Today begins our newest series: Weekend Warrior. It’s part of our quest to bring our customers unique products and offer creative ideas for DIY projects around the house. This week we’re tackling one of our most innovative new products: The NETBRIGHT™ Wireless Motion Sensor Networked Spotlights. 

My front entrance with existing floodlight

The back entrance of my home … not so much…

The most dangerous time of the year for electrical fires in Des Moines is undoubtedly during the holiday season. Christmas decorations, in particular, lead to a dizzying amount of house fires each year. On average, over 200 homes burn down each year directly because of Christmas Trees and other decorations, and this figure doesn’t include the small, contained fires and those caused by candles. Needless to say, safety should be a major priority when planning out and putting up your holiday decorations.

Many electrical problems are caused by outdated technology and old incandescent Christmas lights; when you start digging out your decorations, ask yourself if it is time for an upgrade. While more expensive, modern LED Christmas lights use far less power, generate less heat, almost never require bulb replacements, and last far longer than their incandescent ancestors and inexpensive alternatives. In terms of cost alone, the new lights will likely pay for themselves in energy savings after only one, maybe two, holiday season(s).

For instance, running 1,000 incandescent Christmas lights for a month in Iowa will likely cost about $122, whereas the same amount in LED bulbs (which shine brighter, by the way) will cost less than $1.50. That extra $120 can go a long way towards buying a few better presents or do some real good in the community. By upgrading your lights this holiday season, you’re ensuring that you don’t have to hike up your energy bill to decorate the house each year while keeping the family much safer than they would be with your old lights.

For any strand you choose to not upgrade this year, be sure to thoroughly check each strand for frayed wires or cracked bulbs. Incandescent bulbs can easily create a completed electrical circuit with a Christmas Tree, gutter, or just about anything else it may be hung upon, creating a very real fire hazard.

If you decide to get out the extra-tall ladder that you seem to only use to decorate and un-decorate the house each year, take special care to avoid power lines. One of the easiest ways to get injured when using a tall ladder isn’t actually from falling, but from electrocution while moving the ladder. Take the time to locate all power lines before beginning work and always get down and collapse the ladder before moving anywhere around power lines.

No carpeting, drapes, curtains, or other fabrics should ever come into contact with your lights. Furthermore, be sure to never wrap cloth-like decorations around your lights. The mesh commonly found at holiday stores is made for wreathing and often contains metallic elements for a shimmering effect, making it especially potent at conducting electricity and starting fires in the event of a short.

We hope you’re safe this holiday season, but if you happen to overload your circuit breakers or have a concern about the lighting of your holiday decorations, be sure to give us a call right away. The electricians at Electrical Gurus want to help to keep every Des Moines family happy and healthy throughout the holiday season.

Whether it has to do with a simple home improvement or a more in-depth renovation, a permit for electrical work is required to obtain permission from the governing authority to go forward with the project. Permit pulling—requesting a permit from a governing authority, which could be State, County or City —can be challenging for homeowners who are not familiar with electrical plans. but the process of pulling permits for electrical work is fairly straightforward if you understand and meet all requirements for electrical contractors.

Each city, county and state can have varied building codes, so it is important to use a professional who is versed in navigating this process. Permit pulling requires first submitting an official application that includes a schematic of what electrical work is going to be done. There will be a permit fee involved to cover the application cost, the review and the inspection. Once a plan is approved, a permit will be issued, and work can begin. On-site inspections will be conducted to ensure that all of the work conforms to the permit as well as building codes and plans. Depending upon the size of the project, there may be more than one inspection, usually a rough and final or possibly partials of either. These inspections serve to protect homeowners from faulty or possibly hazardous work. A code official will come by at the project end in order to provide all required documentation. Final approval will only be given once full code compliance is met which could mean NEC, UBC or IBC regulations. If the homeowner is completing the electrical work as a do-it-yourself project, it may take multiple visits from the code official before a final approval is provided, depending upon the skill level of the homeowner.

What’s in it for you? Excellent question! You want to work for an AMAZING company and we can promise you a new career that you’ll love and is filled with:

1. Our customers must win! We do everything imaginable to help ensure that our customers are 100% satisfied and absolutely love our services. If they don’t, we do whatever is necessary to make them wildly happy that they did business with us–so much so that they insist on telling their friends and family!

2. Our employees must win! We realize that the only way to have happy customers is to have a happy team of people serving them! We do everything imaginable to support our people, lift them up to make them better, and help ensure that they’re successful. And for doing a great job, they receive tremendous financial rewards–as well as incredible career satisfaction. Just imagine working in a field where you get to HELP people every day!

3. Our company must win! We believe if we’ve absolutely done everything possible to make sure our customers win and our employees win, the company will naturally win. And we must win to be financially successful in order to help more customers and provide more opportunity for our employees and their families.

Now, if that’s the type of company that you’d like to work for–and we hope it is–please apply. We would love a chance to talk with you–and get to know you better. Let’s make sure we’re an ideal fit for each other. Thanks for taking time to read our post!

Apply online at www.CustomElectricalia.com then click the employment tab or click here.  You can also call to make an appointment to apply in person. 515-669-3418 . 100% Confidential Application Process. Custom Electrical Services is an equal opportunity employer.

Job Type: Full-time

Required education:

Electrician Career and not an electrician job?  Your in the right place.  We have some of the best electrician journeyman positions and electrician apprentice positions available.

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If you live in an older home, you probably have wiring that was designed to support far less voltage than the demands of today’s modern equipment, like computers and home entertainment centers. The wiring might also be starting to decay, leading not only to potential power losses, but fire hazards as well. In many cases, you should invest in at least partial—if not whole-house—rewiring to upgrade your home so it can handle the electrical load and prevent hazards.

Here are a few signs to look for that may warn you it’s time for wiring replacement.