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Tag: lighting

Are LED Light Bulbs Worth the Switch?

11Oct
by Winters Electric  
0

LED light bulbs use a fraction of the energy of traditional light bulbs and they last much longer. The tradeoff is they cost more up front to replace all the bulbs in your home. How do you know if switching to LED bulbs will be with the investment? Let’s take a look at a few key points to consider.

Cost

LED light bulbs typically cost around $8 each. When compared to incandescent bulbs which only cost about $1-$2 each, the difference is significant. However, when you consider each bulbs’ average lifespan, the upfront cost becomes a smaller price to pay in the long run.

Average Lifespan

The average lifespan of an LED light bulb is 25,000 to 50,000 hours of light. That is a lot longer than the 5,000 hour lifespan of an incandescent bulb. While you might only pay $1-$2 for the incandescent bulb right now, you will need to replace it again in a year when it burns out. If you use the light bulb for three hours a day, over the course of 23 years, you will pay $8 for one LED light bulb, or $23 for new incandescent bulbs every year. Now which one costs more?

Energy Efficiency

LED light bulbs use a fraction of the energy when compared with incandescent bulbs. Consider that a standard incandescent bulb uses 60 watts, while a standard LED bulb uses only 10 watts. If you took the average lifespan of the LED bulb at the average price of $0.12 per kilowatt, you would spend $30 to run it, while the incandescent bulb would cost $180.

In 2020, incandescent light bulbs are set to be a thing of the past. A ban will go into effect, basically removing them from store shelves. If you can’t afford the upfront cost of replacing your light bulbs all at once, start small and replace a few at a time. When an incandescent bulb burns out, replace it with a more efficient LED bulb. If you start now, by the time 2020 rolls around, you will have replaced all of the bulbs in your home.

If you need advice on the best lighting for your home or are looking for an electrical revamp to ensure you get the best energy efficiency, talk to one of the pros at Winters Electric.

Great Ideas for Indoor Holiday Decorating With Lights! Make a Lighted Wreathe for Your Front Door!

19Dec
by Winters Electric  
0

16298349_sThere are beautiful pre-made wreathes to be found outside every hardware store and at most big box stores at this time of year, like Fred Meyers or Lowes. These wreathes are lovely, but often somewhat bare – until you add your own personal touches! Small, twinkling battery powered Christmas lights are a perfect solution. You can find strings in varying lengths. Just wrap the lights around your wreathe, weaving the wires in so they can’t be seen. Wire on some small ornaments and/or jingle bells, add a big red bow, hang it on your front door – and have a merry Christmas every time you come home and open your door!

Great Ideas for Indoor Holiday Decorating With Lights! Make a Lighted Table Runner With Pine Boughs!

12Dec
by Winters Electric  
0

11259340_sFor people who have long tables to host dinner parties for guests, a table runner, candles, and flowers usually make up the centerpiece. This year, why not try something new? Most hardware stores carry battery powered Christmas lights. Arrange the lights down the center of the table, doubling or tripling their length until you’ve got 2 or 3 rows of lights in a narrow 3 or 4 foot row down the center of your table. Then, take small lengths of fresh pine branches and lay them over the lights, picking up the lights and entwining them in the branches so the wires don’t show; the lights should poke up through the needles. Add fragrant scented pine cones, a few Christmas ornaments, or nestle some colorful small fruits in amongst the branches. When you turn them on – you will have a delightful long, lighted centerpiece, with the added advantage that you will not have to peer at each other around tall vases of flowers or candle stems! 

Great Ideas for Indoor Holiday Decorating With Lights! Make a Lighted Wreathe!

27Nov
by Winters Electric  
0

22150728_sCraft and hobby stores sell wire wreathe frames for people who want to create their own holiday wreathe from scratch by weaving pine boughs in and around wire frames, but you can use that wire frame to create a stunning  and sophisticated lighted wreathe! Simply weave strands of lights around and through the wire frame. You can use numerous strings of small lights, or strings of oversized bulbs – or both for a beautiful modern touch. For contemporary homes that lean toward simple and sleek design, or an industrial look, it’s a beautiful and imaginative design that can go over a fireplace mantel!

Tips For Hanging Outdoor Christmas Lighting – Work Safely – Work Fast – Work With a Friend or Family!

12Nov
by Winters Electric  
0

8112054_sIf we only had one piece of advice to offer about hanging your holiday lights, it would be to do all of your outdoor lighting projects with a friend or a member of your family! There’s simply no question – it’s easier, faster, and far safer. Other than that, here are our next best tips:

  • Hang the lights during the day, but not while it’s raining or snowing.
  • Make sure that you unwrap, untangle, and lay out every cord of lights before you start. Then be sure to test each strand. Either replace burned out or missing bulbs – or throw out the strand if it’s showing wear. (this is a good opportunity to replace it with an LED substitute!)
  • Use extension cords to get power to your starting points, the thick heavy ones.
  • In general – start high and then work your way down.
  • Never connect more than three strands, or 300 lights together end to end. After you’ve finished hanging the third strand, insert a “splitter” to conduct power safely. (looks like the end of an extension cords, always available around holiday time)
  • Use clips, clamps, or hooks to attach lights whenever possible. Working outdoors, there will be times when you will need to use a hammer and a nail, but avoid using it to attach any kind of cord.

Tips For Hanging Outdoor Christmas Lighting – Gather Everything You Need Together!

06Nov
by Winters Electric  
0

9673598_sHanging outdoor holiday lights is no small chore, even when you’re going for a minimalist design. It’s best to go through the following checklist and make sure you’ve got everything you need before you start:

  • Outdoor extension cords, the thick, heavy ones
  • Timers
  • Holiday Power Stakes (you can often find these with timers as well)
  • Strong, stable ladder of correct height
  • Specialty lighting hooks, clips, and clamps to attach strings of lights to gutters, window trim, and door frames. If anything is adhesive-backed, make sure it’s appropriate for outdoor use
  • Basic tools and supplies, screwdrivers, hammer, pliers and various sizes of nails
  • Work gloves, thin and flexible
  • The number of light sets of different types that you’ll need.

There’s no longer any argument – LED lights are so superior to the “regular” Christmas lights we’ve used for years that no question exists any longer. There is, however, the question of cost, and if you’ve invested money in a complete set of holiday lights for your home over the years, switching over to LED all at once can be a large chunk of your holiday budget. Try switching to LED’s two or three strands at a time, so you don’t have to take the initial hit all at once. And then remember – you will be saving money on the whole thing very shortly!

Tips For Hanging Outdoor Christmas Lighting – Measure First!

29Oct
by Winters Electric  
0

16628574_s
It’s always a good idea to plan where you want your outdoor lighting to go – and then measure carefully! Here are the most popular spots to hang your outdoor Christmas lights, in order of difficulty, with #1 being the easiest, and # 8 being the most difficult:

  1. Inside window boxes and planters
  2. Along driveways and/or pathways
  3. Around focal points in your yard (like birdbaths, etc.)
  4. Around pillars, posts and railings
  5. Around windows, door frames, and other architectural features
  6. On top of bushes and hedges
  7. Around trees in your yard
  8. Along your roofline, at the eaves

You want to start by measuring the distance from your outdoor power source to your decorating site; make sure you add this number to any final set of calculations you arrive at. When you are outlining doors and windows, those measurements are obvious, but when you want your lighting to twine around trees, wreathes, pillars and posts, use these guides:

  • For wreathes: to light a 3 foot wreath, figure about 50 lights.
  • For indoor Christmas trees: figure about 100 to 200 mini lights for every vertical foot.
  • For pillars, posts, and railings: a ballpark figure is 25 feet of lights for every 7 feet of column-shaped feature you are trying to light. You will need more or less depending on the circumference of the pillar, post, column, or railing.
  • For bushes and/or hedges: net and blanket light sets make it very easy to cover shrubs with sparkle; kits come in various sizes from 100 to 300 lights.
  • For outdoor trees: start with about 250 mini lights for an outdoor tree that’s 5’ tall, 500 mini lights for a tree that’s 10’ tall, 750 mini lights for an outdoor tree that’s 15’ tall, etc. Note: deciduous trees may take less, evergreens may take more.

Decorative Lighting Tips from the Experts – Tips for Lighting Modern Bathrooms!

23Oct
by Winters Electric  
0

12515208_sLighting for the bathroom is like lighting for every room; you should think about levels and features of the room. For bathrooms, the first level is the ceiling. Use pot lights overhead, and place them to accentuate beautiful features of the bathroom, like a designer sink or shelving. Use warm, diffused light in the form of wall-mounted fixtures at eye level to provide even, warm illumination that won’t cast shadows. Finally, use a ceiling mounted pendant chandelier over a bathtub to create pop and interest; if you put the chandelier on a dimmer switch, you can create dramatic effects when company’s coming!

Decorative Lighting Tips From the Experts – Light Up Your Plants!

10Oct
by Winters Electric  
0

15974906_sThis works equally well in a home or business setting. Plants add life and vibrancy to a home, and when you combine them with lighting effects, it can be very dramatic. If the home or office has very large windows, having an ornamental tree – such as a ficus or a palm – in a glazed tile pot is a beautiful and/or exotic touch. Placing an up-light or two at the base of the tree, shining up through it’s branches, is a lovely effect. Pothos are an excellent and hardy plant with abundant leaves that will thrive without much light at all; they can live almost anywhere in a room, no matter how far from a window it is. Because of this, you can put them all along a high cabinet ledge, and then place LED lights among them, or weave small, white Christmas twinkle lights among the leaves so that the plants have an overall glow and illumination. It’s a festive touch at any time of year!

Decorative Lighting Tips From the Experts – Use Multiple Lights!

03Oct
by Winters Electric  
0

14716006_sFor a multi-purpose room, such as a living room, you should have multiple kinds of light to give interest, establish the different “areas” of the room, and create the ambiance for the room’s different “purposes.” A combination of different hanging lights on dimmers for overall illumination works well, especially when it’s used in conjunction with table lamps for task lighting. Combining “up lights” with “down lights” is always a good idea. In a dining room that is also used for detail-oriented purposes like homework, try installing a large reflective chandelier on a dimmer. Then, paint the ceiling in a high-gloss, subtle but warm color; if you can find “Never-need-a-facelift Pink,” that’s the kind of color to get. This will give the room both wonderful light for working in with the dimmer up, as well as a cozy and very romantic glow for dinner parties with the dimmer down.

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