How to Choose the Right Residential Electrician Choosing a residential electrician in Chester County, PA  is a major decision. You want to make sure you get quality work done when you need and at a reasonable price. There are several things to consider when choosing an electrician to take care of your home.

Licensed, Bonded and Insured Probably the most important thing to check for when hiring an electrician is making sure they are licensed, bonded and insured. These things guarantee that the technicians have undergone the proper training, so the work will be done up to code and safely. Ask to see the documentation so you can ensure the electrician does have all of the proper documentation.

Pricing Make sure you ask for a quote before you authorize work. Ask for an itemized bill that breaks down the costs. It is also wise to get quotes from more than one electrician. You can then compare the charges and the qualifications.

Experience and Qualifications Just because an electrician is certified, it does not mean he or she has the same qualifications as other electricians. Some have additional experience or specialized training in specific areas of electrical work. There are some electricians who have accreditations. Master Electrician status guarantees, at least, three years of experience and the workmanship has a one-year warranty.

References Don’t be afraid to ask for references. Make a few calls to other customers so you can be sure that others are pleased with the work provided by this electrician or electrical team. Ask your friends and family for recommendations. You want to hire an electrician you can trust and work with for the long-term.

Work Performance and Customer Service After you have selected an electrician, take note of their behavior. You want to work long-term with an electrician who is punctual, professional and attentive. You also want him or her to be willing to communicate with you.

Looking for a creative way to save energy? Don't forget about your cable box. The television might not be the first device most people think of when it comes to energy conservation, but that's about to change. A voluntary agreement among manufacturers, cable providers and the federal government calls for big efficiency overhauls in the set-top boxes that bring cable and satellite signals into consumers' homes.

Meeting Efficiency Goals

Certain cable boxes can use half as much electricity as a refrigerator, according to the Energy Collective, so there's a lot of room to conserve. And a full 85 percent of American households have some kind of set-top box, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Consumer Electronics Association. In households with multiple set-top boxes in different rooms, there may be a shocking amount of electricity consumed merely by piping in everyone’s favorite shows.

Set-top boxes don't have minimum federal standards, so the voluntary agreement is an alternative way to bring all the products up to a certain energy conservation threshold. Since technology changes so quickly in telecommunications, and the federal regulatory process is so cumbersome and slow, voluntary compliance allows stakeholders to advance efficiency goals without waiting for new regulations that might be outdated by the time they are enacted.

The agreement was put into place last year and should save consumers $168 million in electricity bills annually, according to the NCTA annual report on the program. Even more stringent voluntary standards will kick in in 2017.

Cutting-Edge Efficiency

The highest standards are found in the federal Energy Star program, which certifies set-top boxes that are 40 percent more efficient than average models. If every cable box hit the Energy Star benchmark, the program claims, consumers would save a total of $1 billion annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking two million cars off the road.

Most boxes are always drawing power, even when they’re in standby mode. One way in which more advanced models save energy is through deep sleep mode, which consumes a maximum of 15 percent of the power used during active mode. Automatic power-down is another feature that many new boxes include.

Providers are also offering “thin client” boxes for homes with multiple televisions. Under this arrangement, the main cable box may use a fair amount of electricity, but the additional boxes would consume considerably less.

Of course, most people don't buy their own cable boxes, so to make sure you’re getting an efficient model, remember to ask your cable provider. Your cable company may also be willing to upgrade your existing box or swap it out for a more advanced model.

Home automation is the latest trend in electrical installations; it allows you the functionality to control various devices in your home, via a mobile device from any location (in your city or even from across the world). It’s true that the term home automation could be used for various programmable devices such as sprinkler systems and thermostats.

However, home automation is much more than that, and it encompasses a number of things in a home including:

All of these are connected to a network that can be remotely controlled. From the perspective of home security, this includes fixtures such as the alarm system in your home, as well as the windows, doors, smoke detectors, locks, the CCTV cameras as well as the other sensors that are connected to it.

Even up until the recent past, it was only commercial systems and high-end homes that had automated centrally-controlled systems. Typically, these included only the heating & cooling systems, lighting systems and they hardly ever provided anything more than just the standard controls, monitoring functions as well as scheduling actions. In addition, these were accessible only from certain control points from within the very same building.

While this was a definite convenience and advantage, home automation takes this concept and technology one step further; and is popularly called the – ‘ Internet of Things’. In this type of system, everything has a specific IP address that can be accessed and monitored remotely.

Smart devices and various smart appliances are the most obvious things that get connected to the LAN via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. However, it’s possible to incorporate electrical outlets and light switches into your home automation network.

In addition to the convenience factor, the energy efficiency factor is what makes home automation such an attractive option. While modern appliances provide convenience and comfort, many of them are also power guzzlers; home automation systems also address this issue. Thermostats help monitor the heating and cooling system in your home; similarly the lighting systems can also be programmed and set for various target temperatures.

This helps keep energy usage at the minimum levels during the times when you aren’t really going to be using them. In fact this scheduling can be broken down at a more micro level to distinguish between the seasons of the year and the weekends etc., in some instances. If required, ‘macros’ can also be programmed into the system and these can be controlled remotely as required.

In fact, you can add settings – like “coming home” etc. that can activate various appliances, equipment and installations at the tap of your smartphone and you can have the opposite set as a “leaving home’ event. This ensures you use only as much energy as required, which adds to the overall energy efficiency of your home.

If you are considering getting smart automation solutions for your home, it’s important that you get experienced and credible electricians to handle the job for you. We at Allround Electricals are a company that has been operating in this space for a number of years and know what it takes to provide our customers with the kind of solutions they need.

For any more information about home automation or simply speak with the experts at our company. You can take our advice on various aspects of electrical and wiring installations. The number to call is – 1300 169 263. You can also write to us at this email address.

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Finding the right electrician to provide for your needs can be a frustrating experience. There are a lot of options out there and it can be hard to choose! But when you need service, you don’t want just anyone. You want the best. So how do you find the best electrical services in Tampa? Well, there are some important bits of information you should hunt down before you decide!