There are few things more chilling than a home burglary. Imagine a stranger rifling through and stealing your possessions – to say nothing of the danger if you or your family members are home at the time of the break-in. Fortunately, you can take steps to deter potential thieves by using outdoor lighting to increase the visibility around your home. Today's inexpensive LED and smart technologies mean that you can create a system that is attractive, efficient and responsive without breaking the bank. Protect your home and your family with some of these outdoor lighting ideas.

A Light in the Darkness

Your outdoor lighting system should include lights near any doors and windows where a person could enter the house. "The biggest thing for any person who can burglarize a home is the ability to secrete movements," a Chicago Police Department spokesperson told the Chicago tribune. "This means darkness.”

Many outdoor lighting systems are easy to install on your own, although a few may require the help of an electrician for new wiring. LED bulbs are an attractive option because they use only about a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs and last up to 25 times as long. Some outdoor lights come equipped with a built-in security camera that will not only light up to scare off any would-be burglars, but also capture their image so you can notify police of the suspicious activity.

Stand-alone solar panel lights are a good option for walkways, although they shouldn't be relied on as a home security measure since variations in weather mean they might not always provide enough light to deter a prowler.

Getting Smart About Your Lighting

Smart lighting systems let you control your entire home’s lighting setup from your smartphone, even when you're away from the house. You can adjust timers, motion sensors, dimming functions or manually instruct the lights to come on or off. Certain smart lighting and security systems will automatically alert you when someone is at the door and allow you to talk to them through your phone no matter where you are in the world.

With smart technology, you can also add an extra layer of deterrence by having indoor lights come on for a period of time when you are away, giving the appearance that somebody is home. If you already have a lighting system in place, you can upgrade it to a smart system by swapping in some wireless smart switches and installing a control hub.

A Safer and More Attractive Residence

Lighting up your outdoor space is more than just a way to deter burglars. It can also make your yard look more attractive at night and help visitors safely navigate their way to your door.

If you need help planning or installing an outdoor security lighting scheme, contact your local electrician right away.

If you’ve ever watched the show “Holmes on Homes” on HGTV, you’ve likely seen the problems associated with old or faulty wiring.  Mike Holmes tends to get very agitated by safety issues, and for good reason.  Each year, over 40,000 homes suffer fire damage due to home electrical problems.  These electrical fires account for hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.  And what’s the main culprit?  Old wiring!

If you live in a classic home built before 1940, chances are you have old wiring in the house.  You may have knob-and-tube or Romex wiring, both of which can become brittle over time.  The insulation dries out and starts to crumble, causing the inner wire to become exposed. The cloth insulation around the wire deteriorates with age and eventually becomes unsafe.

But perhaps one of the biggest threats of Romex and knob-and-tube wiring is that these types of wires aren’t grounded.  That means if one of your appliances shorts out, you could become the path to the ground for the electricity.

Even if your home is only 20 or 30 years old, you could still experience electrical problems at home due to a lack of capacity.  Most homes built more than 10 years ago are not designed to handle the amount of electronics we use today.  Think about it:  if your house was built in 1980, it was built before home PCs and laptops and HDTVs and surround sound and all of the other toys and gadgets we use today.  These appliances can draw a lot of power, and your current electrical wiring may not be up to the task.

If you own one of the one million houses in the DFW area that’s more than 20 years old, it’s a good idea to have a licensed electrician come out and take a look at the wiring.  He or she can make sure that your house will be safe and productive for many years.

The relationship between weather and energy usage is a never-ending cycle. Spikes and drops in temperature and humidity lead to spikes and drops in energy use (and costs), which in turn correspond with spikes and drops in greenhouse gas emissions, further affecting climate. What does this relationship mean when it comes to your energy usage?

Temperatures above 100 and below 40 stress your heating and cooling system, pushing it to capacity, reducing efficiency, and draining energy supplies, along with your wallet. Quite simply, this amounts to less bang for your buck in terms of comfort. Add to temperature issues, wind, cloud cover, and precipitation and the snowball effect continues, further impacting comfort levels, not to mention your ability to illuminate interior spaces. Compound the issues – and the population affected – and you’ve got grid strain to boot.

That depends on the source of energy. In the US, 83 percent of energy usage comes from fossil fuels, which release gases such as CO2 into the environment during the creation of energy. Unfortunately, these gases trap heat in the atmosphere. Atmospheric greenhouse gases have increased 30 percent since the pre-Industrial Revolution era alone, and the level continues to rise with energy demand. As levels increase, so does the effect on the environment. Thousands of scientists agree the trapped gases are currently affecting the climate, and will increasingly weigh on it as time goes on. This has resulted in an increase in interest in cleaner forms of energy, including nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal.

Did you see the news Friday about Des Moines south side homes without power?  More than 7,000 residential customers were without power.  The week before this occurred we installed a whole house generator in a home in the affected area.  When the power went out the Kohler generator we installed kicked on and powered up the entire home.  The whole house generator ran continuously for most of the day while its residence who were home at the time worked and continued there daily routine without power interruption.

Residential Whole House Generators are no longer just a luxury.

Why do you need a whole house generator?

* Our infrastructure is aging.  Its a fact that our power grid is aging and needs updating and constant maintenance.    While crews work hard to maintain reliability, down time will still happen at times.

* Storms are not going away.  Less face it, Mother Nature never sleeps.  From tornados and electrical storms to Heavy snows and ice storms weather isn’t going to give us a break anytime soon.  It’s a fact that Des Moines sees a variety of  weather.  As they say if you don’t like the weather in Iowa wait a few hours!

* Our homes are relying on more and more electricity.  Almost everything we purchase for our homes needs electricity.  Even your mobile phone needs charged at some point.  When is the last time you bought a item for your home that was a non décor item that required no electricity?  Even the amount of power going into homes as increased to compensate for our ever growing demand for electricity.

* Lack of other affordable and reliable alternatives.  As much as we would all love to go green.  Solar power and wind power has not yet become a cost effect and reliable power source for residential applications in Iowa.

Need a whole house generator installed?  We can install most major brands such as the Genrac standby generator in the picture and also Kholer generators.