Posts Tagged ‘home safety’

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Handy and Expensive

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

I just left a home in Denton where a previous tenant had helped the landlord make repairs to his rental home. When some appliances started to fail and the breakers sizzled and popped when they were re-set, the home owner called us to inspect and find the problem.

When I arrived and saw indoor wire strung under the eves of the roof and attached to the house with bent over nails, I went no further than the phone and called the homeowner.

The whole time I was there, the tenant explained to me how the work in question was performed by a “certified” electrician. I suspect the tenant ( a remodel carpenter) was responsible for the work. He had knowledge of all the splices and joints and even explained the breaker panel breaker sizing to me.

Well, I explained to the owner the fire hazards and the safety/shock hazards. The work in question needed to be removed and proper materials used to install the circuits. Also, the city would require a permit and inspection since the work had never been inspected by an electrical inspector.

All in all, the work was done twice. The 1st time was supposedly inexpensive, but dangerous. The second time the work was safe and had a 5 yr warranty. Done twice, twice the cost.  Next time, please call a licensed electrical contractor before making this expensive mistake.

 
Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.

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Most HOME burglaries

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

According to FBI statistics, 65% of burglaries take place at residential structures. And most of these could have been prevented because of lack of planning or knowledge.  Here is a list of simple things to keep intruders from your home.

  1. Shrubs and trees that obscure windows are attractive entry points for burglars. Keep them cut back.
  2. If ladders must be stored outside, then lock them down.
  3. Always keep bicycles, equipment, and tools locked up in the garage or shed.
  4. The door leading from the garage to the house is a favorite access point for burglars because it’s often unlocked!
  5. When you are away, make sure someone collects your mail and newspapers daily.
  6. Burglars hate exterior lighting. Dimly lit properties make their job so easy.
  7. Don’t. Please Don’t tell the world you will be gone and tell them what days you will be not be home. (FACEBOOK)

The part I can help with the most is the lighting. “Motion sensors can be a good start. If installed properly, and not easily reached, they will alert you to people ( and large animals ) in your yard.

Better yet, a low energy landscape lighting system will beautify your home and send the intruders packing to a dark house. They hate light.

better and safer lighting

You can buy and install your own lighting. The instructions from the manufacturer seem simple enough. BUT.

I am here to tell you, that most of the homeowners that install their own lighting are very unhappy with the results and within a few months, the lights start to quit working.

I can offer you a lighting package with a lifetime warranty on the fixtures, transformer, and the installation. You will not only have a great looking home, but you can enjoy the peace of mind knowing the bad guys are looking for someone else’s home.

Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.

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fire and ice

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

What a spring! So far I have seen fire (in west Texas) and ice. Alone , either one of these events would not be unusual in North Texas, but give me a break. When is it going to turn hot and stay hot?

I am not totally off my rocker. I don’t like it hot. I like when my electricians are all busy working . The real  hot weather will cause many electrical systems to fail. There in lies my smile. But my customers that did not listen are not smiling. Along with a nasty wake up call from the fire dept or if at home, you may experience a power outage and smell smoke.

Sometimes a smoke detector will alert you when there is a failure in your wiring system. None of these things are pleasant and most of them will cost a lot more to fix once the go past the repair stage and things have to be rebuilt and replaced.

Here are some of the thing you may experience.

  • Unscheduled Power Outages
  • Damaged or destroyed electrical equipment.
  • Associated area burnt or smoke damage to the entire structure.
  • Emergency fees required by local authorities for after hour inspections.
  • Overtime pay to electrical contractors.
  • Insurance companies may not pay to upgrade your equipment as required by the local code authority.

 

Some of the repairs I have mentioned time and time again to my commercial customers will cause a black out or power failure. I don’t like to work all night, but if you are out of power you are out of business. When we work these all night jobs, my technicians get overtime pay.

Had I made my point and effectively communicated how your breaker could fail or the wire may burn, you would not have these problems not. We could have scheduled a time to work on the problem and I dare say the price would be less expensive. Especially if you factor in the overtime pay and the after hours inspection fees from the City Inspector.

Now , lets talk about your house. Have you had flickering lights or have you had breakers trip with no apparent problem?   Did you call your electrician to check out the panel and service all the breakers? When is the last time you had your A/C unit checked?

You may be next. When the summer is hottest and the A/C is working the hardest, your fridge and freezer are working against you. They generate or displace heat and your A/C unit has to remove it from the house. If you still use the same old 100 year old style of Edison based bulbs, you are generating a lot of heat as you turn on your lights.

The power company loves you. You have a dark colored roof that soaks up the heat. You have 20 yr old windows that let out the cool air. What a time to own stock in an electric utility!

There are ways to save energy and keep guys like me from coming to your house in the middle of a dark night. Call us during the day and we can evaluate your electrical system. Please.

Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.

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Coppell electrician talks about turning off the computer – DOE

Friday, February 18th, 2011

When to Turn Off Personal Computers

If you’re wondering when you should turn off your personal computer for energy savings, here are some general guidelines to help you make that decision. This info is gleaned from the public domain such as Dept of Energy.

Though there is a small surge in energy when a computer starts up, this small amount of energy is still less than the energy used when a computer is running for long periods of time. For energy savings and convenience, consider turning off

  • the monitor if you aren’t going to use your PC for more than 20 minutes
  • both the CPU and monitor if you’re not going to use your PC for more than 2 hours.

Make sure your monitors, printers, and other accessories are on a power strip/surge protector. When this equipment is not in use for extended periods, turn off the switch on the power strip to prevent them from drawing power even when shut off. If you don’t use a power strip, unplug extra equipment when it’s not in use.

Most PCs reach the end of their “useful” life due to advances in technology long before the effects of being switched on and off multiple times have a negative impact on their service life. The less time a PC is on, the longer it will “last.” PCs also produce heat, so turning them off reduces building cooling loads.

For cost effectiveness, you also need to consider how much your time is worth. If it takes a long time to shut down the computer and then restart it later, the value of your time will probably be much greater than the value of the amount of electricity you will save by turning off the computer multiple times per day.

Power-Down or Sleep Mode Features

Many PCs available today come with a power-down or sleep mode feature for the CPU and monitor. ENERGY STAR® computers power down to a sleep mode that consume 15 Watts or less power, which is around 70% less electricity than a computer without power management features. ENERGY STAR monitors have the capability to power down into two successive “sleep” modes. In the first, the monitor energy consumption is less than or equal to 15 Watts, and in the second, power consumption reduces to 8 Watts, which is less than 10% of its operating power consumption.

Make sure you have the power-down feature set up on your PC through your operating system software. This has to be done by you, otherwise the PC will not power down. If your PC and monitor do not have power-down features, and even if they do, follow the guidelines above about when to turn the CPU and monitor off.

Note: Screen savers are not energy savers. Using a screen saver may in fact use more energy than not using one, and the power-down feature may not work if you have a screen saver activated. In fact, modern LCD color monitors do not need screen savers at all.

Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.Jeffries Electric is a GSA schedule holder.

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Flower Mound Electrician talk about indoor lighting

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

This blog post is taken from info posted in the public domain. It specifically addresses saving electricity. Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.Jeffries Electric is a GSA shedule holder.

Indoor Lighting Design

When designing indoor lighting for energy efficiency, you want to consider some basic design principles and methods.

Energy-efficient lighting design principles include the following:

  • Remember that more light is not necessarily better. Human visual performance depends on light quality as well as quantity.
  • Match the amount and quality of light to the performed function.
  • Install task lights where needed and reduce ambient light elsewhere.
  • Use energy-efficient lighting components, controls, and systems.
  • Maximize the use of daylighting.

Here are some basic methods for achieving energy-efficient indoor lighting:

  • Install fluorescent light fixtures for all ceiling- and wall-mounted fixtures that will be on for more than 2 hours each day. These often include the fixtures in the kitchen and living room, and sometimes those in bathrooms, halls, bedrooms, and other higher-demand locations.
  • Install dedicated compact fluorescent fixtures, rather than compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in incandescent fixtures, so that fluorescent bulbs continue to be used for the life of the house.
  • Use CFLs in portable lighting fixtures that are operated for more than 2 hours a day.
  • Use ENERGY STAR® labeled lighting fixtures.
  • Use occupancy sensors for automatically turning on and off your lights as needed.
  • Consider light wall colors to minimize the need for artificial lighting.
  • If recessed lights are used in a ceiling with an unconditioned space above it, use only Underwriters Laboratory (UL) approved fixtures that are airtight, are IC (insulation contact) rated, and meet ASTM E283 requirements.

Lighting Principles and Terms

To choose the best energy-efficient lighting options for your home, you should understand basic lighting principles and terms.

Light Quantity

Illumination
The distribution of light on a horizontal surface. The purpose of all lighting is to produce illumination.
Lumen
A measurement of light emitted by a lamp. As reference, a 100-watt incandescent lamp emits about 1750 lumens.
Footcandle
A measurement of the intensity of illumination. A footcandle is the illumination produced by one lumen distributed over a 1-square-foot area. For most home and office work, 30–50 footcandles of illumination is sufficient. For detailed work, 200 footcandles of illumination or more allows more accuracy and less eyestrain. For simply finding one’s way around at night, 5–20 footcandles may be sufficient.

Energy Consumption

Efficacy
The ratio of light produced to energy consumed. It’s measured as the number of lumens produced divided by the rate of electricity consumption (lumens per watt).

Light Quality

Color temperature
The color of the light source. By convention, yellow-red colors (like the flames of a fire) are considered warm, and blue-green colors (like light from an overcast sky) are considered cool. Color temperature is measured in Kelvin (K) temperature. Confusingly, higher Kelvin temperatures (3600–5500 K) are what we consider cool and lower color temperatures (2700–3000 K) are considered warm. Cool light is preferred for visual tasks because it produces higher contrast than warm light. Warm light is preferred for living spaces because it is more flattering to skin tones and clothing. A color temperature of 2700–3600 K is generally recommended for most indoor general and task lighting applications.
Color rendition
How colors appear when illuminated by a light source. Color rendition is generally considered to be a more important lighting quality than color temperature. Most objects are not a single color, but a combination of many colors. Light sources that are deficient in certain colors may change the apparent color of an object. The Color Rendition Index (CRI) is a 1–100 scale that measures a light source’s ability to render colors the same way sunlight does. The top value of the CRI scale (100) is based on illumination by a 100-watt incandescent light bulb. A light source with a CRI of 80 or higher is considered acceptable for most indoor residential applications.
Glare
The excessive brightness from a direct light source that makes it difficult to see what one wishes to see. A bright object in front of a dark background usually will cause glare. Bright lights reflecting off a television or computer screen or even a printed page produces glare. Intense light sources—such as bright incandescent lamps—are likely to produce more direct glare than large fluorescent lamps. However, glare is primarily the result of relative placement of light sources and the objects being viewed.

Lighting Uses

Ambient lighting
Provides general illumination indoors for daily activities, and outdoors for safety and security.
Task lighting
Facilitates particular tasks that require more light than is needed for general illumination, such as under-counter kitchen lights, table lamps, or bathroom mirror lights.
Accent lighting
Draws attention to special features or enhances the aesthetic qualities of an indoor or outdoor environment.

Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.

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