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Floodlights? Two words. Ug. Ly. Floodlights are for theater plays, lighthouses, and prison yards, but they sure don’t flatter your home. What you really want is landscape lighting, because landscape lighting: is low voltage so it’s safe to use. is easy to install. accents the plants and features you want highlighted. improves safety. flatters your landscape […]

Kids Who Scamper In Pampers Shouldn’t Tamper Kids love to explore, and that’s a good thing–it’s basically their job to learn, after all. Unfortunately, all that curiosity occasionally gets kids in trouble. They do something dangerous like playing with electrical outlets and they get hurt. Around 2,400 children shock themselves on electrical outlets every year […]

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 Two-prong outlets are unsafe and outdated. So outdated, in fact, that since 1962 building code has stated that all new houses must install three-prong outlets.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. […]

To Be Safe, Follow The Code If you read The National Electrical Safety Code blog you learned that the NESC sets a safety standard for installing, operating, and maintaining electrical power and communication utility systems. The NESC covers how to properly maintain power substations, power and communication overhead and underground lines, and more. Now, you […]

In Common Electrical Mistakes Part 1, we wrote about common mistakes any homeowner can make. In this blog, we’re writing about mistakes you might make specifically when you’re working on an electrical project. Now, you might be reading these so you can know what you’re talking about when you call the pros. You could also […]