It’s important for your daily convenience and safety that your home’s wiring remain in excellent condition. At the first signs of trouble in the wires, you need to call for trained electricians to come to your home, track down the source of the problem, and safely repair it. Do not attempt to troubleshoot the electrical issues yourself, since you will risk a high voltage shock. (In some areas, it’s illegal for anyone who doesn’t have proper certification to work on high-voltage wiring.)

We need to emphasize once again that you should leave the electrical repairs to electricians. You not only risk injuring yourself with amateur repair work, you could start a fire in your house. Play it safe and cautious, and call for experts to handle the task.

When problems like this occur in an older home, you should consider upgrading your wiring or upgrading your circuit panel. This will make your house safer and make it easier to add more powerful modern appliances without causing shorts.

There are a wide array of hidden problems that homeowners may discover in their first few weeks occupying a property. This is especially true in older houses, where the new buyer is hardly the first occupant. Many such older homes in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., are generally solid structures but have minor electrical or plumbing issues that aren't apparent when visiting an open house.

One of the more costly problems that you'll want to watch out for is "hot wiring" throughout the property. This is when, somewhere in your house, the electricity is causing a dangerous amount of heat. Whenever there is too much heat coming from one particular spot in the home, there is the potential for fire, which could end up costing you significantly in the long run - or worse, fatally harm members of the household.

The wall switch is one area where you should be especially worried about poor wiring. These switches are designed so that heat won't build up if correctly installed, so any rise in temperature is a sure sign something is amiss. It is relatively common for a dimming switch to build up heat over an extended period - they are, after all, powering at least 600 watts' worth of light bulbs. However, heat at a receptacle is another matter; a connection there needs immediate improvement to prevent a fire.

Commercial buildings are ideal for installing solar panels. They generally have greater surface area to install larger systems which lead to powerful long-term savings for businesses. How are commercial systems different than residential arrays?

First of all, commercial buildings aren’t always bound by the aesthetic concerns prevalent in residential applications. An office building, for example, has a rooftop concealed from the street below, an ideal location to install solar panels without an accompanying visual nuisance. This also allows a much larger array to be installed.

Larger solar installations tend to be more efficient since larger panels are generally more efficient than smaller ones. Since concerns for appearance are minimized, installation of commercial systems on flat surfaces is much easier and faster than on slanted residential roofs.

Interestingly, the price per kilowatt hour of power is the same. Since this is how solar panels are usually sold, there is no competitive price difference and some homeowners might find that commercial solar panels work just fine for their needs.

One striking similarity between residential and commercial solar panels is that they are both excellent options for saving on energy costs. If your business is looking for a way to improve its bottom line, solar panels are an investment that grow with time.

As energy costs rise by about 5 percent every year, so does your energy bill. Many businesses like yours have discovered that they can install a solar panel at no initial cost and pay off the cost of their solar system as time goes by. They lock into current power rates, enjoy immediate savings on their power bill, and watch as their energy costs gradually decrease, while their neighbors pay more and more every year.

Take a look around: sunshine is one of the most resources in southern California. You just need the help of solar installers to tap into it. Give us a ring to discover how to start.

Under-Cabinet LED Lighting Kit is available for purchase that contains a plug-and-play LED light strip, push-button dimmer, remote, 12V power supply, and connection accessories. If you want to build a custom kit, follow the steps below the diagram to ensure that you get everything you need.

3. Select a dimmer or controller

For single-color LED strip light setup

Select the power supply large enough to operate the amount of LED strip light you need to use. If you want to control the brightness of your light strips, you will need a Single-color dimmer shown installed with a non-dimmable power supply

For color-changing LED strip light setup

Follow the instructions above for the single-color light strip setup. However, instead of a dimmer, use a RGB color-changing light strip installation

4. Use an LED amplifier for long runs of strip

Depending on the strip chosen and its maximum run (the number of strips that can be installed consecutively before needing amplifiers), you will need to install an light strip interconnect cables. It is best to purchase a length of strip that is more than your application requires. For example, if your project requires 8 1/2 feet of strip, we recommend purchasing 9 feet of strip to ensure that you have everything covered.