It’s no secret that incandescent, fluorescent, and equivalent LED fixture. In California, Pacific Gas and Electric gives a $250 rebate for a 321- to 500-watt LED replacement for a high-bay fixture. Other utility companies will offer energy-savings-based rebates by each watt reduced or custom rebates, which require an energy audit. Products must be listed in DLC’s QPL to qualify for rebates. Contact your local utility company to verify participation in the rebate program or for a complete list of incentives and qualified products.

Purchasing an LED product on DLC’s QPL is rewarding in more ways than one; immediate energy savings and increased longevity are the most widely known benefits. DLC rebates are offered as an extra push toward quality lighting technologies. Incentives such as this one can be helpful in establishing a more sustainable, energy-conscious society.

A comprehensive list of rebates per state/province can be found for a list of our DLC-listed products.

Tired of breaking the bank just to keep up with the Joneses? Forget fancy cars and other status symbols. How about a way to maintain a friendly neighborly competition that actually involves saving money instead of spending? Americans have a wealth of resources at their disposal to empower families to cut back on energy consumption and reduce their electricity bills, but we don't do a stellar job of taking advantage of that information. Recent research, however, has shown that homeowners are more likely to take efficiency measures with their electrical work when they can compare their own consumption to that of their neighbors.

Whose Bill is the Lowest?

The experiment took place last summer, when the Vermont utility company Green Mountain Power worked with Opower, a software company that specializes in behavioral economics. During very hot days when air conditioning use was expected to be high, the utility reached out to customers with tips on reducing the amount of energy they need to power their home electrical work.

Afterward, the utility gave a report which ranked households in the neighborhood based on how well they had done on cutting back. By the end of the summer, electricity consumption among Green Mountain customers had dropped by five percent during hot days. That's some serious savings!

Peer Pressure at its Best

That five percent resulted from simple behavioral changes like bumping the thermostat up a few degrees and using curtains to block out sunlight during the hottest part of the day – no major investments or new equipment needed, just a little peer pressure. This research should be useful in helping understand what motivates people to save energy in order to develop more effective outreach programs for utility companies around the country.

One of the big takeaways is that the utility didn't give its customers any kind of incentives or payments to change their behavior – just the money they saved through efficiency, and the bragging rights of being more conservation-minded than their neighbors.

"Some of the decisions we make are not entirely rational, and they are due to a lack of context," Kevin Hamilton, Opower's vice president of marketing, said to Utility Drive, "and by providing that context you can encourage individuals to adjust their usage in ways that can benefit both the customer and the utility as well."

Little Changes Mean Big Savings

People come up with all kinds of reasons not to implement efficiency measures: It costs too much in initial capital, they are too busy to think about it, or they simply don't think the savings are worthwhile. But the reality is that even making small behavioral changes can add up in the long run.

If you want to decrease the cost of your electrical work and impress your neighbors, have a qualified home services technician perform an energy audit on your house to identify the most cost-effective ways for you to cut back.

Did you know that your outdoor lighting installation needs maintenance every once in a while? It’s true! To keep your outdoor lights shining bright, there are a few things you should master.

Whether you’ve already got a bunch of outdoor lighting or if you’re a first-timer, there is plenty to learn in this checklist. And it’s really quick and easy, too!

Check Exterior Bulbs

The biggest headache for a homeowner is a bunch of burnt out bulbs. If you’re not prepared, it can really eat up time to get the right bulbs. But the solution here is to be prepared! When you first get your outdoor lighting installation, be sure to write down the bulb type for the fixture, and go grab some spares for later use.

After that, it’s all about anticipating need. But how can you tell if a bulb is about to blow out? There are some easy tells! Your bulb is close to bringing out if:

Keeping an eye out for these issues can be a huge time saver, and ensures your bulbs burn beautifully all year long. Just do a quick walk around once a week to check for these common signs!

Check Your Outdoor Lighting Wiring

During your light bulb check, do a quick look over for your wiring. If there are cuts, cracks, or missing bits of wiring, get them replaced with the help of a professional! Faulty wiring can be pretty dangerous when left alone, particularly if it gets damp or if the wiring is coming into contact with flammable materials. Damage is easy to spot, so as long as you’re looking for it, you’re gonna find it.

And that’s pretty much it! Any other issues should be handled by a professional for safety reasons, but these two things are the most common causes for exterior lighting failure. Feeling more confident about an outdoor lighting installation now? Contact the certified electricians at Kolb Electric to learn more about how outdoor lighting can benefit your home!

Electrical transformers are machines that transfer electricity from one circuit to another with changing voltage level but no frequency change. Today, they are designed to use AC supply, which means that fluctuation in supply voltage is impacted by the fluctuation in the current. So, an increase in current will bring about an increase in the voltage and vice versa.

Transformers help to improve safety and efficiency of power systems by raising and lowering voltage levels where needed. They are used in a wide range of residential and industrial applications, primarily and perhaps most importantly in the distribution and regulation of power across long distances.

An electrical transformer uses Faraday’s electromagnetic induction law to work – “Rate of change of flux linkage with respect to time is directly proportional to the induced EMF in a conductor or coil”.