Blogs

Blog posts

5 Benefits of an Electrical Maintenance Agreement

Posted by on Apr 24, 2015 in Blogs, Commercial Electrical, Electrical Maintenance | Comments Off on 5 Benefits of an Electrical Maintenance Agreement

5 Benefits of an Electrical Maintenance Agreement

Unexpected repair bills can hurt your bottom line at the absolute worst time. Maintaining your equipment before it breaks down is the best way to avoid costly repairs, but maintenance tasks can take valuable time out of already-tight schedules. The best way to deal with this problem is to have an electrical maintenance agreement with a commercial electrician. A professional electrician in south Florida will know what systems need to be monitored more closely because of the environment you’re in, and he will create a plan with you to ensure all your major systems stay in good working order. An electrical maintenance agreement is like insurance for your electrical system, and can pay off in a number of ways.

Cost Containment Strategy

Everything you can do to nail down your costs for the year is another step toward keeping your bottom line in the black. Emergencies happen with any business, but caring for your equipment on a regular business will reduce the chances of an electrical emergency to an absolute minimum. Whether it’s tiny expenses like replacing blown out light bulbs or major repairs like a broken backup generator, it’s still money in the bank that you won’t have to spend. Not only will you have peace of mind knowing your system is more reliable, you’ll free up cash you might otherwise have to save and earmark toward future unexpected repair bills. Use this extra cash to pay down your debt, invest in better equipment, or simply grow the profits in your business.

Improves Employee Productivity

In south Florida the quality of life depends on serious and dependable air conditioning units. There may be no other system that affects your workers more than the A/C in the building. During some weeks of the year, the heat and humidity may be too high for your usual business day to proceed. If you’re in the restaurant business, or have a shop that depends on customers coming in and browsing, rooms nearing 100 degrees are simply too hot to deal with. Even with factories or other industries, heat and humidity will impact your workers. Heat will cause people to slow down and increase absenteeism among the workforce.

Reduce Energy Costs

Air conditioning units with clogged filters, lights with incandescent bulbs and broken, inefficient machinery all add up to increased energy costs. Every one of these circumstances is one that’s usually taken care of during visits laid out in an electrical maintenance agreement. It’s simple for any electrician in south Florida to take care of these problems before they happen. The money you save on the FPL bill can more than cover the costs of your regular maintenance contract.

Can Pay for Itself

Maintenance agreements come with a monthly bills, but they can pay for themselves by avoiding costly experiences from expensive equipment breaking down:

  • Increased repair costs from after-hours repair bills
  • Loss of productivity from broken equipment
  • Employees calling off or slowing down from an overheated environment
  • The cost of replacing broken equipment

Protects Expensive Equipment

Whether you’ve got a conveyor oven, a walk-in freezer, or a manufacturing setup, your business equipment is the heart of your company. Avoiding regular maintenance is just asking to have a piece of equipment break down before its natural life is over. Each piece of equipment comes with a service manual that lays out recommended maintenance tasks and a schedule on which to base the upkeep. Discuss this schedule with your electrician in south Florida to tie it in with the rest of his electrical maintenance agreement.

Read More

Creating the Electrical Plan for a Home Renovation

Posted by on Apr 17, 2015 in Blogs, Home Renovation | Comments Off on Creating the Electrical Plan for a Home Renovation

Creating the Electrical Plan for a Home Renovation

A crucial part of your home renovation plan is to figure out the placement of your residential electrical outlets. The outlets in a room are the most visible sign of electricity in a home, and it’s important that you include them in the right places to make using the room convenient without over-using the system. The right electrical renovation plan can increase your new rooms looks as well as it functionality. Professional electrical remodeling services will know local codes and rules when it comes to numbers and types of outlets used in each room of the house. You can generally add outlets where necessary; it’s simply the matter of using the right type of outlet in most areas. Assess each room in your house that’s undergoing the home renovation before building an electrical plan with your contractor.

The Furniture Layout

Although homeowners like to move their furniture from time to time, most rooms have a signature piece that the room is built around. In the bedroom it’s the bed, of course, but in the living room it may be a sofa, an entertainment center, or a matching set of chairs. Always take this signature piece into account when determining where to place electrical outlets. Do you commonly place lamps around this piece? If so, you’ll need outlets on the wall or in the floor next to the furniture. If you have a large set of shelves to anchor the room, you’ll need to make sure these shelves don’t block any planned outlets or switches. It’s simpler if there’s only one obvious place for a piece of furniture to go, but take into account the most common placement you can find.

Lighting Sources

What are the lighting sources planned for the room? A kitchen will need central lighting over any eating areas available, plus dedicated task lighting over counters, work spaces, and stoves. In a living room, you’ll need outlets for ambient lighting for the room in general, plus reading lamps next to cozy chairs and task lighting for crafts or study areas, if needed. You’ll need wiring for any ceiling light you have planned as well as basic outlets planned for around the room.

Powered Items

Your residential electrical plan depends not just on where the outlets should go in reference to your furniture placement, it also depends on how much power you’re likely to need for each room in the house. Kitchens and laundry rooms need heavy duty outlets for large appliances, plus a number of conveniently placed regular outlets for counter top appliances such as microwave ovens and coffee makers. More power is needed in modern living rooms, which should be a concern for anyone considering a home renovation. Today’s living room is likely to contain a large screen television, a stereo system, a gaming system, and possibly a computer or two. Compared to decades ago when many houses were built, this takes up an enormous amount of power.

Special Events

If you normally decorate in a large way for holidays and special events, extra outlets should be part of your plan, but in number and in placement throughout the house. If you typically have a holiday tree in front of the living room window, install extra outlets on that wall or floor to account for the strings of lights you’ll be adding to the tree. If you have massive parties during football season in one room of the house, make sure extra outlets for plugging in warming trays, slow cookers, and portable fridges are a part of your residential electrical plan. Traditions are important. It’s also important to take these traditions into account when drawing up the electrical plan for your home remodel.

Read More

How to Prepare Food During a Power Outage

Posted by on Apr 10, 2015 in Blogs, Generators | Comments Off on How to Prepare Food During a Power Outage

How to Prepare Food During a Power Outage

For Florida residents, a power outage is a regular fact of life. Between hurricanes and tropical storms, massive amounts of lightning and the age of some utility systems, Floridians rarely go through a year without losing power at least some of the time. Savvy residents do some form of preparation in case of electrical emergencies. Depending on how long the power is out, you may be fine with some bread and peanut butter, or you may need to use more elaborate methods. Planning ahead for all these circumstances is the only way to make sure your family (and, face it, your neighbors) gets a good meal during an extended power outage.

A Few Hours

If the power is out for an afternoon or half the day, food preparation isn’t going to be much of a problem. Most people can go on with their same meal plans for breakfast or lunch, switching from soup to sandwiches, if need be. Salads, fruit, bread, cheese, nut butters and jelly or honey, and tuna fish are all foods that you can quickly and easily fix without power in your kitchen. Keep the menu simple and use the cold perishable foods first, just in case you’re stuck during a prolonged period without power.

Extended Time

If the power outage lasts most of the day or longer, you’re going to have to start dealing with the cold and frozen food you have on hand. Almost every Floridian has some type of barbecue grill, so unless a storm is still raging outside it’s smart to cook up a good portion of the meat you have on hand. Cooking it will extend its life a little longer, giving you and the neighbors a chance to eat a feast instead of throwing out a lot of garbage. Fresh vegetables cook great in foil packets or on skewers, making that grill do double duty for both the meat and vegetable courses.

If the power is out and you don’t have a freezer full of food, you can still use a barbecue grill to cook basic stored supplies. Anything that cooks on top of the stove will cook on the grill. Fill a pot with soup and heat it on the grill, heat refried beans for vegetarian nachos, or make pasta and use the last of your fresh vegetables in a salad on the side.

The Smarter Way

Instead of worrying about food going bad in the refrigerator and feeding your family an all-barbecued diet for days on end, installing a home standby generator will solve all these problems before they even start. With a whole-home generator, you may not even know when the power goes out in the rest of the city. Your backup power supply will click on as soon as the electrical power goes out, so you’ll rarely suffer any loss of power.

Speak with your residential electrical contractor when you remodel or decide to install a whole-home generator. The size of your home and the amount of power you’ll need will determine the size of your future generator. Smaller units will power a few lights, your refrigerator, a microwave, and a few smaller appliances. If you want to go for complete coverage, larger units will run everything the power company does with virtually no change in your lifestyle. Your frozen food will stay frozen, refrigerated food will stay cold, and you can cook any meal you normally would without any compromises at all. Instead of having a virtual campout in your living room, you’ll enjoy your normal life when you have a home standby generator just waiting for a power emergency to kick in.

Read More

Reasons Why You Need Lightning Protection for Your Home or Business

Posted by on Apr 4, 2015 in Blogs, Electrical Safety | Comments Off on Reasons Why You Need Lightning Protection for Your Home or Business

Reasons Why You Need Lightning Protection for Your Home or Business

There are more lightning strikes per square mile in Florida than in any other state in the country. Floridians are used to lightning storms and the damage they can cause. While you can’t prevent all the damage these storms create, you can install electrical protection in your home or business, cutting down the chances of your suffering damage or financial loss because of lightning strikes. Lightning protection comes in many forms, and each one can cover a portion of your property or one type of belonging. One size doesn’t fit all. You have to look at your particular needs before contacting a commercial electrical contractor to install your own lightning protection.

Fire Damage

The largest danger, certainly in terms of money, is from fire caused by lightning bolts striking buildings. Lightning rods, or air terminals, take the energy from a lightning strike and direct it to a grounding pad in the soil beside the building, keeping the energy from catching the roof on fire. Many people believe that lightning rods attract lightning. They don’t. What they do is take care of lightning that’s going to strike your building, anyway, changing it from dangerous to harmless.

Data

Almost every home and business has multiple places that store data of one kind or another. The electrical surge from a lightning strike can ruin sensitive hardware and erase years of saved data. Among the vulnerable machines are:

  • Desktop computers
  • High definition televisions
  • Game consoles
  • High end stereos
  • Laptops and tablets plugged into chargers

Any piece of electronic gear not plugged into some sort of surge protection is likely to suffer data loss or complete breakdown in the event of even a minor power surge caused by lightning. The best protection you can have is a combination surge suppressor and mini power source that minimizes the damage from the original surge, plus provides power so you can shut down your electronics in case of a power outage.

Insurance

Almost every insurance company in the country offers discounts for providing lightning protection. In some parts of the state, it may be a required portion of your policy, especially for some business plans. Anything that minimizes the chance of danger and loss is a smart financial move, and insurance companies recognize this. Check with your insurance broker to find out how much of a discount you can get by installing extra electrical protection.

Landscaping

Landscaping adds to the value of your home or business. You may have hedges or high bushes installed, or even tall trees on your property. In a storm, lightning is likely to hit the tallest object around, and this is often a large heirloom tree that’s been on the property for decades. If the tree isn’t protected, it can catch on fire or even be killed outright. A commercial electrical contractor can install lightning protection on your biggest trees. These systems include copper poles that lead lightning to the ground, keeping the power away from the tree itself in case of a lightning strike. Installing one strategic piece of lightning protection can save your trees, or avoid damage to your roof from broken branches due to lightning striking the heart of the tree.

Read More

What are the Electrical Requirements in Assisted Living Facilities?

Posted by on Mar 26, 2015 in Blogs, Commercial Electrical | Comments Off on What are the Electrical Requirements in Assisted Living Facilities?

What are the Electrical Requirements in Assisted Living Facilities?

Assisted living facilities are a growing business in the United States, especially in Florida and other southern states where retirees tend to gravitate. With the combined needs of an apartment complex and a medical clinic, these facilities have unique commercial electrical requirements that may not appear in any other construction job. Whether you’re renovating an older structure or creating new construction, electrical needs should be paramount when planning your facility.

Backup Power Source

Electricity is crucial for some medical procedures and equipment, but power outages don’t play favorites when it comes to health needs. For some residents in assisted living facilities, electrical power isn’t just a convenience but a matter of life and death. Your new construction electrical plan should include a permanent alternate power source in case of power outages. Florida is the lightning capital of the United States, and that means many thunderstorms that knock out power each year. Combine that fact with tropical storms, hurricane, and simple accidents and you’ll see how important an alternate source of power really is.

GFCI Outlets

If you’re renovating a relatively new building you may already have these outlets on hand, but older structures are often lacking in this basic electrical safety addition. A GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor) outlet is installed anywhere an outlet is near a source of water. If an appliance is plugged into the outlet and it comes in contact with water, the switch inside instantly interrupts the flow of electricity to the plug. This can be extremely important to residents who may have limited mobility or those with problems with having a firm grip on smaller items such as hair dryers or electric shavers.

Security Lighting

When creating your building plan, consult with your electrical contractor in South Florida to include security lighting indoors and out. For the residents, this complex will be their home, and you’ll need security lighting on the outside of the property to help protect any valuables they may have in their rooms. Motion sensor floodlights and static property lights will illuminate the building, making it less of a target for burglars.

Security also means safety, and if the power goes out, your residents will need a safe way to find their way around. Emergency lighting will help show the way to exits, and strip lighting on hallway floors cut down on confusion in times of emergency.

Storm Protection

With lightning storms being so common in south Florida, lightning strikes can pose a real fire hazard to any building. Protect your assisted living facility with a set of lightning rods, also known as air terminals. Far from the tall, ugly poles of the old days, today’s air terminals are short and blend into a roof’s design. Any lightning that strikes your building will be harmlessly led down to a grounding area, directing the energy away from the building.

LED Lighting

Traditional light bulbs may seem like the least expensive alternative when building a new assisted living facility or renovating an old building, but LED lighting can prove to be less expensive over the life of a light. LED lights last ten times as long as traditional bulbs, or longer. In addition, they’re cool when they light up, removing a burn danger from residents and lowering the stress put on building air conditioning. LED bulbs are a sensible, frugal alternative to provide bright steady light at a fraction of the cost of older systems.

Read More

6 Types of Security Lighting for the West Palm Beach Home

Posted by on Mar 19, 2015 in Blogs, Electrical Contractors, Home Renovation, Security Lighting | Comments Off on 6 Types of Security Lighting for the West Palm Beach Home

6 Types of Security Lighting for the West Palm Beach Home

A security lighting system in your West Palm Beach home is the smartest inexpensive theft deterrent you can find. Thieves and burglars look for homes they can ransack without being seen, and darkness is one of their biggest tools. If your house is well-lit in a multitude of ways, thieves are more likely to move on to one of your less-prepared neighbors when planning a job. Your home is likely your largest investment; it pays to invest in multiple types of security lighting to keep your family and property safe.

#1: Motion Activated Floodlights

It’s smart to install general purpose floodlights that cover your entire yard, but it makes no sense to have them running all night long. That just wastes power and raises your electrical bill. Have your electrical contractor in West Palm Beach install motion activated lights around your property. When someone moves onto your property a bright light will shine on him, preventing him from sneaking into the house under cover of darkness. The sensitivity on these lights can be adjusted to ignore smaller woodland creatures, only turning on when there’s an actual human threat in the area.

#2: Timed Security Lighting

When you want your property at least slightly lit at all times, but still don’t want outrageous electrical bills, timed lighting is what you need. These lights are dimmer than motion-activated floodlights, but they are on a timer, and can be set for a certain number of hours each night. Set the timer for a few hours after you go to bed, or leave outdoor lights on all night until dawn. Either way, you’ll cut your power usage from simply leaving floodlights on all night light.

#3: Coach Lights

When calling on electrical renovation services, include coach lights on your list of possibilities. These lights illuminate sidewalks and driveways, while adding charm and good looks to your property. You’ll be able to safely walk to your car and around your property without the commercial look of traditional floodlights.

#4: Soffit Lights

If deterring thieves is the main purpose of outdoor security lighting, then lighting up the outside of your West Palm Beach house must be crucial for any security plan. Soffit lights aren’t used very often these days, but they can add an element of brightness and visibility to the front of any house. The soffit is the slight overhang on the front of your house face. Soffit lights hang from this overhang, or are built right into it. They supply lighting that bathes the front of the house where the front porch light might be lacking.

#5: Types of Lights

Traditionally, security lighting was with incandescent bulbs, whether set up high on a pole or set into a fixture next to the front door. Today’s electrical renovation services professionals know that LED lighting is brighter, cooler, safer, and less expensive to use in all types of lighting situations. The lights use a fraction of the power that traditional bulbs use, but they’re many times brighter, giving you a safer property for less money. Your contractor can replace any traditional security lights you have with LED lighting during renovations, and if you’re adding a new lighting system, LED bulbs are the preferred way to go.

#6: Solar Lights

For an additional lighting pop, solar lights are an inexpensive choice for your landscape lighting. They generally don’t give off anywhere near the same amount of light as an LED bulb, though, so they should only been seen as an addition, attractive type of lighting to add to your security package. They’re great for placing beside walkways, giving you more secure footing at night, but they’re not useful for primary lighting in your security plan.

Read More