As you grow older you begin to understand why your parents cared so much about you not breaking things and wanting the house to look nice – not just when people came over, but all the time. It’s a matter of pride and stature, and with the purchase of a new house, the plan is to make the place into a home – something to be proud of and show off.

We started with art that we found interesting, hanging and placing in the living room, bedroom, and kitchen pieces that spoke to us along with accent pieces that were appropriate. We didn’t flood the place with décor, but it certainly wasn’t boring.

When it comes to lighting areas where color accuracy is crucial, such as portrait studios, retail stores, hospitals, medical and commercial offices, display cases, and warehouses, a high color-rendering index (CRI) is key. CRI refers to how accurately a light source reveals the true colors of objects, people, and surroundings and involves a distinct testing method with comparisons to incandescent light or daylight.

The spectral graph below can be helpful in understanding the advantage of high-CRI light sources. Lights with a low CRI will show fewer colors while high-CRI lights cover more of the spectrum. A light source’s ability to show more colors increases its accuracy in revealing the true colors of people, objects, and surroundings.

can light, linear light, or other high-CRI bulb or fixture. Lights with a CRI of 80 or higher are considered to show colors most accurately. The photo below shows how different CRIs can affect colors and skin tone.

Bathrooms tend to be one of those places you don’t really want to hang out it with your friends. You don’t often think too hard on what the bathroom looks like. The main goal is that it is clean and functional. An added perk is making it look nice. There are plenty of extra perks you can add to a bathroom to make it more inviting and even more functional. An electrician in Burbank can help you with the installation of those extras. All you need to do is give The Electric Connection a call to transform your boring bathroom into a luxurious spa.

Some ideas that you may want consider include the lighting scheme. The light in the room can be a standard fixture or a combination of lights. Recessed lighting is a nice choice. A bath fan with a heated light is a nice luxury and can help take the chill off the room when you are stepping out of the shower. This is something your Burbank electrician will need to install for you. A heated towel bar is another sweet luxury you can enjoy. The warming racks are typically hard-wired, which means they are wired into the home’s electricity and not plugged in.

The vanity lights that are over the mirror are a must. There are plenty of styles to choose from. The latest models on the market are designed to be used with LED bulbs. You can choose bulbs that give you a bright, white light that is similar to the natural light outdoors. This is an ideal choice and gives you plenty of light to see exactly what is in the mirror. Vanity lights can be fun and whimsical or traditional. Do some shopping, then call your electrician. Burbank homeowners will love how a few minor changes can make a huge difference.

Smoke detectors are an important part of safety in the home. These cheap little devices can save your home and your life. If your lucky, the only time you’ve heard one go off is when the toast burnt. It’s easy for us to forget to check on them or even forget to test them after purchasing a new home. But they should not only be checked regularly, but require correct installation. Let’s go over some of the basics of having smoke detectors in the home.

Having smoke detectors placed in various locations around your home allows for fast and effective detection. Once the smoke detector siren sounds, it will warn you that there is a potential fire. You can quickly check the nature of the problem and hopefully prevent any further damage. It will also wake you at night before any harm can come to anyone in your home. The siren also helps firefighters quickly locate the fire in the home so they can focus their efforts.

Because smoke rises, smoke detectors are always placed on the roof for ideal detection. There are two common types of smoke detectors, photoelectric and ionization. Photoelectric sensors use a beam of light within the detector to sense any smoke in the air. The beam will shoot in a straight line when the air is clear. In the presence of smoke the light will scatter, this is when the alarm will go off. Ionization detectors use a chamber with a small electrical current. When smoke enters the chamber and the level of ions in the air changes, the electrical current drops and the alarm will sound.

It is recommended that there are smoke detectors on each floor of your home. If doors to rooms are closed often, it is best to have a detector installed in that room. The device should be placed away from rooms that create steam, such as showers or a laundry room, as this steam could trigger the smoke detector. Most smoke detectors use double sided tape to stick the device to the ceiling. You will need to drill the mount to your ceiling and attach the smoke detector to the sticky mount. Ensure that the batteries you use are working properly.

Smoke detector testing should be done on a monthly basis because batteries can die and sensors can become faulty. Each smoke detector will have a button on it to manually sound the siren. Push this button for a few seconds to ensure the siren is working correctly and the batteries are still active. To test the sensor, you can use an aerosol can of smoke to spray into the smoke detector. It may take a couple minutes for the siren to deactivate, as the smoke needs to clear from inside of the chamber first.

Smoke detectors are vitally important to keeping your home and family safe. We can help you to install smoke detectors around your home and position them to give you the best coverage.

Under-Cabinet LED Lighting Kit is available for purchase that contains a plug-and-play LED light strip, push-button dimmer, remote, 12V power supply, and connection accessories. If you want to build a custom kit, follow the steps below the diagram to ensure that you get everything you need.

3. Select a dimmer or controller

For single-color LED strip light setup

Select the power supply large enough to operate the amount of LED strip light you need to use. If you want to control the brightness of your light strips, you will need a Single-color dimmer shown installed with a non-dimmable power supply

For color-changing LED strip light setup

Follow the instructions above for the single-color light strip setup. However, instead of a dimmer, use a RGB color-changing light strip installation

4. Use an LED amplifier for long runs of strip

Depending on the strip chosen and its maximum run (the number of strips that can be installed consecutively before needing amplifiers), you will need to install an light strip interconnect cables. It is best to purchase a length of strip that is more than your application requires. For example, if your project requires 8 1/2 feet of strip, we recommend purchasing 9 feet of strip to ensure that you have everything covered.