When it comes to electrical tasks in yousitur home, it’s never a good idea to turn them into a DIY project. Electricity is a very necessary and useful utility, but can be extremely dangerous too and it’s crucial that you call in a certified, skilled and insured electrician to handle the job for you. Look for a professional and reputed company that provides 24/7 services and keep their number easily accessible at all times; this will ensure you get prompt services exactly when you need them. Here we discuss in which situations you should call in an emergency electrician to tackle the job for you:

This is extremely dangerous and you should immediately turn-off the circuit breaker that you feel is connected to that wire. Do not try to repair this yourself as there could be a chance that the circuit breaker you turned off isn’t connected to that particular room wire at all and this exposes you to the risk of electrocution.

This is a situation you shouldn’t take lightly at all. It’s important that you keep all your family members and pets away from that room and switch off the circuit breaker you think is connected to that wiring line. If you have any water pooling, puddling or accumulated (as in a flood situation), call in a skilled electrician to check all the wiring and address the problem without delay, as this is a major electrocution risk.

It’s not often that a home will lose power completely, while there is no similar problem in the neighbourhood. However, if the power does go out only in your home, quickly check with your neighbours and check whether the street lights have also lost power. If everything seems to be alright there, you may have a major electrical problem on your hands.

In all these situations, do not try to find out what the problem is; call in a regular electrical maintenance done. The company you hire for the job will send out skilled professionals at pre-decided schedules to conduct a thorough check on the wiring. In case any potential problems are noticed, you will be informed about them and they will be addressed without delay. This reduces the chances of major electrical problems surfacing out of the blue.

The existing lighting solutions are efficient and provide us the kind of illumination we need; however, they are binary devices. They generally have only one switch that can be used to turn them on/off. In addition, you have to physically be present to operate them. It’s how electrical lighting has been since it was first introduced towards the end of the 19th century. Of course, the time was ripe for a change and that came in the form of smart lighting.

These lights have a completely different working; they make use of local infrastructure, either wireless/wired and provide much more control over various factors such as the colour & brightness of the bulbs you are using as well as the exact time at which they will get switched on etc.

In short, this gives us the scope to use smart lighting for regular home use, in security lighting (to keep miscreants and other unsavoury elements at bay), as well as lighting for all types of special occasions. This control also helps add to the energy efficiency and lowers your power bills as timers can be used to control exactly at what schedules and timings the lights should come and be switched off.

But that’s not the end of it. You also have a choice of a variety of Internet-based tools that can be used to manage the automation of your lighting installations; and you can do this either from your office a few kilometres away from home or from thousands of kilometres away, from across the globe. That is the beauty of smart lighting!!

When it comes to smart lighting installations, there are a couple of different approaches. This is based on whether you choose to:

If you opt for the former, the lights will be controlled using smart switches/relays. In case you choose the self-installed solutions, there are a range of products to choose from; smart bulbs being the commonest and most popular solution. In appearance, these bulbs are almost like the regular bulbs you already use, but they tend to be a tad more expensive than the latter.

All these can be installed in a hassle-free manner and then directly connected to the Wi-Fi network in your home. But that isn’t how all smart lighting solutions work. There are more complex smart lighting installations which use the lighting infrastructure (that already exists on your property), in addition to a wider network of smart switches and a variety of other automation solutions that are pieces of a broader home automation project.

If this is what you are considering to install on your premises, it’s important that you get a skilled and licensed professional to tackle the job. Keep in mind that the service provider and the products you choose will vary greatly in cost and that’s what you’d have to keep in view wile allocating a budget for your smart lighting project.

Regardless of the option you choose, while the upfront cost would be higher than that of traditional lighting solutions, you will save a significant amount of money on your energy bills, in the long term. For more smart lighting ideas and the best electrical solutions, call Allround Electrical at 1300 169 263. You can also drop us a line via email.

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It’s no secret that incandescent lights are on their way out—they’re incredibly wasteful, have relatively short lifespans, and are much better at producing heat than light. This leaves us with two alternatives: LED and CFL bulbs. And while CFL bulbs have been steadily gaining traction in many homes in our area over the last several years, some experts see them as little more than a stopgap measure before LED lights become more commercially viable. So what’s the real story? Should you go out and buy up all the CFL bulbs before they’re phased out or should you hold out for LEDs?

The US Department of Energy put together an extremely thorough, 50-page analysis comparing LED and CFL bulbs, which we definitely recommend checking out if you’re interested. In our comparison, we’ll be looking at the following aspects of CFL and LED bulbs:

Note: unless otherwise noted, our comparisons are based on using 30 bulbs simultaneously. So without further ado, let’s take a look at what distinguishes CFL and LED bulbs and which you should install in your home:

Thanks to DesignRecycleInc.com for the information in this chart!

Based on the chart, the clear winner seems to be LED bulbs. And it gets even better—Phillips is expected to release a new LED bulb that gets 200 lumens/watt, more than twice as good as the best LED on the market today. If that bulb performs as expected, it could allow LEDs to declare a decisive victory over other options.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of LED lights, don’t wait—call Kolb Electric today!