It is a buyer’s market in the real estate world and there has never been a better time to take the plunge into home ownership. If you can’t find the dream home you have been waiting for, you can choose to build from the ground up. This is an ideal option for anybody who wants to choose a floor plan that suits the needs of their family. New home construction can be an exciting and rewarding experience. To ensure it all goes smoothly, you will want to choose your contractor and sub-contractor’s carefully. There is a great deal of Pasadena electrical work that will need to be done on your new home. You can count on The Electric Connection to provide you with knowledgeable electricians who will help you achieve your dream.

You will want to be part of the building process from the very beginning. As part of the new construction process, you will be choosing new appliances and fixtures. One detail that many people may not realize is the fact they have the option to request additional outlets to suit their needs. If your family is heavy into the techno gadgets, you may need extra outlets for chargers. If you are a master chef in the kitchen, you will likely have lots of appliances that you will want to pull out when you are preparing the perfect meal. You can instruct your electrician in Pasadena to install additional outlets in the kitchen area for you.

These are just some of the perks to building your dream from scratch. It is important you choose contractors who will listen to your concerns and follow your wishes. You can count on The Electric Connection to provide you with a professional and knowledgeable electrician who will work with you to complete your dream home.

You may have heard the term GFCI from your electrician before. But what exactly does it mean? And is that type of outlet really necessary in your home or building?

We all know that water and electricity don’t mix. That’s what makes electrical outlets in kitchens, bathrooms, and other rooms where water is used so tricky. To reduce the chance of electrocutions, burns, and shocks, virtually all North American building codes require that ground fault circuit interrupter outlets (GFCIs) be installed where there is water nearby. GFCI outlets have a built-in circuit breaker that instantly stops the flow of electricity when it senses a surge.

A GFCI outlet not only helps keep you and your family or building occupants from getting shocks and burns, but it helps prevent electrical fires. In the even that there is an electrical fire, it can lessen the severity and any damage.

A GFCI outlet is important not only to meeting local building code requirements, but also to help prevent potentially-fatal accidents.

GFCI outlets are designed with a red button that activates the outlet after the built-in breaker is tripped, and a black button that tests the outlet to make sure that the breaker is working properly. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends that all ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets be tested in the following intervals:

To test your ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets, plug a lamp into the outlet. Turn the lamp on and push the black test button. If the lamp goes out, the outlet is working properly. If the lamp remains lit, contact a licensed electrician to evaluate the problem. Electrical and wiring issues make poor DIY projects and are best left to electricians who are trained to safely handle electrical current and wiring.

At Kolb Electric, we want to help you keep your home or building safe in the Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC areas. We can save you time by inspecting and testing all of the ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets in your interior space and addressing any electrical issues we may discover during the tests. To learn more about electrical safety and GFCI outlets and/or to schedule a service appointment, call us at 877 287-1179. We’ve been helping Mid-Atlantic homeowners like you with their electrical needs since 1925.

Your HVAC system contains filters that keep a lot of particles out of the air in your home, provided you clean or replace the filter regularly. Unfortunately, your HVAC system may also be responsible for carrying a few contaminants into the air as well. And these contaminants can be quite harmful—biological contaminants living on the indoor air handler components have been known to cause illness or aggravate respiratory problems. In this quick guide, we’ll go over how calling for UV air purifier is not right for you, allow an indoor air quality expert to help you select an alternative type of air cleaner.

It is not news that LED is becoming the new standard in saving money on your lighting bill. But with every new technology, the options are endless and plentiful, and sometimes clever marketing hides what really is important. If you understand the technology, its easy. If your new to the technology, you have to try and determine what is or isn’t important. Which makes the purchase decision even harder for those trying to navigate this maze of product availability and specifications. And to confuse the consumer even more, there is a lot of data being presented that is not created based on any agreed to standard. Read 10 different product brochures on what the marketers believe is the proper solution to replace 1000W Metal Halide and you will read everything from a low as 26,000 lumens to 70,000 lumens. Or what one manufacturer calls day white is total different than what another manufacturer thinks day white is. The best advice we can give the consumer is walk through the same process we do when we select our products to sell. We look for quality, performance, efficiency and great engineering. Let’s break that down to what that means.

Are the LED Lights UL or ETL Listed. This is the safety test. No one wants an unsafe product. The product must be able to perform without any chance of hazard. Are the lights DLC or Energy Star Rated? DLC (DesignLights Consortium) is a performance standard that makes sure the lights are efficient and perform at a high standard. It typically applies only to LED lights, but lately the standard has been broadened to include lighting controls. Energy Star is a consumer standard that applies to many products including small LED screw in bulbs. Up until recently, DLC did not have a provision for screw in bulbs, but has recently changed to allow some screw in LED bulbs.

Are the factories ISO Qualified? A lot aren’t, a lot say they are but aren’t. Some will say they abide by the ISO standards. What does that mean? Some will come up with their own marketing buzz words that sound great on paper and are very clever, but aren’t ISO certified.  To us, ISO certification gives us the peace of mind that the products we supply our customers are built and tested in an exacting and consistent manner with the least amount of risk of failure.