Looking to hire the best electrician you possibly can in MD, DC or VA? We don’t blame you. As the economy faces serious challenges and uncertainties, families are forced to live on a stricter budget. Companies throughout the DC Metropolitan area must also operate on a much tighter budget than years past. It only makes sense for you to wonder exactly how to hire an electrician. You want to hire a reliable, quality electrician who can answer your questions and solve any electrical problems you may be having. Here at Kolb Electric, we thought it would be helpful to create a guide for selecting the best electrician.

There are so many electricians in the MD, DC and VA market that it can be difficult selecting one!. To make a list of prospective contractors, get recommendations from your family and friends. If you cannot get any, search online to compile a list of local electrical contractors. This is an important first step in finding the best electrician to meet your needs.

After you’ve prepared a short list of prospective electrical contractors, you may still be wondering how to hire an electrician. One thing you can do is to check the licensing credentials of these electrical contractors. The best electricians are trained, skilled and experienced. You can use the Internet to determine whether a prospective electrical contractor is licensed or not, and you can also check whether the license is still valid or not. An electrician without a license or with an invalid license should raise big red flags!

You should also use the Internet to read reviews posted by others who have some experience working with the prospective electricians you have on your list. This is an excellent way to determine the best electrician for you. However, you should approach these results with a grain of salt. Someone with a bad experience is more likely to post something negative online than someone who has had a great experience. Always put more stock in what you’ve heard from family and friends.

When you reach the point where you have a list of just a few quality prospective electrical contractors, the next step is to contact them so you can secure and compare quotes. Keep track of exactly what services the contractors claim they will provide when compiling quotes. Since your list now features only quality contractors, cost is the next factor you should focus on.

Finally, in order to really know you’re hiring the best electrician you can, ask a lot of questions to prospective contractors. The quality of their answers can go a long way in helping you hire the best electrician. Ask contractors what experience they have dealing specifically with the electrical problem you have.

We hope this helps you better understand how to hire an electrician. There are several steps involved, but they are all essential to helping you select the best electrician you possibly can!

At Kolb Electric, we have specialized in providing professional electrical service since 1925. Impeccable customer service and attention to detail has allowed us to become one of the best electricians in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia. Our electricians are:

Contact Kolb Electric for all of your electrical needs. Our licensed, professional electricians are ready to service you 24 hours a day, for all of your commercial and residential electrical needs. No job is too small or large!

1.  Invest in a Few Strategically Placed Garden Lights–Do not over light your landscape. Be sure to check the “dark sky”* ordinances in your town so that your landscape lighting design will be within legal limits of illumination.  Try a few garden spread lights to softly highlight flowerbeds, rock gardens and sculpted shrubbery.

2.  Work It Wisely—Put the ultimate control in the palm of your hand. Whether hand-held or on automated timers, outdoor lighting controls are the utmost in energy-saving and convenience to promote safety and security effortlessly and instantly.

3.  Prepare Your Patio for the King of the Grill—Task lighting is often neglected when planning your landscape and outdoor lighting design. While aiming for subtle illumination in most backyard areas, you need shielded, but plentiful focused task light over outdoor cooking stations.  An adjustable spot light installed in a rooftop corner or an attached grill light will help you to see that your chicken is thoroughly cooked and your burgers are not too well-done.

4. Watch Your Step and Provide Shielded Path Lighting —LED path lights and strip lights are available in a variety of colors and sizes to uniquely define and expand the boundaries of your outdoor living space while providing nighttime illumination for safe navigation.

5.  Go for the Life Time Guarantee—Superb new vendors are featuring landscape lighting products guaranteed to withstand the elements and weather naturally overtime without peeling or rusting.  Check out new post lamps from Northeast Lantern–all parts, with the exception of glass, are guaranteed for life!

 Say “Happy Father’s Day!” and bring it on home. Great landscape lighting will truly make his home feel like his castle. 

 Best Landscape Lighting Finds For Summer 

Path Lighting: “Nexus,” new from Hinkley Lighting featuring LED and a Bronze finish; “Dwell”  1547 from Hinkley in a Buckeye Bronze or Hematite finish.

Garden Lights: “Intaglio” Brass Crook Neck 1543 landscape light in Olde Bronze from Kichler Lighting; Tiffany path light in Antique Bronze with Green Faux Tiffany shade (P5271) from Progress Lighting.

Grill and Wall Lights: Barn Lantern from Northeast Lantern available in a choice of unique finishes including: Antique Brass, Dark Antique Brass, Dark Brass and Verdi Gris.

Step and Deck Lighting:  LED-TO24-5 Tape Lights from WAC Lighting, available in Amber, Blue, Green, Red, and White.

 Be sure that your new outdoor lighting purchases are in keeping with the dark-sky outdoor-lighting codes in your community.

*The latest landscape light fixtures are energy efficient and in keeping with new “Dark Sky” regulations.  “Dark Sky” ordinances continue to spread across the country in an effort to reduce light pollution.  Check the latest nighttime light restrictions in your town, to make sure your outdoor and landscape lighting is in keeping with new code laws.  Call your local government’s community planning and zoning office.  Fines for violating dark-sky ordinances may cost up to $100–Consumer Digest Communications, LLC.

The emergence of shielded dark-sky-compliant fixtures makes it easy to update your landscape lighting in keeping with the new laws. In addition to being environmentally friendly, these fixtures reduce glare, and they are affordable and energy saving.

NEMA or the National Electrical Manufacturers Association has developed rating standards for electrical enclosures to ensure safety, compatibility and proper function of electrical products. These ratings provide the standards that help in defining the types of environments in which various electrical enclosures can be used. NEMA ratings frequently indicate a fixed enclosure’s ability to withstand certain environmental conditions.

NEMA ratings are mainly applied to fixed enclosures and are rarely applied to mobile devices. They have extremely stringent testing requirements to verify if the enclosures can be protected from external ice, oil immersion, corrosive materials, dust, water, etc. Each NEMA rating has different specifications; however, all of them are designed to protect electrical components, personnel and property from damage.

Importance of NEMA ratings

If you use any kind of electrical enclosure, it is important that you check its NEMA rating before installing it. There are a number of reasons why it is important to do so. Let us look at three reasons why NEMA ratings are important.

If our Rockville electricians asked you if your building was up to code, would you know what we’re talking about? Staying “in code” is often a phrase many business owners are aware of, but when it comes to actually understanding what code is, why it’s important, and which codes apply to them, most aren’t really familiar. This can be a pretty big ding against both the safety and reputation of your business!

When our local business owners need electrical code correction in Rockville, they turn to the certified electricians at Kolb Electric! We’ve been providing superior service since the day we started doing business, and we’ll continue to do so. Curious about what electrical code correction in Rockville actually entails? Let’s do some learning.

The NEC (National Electrical Code) is essentially a guideline for what electrical practices are considered safe and optimal. The rules are regionally adjusted, meaning what is “code” in say Maryland may not necessarily be exactly the same in other states. This is why understanding the code specific to our Rockville area is crucial!

To ensure that you stay within code, the assistance of a locally licensed and certified electrician is critical. You must stay within code to optimize safety, and to avoid potential legal issues and fees.

Our specialists are fully-trained to handle and correct all electrical code violations in our area. Some of our most common corrections (and codes you should be aware of!) include:

Our seasoned Rockville electricians carry all of the training and experience needed to ensure your business keeps up with the times! Staying in code is not only safer, it’s usually more efficient as well! Save your business stress and money by contacting a certified Kolb electrician for an electrical code correction in Rockville today!