Home Window Tinting – Keeping Your Home Cool All Year Long

The natural light of the sun is always welcome; it not only lights up the interiors of your building but also keeps it warm and comfortable, thus filling you up with energy and vigor, always. However, there is a flip side of the prolonged exposure to the sunlight.

Though it generates a fair amount of Vitamin D in individuals; the Ultra Violet (UV) rays can cause several types of skin cancers if you are exposed to the direct sun rays for a considerable length of time.

Moreover, apart for the health hazard, the rays of the sun can increase the indoor temperature significantly, thus compelling you to use the air conditioners, overtime. This will cause the energy bill to shoot up; additionally the rays can leave behind faded household items and can put you off through distracting glares.

You must be thinking that are there any ways to protect your home as well as yourself from these harmful effects of the sunlight? You will be glad to know there are a number of ways, which you can implement not only to save yourself, but at the same time can enjoy limited warmth of the sun rays.

The best among these is tinting the windows of your house, using window films. The window films tint your house windows in the same manner as these do for your automobile windows, thus filtering the sunlight and protecting your family, you and your household items.

Apply a sleek, subtle film directly to your window panes and apart from enjoying other benefits, make your house visibly appealing and energy efficient. Some of the other benefits that you can derive by tinting your windows are:

  • Up to 99% of the harmful Ultra Violet (UV) rays get deflected.
  • Block the solar heat to keep the interior of your house cool and save on energy bill.
  • Protect not only the furniture but also the interior from fading.
  • Protect your family as well as yourself from skin damage.

Take a moment, examine the current color of your sofa or carpet and judge yourself as to whether these look the same way when you had purchased these! They do not and like your wooden flooring, old photographs and wallpaper these look washed out and faded.

One more thing; compare the condition of the furniture in the rooms which receive relatively more sunlight to those which have lesser exposure to the sunrays. You will be surprised to see the negative effect of the UV rays on the furniture with more sunlight.

Apply these films to your windows and protect not only the new furniture that you are planning to purchase, but also the existing ones from further damage in the same manner that these films do to protect your car audio components, navigation systems and leather seats from the harmful rays of the sun.

You can manage and control the humidity inside your house with a central air system, but it can do very little to restrict the sunrays from coming inside; thus the temperature shoots up and the air conditioner works over time to keep the temperature down. As a result, you not only end up paying more on energy bill but it also harms the environment; leading to global warming.

Tint your windows, save on energy cost and do your bit not only to save the environment but also to protect your family as well as yourself.

Electricity Power Surges – Rendering Your Home Security System Useless



Power surges can cause companies to lose valuable time and data as equipment shuts down unsafely. There are also dangerous fire risks associated with power surges. To protect sensitive and important information from a sudden electricity supply spike, the solution is to hire an electrician to install dedicated circuits. These circuits will provide power to areas which are vulnerable to power surges, as well as areas which use a heavy power load.

Dedicated circuits are specialized circuits which perform on only one appliance. Each of your vulnerable machines will have its own dedicated circuit breaker. This breaker will be placed in the proximity of the power source, the closer the better.

By neglecting to install dedicated circuits in your home or office, you are putting yourself and your business at risk. Without dedicated circuits, circuit overloads will occur. These circuit overloads are a dangerous fire risk. Because of this fire risk, the National Electric Code legally requires businesses to have dedicated circuits on various appliances.

In addition to causing fires, circuit overloads can result in loss of sensitive data on computers. Without dedicated circuits, a company loses its security capabilities.

In residential homes, a power surge can neutralize home alarm, motion detectors, security lights and other security measures, leaving your home weakened towards threats. A security system is not safe if it can be rendered useless by something as simple as a family member plugging in a coffee pot into the wrong outlet.

By not having dedicated circuits, you are putting your household in unnecessary risk. In this digitalized age, companies are increasingly reliant on computers to do business. Power surges associated with a lack of dedicated circuits will destroy sensitive information and render computers useless.

Power surges can do more than simply cost you untold damages, as certain vulnerable equipment such as high priced motherboards on your computer can be destroyed. In addition to sensitive equipment, equipment that uses a high volume of power are at risk of a power surge. This includes refrigeration, air condition, and heating which can be knocked out by a power surge.

Restaurants which have deep freezers and refrigerators can lose thousands of dollars of perishable items if a power surge causes the freezer to shut off. Gymnasiums with treadmills are huge consumers of power, and as such are known to be hit by power surges if they do not have dedicated circuits.

Because each home is different, it is important to have a professional electrician fully evaluate each unique situation. The electrician will do an inspection of vulnerability to a power surge, and will be able to plan dedicated circuits to provide security and stability.

After the installation process, the system will run smoother and more efficiently. Security and deadly fire risks will be minimized, and your home will not be at risk to the dangerous effects of power surges anymore.

Do You Know Old Aluminum Wiring Is Harmful To Your Home?




If you ask any electric contractor or an electrician about using aluminum wiring, chances are that will immediately say no and shake their heads. It is now well established that using aluminum is extremely dangerous, as per the Consumer Product and Safety Commission usage of aluminum wiring is 55 times more prone to fire hazards as compared to copper. Such wirings can put homes especially mobile homes which have been built between 1960 and 1970s.

The big question is why is aluminum so dangerous as compared to copper?

Thermal expansion and contraction.

Aluminum has a property of expanding and contracting at a different rate than any other electric wiring. The electric current which passes through the wire changes the temperature, the impact can be great in case of heavy load or small wire.

Aluminum heats up very fast and can create a gap when it cools as a result the contact point is pushed away. This results electricity to jump or arc to continue the path, these arcs can be as high as 10000 degrees Fahrenheit which can lead to a major fire.

Low conductivity due to oxidation.

The main concern of an electrician is oxidation, oxidation is a chemical process which is caused when aluminum comes into contact with oxygen, this process leads to coating of the wire. To make it simpler, it is just like rust which forms a coating on iron when it comes into contact with oxygen.

Aluminum oxidizes much faster than any other wiring material like copper. The coating on the aluminum wire makes it electric resistance and results in the heating of wire much more.

Very fragile material.

Aluminum wiring is much fragile which makes it more unfit to be used as electric wiring, you may ask any electric contractor. Aluminum can be easily broken, which can lead to gap in the electric circuit. This further can cause an arc which can lead to serious fire threat.

Many connections are created by looping the wire around a screw, after some time these loops become quite brittle which can cause breakage.

Aluminum wiring failure warning signs.

What are the real warning signals of aluminum wiring failing? To begin with, those houses built between the year 1960 to 1970 should remain always vigilant. The only safety lies in getting your wiring inspected by the experts periodically.

The home owners should keep a close eye on the flickering lights or if the lights brighten or fade, the burning smell of plastic and warm outlets like switches etc. other signals could be appliances which normally do not function properly. This is also true that sometimes there are no warning signals.

The best option is to completely replace the aluminum wiring by copper wiring using the services of some expert electric contractor. This may prove to be costly and messy as it may require cutting the walls to replace the wiring.

The other cheaper option is reconnecting all of the splices a copper to aluminum connector; it will significantly reduce the danger. It is also true many people are in love with their old homes, it is always better to remodel them and replace the wiring to be safe and tension free. Such steps will totally eliminate the danger of fire and ensure safety of your home and your family.