A long, long time ago, in 1932 to be exact, a tradition began. A simple searchlight atop the Empire State Building announced the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as President.

If you watched last night’s election results (or were conveniently somewhere in NYC) you probably saw that iconic building at it again. Last night’s exhibition marked the Empire State Building’s first use of its new custom LED panel technology.

CNN joined forces with the building to project a running tally atop the spire, presenting real-time election results with a brilliant display of colored light. The lights were visible from miles around, and broadcast worldwide to CNN’s viewers.

In case you didn’t see it last night, the lights worked like this: The four sided tower atop the building was lit in patriotic red, white, and blue stripes. The mast functioned as a meter with two blue sides, and two red to represent President Obama and Gov. Romney’s respective electoral votes. As each state was projected by CNN, and electoral votes were allocated to each candidate, the meter displayed a running tally.

Upgrades to your home are a part of life. It can be fun and exciting to add a new feature to your home. It is easy for things to get stale or boring when you have lived in the same home for a long time. You can spice things up by adding a few new upgrades to your home that are easy and inexpensive. In fact, some of the upgrades can actually save you money.

Electrical upgrades should always be handled by a qualified electrician. Santa Monica residents can rely on The Electric Connection’s skilled professionals to handle any job, big or small. An inexperienced person should never attempt to handle electricity. The safety concerns are too great. Always hire a professional.

Light Fixtures

Updating light fixtures can give your home a whole new look, while saving money at the same time. There are numerous ideas you can incorporate into your space to liven it up depending on your wants and needs. Recessed and track lighting tend to be the most popular choices and are relatively inexpensive.

Ceiling Fan

Adding a ceiling fan to a bedroom or living area is also an ideal way to help cut your electric bill while adding comfort to your home. Most ceiling fans are equipped with lights and can replace an existing light fixture. These are great for circulating the air during the stuffy summer months and moving the warm air throughout the home during the cooler months.

Install Bath Fan

A bath fan is essential to keeping wood-damaging moisture at bay in the bathroom, which is prone to mildew and mold growth due to the damp conditions. Today’s market includes numerous styles and varieties that include lights and heaters.

If you are interested in giving your home a bit of a facelift without undergoing a major remodel, call your electrician in Santa Monica today. The Electric Connection is here to serve you and would love to speak with you about your upgrade needs.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911). Her bio is beyond the scope of this entry, but I encourage you to follow the link and check her out. Get a little perspective on life today by reading a paragraph about this amazing human being and poet.

Harper’s poem, “Let the Light Enter,” depicts light in an interesting and fresh way, fresh still, even 100 years after her death. Poetry, generally speaking, is like a vast collection of opportunities to learn about yourself and the world in which you live. I invite you to take a minute to read “Let the Light Enter.”

The Dying Words of Goethe

He just urgently wants to watch the “balmy sunshine/ Play around” his deathbed. He just wants to experience the sensation of light doing it’s thing. “More light!” he demands. It strongly suggests that appreciating and enjoying the beauty of light is what Goethe, a lifelong thinker and poet who lived from 1749 to 1832, finds most worthy of his final precious minutes. That’s a big deal. In choosing between the pleasure of thoughts and the pleasure of the material world, he chooses the latter. It’s like all the things that seem to separate us from the natural world are shown to be false in the final moments. Think of a dog lying on a rock in the sun. Maybe that’s the purest state of being, just lying there, not thinking much, and enjoying the pleasure of the light, the sound of a brook. And maybe that’s why Goethe wants to pass away in such a state.

If you buy an electric car now, you can benefit from rebates and tax credits. These financial incentives are time-sensitive and change from year to year. They are being offered to early adopters to “break the ice.” While this article focuses on Los Angeles, it can get you started on finding out about the rebates and tax credits available in your part of the country.

People are calling them “electric cars” or “Electric Vehicles” or “EVs.” I’ll use the terms interchangeably.

What financial incentives are available for purchase of electric cars? If you purchased an electric car in 2011, you may be able to reduce your federal tax bill by $2,500 to $7,500 with a tax credit. Other tax credits are also available. Converting your Prius or other non-plug-in hybrid to a plug-in can reduce your federal tax bill by 10% of the cost of the conversion. Purchase of an electric motorcycle or low-speed “around the neighborhood” electric cart can reduce your federal tax bill by up to $2,500.

Californians who buy an EV and act quickly enough can qualify for a rebate from the State of up to $5,000 on an electric car and up to $20,000 on a commercial vehicle. These rebates apply to many kinds of electric vehicles, including all-electric, hybrid, motorcycles, and low-speed “around the neighborhood” carts.

What rebates are available for installing an electric charger? Electric cars come equipped with a charging cord as standard equipment. This is called a “Level 1” charger. It charges an all-electric Nissan Leaf in about 20 hours and a hybrid Chevy Volt (which has an auxiliary gas-burning engine) in about 10 hours.

To charge your car faster, you need to buy and install a Level 2 charger in your garage or carport. A Level 2 charger works more than twice as fast as a Level 1 charger. With a Level 2 charger, you can easily take your electric vehicle from empty to full overnight. A homeowner who has a Los Angeles electrician install a Level 2 electric charger can receive a 2011 tax credit of 30% of the cost of the purchase and installation, with a cap of $1,000. This means that you can reduce your 2011 tax bill by 30% of what you spent on purchase and installation of a Level 2 charger, up to a $1,000 tax cut.

If you are a customer of the L.A. Department of Water and Power (LADWP), you may qualify for a $2,000 rebate on installation of your electric charger. To qualify, you need to also install a separate electric meter for your new electric car. Ask your Los Angeles electrician to see if you will save money with this approach.

Does EV charging receive any special break in electric rates? In Los Angeles and many areas of the country, yes. In L.A., both Southern California Edison (SCE) and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) offer special reduced rate plans for charging EVs at night, during off-peak hours.

Both power companies encourage people thinking of buying an EV or installing a charger to contact them. Call DWP or call SCE for EV info. SCE has extensive information on its website. Both companies are particularly interested in customer plans regarding EVs because they need information for planning power demand.

Are there any other incentives for electric car owners? Some states, like California, provide a sticker to qualifying electric car owners so that they can drive in freeway carpool lanes regardless of the number of occupants.

Where can I get more information? EDTA is an industry organization for electric transportation. On their website you can find out more about incentives in L.A. and also check out incentives for electric cars in other zip codes.

Why are governments and utilities offering financial incentives for purchasing electric cars? Driving an electric car, rather than a gas burner, is one of the best ways to wean our country off oil and to help the environment. We Americans use 60% of the oil that we consume in our vehicles. That’s approximately the amount of oil that we import each year. So, if we stopped burning oil in our cars, we wouldn’t need to import foreign oil. Electric cars also give us the ability to transition to clean and renewable sources of electric energy like solar and wind.

Kim Hopkins has been a Los Angeles electrician since 1979. His company, The Electric Connection, is one of the foremost electrical contracting companies in the L.A. area. One of the specialties of The Electric Connection is installing chargers for electric cars. By doing a search on the web for: electrician Los Angeles CA you’ll easily find their company business listing on Google.

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