Electrical Industry Articles and Stories

There’s no getting around it. A lot of people spent a lot more time in their homes the past few years. And while some of it was by choice, not all of it was.

I retired from electrical work and work my copywriting business totally from home now.

That was a choice.

I’ll bet this has happened to you. You’re elbows deep in a wiring project, or lost in a trance-like state, figuring out a major troubleshooting problem.

Suddenly, a tap on the shoulder and a quiet “excuse me” interrupts you, sending a jolt right down your spine.

Looking through a manufacturer’s online enclosure catalog recently, I came across a term I hadn’t heard before. Now, I’m not a contractor, so I likely haven’t seen as many of these listings as you might have. But I am a journalist who has covered the construction industry for several decades, and the term “mild steel” stuck out to me when it showed up as a material option for the maker’s broad range of enclosure offerings.

Earlier this year at the Light + Building 2018 trade show in Frankfurt, Germany, Philips Lighting announced a string of new initiatives aimed at the transition to more LED lamps as well as the inclusion of LEDs into the “Internet of Things” (IoT) in homes and buildings worldwide.

First the company announced IoT platform called Interact, designed to handle data collected from connected light points, sensors, devices and systems.

Lighting automation has bells and whistles, but a lighting contactor is necessary to switch the actual lighting circuits. Properly selecting lighting contactors can save installation and maintenance costs. What are some of the important considerations in addition to the correct voltage and current?

In new construction, sustainable building practices are becoming the norm. But even in existing buildings, simple strategies can be implemented quickly and easily to address inefficiencies, reduce energy use, improve comfort, and enhance productivity in the space.