If a ceiling fan has stopped working, has begun vibrating, or is not operating correctly, it may be wasting electricity; or worse, it may represent an electrical hazard. In this case, it is typically best to have a professional electrician install a replacement.

Sometimes a fan works fine, but a different model presents a more desirable appearance or more attractive features. While many homeowners are capable of installing a new fan themselves, we always recommend a professional installation by a qualified and experienced professional electrician. The reasons are many, but the most important reason is safety. Besides this, many homeowners installing their own fans damage the fans when dropping them, or fail to make sure their new fans are installed so the blades are balanced and operate smoothly, quietly, and efficiently. Other problems can occur when correct wiring connections are not made.

If you need a professional ceiling fan installation, please call Bryant Electric Service at 512-402-8587. Our licensed electricians are very experienced at installing ceiling fans, and are properly equipped for this type of service.

Imagine a future free from electricity bills. A home where you can maintain or improve your current levels of comfort, but one that is so efficient that it costs little to nothing to power its electrical work. Someday soon, this vision could become a reality, with a combination of renewable power generation and hyper-efficient technologies allowing Americans to enjoy elevated standards of living without placing a burden on their pocketbooks or the environment. Read on to learn more about the ultimate in energy-efficient homes.

Testing the Effectiveness of New Technology

One hotbed for innovation in efficient home construction is in the Pacific Northwest. A pilot program comprised of builders and utility companies is studying new homes built in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington to discover how new technologies are functioning and which ones are most effective. The program is looking at homes that are at least 30 percent more efficient than required by local code and monitoring them for a year after they are built to ensure that their performance is living up to their promise.

Among the energy-saving features that are included in the new houses:

Filling in the Other Side of the Equation

Naturally, any modern home should also include features like LED lighting technology in lieu of incandescent bulbs and efficient Energy Star-rated appliances to keep the costs for your electrical work low. Add smart technology to the mix, which can automatically find extra savings, and you are looking at a historically low electrical bill.

Of course, it's extraordinarily rare to find an American household that gets by without electricity at all, so no matter how efficient you are, you'll still have some level of energy consumption to power your electrical work. That's where the other side of the equation comes in: personal, renewable power generation. Once you install solar panels or a wind turbine on your property, you can make your own power. Pair that with a good electricity storage option and you're well on your way to being free from electrical bills forever.

Conservation in Your Circuits and Wires

The nation hasn't realized its efficiency dreams yet, but we are well on our way. If you need electrical work in a new or existing home, call up a qualified residential electrician today.

It may seem like overkill to prepare for a power outage when you live in the city of Los Angeles, but you probably have had to sit in the dark a time or two during one of those peak usage outages. Wouldn’t it be nice to know you don’t have to worry about even the shortest power outages? This is one of the benefits to having a standby generator installed for your home. Whether you live in the city, the suburbs or in the rural areas around Los Angeles, you can give yourself peace of mind you will never have to do without power. An electrician in Los Angeles is here to explain the benefits to a generator. The team at The Electric Connection can help make it happen.

Standby generators are wired to your home. A switch monitors the electricity flowing into your home and the second the electricity flow is interrupted, it signals the generator to turn on. There is no switching this or that on or pulling a bulky generator out of the shed. It is all done within a matter of seconds and you can carry on without worrying about when the power is going to come back on.

During the installation process, an electrician familiar with Los Angeles electrical codes will need to know what you want to be powered by your generator. You can choose to have the whole home powered or just a few key appliances and lights. The size of your generator will dictate how much you can keep running. Prior to scheduling an install, it would behoove you to do some research or talk with an experienced professional about the various sizes of generators available and what size you need for your home. The team at The Electric Connection can help you with this process. Give us a call today.

If you are interested in learning everything about electricity, you should start by understanding the basic components that make up any electrical design and how they work. Think about how the great pyramids of Egypt were built using just blocks of rock. The rocks themselves were nothing, but when combined with careful design they formed such grand structures!

Similarly, you need to know about the basic electrical components and how they work together to create wonderful modern electrical systems. Below you will find information about the most common electrical components:

The very first component that you should know about is the resistor. It is fairly easy to assume that a resistor, as the name suggests, will resist electricity that flows through it, and you would be correct in that assumption too! Any situation that demands the flow of current to be controlled at a desired level will require a resistor.

Here are two scenarios that better explain what a resistor does. In both cases, we will be turning on a LED:

Scenario 1 – Without Resistor

Scenario 2 – With Resistor

If a resistor is like a cushion that is used to control the flow of electricity, then capacitors are like small rechargeable batteries that store small amounts of charge in them. Capacitors do two things at the same time:

By so doing, they are able to stabilize almost any circuit. There are two types of capacitors that are primarily used:

I briefly alluded to LEDs in the scenarios that were used under “Resistors” above. LEDs are just like bulbs except that they are extremely reliable. You can find them on practically every appliance in your home that features some kind of an indicator light. A typical LED bulb can last decades with no sign of dying.

Since they are so reliable, they are used to indicate the state of current at any point in a circuit. An important task like checking the output voltage or current on a circuit becomes simpler with these light-based indicators.

The resistors, capacitors, and LEDs are the simple stuff in electrical circuits. Now, let us talk about the first complicated component – the transistor. Transistors are used to build complex electrical systems, such as amplifiers for instance. A simple way to understand transistors is to think of a switch. A basic switch has an “on” and an “off” state. These are controlled by the position of the switch, which is changed manually.

A transistor is a more advanced switch that has multiple output states. Unlike a switch, you cannot change these states manually. The only way to switch the transistor between various states is to run current through it. By controlling the current that flows through the transistor, you can control the output state to achieve the results you desire.