contain your circuit breakers or fuses.) Fires and electrical shocks can result. These brands were installed in the 1950s to 1980s. The failure rates as they age are much higher than for other brands and represent a real electrical hazard. We recommend all Zinsco and FPE electrical panels and circuit breakers be replaced with modern electrical equipment. Click here for more information about Zinsco and Federal Pacific electrical panels. One of the specialties of The Electric Connection is panel upgrades. We’re possibly the most active company in Los Angeles when it comes to electrical panel replacements. We offer a free safety check of your L.A. electrical panel box with every job.

Circuit breakers and fuses protect your electrical wiring from overloads of electricity. Overloading can melt wires and cause fires and electrical shocks. Whenever a wire is overloaded, the circuit breaker or fuse is supposed to cut the flow of electricity.

Sometimes older circuit breakers don’t work fast enough and allow too much current through. Fuses can also be a safety concern. Sometimes, they’ve been replaced with improperly-sized fuses and no longer protect wires from overloading. These safety issues can be solved by installing modern circuit breakers. Click here for a coupon for a free check of your electrical circuit breaker box with your next electrical job.

Most homes have copper electrical wires. However, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, over 2,000,000 U.S. homes were wired with aluminum. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission has determined that aluminum wiring is hazardous as, over time, connections and splices can fail, resulting in fires and shocks.

Fortunately, a qualified electrician can upgrade an aluminum wiring system without replacing all the wires with copper. It’s possible to eliminate the fire hazard by upgrading only connection points and splices. Aluminum wiring safety retrofits should be done only by electricians specifically trained to upgrade aluminum wiring safely.

If you think it’s possible that your Los Angeles home has aluminum wiring, you can get a free checkwith your next electrical job. One of the specialties of The Electric Connection is efficient and effective safety upgrading of aluminum wiring in the Los Angeles area.

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