Wouldn’t it be nice to really step up your game this holiday season? This is the time of year when friends and family are sure to visit your home. Maybe it will be for an evening of fun and entertainment or maybe it will be for a lovely dinner. No matter what your plans are for the holidays, wouldn’t it be nice to have a little something extra to help set the scene in your home? A new chandelier is the perfect, functional idea. An electrician in Burbank, like those at The Electric Connection can get your new chandelier installed just in time for holiday entertaining.

Gathering in the sitting room for cocktails, games or good conversation is a great way to reconnect with old friends and family you haven’t been able to spend quite as much time as you would like with. Having the right lighting can help set the mood. Bright and festive or dim and intimate can all be achieved with a new chandelier complete with a dimmer switch installed by an electrician. Burbank homeowners who want to be able to set the mood with the flick of the switch will love the beauty and flexibility a new chandelier gives them.

Many of the new chandeliers available on the market today are equipped to use energy-saving lightbulbs, which can ultimately save you money in the long run. LEDs are the perfect way to brighten up a room by using just a few bulbs. The look and feel of a room can be completely transformed with the installation of a new chandelier by a Burbank electrician. Chandeliers offer unique lighting options for a foyer, dining room or a den. Have fun and shop around for the perfect fixture. Give The Electric Connection a call today and get your appointment scheduled before your next big gathering.

CaseStudy Design, has become locally popular for their unique light fixtures that are made out of … wait for it … books! If you’re as surprised as I was when I first learned about CaseStudy Design and its owner/founder/designer Chall Gray, who are engaged in the practice of upcycling old things like books into lovely light fixtures, then read on for an interesting interview with a book-lover turned lamp designer.

1. Hello, Chall, and thanks for talking with me. First, can you tell me a little about your background and upbringing?

I’m a native of western North Carolina, and grew up on a farm out in the country. Design was something that gradually became more and more central to my life and predilections the older I’ve gotten.

2. So you’ve grown up surrounded by upcyclable things. That makes me wonder: Why books? Why not make lamps out of tissue boxes, skulls, or aluminum cans?

4. What are your goals with Case Study Design? What does the future look like?

I currently work full-time as VP at Thirsty Monk, where we have a series of beer and cocktail bars and a brewery, so I’m only able to devote so much time to CaseStudy, but it’s a central passion of my life, and luckily production doesn’t depend on my schedule because our Production Manager crafts the lights in our shop in West Asheville. As of this week our lights will be on display in Downtown Books & News, a great used bookstore in downtown Asheville, and we’re also working on a design collaboration with a local audio company on a set of home speakers, actually, which is a fun side-project. I’d love to grow the business to having a larger retail presence over the next couple of years, but really, we’re having a blast just designing and building lights.

6. Who are some of your favorite designers, lighting or otherwise?

My influences are pretty varied, but a few touchstones are the architect Tom Kundig, whose work I go back to time and time again, the shoe designer John Fluevog, and watchmaker George Daniels. The great modernists of the 20th Century, Frank Lloyd Wright, Saarinen, Eames, etc. And in terms of lighting, Ingo Maurer and Ilse Crawford immediately spring to mind.

Conclusion: Chall Gray and his CaseStudy Design Firm are doing impressive things with upcycled materials and here!

Cappuccino Doughnuts courtesy of Ann Stratton from CountryLiving.com

Find your angle. 

Playing with the direction and angle of your light source is essential. With the right play between light and shadow, you can accent the most titillating parts of your dish, while camouflaging any flaws. Texture greatly contributes to the delicious appearance of most any meal. Notice how the angle of the light below highlights the different textures within this broiled flank-steak sandwich.

Kauai’s electrical grid surges affect the life span of our computers, appliances, and other electronic equipment. Power surges can also completely roast the internal electronic parts during a storm or utility fault.

A whole house surge protector installed by a licensed electrician will greatly decrease the risk of power surge destruction.

Blue Sky Electric offers a quality whole panel surge protector for your home or business (parts and labor)

Guarding against surges requires a two-pronged approach: a whole-house suppressor to tame the big, dangerous power spikes and an individual circuit (or “plug-in”) surge suppressor for vulnerable appliances and electronic devices. Both types essentially act like pressure-relief valves. Normally they just sit there, allowing electric current to flow through them. But with higher-than-normal voltage, the devices instantly divert excess voltage to the ground wire. (The best ones react in less than a nanosecond.) As soon as voltage levels return to normal, the flow of electricity is restored, unless the surge was big enough to melt the fuse built into some units.

Typically, whole-house suppressors are hard-wired to the service panel, a process that takes a licensed electrician about two hours. Whole-house systems should be rated to stop a 40,000-amp surge, at minimum. Features to look for include thermal fuses, and lights or alarms that indicate when a device has taken a hit. Protection for an average house with 200-amp service will run about $500 — including a couple of hours of an electrician’s labor. Separate but smaller whole-house units are recommended for the phone and cable lines. These protect fax and answering machines, televisions, and modems.

By themselves, whole-house suppressors can’t stop surges completely; up to 15 percent of excess voltage may leak by. That’s where “plug-in” surge protectors come in. These buffers between individual appliances and wall outlets come in a bewildering array of options and prices. They range from $70 units not much bigger than a computer mouse to $350 units the size of a pizza box that guard all the components in a home theater. But most plug-in models fall into three basic categories: the familiar multi-outlet power strip; the multitasking surge station that can handle phone and cable jacks as well as power cords; and the UPS (uninterruptible power supply), which completely cleanses electric power of random fluctuations and provides a short-term battery backup in case the power dips or goes out entirely. Expect to pay between $20 and $70 for a quality power strip or surge station, and from $100 to $250 for a UPS.

Chances are that you must be one of those home owners who only looks at your circuit breakers when you happen to trip the circuit in your house and have to reset the switch to restore your power right? The truth is that a circuit breaker is actually a safety device rather than a simple on/off switch.