If you live in Maryland, Northern Virginia, or Washington, DC, there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of Kolb Electric’s bucket trucks driving around! Our bucket trucks allow us to expand our service line far beyond that of most electricians in the area, and overall, they’re pretty great! These are a few of our favorite things about our bucket trucks:

The best thing about our bucket trucks is also their most defining feature—their height! Our trucks can reach up to 50 ft. Thanks to the lift we get from the cherry pickers, we can work on utility poles and parking lot lights as well as large industrial structures and anything else that requires a little extra lift.

Even up that high in the air, our bucket trucks keep our electricians safe. The buckets are designed to reach about waist height, meaning there’s very little risk of anyone actually falling out. Best of all, if something does happen—the weather turns bad, for instance—they’re easy to move out of dangerous areas.

Though they might seem big and complicated, once you get down to it, bucket trucks are pretty easy to use! A set of controls inside the cab controls the crane, while another set inside the bucket itself allows the rider to raise and lower him or herself while up there.

Not only that, but our bucket trucks also have space to hold all of our equipment, meaning we’re always prepared for jobs that involve going up high.

Our bucket truck fleet has helped us become one of the most well-known electrical service companies in the MD-DC-VA area. If you need utility pole, parking lot lighting, or any other services that require a bucket truck, call Kolb Electric today!

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High bay fixtures are a critical part to any high ceiling building. Since these high bays require such large lumen output, the cost to run them can be high. By converting to LED high bays, you are able to reduce your energy consumption in your most energy intensive fixtures by up to 75%.

In this post, we are going to cover (non-comparatively) 5 top types of LED high bay lights for this year, 2017. While not every item on this list will apply to you and your building, there will surely be one or two for your needs if you currently use high bay lights in your facility.

If at any time you come across a question, want more information, or are actually interested in implementing LED into your building;

These traditional commercial high bay lighting fixtures look a lot like what we think a normal high bay should look like. They are reminiscent of traditional style Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium high bays and offer your typical round high bay look.

These high bay LED fixtures can replace both 400W and 1000W Metal Halide. The smallest unit is 80W producing 10,240 lumens. There is a 160W unit producing 19,200 lumens. This would be a good 400W Metal Halide replacement. And the largest unit at 400W produces 51,200 lumens. That’s 128 lumens/watt. And, USA Made backed with a 10 year warranty.

These LED high bay Lighting fixtures look a lot like a troffer style panel. The advantages of this type of fixture are the LEDs are spread over a larger area. This has 2 main advantages – Great light distribution and large heat sink. It is important to realize these lights are particularly good at light distribution, creating an even distribution.

These high bay LEDs can replace both 400W and 1000W Metal Halide. The smallest unit is 120W producing 15,360 lumens. There is a 150W unit producing 19,200 lumens and the largest unit at 300W produces 38,400 lumens. USA Made backed with a 10 year warranty like the traditional style high bay.

A retrofit kit utilizes your existing fixture and replaces the bulb and ballast with the LED head and the LED driver. These retrofits can be significantly more economical than replacing the entire fixture, for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. One of which being it’s cheaper to buy. Another being it’s (typically) cheaper to install as well. For this reason, our high bay retrofit kits HAD to make it on the list of the best high bay lighting options.

Do you have working smoke alarms? It could mean the difference between life and death. Smoke alarms are the first line of defense in a house fire. They act as an early warning sign, allowing you enough time to evacuate the premise. While these devices are small and often unnoticed, they could save your life. If you can’t recall the locations of your smoke alarms or when they were last tested, now is the time to act.