Absolute Electric INC

Appliance replacements

Appliance replacements
Bad electrical connections on appliances can cause home owners grief.
Today we had to correct the wiring to a free standing range. The unit was installed about three years ago for the home owner by an appliance company.
A free standing unit should be connected with a range cord and plug outlet on the wall. In this case they used some flex without connecting it to the unit and electrical box. They also used standard wire nuts that attached copper and aluminum together. Due to the aluminum wire, the wire nuts loosed up, melted inside the metal box and shorted out the breaker. Had they taken some more steps with the type of wiring method used, it would have been at least safe. Not in this case. Someone was cutting corners and the home owner was caught with the possible fire and or bill to fix it correctly
As a result of not having the job correct the first time the home owner paid again. Thankfully a fire and or damage to the range did not happen.
As a home owner always ask who is going to make the electrical connection if any.

Slow times

As you know there has been a sharp decline in the family housing market and residential electrical contractors are scrabbling for ways to make their phones ring.
Many and most of the new construction electrical contractors are now trying to get into the service end of the business. Some electricians have not done service work and may be using your home for the learning curve.
Here are a few things to watch for in choosing an electrical service contractor:
Make sure the employees that are sent to your home are drug tested and back ground checked. How long have they working in the existing home market verse the new construction market? What is the turnover rate for their company? Is there a warranty in writing and what is it? Are they current with the licensing and bonding? Are permits being pulled where they are needed? Will you know the total cost before they start?
Someone seeking an electrical contractor for work will want to make sure you ask some of the above questions. There is nothing like paying for something twice or jeopardizing your family and home safety.

Interlock Kit for generator power

The weather has been cold out there for awhile. So far the power outages have not been an issue for most. If you’re one that likes to be prepared when losing power, adding an Interlock Kit to your home electrical panel and a backup generator is an added treat.
Most of you know that getting power from a generator to the home needs a transfer switch panel. This is added to the home electrical panel and controls typically 6 to 8 circuits. You or an electrician picks which circuits will be controlled by the transfer switch. Transfer switches are required preventing a back feed of power to the utility company. A very unsafe situation will arise on a back feed to the utilities. (A blown transformer or injury to a utility serviceman).
We have come across a better method that gives a home owner more flexibility as which circuits you want to power off a generator. This is by installing an Interlock Kit on your existing electrical panel. (Note this kit is for homes with main breaker as the shut off). The Interlock kits allow you to safely and legally use generators to feed the existing panel, permitting quick and convenient use of all original circuits. The Interlock Kit prevents you from having the main breaker on at the same time the generator is feeding your home.
You will need an outdoor remote plug outlet for your generator to plug into. The power from the generator is then fed to the panel to a breaker. We have heard and seen home owners that have back fed and existing plug outlet in the garage with no transfer switch. This is an extremely unsafe situation. The plug outlet needs to be in a place so the generator fumes do not come into the home.
Interlock Kits retrofit to any existing main breaker panel.
Interlock Kit, remote outdoor plug outlet and a generator and off you go. Your neighbors will be knocking at your door when their lights are out and yours is on. Be safe and enjoy.

Smoke detectors in your home

When is the last time you have looked at your smoke detector/s? Most people just replace a battery once a year and call it good. People should not take the smoke detectors so lightly.
We completed a service call the other day which involved replacing the smoke detectors in the home. There were six locations in all. One was missing from the ceiling all together. While taking down the existing smoke detectors and replacing with the new, we found four of the wiring harnesses were not connected at all. So in an event of a fire only one of the five would have sounded off. This was not good since the home owner just purchased the house. They would have found out the hard way that they did not have the proper smoke detector protection as thought.
Having talked to others, many have found that pressing the button on one smoke detector did not sound all of the other units. When one sounds they all should sound. (This is provided that they were wired as such). There is normally an extra wire that ties all of them together. It is important to test them out so you know if this will happen and or need to replace them so they will.
Our suggestion is to not only install fresh batteries once a year but also test all of the smoke detectors in your home. If you have kids, make sure they hear what it sounds like for them to go off.
If you have smoke detectors in your home that are around the ten year mark, please replace them! They do not work properly due to the parts inside of the unit aging. Some of the newer units shut themselves done at the seven year mark.
FireX and Kiddie are both great brands to use. When replacing the smoke detectors make sure they are all of the same brand since not all will talk to each other correctly.
You should have a smoke detector in each bedroom, one in the hall near the bedrooms, one on each floor level and one in the ceiling area that higher than two feet of the other ceilings.

Bathroom and utility exhaust fans

Going into so many homes, we are able to hear and look at the home owner’s bathroom and utility room exhaust fans. Many of them have yellowed trim grills and sound like jets taking off. We find out later that they are not using the fans due to the noise of unit. It is also noted that it appears they really don’t work well enough. This is unfortunate since these fans truly do have a purpose in the home.
The obvious purpose is to get any odors out of the room. But there are two other areas that get over looked. The first is air exchange and the second is getting moisture out.
These days homes do not have people going in and out enough to get good air exchange. When exhaust fans are on they help grab fresh air into the home via vents in windows and tiny gaps throughout the home that we normally don’t see. This in turn, gets new fresh air in and gets the stale air out giving you better air qualitliy.
Getting the moisture out of the room is good too. With the big mold issues that have been going on in the last few years, the bath exhaust fans can help prevent moister build up.
For many homes out there it can be a simple fix. Replace the existing fan motors with a new as well as the trim grill cover. Broan makes a great replacement unit that will fit in several standard small models that are found in many homes. These fans increase the air flow by 40% and also have a quieter sound by 20%.
It is highly recommended to have an exhaust fan on a timer. By installing the timer in place of a switch it will keep the fan running longer thus venting the room more. Normally someone leaves the area and will shut off the fan to soon not getting enough air flow in and out of the room. This is when moisture can build up and cause problems.
You will find yourself using the exhaust fan more with the new features. Your family and your home will benefit more from getting fresh air flow.

Tags, Broan replacement fans, fresh air, air quality, bathroom fans, utility fans, bathroom exhaust fans, utility room exhaust fans.

Fluorescent lighting or recess can light?

If you have the older style fluorescent lighting in your kitchen there’s hope. You have some options now that can give your kitchen new life.

If dry wall work in the kitchen is not a big deal, then replacing the fluorescent lighting with recess can lighting is a great modern way to go. You can either raise the ceiling up for more height. Install more framing so the ceiling is all the same plain. Or touch up the small holes from the lighting being mounted to the ceiling and have a coffered ceiling effect.

The best bag for your dollar is to install Alzak recess can trims with halogen lamps and a dimmer for both energy savings and ambiance. Black is the best. You can stand from a distance and not see the light coming from the ceiling but have the well lit area. Clear Alzak, (shinny chrome interior), are the next best trim option. These trims will give your newly revised kitchen a whole new look.

If you do not want to put a lot of money in to the kitchen then updating the fluorescent lighting is the next best thing. Fluorescent lighting has come a long way. Instead of installing the T-12 lamps that have a loud hum all the time, you can install T-8 lamps with silent electronic ballast. The key to making this new look awesome, is by using Alto 850 series T-8 lamps. These lamps give off a bright white/ blue color tones which will definitely light the kitchen. Also, changing out the yellowish existing lenses will top off the project.

Many customers of ours have done both methods and the final results were well worth the change.

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Lights that flicker may be telling you something.

If you see your lights flicker now and then they may be telling you something. If you have not added anything to your electrical by the plug outlets in the wall or new lighting you may have a problem in the circuit that could cause a fire or the circuit going out all together. The circuit should be looked at starting at the panel until the problem is found.

Thank you Clark Public Utilities

Just wanted to send out a big Thank you to Clark Public Utilities. They came out on a few or jobs for us to get the power disconnected and reconnected during the crazy snow and ice storm we recently had. From the call takers to the linemen in the field your help was greatly appreciated by us as well as the home owners!
Thank you again for the great job keeping the lights on!!