It’s Zombie season! Halloween decor is already beginning to line the streets with witches, ghosts, monsters …. and ZOMBIES. And with the season premier of The Walking Dead looming on the horizon (a mere 3 days away), I’m all aflutter with the living dead.

Nobody wants to be caught in the dark with a drooling, moaning, rotting Zombie hoard, am I right? Take note fellow survivors, we’ve compiled a list of 9 must-have zombie-apocalypse light sources.

1. Solar and Battery-Operated Lights

Powered by the energy of the sun, you’ll never have to make a dangerous trip into the city to get more batteries with motion-sensor spotlights around your campsite to alert you to any sneaky Zombies.  Take them with you when you’re doing late night reconnaissance.  Doomsday Tip: Make sure there is an off-switch. Nothing worse than trying to douse your light with a zombie on your trail.

2. Good ol’ fashioned Flashlight

knuckle-mount LED flood light is designed for subdivision sign lighting, billboard lighting, building facade lighting, architectural wall washing, outdoor displays, and security lighting. This energy-efficient LED light consumes 70 watts of power and replaces 320-watt metal-halide (MH) fixtures.

Using eight groups of nine LEDs behind individual projector lenses, the flood light fixture emits 6,800 lumens of natural white illumination in a focused 80-degree beam pattern. This dark bronze LED light is constructed of a durable die cast aluminum housing and a shatter-resistant polycarbonate outer lens. An adjustable knuckle-mount bracket allows for aimable illumination, and the weatherproof fixture can be easily installed in outdoor junction boxes that have 1/2-inch threaded hubs.

Why slave over a hot stove to provide healthy meals to your family when you could be saving time and money by using a microwave oven instead? In many cases, the microwave will use less energy than your range or oven and still create a delicious meal.

Radio Wave Technology

Using a microwave can save you anywhere between 30 to 80 percent in energy compared to your stove, according to the California Energy Commission. The devices work by using radio waves to excite water molecules in food, heating it from within. For many food items, that's a lot faster and more cost-effective than applying heat directly via a range or oven.

For example, the Energy Center provides a comparison of the average cost of cooking a casserole using various methods. The microwave is by far the quickest and cheapest, finishing the job in 15 minutes for a cost of 3 cents in energy. Meanwhile, the standard oven is actually the least efficient cooking method, taking an hour and burning up 16 cents in energy costs. A few cents might not sound like a big difference, but over a year the savings add up.

Great for Small Meals, Defrosting

The microwave won't save you energy in every situation, but they're perfect for small portions like side dishes and leftovers. If you try to make a large meal in the microwave, however, you can end up cooking it unevenly or not getting the desired texture, and the more food you heat at once, the less efficient microwaves are compared to the stovetop. For specific tasks like defrosting a piece of meat, on the other hand, a microwave is a great solution.

There’s another bonus with using a microwave in the summertime: it won't heat up the kitchen, so you don't put extra stress on your air conditioner to offset the rise in temperature.

For safety's sake, make sure you only use microwave-safe containers, and never put metal in the microwave.

Choosing a Microwave

Unfortunately, the federal Energy Star program does not certify microwaves at this time so you have to do a little more research to discover the most efficient models. Energy usage is fairly consistent across different brands. However, you can cut down on consumption by purchasing the smallest model that will meet your needs. Look at the wattage label, which will tell you exactly how much electricity it draws, and try to find one at 800 watts or fewer.

New microwaves are also far more efficient than older models. Look for devices that have variable power settings, temperature probes and sensors that can tell when the food is done cooking.

Microwaves aren't a perfect solution for every meal, but they are an important tool in the arsenal of any energy-conscious homeowner.

Call local Mister Sparky® for more energy-saving tips.

Out of all of the challenges winter presents, there’s one small, quiet issue that plagues us all on a routine basis. We’re talking, of course, about static shock! Have you ever noticed that little zap is a lot more common in the colder seasons? Have you ever wondered why? If you answered yes to either or both, read on to learn a bit from the Columbia electricians at Kolb Electric!

Need reliable, top-quality electrical services for your home or business? Contact the team at Kolb online today!

There’s probably no one in the world that hasn’t encountered a static shock. It’s that small, surprisingly little jolt that you can often get when stepping out of your car or touching a door handle in your home. But though it seems like a simple incident, static shock (or more specifically static electricity) is actually a lot of science going on all at once.

Put very simply, since to explain it in detail would be, frankly, a bit involved and boring, a static shock is the product of an imbalance in electrical charge. Everything is constantly exchanging electrons.

Everything. All of the time.

And when you happen to be exposed to an insulator, which naturally holds onto electric charge (like rubber, or wool) you basically start scraping charge off of everything around you. This collects on the surface of your body, and the next time you come into contact with a conductor of any type, typically metals, that built up charge will jump to the conductor, producing that somewhat agitating shock.

So why is it that when winter hits, we see a lot more static electricity? The answer is pretty simple, actually! In seasons like summer, moisture in the air called humidity tends to be far higher, and those water molecules actually act as a great grounding barrier, helping you mitigate building an excessive static charge.

But when winter sets in, we see a lot less moisture in the air. And what is there tends to be frozen, thus a solid and no longer part of the air content. This cold, dry air is a breeding ground for static, allowing your body to pull in massive amounts of electrons which will ultimately result in that startling shock.

And did you know your furnace actually makes it worse by sucking out what little moisture your home retains? That means bad times for those of us with a furnace system and wool carpets!

As a Columbia electrician knows well, our winters can get really dry, and really cold, which means wrestling with a lot of static electricity. Looking for ways to reduce your shock factor? Try these tips out:

It’s all about adding a bit of moisture, and avoiding materials that present the properties of an insulator!

We can’t do a whole lot about the static in your home (save maybe some sage advice), but if you’re looking for a trusted team of top-class Columbia electricians for electrical installation and repair, there’s no team better than Kolb! Contact us online to learn more about our electrical services, or to learn more great tips, tricks, and handy info, keep up with our blog!