Lights are one of the most significant pieces of your home. Making sure each room of your house is properly lit can be a big project (and expense!). Many homeowners are opting for dimmer switches for the versatility and other advantages they offer. If you’ve been considering whether or not dimmer switches would be right for you, read more about their benefits below.

Light control dimmer switches are a valuable asset to your home and are relatively easy to install. They are typically small enough to fit into a regulation wall box designed for a normal light switch, and a qualified electrician should have no problem doing this work for you.

If you have questions about how to have dimmer switches installed in your Austin home, call Bryant Electric Service today at 512-402-8587.

Fuses and circuit breakers are part of any home or business that has electricity. These devices are extremely important to your safety, but what exactly are they?

It can be easy to take the technology around us for granted, and that includes the collection of strange switches in that metal box in the basement you never mess around with. You might have heard something about a “tripped circuit” or a “blown fuse,” possibly around the time the air conditioner shut off when someone plugged in a new appliance. But you might not be clear on what exactly these terms mean. Read on as we uncover the mysteries surrounding fuses and circuit breakers.

Circuit breakers and fuses (which can sometimes be found instead of breakers) are safety mechanisms put in place to ensure you don’t exceed certain current limits. If the wiring in a building has too much electrical current moving through it, these devices stop the flow of electricity until you address the problem.

In the late sixties, and early seventies aluminum wiring began to be used because most available copper was going to the Vietnam war effort. However, aluminum wiring is not ideal for small home electrical systems.  The electrical devices at that time were not designed to handle the high temperature coefficients of aluminum wiring. Aluminum wires can also expand in diameter and length as they get hot, they can actually back out the screw terminals, causing a loose connection. This, in turn, can cause heat, which can ultimately lead to a fire.

After problems with aluminum wire termination became known—including one notable house fire—the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) and other agencies adopted new safety regulations and put more restrictive standards in place. However, many homes from the 60s and 70s still do not have safe aluminum wiring terminations. But there are a number of ways to solve this problem without having to rewire a home.

Consumer Safety Council Recommendations

According to the Consumer Safety Council, there are only two approved methods that splice aluminum wire to copper wire:

These standards have caused acceptance problems with home inspectors and insurance companies, which has led to homeowners paying 2 to 4  times as much as they should to have their aluminum wiring terminated.