Uncategorized

My in-floor heater is not working! Walking on a cold floor with bare feet should be banned as a cruel and unusual punishment by the Geneva Conventions. Fortunately, fixing a broken in-floor heater is possible. As always, let’s back up a bit for a little background information. When it comes to in-floor heaters, you have […]

It’s time to replace your two-prong outlets with three-prong outlets. Two-prong outlets are unsafe and outdated. So outdated, in fact, that since 1962 building code has stated that all new houses must install three-prong outlets. Three-prong outlets protect your home against: Electric shock Electrical fires Damage to your electronics/appliances So: what makes the two-prong outlets […]

What’s all this about updating wiring? If you were to lay all your veins and arteries end to end, it would be messy and you’d die. It would also be messy (and expensive) if you remove your home wiring. But you might have to! The analogy makes sense–really! Your electrical panel is the heart. The […]

Put Another Log On The Fire That’s more than a line from a clever song with lyrics by Shel Silverstein. Come on baby you can fill my pipe and then go fetch my slippers And boil me up another pot of tea Then put another log on the fire babe And come and tell me […]

I need to fix a broken bathroom fan  It can be exhausting when your bathroom fan is not exhausting. You know your fan gets rid of bathroom smells, but its main job is to remove hot, moist air and keep the room dry to help prevent mold and mildew. Use your exhaust fan both to […]

Fix the Thermostat, STAT! If you’ve ever watched one of those doctor shows, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Dr. So-And-So needed in ER–STAT!” STAT means the good doctor is needed immediately. And if your thermostat doesn’t work, you want it fixed immediately. You learned a little about thermostats and how they work in part one. […]

My bathroom fan is super noisy. Well, that’s super annoying. Can I fix it? The bad news is your noisy bathroom fan is probably super noisy for one simple reason that cannot be fixed. The good news is, if that one simple reason is not the reason it’s super noisy, it can be easy to […]

Your Electrical System Is Complex Your electrical system doesn’t have a complex, but with all those wires and components, it is complex. That doesn’t mean you can’t hope to get to know or even understand it, however. We’re going to do our best to break things down as simply as possible. In part one, you […]

Good question, but hang on.  Before we answer your “The outlet with the buttons isn’t working, now what?” question, let’s give you a little background. First of all, your “outlet with the buttons” is called a GFCI outlet. “A GF what now?” GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. You usually install these outlets where […]

Did Ben Franklin “discover” electricity? No. Want to elaborate on that a little? Okay, fine. Scientists were working with electrical forces for over a thousand years before Benjamin Franklin supposedly flew his famous kite. What Franklin’s experiment did demonstrate was the connection between lightning and electricity. Franklin attached a wire to a kite. Then, he […]