The holiday season is upon us. If you’re like many homeowners in the area, you may be decorating your home, inside and out. Quite often, this includes putting holiday lights up and around your home.
One of the most common calls received by our professional electricians in Cedar Falls, IA this time of year is in regards to certain outlets throughout the home not working—this may include your bathroom outlets, garage, or outdoor outlets. And the most common reason for this problem is that outdoor holiday lights have tripped a GFCI outlet or circuit breaker within your home.
Many, if not most, homeowners assume that power surges come from stormy weather, and that alone. But this is not actually the case. Power surges come from the appliances in your home, and in recent years, as we have become increasingly reliant on electronic devices and high efficiency appliances, we’ve increased our own risk of power surges. And they post a more serious threat than many realize, to appliances, electronics, and homes in general.
Temperatures have only just begun to warm up, but as a diligent homeowners, you’ve probably already begun thinking about your air conditioner—getting it serviced if need be, or upgrading to a new, more efficient system. This is a very important part of summer preparation, but certainly not the only home system you should be thinking about.
Is your home as safe and secure as possible? Sure, you keep the front door locked, you have a basic security system, and maybe you even have a dog whose bark you hope will scare burglars away quick enough that they discover the dog really just wants to lick them to death.
A gas fireplace is a very effective and efficient way to warm the room you’re in without needing to run your entire whole-home heating system—or it can even supplement that heating system so you don’t have to turn it up as much.
These days, most water supplies throughout the country have a significant level of filtration and conditioning they go through before that water gets to your faucets. And if you use ground water from a private well, you very likely have your own water treatment system in place. However, something many homeowners don’t realize is missing from their homes is protection from hard water.
Temperatures may still be relatively mild for now, but with summer officially here, it’s only a matter of time that we begin using our air conditioners on a daily basis. When this happens, it’s only natural that you want to find a way to cool your home as effectively and efficiently as possible, and keep your cooling costs down.
As cooler weather slowly but surely warms up, we’re almost ready to shut off our heating systems and turn to our air conditioners to keep us comfortable instead. With all this HVAC use throughout the year, it’s only natural that you want to find ways to save money—particularly since your HVAC systems account for about half of all your energy costs!