While incandescent light bulbs are popular, they’re quite dangerous. Incandescent bulbs have high-temperature gasses inside, and these gasses can react dangerously with external air. If your incandescent bulbs are in a cold room, they might create a combustion nightmare. Keep them away from drapes, beds and other upholstery items.

Wall outlets installed near sinks, faucets and bathtubs can propose dangers. Make sure your outlets are installed away from any water sources, as they can create electrical hazards. If need be, your technician can reinstall them in a different location. Pay close attention to any outlets in your home’s bathrooms and kitchen.

Chewed, frayed or plain old electrical wiring can create a fire hazard. While most worn out wiring will be exposed, some lengths may be hidden within your walls. Keep your pets away from exposed cords, and reduce the chance of fire before it’s too late. Additionally, contact a professional for an annual wiring checkup.

Commonly, homeowners max out their power strips. If you have a lot of electronics and appliances, you might be overloading your power strip’s electrical availability. If this happens, it’ll spark—creating a fire hazard. Even if you need to plug in your appliances, you can remove any flammable materials away from your power strip, reducing any dangers while maintaining household functionality.

Spring is here and summer isn’t far behind. For Boston, MA residents, that means stifling heat and humidity, which requires a reliable air conditioning system to successfully fight. If you have an older or outdated system, now is the perfect time to have it replaced, before the mercury creeps up too high. Before you pull the trigger, however, you need to make sure you’ve picked the right air conditioner for your needs. Here are 3 things to look for when replacing your air conditioning system.

Sizing in this case refers to the power output of the air conditioner. It needs to be sized properly for your home: too powerful and it will cycle on and off rapidly, increasing strain and using unnecessary amounts of energy. Not powerful enough and it won’t do the job effectively. A good technician can make the proper measurements and select a system that is perfectly sized for your needs.

Air conditioners measure their efficiency with a SEER rating, which stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. The higher the rating, the less energy the system wastes, and the lower your monthly bills will be. Look for a system with the highest SEER rating you can afford to maximize your system’s potentials.

Air conditioners are fairly straightforward, but there are a few bells and whistles you might want to consider. For instance, some models come equipped with UV lights and similar filters to improve the quality of your air, while others have multi-speed fans to let you better control the air flow. Any of all of these may help improve the quality of life in your home.

If you want to replace an outdated AC system with a new one, the professionals at FB Electrical Services, Inc. are standing by to help. Give us a call today!

We are giving away 1 ceiling fan to a lucky winner!  Best of all, it comes with installation!  To be eligible to win you must:  Like our page and share this post.  That is it!  Winner will be drawn October 30th, 2016.  *

Fall is fast approaching.  For many its there favorite time of year.  Mild days and cool nights make it a great opportunity to open up some windows and let some fresh air in!  Ceiling fans are a great solution to move some air around.  Many modern day home layouts don’t allow for much cross ventilation depending on the window alignment.  With a ceiling fan installed it easy to get that air moving again.  A ceiling fan can even reduce your energy consumption by up to 30%!  Who wouldn’t want to save 30% on there energy cost?

A chemical free deterrent to bugs and mosquitoes can be as simple as turning on your ceiling fan.  It is a known fact that the wind reduces the amount of air born insects around you.   Also the wind dilutes and blows away the carbon dioxide you exhale.  Similar to why airplanes have trouble landing in high wind so do bugs?  They often seek protection during high winds or try to avoid them all together.

A ceiling fan should only be properly installed by a trained electrician.  We often find ceiling fans installed on plastic boxes or boxes with the wrong size screws.  Can you imagine a ceiling fan rotating at high speeds and weighting 30 to 50 pounds falling from your ceiling?  We have seen ceiling fans that have even fell on a child’s bed due to improper installation.  Thank goodness no one was hurt in that case!

A under sized ceiling fan wont be as effect as a properly sized ceiling fan.  Also, ceiling fans should be installed at a minimum of 7′ off the floor, 20-30 inches from walls and 10-18 inches from ceiling to increase there effectiveness.  Also consider features of the ceiling fan such as the light quality, remote option, and number of speeds.  As the old saying goes ” you get what you pay for” this is also true when it comes to ceiling fans.  Cheap fans are usually more wobbly, nosier, and don’t last as long.  Spend what you can afford but try not to buy the cheapest fan possible.  Search for name brands such as Casablanca, Emerson, Minka and other high quality fans.  Unless your truly a handy individual and know the electrical code when it comes to proper ceiling fan installation you should have a professional install your ceiling fan.  Contact us today to have one of our trained, trusted, and background checked electricians install your fan and put the cool back in that room!

*To be eligible for ceiling fan giveaway you must live within 20 miles of the 50325 zip code.  For installation you must currently have a ceiling fan or light fixture installed and location installation of choice.  Box supporting existing light fixture or ceiling fan must be rated for a ceiling fan.

Categories: Uncategorized« Hot Tub and Pool Wiring Don’t Risk Your Safety!  |  ELECTRICIANS – STOP LOOKING FOR A JOB! 3 Reasons to… »

Chances are, the computer, tablet or phone that you are using to read this post is powered by electricity produced by coal, natural gas or nuclear energy. Currently, the overwhelming bulk of power for the nation's electrical work is generated in large, centralized plants that use those three fuels. However, with the rise of renewable energy sources as well as a transition to modern and responsive grid technology, the country's electric infrastructure is poised to move toward a more dispersed generation system. Read on to learn what that means for you.

Huge Generating Plants Vulnerable to Disruption

According to the Energy Information Administration, 39 percent of the nation's electricity comes from coal, 27 percent from natural gas and 19 percent from nuclear fuel. In addition to being non-renewable, the three fuels that make up 85 percent of our electricity production also work best in massive power plants that produce large amounts of power, which is then sent out long distances through the grid to power our electrical work.

This large-scale generation has advantages – economies of scale, for one – but it is also inflexible and can be subject to disruption. An event that causes a plant to shut down or interrupts its distribution, for example, could leave entire communities without power. The grid is also, in effect, a one-way street – electricity leaves the generating plant and arrives at your home, where it is consumed.

Renewable Energy and Advancing Technology

However, several changes are occurring that will create a more dispersed and flexible generation system to power our electrical work. For one, the share of renewable energy sources, which don't require large generating plants, is continuing to grow. Solar panels are popping up on rooftops across America, while wind power could provide as much as a third of the electricity in the country by 2050. In addition to being far better for the environment than fossil fuels, these power generators can scale down to even a household-by-household basis.

The other change that is facilitating a more dispersed power generation system is an advance in technology in the electric grid, which allows power to flow in two directions, both to your home and away from your home. That means that electricity can be generated almost anywhere and then zipped along the power lines to wherever it is needed. Breakthroughs in power storage technology will also help guide us toward a future where the power for our electrical work is created when and where it's needed, freeing us from the constraints created by large, inflexible power plants.

Generate Electricity at Your Own Home

If you want to learn more about adding renewable power sources to your property, or need any other electrical work done, call up an expert electrician today.

A school, whether its grade school or a college campus, can use up a lot of energy during the day. From heating the building to inefficient lighting fixtures in the building; a school that is running 8-10 hours a day can prove to be a huge consumer of energy and thus; a high overhead to maintain.

This post is specifically for those whom work for a school or college campus that can either make the decisions, or can recommend new ideas to those who do make these types of decisions. The overall goal of this post is to bring the most actionable energy saving ideas for schools so that you can start looking into them immediately.

We are going to be covering 15 practical tips and ways that you can start saving energy in schools and become a greener, more sustainable facility overall. Here they are…

hallways, classrooms, and really anywhere with lower ceilings that are flat.

This technology is, more often than not, fluorescent. Believe it or not, this actually isn’t the most energy efficient lighting technology out there. So what is you ask?

Well, LED technology is by far the most efficient luminaire on the market today. By switching from fluorescent to LED, you will be able to realize a 30% reduction in energy usage associated with your tube lights.

As for you parking lot and sports fields, you can make the switch away from technologies like metal halide or HPS over to LED and realize every greater energy savings by up to 75%! Talk about a lot of energy being reduced.

And no, screen savers don’t save energy. But, what does save energy more-so than a screen saver is the “sleep” function that every computer has. On top of that, next time you plan on upgrading your computers, make sure you buy Energy Star qualified ones. This means they’ve passed some energy efficiency tests and are much more energy efficient than non-qualified computers are (same with your lighting system, make sure it is Energy Star or building commissioning, you get every single last area of your school inspected to ensure it is running exactly how it was designed to run. A lot of times we overlook things that are unique issues to your school, and no matter how long of a list we read on ways to conserve energy at school; we will never see everything. So our tip for you is to bring in a professional to do a full building commissioning audit, and let them tell you what is up.

Face it, a lot of classes happen during broad daylight and by not using up that free light from outside is a pure waste. By opening blinds to there fullest (when appropriate) you can reduce the amount of lights you need on by nearly half, depending on the day and time of year.

Just make sure to remind everyone to do this otherwise, you’ll never will with this tactic. Remember: you need to get the school on board or else you can only do so much.

Alternatively to just opening the blinds and windows, installing skylights into virtually any area of the building can be an even more effective way of getting the most natural light into your building. This is probably most beneficial for areas that would otherwise have no natural light whatsoever, such as hallways or interior rooms.

We’ve already brought up some points about your heating system, but here is yet another. Think about how often students are in the hallways, not nearly as much as they are in classrooms, right? So, why not make an initiative to heat the classrooms and stop heating those huge hallways that waste tons of heat to the outside from all those doors being opened.

Just make sure that everyone is closing their doors if you do decide to go this route. Likewise, you could install doors that automatically close which will prevent random doors from being forgotten about.

Although this won’t directly save your school energy, it sure does help reduce both waste and energy associated with creating new materials. The most simple way to start the promotion of recycling at school is simple; make it readily available. If you aren’t putting recycle bins next to every trash bin, most people won’t go out of there way to recycle so they will just throw it away and let it go to the landfill.

A step further would even to start investment in solar technology can be hefty, but rebates and grants are out there to make it a more affordable option that ever. On top of that, you are becoming a role model to the community by showcasing what conserving energy can do when used with solar energy technology. Let solar generate your building a positive ROI all while conversing the planets resources.

We think the list could endless of all the possible ways to save energy in school, so we must of forgot some. Be sure to comment down below your energy conservation tips that will help out school facilities become greener!

Conclusion

All of these tips are exactly how energy efficient schools are becoming more sustainable, reducing ongoing costs, and generating a positive atmosphere and educational system for students and generations to come.

Don’t let the upfront costs scare you, instead look at the bigger picture. If you have to invest money now to save 10x later, isn’t it worth it? All of these things will do just that, improve the bottom line. And not only are we doing that, but we help the environment out just a little bit too. Sounds like a win-win to us! Just remember that saving energy at school doesn’t have to be hard, just take it step by step and you will slowly see the results of your efforts build up!

Anyways, to wrap it up we’d like to invite you to share any of your own energy conservation tips for schools that you may have done or even just thought of that may benefit other schools across the globe. Share your tips in the comments below, you never know who it may help. And remember, an energy saving school is a happy school!