After the recent long and hot summer, the cool weather of autumn came quite abruptly. It comes as no surprised that homeowners are throwing on additional layers of clothing, and turning up their home thermostats to compensate for the cold temperatures. However, before you touch the thermostat dial, consider the advantages you will have with electrical heating. Higher efficiency, lower maintenance and environmentally friendly – electrical heating is the smart choice for your home, continue reading to find out why.

As there is no need for oil or gas required in electrical heating, there is no combustion, output or waste created when converting electricity to heat. Electricity is 100% renewable so the impact on the environment is much smaller than standard gas or oil heaters. Furthermore, as there is no input in required for electrical heating, the ongoing maintenance is much less. While an electric heater may be a larger initial investment, the cost savings from a reduction in maintenance during the service life is much better.

Electric heating can help you save money every month on your heating costs. In certain situations heating an entire home or building with electricity can cost more as it takes more energy to generate and transmit the heat to the entire building to heat. But where electricity truly shines in focused heating in areas. Rather than heating areas of your home unnecessarily, using smaller electric heaters in the frequented areas of your home leads to much better cost savings.

For example, during the evening you may be spending the majority of your time in the living room and kitchen. Turning up the thermostat would cause your heating system to heat all the rooms of your home that nobody is occupying. Instead, you would turn on your electric baseboard heater in the living room to keep you warm there. You can then turn off the heater when you are leaving the room for bed. This is much more efficient as the heat is targeted to the areas needed most and you are in full control.

Electric Furnaces – An electric furnace would replace your standard gas furnace to heat your entire home. A gas furnace can last 20 – 25 years, while the expected lifespan of an electric furnace is even longer. Because there are more combustible parts in a gas furnace, the maintenance is much higher over the course of its life. This means you will realize more cost savings over the life of an electric furnace.

Electric Baseboard Heaters – Many of you may be familiar with these types of electric heaters. These small boxes are placed just above the floor on the baseboard. They are installed in each room (as desired), and can be controlled individually. When the heat is generated it will rise to the top of the room, in turn the cold air falls and is put through the baseboard heater and the process continues.

If you are looking to make your home more efficient and eco-friendly – electric heating is the right option for you.

A safety switch is essentially a device that very quickly switches-off the electricity in case any electrical fault is detected. In effect, it reduces the risk of injury & death caused by contact with electricity. Current day safety switches are very different from the ones used even up until a decade ago. Today, it’s mandatory to have these installed in buildings where any kind of electrical addition or upgrade has taken place.

Apart from this, safety switches are also needed for power outlets that that supply electricity to mobile homes like caravans etc. It’s not mandatory to have these safety switches in older homes; however, the recommendation is that you should consider getting them installed. It is one of the most effective ways to protect your family & yourself from electric shock.

ELCBs or Earth-leakage circuit breakers are safety devices used to prevent shock in electrical fixtures which have high Earth impedance. The current installations use the circuit breakers that directly detect leakage in current. Here are some features of an ELCB:

RCDs or RCCBs are essentially modern electrical wiring devices which quickly disconnect a circuit if they detect that there is an imbalance in the current between the energized conductor/s & the return conductor. They are designed to immediately switch-off the electricity supply when the electricity leaking to earth is detected to be at harmful levels. These devices offer very high levels of protection from electric shock.

Voltage Earth-leakage circuit breakers were first introduced around 60 years ago, while the current ELCBs were launched only around 40 years ago. For a very long time, voltage-operated ELCBs & differential current-operated ELCBs were both called ELCBs; this was because it was a far easier term to remember. However, as expected, this common name caused a significant amount of confusion within the electrical industry.

If someone accidently used the wrong one in a particular application, the installations may not get the kind of protection it needed. It was to eliminate this confusion that the International Electrotechnical Commission decided that the differential current-operated ELCBs will be termed as RCD (residual current devices). Any current that’s over & above the load current is referred to as the residual current.

ELCBs have a number of disadvantages such as:

Today the RCD is preferred means of providing effective shock protection. The term is also most widely used across the globe.

For more information about RCDs and the best electrical solutions, call Allround Electrical at 1300 169 263. You can also write to us at this email address. You may also reach us through this online contact form.

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Being a home owner comes with more responsibility than some people realize, and it can get overwhelming. There are certain aspects about your home that you may have overlooked, or just thought wasn’t important, like your HVAC system. Not paying attention to your HVAC can become very troublesome for your home and cause several issues.