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Archive for the ‘Electrical’ Category

We’re Older Home Specialists: Here’s What to Know About Rewiring an Older Home

Monday, July 26th, 2021

Although Southern California doesn’t have homes of the same age as you’ll find in, say, New England, there are many houses more than 50 years old here that families happily call home-sweet-home. Older homes can continue to be great places to live, but they have special requirements for their care. This is where having an older home specialist for HVAC and electrical needs is extremely helpful.

Not every electrician in Sherman Oaks, CA or serving Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley specializes in older homes. We do. If your home was built pre-1970, you may have thought about its rewiring needs. We’ll go through several things you need to know about older home rewiring.

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Let’s Talk Generators—They’re a Big Topic Now

Tuesday, June 1st, 2021

natural-gas-generator

Southern California hasn’t traditionally been a location where generators for homes are common. People often think of generators as useful for places that experience extreme winters and unpredictable storm seasons. 

But that’s changing, and generators are now a big topic for So. Cal homeowners. We work with generators and we’d like to recommend that 1) you install a generator for your house, and 2) you have a whole-house generator installed rather than rely on a portable one.

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What Does an Attic Fan Actually Do?

Monday, April 19th, 2021

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The term attic fan might be confusing to people at first, especially anyone who lives in Southern California, where attics are narrow spaces rarely used for anything more than storage. Why have a fan placed up there?

But attic fans are installations that can help create better energy efficiency and comfort for an entire house. If your home doesn’t have an attic fan, we recommend taking some time to look into the possibilities of having one installed. 

First, we need to get into more detail about what an attic fan is.

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Signs You Need Electrical Wiring Repairs

Monday, April 5th, 2021

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Some home repairs you can delay for a while, but electrical wiring repairs are not one of them. When you have a warning of electrical issues with the wiring in the house, call for a licensed electrician to look into the problem and find a solution. Do not attempt to do a DIY inspection or repair: the safety hazards are simply too high, and it will cause your house to violate the local electrical code. Stay safe and have the job done right: call our electricians for the work.

To help you know when it’s time to call for a West Hollywood, CA electrician, we’ve put together a list of a few of the biggest warning signs of wiring problems in your house.

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Is It Time for an Electric Panel Upgrade?

Monday, January 25th, 2021

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The electric panel is one of the most important parts of the electrical system for your home. Possibly the most important, because it is the “central station” for the electricity from the grid entering the house where it is divided into different circuits. Breaker switches in the panel help to protect the electric system from electric shorts in the house. 

No electrical panel will last forever, and at some point, you will need to have your current one replaced. Not only do these panels wear down, they can also be made obsolete because of the changing electrical demands in a house. In this post, we’ll give you some guidelines for when you should consider calling us for electric panel and circuit breaker upgrades in Studio City, CA or elsewhere in our service area.

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Your Ceiling Fan Can Also Help in Cool Weather

Monday, December 14th, 2020

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Ceiling fans are common parts of many homes in Southern California, and for good reason. A ceiling fan during the summer helps immensely with the heat, and at a much lower cost in electricity than running an air conditioner. Homes still need to have an effective central cooling system for the intense summer days, but a ceiling fan helps people feel cooler so the AC won’t need to run as much. On average, ceiling fans make it feel as if the temperature in the room is up to 10°F cooler than it is. 

But here’s a little secret: those same ceiling fans in your house that you use throughout the summer—they can also help in cooler winter weather. Many homeowners don’t know this, but it’s a simple trick.

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Do You Need to Upgrade Your Home’s Electrical Panel?

Monday, October 19th, 2020

proper-electrical-panel-wiring

The electrical panel for a home is the crucial “switching station” for the building’s electrical system. It’s where electricity from the municipal grid enters the home and divides into the separate circuits to power appliances and lights around the house. Breakers in the panel protect the system from overload, tripping to cut off the voltage flow when it spikes.

The panel does a major job for a home, and it’s important that the one in your home can handle your daily electrical demands and operate safely. But if you have a damaged or outdated panel, call an electrician in Van Nuys, CA to examine it and see if it’s time to install a new one. We have the certified electricians for the job. We specialize in helping to make upgrades for older homes.

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Updating the Electrical System of a Vintage House

Monday, October 21st, 2019

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One of our specialties as an electrical contractor serving Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley is working on older homes. Southern California may not be New England—we don’t have nineteenth-century homes here. But “vintage” doesn’t have to stretch back to the gaslight era. Many houses built before 1970 have specific requirements when it comes to electrical services (as well as HVAC services, which we also handle).

There’s no wrong time to arrange for Van Nuys, CA, electrical upgrades to your vintage home. But the best time to have a major electrical system overhaul is during a home renovation. You can make the wiring, outlets, panels, and more a part of an extensive renovation project. The results may not make a significant cosmetic change, but the difference in electrical performance and safety is massive. Expert electrical upgrades pay off for many years to come.

Below are important electrical upgrades and changes to have done as part of an extensive renovation.

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The Troubles With Aluminum Wiring in Your Home

Monday, October 7th, 2019

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An important job of any electrician in Van Nuys, CA is keeping homes safe from fires due to faulty wiring. Bad wiring takes many different forms. Our electricians often run into terrible DIY jobs or amateur work on rewiring parts of a home that are against code. You may have this type of electrical danger in your house and not even know it because the previous resident was responsible.

There’s another wiring concern we often deal with: aluminum wiring. This metal was used extensively for wiring in houses built between 1965 and 1972. If you live in a home of this vintage—and there are plenty in L.A. and the San Fernando Valley—you may have a fire hazard lurking in your walls.

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Summer Power Outages and Whole-House Generators

Monday, July 15th, 2019

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When you think of backup generators for homes, do you usually imagine houses on the East Coast during frigid winters or when enormous storms and hurricanes strike? Unfortunately, here in Southern California, we have some pretty good reasons to have generators installed for our homes as well.

Last summer, Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley experienced extreme heat levels and a record-breaking demand for electricity. Homes use more electrical power than ever before, and when this was combined with the heat, it resulted in multiple power outages that lasted for hours and sometimes longer.

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