By Clarissa Allison | August 14th, 2015

Look up at the sky tonight in your town. Odds are it will be almost completely devoid of stars. This is the product of light pollution and urbanization. Since human beings are used to dwelling in the sun’s light, we have essentially engineered the dark to surround ourselves with light during nighttime hours.

What exactly is astronomers and the occasional stargazer, uplight causes atmospheric scattering making distant celestial light sources difficult or impossible to see. Uplight often also goes along with two other light quality culprits by producing both glare and light trespass.

Once you’ve accomplished the above tasks, go out and buy yourself a telescope to view the night sky and enjoy its beauty.

Enjoy a tour of the wonderful Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona

Are you looking to replace the aging light fixtures found throughout your home with an updated, multi-functional alternative? You may want to consider all the wonderful advantages ceiling fans have to offer.

And we’re not just talking about their aesthetically pleasing ambiance. Ceiling fans are a practical, economical solution to reducing your cooling needs in the summer. By creating a wind chill effect, using ceiling fans throughout your home can keep you and your family comfortable enough to lower your thermostat temperature by 4-7 degrees F, saving you up to 30 percent on cooling costs. Still on the fence? As an added bonus, the wind generated by ceiling fans also makes it more difficult for pests to fly, keeping summer pests at bay. How’s that for cool?

Say what? That’s right. Change the settings on your ceiling fans to spin clockwise, rather than their counterclockwise motion during the summer, and you’re in business! A clockwise motion forces air up, to the outer edges of the room, then down along walls to the floor, where it travels back to the center, once again rising. This motion helps equally distribute all that nice heated air from your HVAC system throughout your home, saving you much needed heating dollars.

Stand under your fan, and note the direction in which the blades rotate. (Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter which direction you face.) Remember, you want your blades to spin counterclockwise in the summer, clockwise in the winter. Wrong direction? Turn off the fan and locate the switch on the fan’s base, then simply flick the switch to the opposite direction. Done!

Choose the right blade size.

Want a cooling effect that doesn’t ruffle papers or other items in your home? Opt for larger blade sizes. They offer comparable cooling at a lower velocity than smaller blades. Don’t worry about the number of blades. This will not affect performance.

Properly size and locate fans.

Fans should be installed 7-9 feet above floors, 10-12 inches below ceilings and at least 18-24 inches from walls. Opt for 52-inch fans for rooms up to 400 square feet, 44-inch fans up to 225 square feet, and 42-inch fans up to 144 square feet. Rooms longer than 18 feet need multiple fans.

Find the right features.

Selecting easy-to-use models will encourage frequent fan use and the subsequent lowering of energy costs. You should carefully consider features and usage needs such as light intensity, fan speeds, noise level during operation, pull chains, and remote controls.

Remember, you get what you pay for.

Splurging a little on ceiling fans will earn you a model with quieter, smoother operation, more fan speeds, less issues, and longer warranty than bargain basement alternatives.

Ensure safe installation.

Professional installation as recommended by the manufacturer is essential to fan life, warranty, and most importantly, the safety of you and your family. Fans can weigh as much as 50 pounds! Safe installation should include an appropriate UL-listed electrical box made specifically for use with ceiling fans, secure mounting to a ceiling joist (or the use of a mounting bracket), and proper alignment and balancing.

Ceiling fans cool people, not rooms. Though they can help you save energy, they use it as well, so be sure to turn off ceiling fans when you leave the room to prevent wasted energy dollars. Don’t want to keep track? You may want to consider adding a motion sensor.

Simply put, these are electrical protection gadgets that can be used with a wide range of voltages. MCCBs, as they are commonly known, have adjustable trip settings and can hold as much as 2,500 amps in current ratings. They are also used with frequencies that are 50 and 60 Hz and have the following 3 functions:

Electrical jobs should never be turned into a DIY project, unless you have formal training and experience in the field. While electricity is extremely useful and necessary, if it isn’t handled correctly, it can be pretty dangerous too. If you get a novice to handle the job for you that can result in overloaded circuits, poor wiring connections or even faulty grounding, which can be extremely dangerous to you and your family and result in a fire outbreak as well. Here are some common services for which you would need to call in an electrician:

The main electrical panels provide electricity to your entire house. If you have older panels with fuses and older wiring, those may not be able to bear the load of any new appliances you decide to install on your property. The latest electrical appliances tend to add heavy loads on the system and your older wiring installations won’t be able to support those loads. If you are getting new appliances, call in a licensed electrician to test and inspect the wiring and circuit breakers on your property.

If you need any new outlets installed or need existing ones converted to USB ports, you would have to call in an electrician for the job. Oftentimes, electrical codes necessitate that a minimum of 1 outlet in your kitchen and bathroom be a GFCI outlet. These are specifically designed to shut off the power in case there is an imbalance in electricity or if water comes in contact with any of the electrical equipment or fittings; this helps in preventing shock in these areas.

It’s important that there be certified and licensed electrician should handle. They will take all the necessary precautions while doing any kind of electrical work on your property.

We’ve added linkable linear LED light fixtures to our home, commercial, and industrial product lines. The 5-foot fixtures can be used for anything from parking garage, warehouse, and tunnel lighting to supermarket, workbench, or home garage lighting. These LED fixtures can be easily connected with compatible Super Bright LEDs accessories to create a powerful, energy-efficient light series.

Using no more than 50 watts of power, the 4- and 5-foot linear LED lights emit 5,500 or 6,500 lumens, respectively, of bright natural white illumination. They’re designed to replace 250- or 320-watt fluorescent tube light fixtures but will last five times longer. These LED fixtures illuminate instantly and don’t emit the yellow-green hue that is typical of fluorescent lights.

The weatherproof linkable lights have sturdy aluminum housings and shatterproof polycarbonate lenses. They’re dust tight as well as water and impact resistant. Twenty 5-foot fixtures can be connected in a series, and up to 25 4-foot fixtures can be linked. Mounting brackets are included for wall or ceiling installation, and a suspension kit is also available.