With Valentine’s Day edging past and Random Acts of Kindness Day coming up this February 17th, have you given any thought to how helpful your recent actions have been to your bottom line?

Lighting accounts for approximately 5-10 percent of total energy use. Simply turning off the lights in unoccupied rooms can save a great deal. Multiply that savings times thousands of households, and you’re taking part in a huge random act of kindness for planet earth.  

One of the simplest energy savings tips is caring for your water heater by wrapping it up in an insulated blanket, and it can help you save $20 for gas and $50 for electric heaters annually. Setting it to 120 degrees also boosts energy savings and improves safety.

When temperatures are extreme, be thoughtful about your thermostat settings. Adjust accordingly: 68 degrees in the winter, 78 degrees in the summer. Turning your thermostat down 10-15 degrees for 8 hours a day can save you up to 10 percent on heating and cooling costs. Upgrade to a programmable thermostat to make it a simple, automated task.

Another one of the simplest energy saving tips - turn off computers and other devices when not in use. Leaving your PC constantly running could be unkind to your wallet – to the tune of over $100 a year.

Many of the devices we use daily ruthlessly consume electricity, even when they’re switched off. This vampire power consumption can be curtailed with the help of point-of-use surge protection. Rather than unplugging each item individually, with the flip of a button, power to every device plugged into a surge protector is simply and easily terminated. A perfectly humane way to cut off unnecessary power consumption.

Surge protection can also safeguard your checkbook from the hazards of excess energy. Whole house surge protection adds an integral layer of security against budget-busting power surges that can quickly zap your expensive electronics. Be considerate of your wallet. The cost of replacing a single large home appliance such as a TV or hot water heater could cost you twice the expense of an investment in whole house surge protection. Find out how much professionally installed surge protection can save you from getting zapped with a free in-home quote from Mr. Electric®.    

Looking for a few more energy saving tips to protect your pocketbook? Treat your home and your budget to a little kindness with the loving care of Mr. Electric today.

Fans in the attic? The idea at first may sound odd. We usually think of fans as blowing somewhere in our home where we can feel their effects, like hanging from ceilings or mounted in windows. Few people spend more time in their attic than they absolutely must, so it seems useless to install fans there.

However, attic fans can form an important part of maintaining the overall efficiency of your air conditioning system. If you’ve taken all the steps you can to keep your HVAC system working its best (regular maintenance, duct cleaning, changing the filter, proper insulation), attic fans will take you a step beyond. We’ll explain why putting in attic fans will benefit you.

Attics are both heat traps and heat escape routes. You can use insulation to stop heat from escaping in winter, but what about summer, when heat gathers in the attic and creates excessively high temperatures that will seep into other parts of your home? (Go up into your attic on a hot day and see what it’s like. It can be miserable. You don’t want any of that to get to rooms you actually use.) To stop summer attic heat, you’ll need attic fans.

Attic fans should be wired to a thermostat that will turn the fan on based on the temperature. This saves energy since you won’t have to keep the fan on constantly or continually check on it. The movement of air in the attic will lower the high temperature.

The first benefit is the most obvious: your home will not get as hot during the summer. On average, the temperature in the attic will decrease 50 degrees with a fan, which means a drop of 10 degrees in your house.

This not only translates into comfort, it also means savings on your energy bills. A cooler house requires less work from an air conditioner to cool it. You’ll spend less, and your air conditioner will not receive extra stress that will lead to repairs and possibly an early replacement.

Attic fans will also extend the life of your roof. Rising moisture in your home will get into the roof, eventually creating mold in the insulation and the roof material. In winter, the freezing moisture can be extremely damaging. Attic fans move moisture away and keep it from settling.

If you’ve read our blog for any length of time, you know we’re pretty enthusiastic about light. At Pegasus Lighting, we love writing about lighting design, technology, news, advice, art, and more. BUT we also love to read about it. For today’s post, I decided it was high time to send a shout-out to some of our favorite lighting blogs, magazines, and websites. Each one is run by passionate individuals and offers a unique perspective on the lighting industry. And you better believe they keep us on our toes.

So without further ado…

To indulge your inner lighting geek, check out Lighting Science’s company blog. You’ll learn things like how lighting affects sea turtle behavior, what it can do to our sleeping patterns, and more. The best part – Lighting Science is actively solving these problems with new, creative lighting technology!

Here’s a bright post:

Lighting designer James Bedell shares his unique blend of expert knowledge, honest opinions, and passion for lighting on his personal blog, and it’s well worth a read. Some days he’ll share practical tips about how to light your home, while other days might be some fascinating insight about what we can learn from a sunrise.

Here’s a bright post: 

When you’re in the mood to look at something pretty, or cool, or crazy, it’s time to navigate over to Lightopia’s Light Public. The lighting enthusiasts on this blog post about commerical lighting design, fine art, and photography mostly – and it will blow your mind.

Here’s a bright post: 

Generators make an important line of defense against natural disasters and power outages. With a generator, you don’t have to worry about keeping the food in your refrigerator cold, or powering your heating system when the temperatures drop. When installing a new generator, it’s important to select one that is the right size for your home. By size, we mean the power it’s capable of creating, not the physical size (though that can enter into the equation depending on where you plan to put it). In Lynnwood WA, electrical repair services can often advise you on how to size the right generator for your home, but it pays to know the basic before you give them a call.

The first step is to perform an energy audit for your home, determining how much power each appliance or electrical device uses, and then prioritizing them for use during an emergency. Medical devices usually come first on the list, followed by refrigerators and freezers which store your food. Next is your home HVAC system, followed by the lights in your home. Computers, radios and entertainment systems are usually on the bottom of the list: useful for keeping connected with the outside world, but otherwise non-essential in an emergency.

Once you have that list, you can determine two things: how much power is required to run your whole house and how much power is required to run the bare essentials during an emergency. The former number is preferable and if you can afford a generator of that size, then you should probably purchase it. The latter is less ideal but can do in a pinch if you’re on a budget and still want to keep your household running when the power goes out. In that case you need to carefully monitor which appliances are hooked up to the generator so you don’t overload it when the time comes.

Home maintenance can be overwhelming, especially when you don’t know where to start. Roofs that need re-shingling, carpets that have seen better days, that occasional leak you still have yet to place… there’s usually always something that needs fixing. Problems that are visible are usually easy to track and stop before the problem gets worse, but what if there’s an issue inside your walls?Outdated wiring is an issue all homeowners will eventually face. Homes that are at least 30 years old are likely to have outdated wiring not designed to operate with the modern homeowner’s lifestyle. Older homes with 60 amps can’t handle powering multiple appliances at once, not when the typical homeowner needs a house with at least 100 amps. It’s important to note that old wiring isn’t just an issue of inconvenience, but safety.