Battery technology has already made our lives more portable and convenient. From the disposable alkalines you used to use to power your Walkman to the modern rechargeable batteries in your cell phone and laptop, they allow us to take our work, entertainment and communication systems on the go. But batteries might have an even grander destiny: they could revolutionize the way we generate and use energy all throughout the home. Read on for a glimpse into our battery-powered future.

From Electric Cars to Your Living Room

Leading the charge into the brave new world of batteries is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. Musk recently launched Tesla Energy, a suite of batteries designed to facilitate flexibility for consumers and ultimately pave the way to an energy grid that doesn't rely on fossil fuels.

"Our goal," Musk said at a press conference, "is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy."

Tesla used its expertise in designing batteries for electric cars to make batteries bigger and more powerful. The company’s new lithium-ion batteries are optimized to enable “homes, business, and utilities to store sustainable and renewable energy to manage power demand, provide backup power and increase grid resilience,” the company promises.

Energy at Any Time of Day

Because Tesla’s new battery technology allows residential and business users to store electricity until it’s needed, it creates the opportunity to purchase electricity during off-peak time, easing the stress on our electrical grid. It also helps users get more out of sustainable but intermittent fuel sources like wind and solar.

If the technology catches on, consumers can take better advantage of utility time-of-day pricing. Some utilities in North America sell electricity at cheaper rates during nights and weekends, when there is less demand. A homeowner could therefore charge a battery at night and use it during the day, which saves money for them and reduces the generation cost for the utility company by smoothing out the demand.

Furthermore, as solar and wind technologies become cheaper and more viable, the ability to store their output means that they can further cut into the market share of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, reducing human impact on climate change.

Keep the Lights On and the TV Running

Another advantage of the enhanced storage potential is that homeowners will still have power in the event of a blackout or other disruption to the power grid. And people who want to go off the grid entirely with solar energy can do it without worrying about running out of power during the night.

The batteries are expensive, starting at $3,000 for residential models. If the program takes off, the price should fall and ever-better technologies will be developed to improve storage, capacity, transmission and other specifications.

For now, the Tesla batteries look like a useful, if expensive, addition to the energy-conscious homeowner's arsenal. If prices do continue to fall, however, the batteries could transform into something truly revolutionary.

Did you get what you really wanted during the holidays this year? Maybe that new smartphone you've been eyeing, or that extra-big HDTV? Perhaps you even got a new laptop or tablet. Whatever your favorite gift was, if it plugs into the wall, it could be at risk of electrical surge damage.

Power surges happen all the time, and homeowners usually aren't even aware when they occur. That's because the typical power surge won't completely fry a gadget or appliance -- but it might do a small, imperceptible amount of damage that slightly shortens the life of the device. Add up hundreds of these surges over time, and you could be talking about years of life shaved off of your favorite electronics.

Where Do Surges Come From?

If you think of surge protection as a safeguard against damage from lightning strikes, think again. Surges caused by direct lighting strikes to a home are rare and usually so destructive that a surge protection system can't mitigate all the damage.

Most surges begin and end in your own home, and are generated by a major appliance starting up. Have you ever noticed the lights briefly dimming when the air conditioner kicks on? That's a sign of a power surge. These are the types of surges that damage your electronics one tiny bit at a time.

Other surges may originate at the electrical utility and travel along the power lines into your home. And during bad weather, it's much more likely that you'll get a surge because a fallen branch took down a power line than to experience a direct surge from a lightning strike.

Get Yourself Protected

Surge protection strips or adapters can offer critical protection for select devices, but this isn't the ideal solution. First of all, these adapters are often clunky and bulky, and they can only be used to protect a few things at a time.

They're also delicate, and can be rendered ineffective with just a single major surge. If there's no indicator light that shows whether surge protection is active, you may think you're protected when really you're not.

Whole-home surge protection is the best solution for the protection of all the devices and appliances in your home. Wired into your main electrical panel, a whole-home surge protector extends that protection to every outlet in your home, as well as to major appliances like your air conditioner and refrigerator. These devices can also withstand numerous surges and last for years.

If you're interested in getting this level of protection for the appliances and devices in your home, reach out to a licensed local electrician today for a no-obligation consultation.

Entertainment systems have come a long way since the days of televisions with single mono speakers that plugged into a wall and used antennas. Today, you can have an entire home theater experience with digital 2K projection technology, 7.1 discrete audio channels with lossless DTS-Master Audio HD sound, video game consoles, and streaming technology bringing you entertainment from more sources than anyone could have dreamed of only a decade past.

This does mean a far more complex electrical wiring network, however. The old-fashioned TV simply needed to plug into a wall, and that was it. If you want a full home theater set-up, it’s almost essentially a room renovation or new room addition as far as the electrical wiring is concerned. Nowhere else in your home will have as many appliances requiring electrical power at the same time.

One of the reasons to have professional assistance with this task is that you will want as much of the wiring as possible, such as those running to the speakers, to remain hidden within the walls. Electricians can make this task much simpler and take away the need to rip apart your walls to have the wires installed.

Electricians can also help you protect your home from electrical power surges that an entertainment system can cause; we advise our customers to look into whole-house surge protectors as part of a large-scale entertainment add-on: the basic power strips are not sufficient on their own to protect from the problems of major power surges.

Electricians can also help you upgrade outlets and your circuit breaker panel to accommodate the higher electrical demands. If you have older two-prong outlets, you definitely need those replaced with grounded outlets.

It is the rare person who does not deal with electrical appliances today. Most people watch television, turn the oven on to cook food, or simply pop frozen foods into the microwave. With electricity pouring through virtually every home, everyone should be aware of the following electrical safety precautions:

All of these electrical safety precautions should be remembered by adults working with electrical appliances. If you know someone who isn’t aware of any precaution on this list, send them here to learn. It could save a life!

Once someone has discovered retrofitting as a read that by clicking here.

Let’s get started with the first question on the list, and that is what exactly is a retrofit kit?

What is a retrofit kit anyways? Well, we’ve actually reducing your energy consumption even more. Just make sure you are buying a LED retrofit kit that has the option to be dimmable, otherwise you will NOT be able to dim them.

Retrofit vs full replacement, why should you consider retrofitting with LED?

While a full replacement of an entire is fixture is very valid to do especially when they are outdated or literally falling apart; often times you can avoid that by retrofitting your fixtures. With retrofitting you get to keep your old fixture but just replace the light source in it with a new one. This will allow you to reduce the costs associated with the lighting upgrade tremendously, which will allow you to realize a much larger ROI.

Although there are benefits of both, you need to think about your facility or buildings own situation, and go from there. To recap; retrofitting is great if you can keep your old fixtures but if you can’t (due to reasons like outdated or near falling apart), then a full replacement is probably the better option.

For more info, check out this infographic (

Why should I even switch to LED in the first place?

Very good question, and this not only applies to those retrofitting but for any facility that plans to make a lighting system update. LED technology has vast benefits in almost every area of the definition “quality” for commercial lighting purposes. Here are just a few of the major benefits that more often than not win over businesses to commit to the conversion over to LED technology:

As you can see these are all some pretty big benefits, and that’s only the start. These reasons are why many companies are making the conversion over to LED products from other outdated technologies such as metal halide, HPS, and even fluorescent. Why not convert to LED with a retrofit LED kit and realize all of these benefits and more? It just makes sense!

Is it difficult to retrofit an existing light fixture?

Well, that can depend. To someone who has no knowledge about lighting fixtures and electrical wiring, then yes this will seem like an extremely difficult task. On the other hand for someone who is a professional, this isn’t a difficult task at all.

The process, in theory, is simple because all it consists of (for the most part) is a replacement of all the existing lamps, ballasts, sockets, and brackets with new ones to fit your retrofit kits. If you have no experience doing this, and even if you do, it is always recommended to bring in a licensed electrician if you can to ensure it is done right and to safety standards.

Are LED retrofits that are compatible with existing ballasts a good idea?

You need to consider the age of the ballast that is currently installed. In most cases, it will be nearing the end of it’s life and thus it won’t be the most up-to-date ballast that you could have. This adds for an additional point of failure, which could cost you more down the line in maintenance fees to replace them when they die out.

You have to consider that since you are considering the switch over to LEDs through retrofitting, you most likely haven’t recently upgraded you lighting system or replaced much. This means that the ballasts currently installed are most likely, at best, as old as the lights in your fixtures currently. But more often or not, they are even older than that which can definitely mean they are nearing the end of their lifespan.

Taking this all into account, it’s impossible to tell you if using existing ballasts is a contact us. We will gladly answer any question you may have!