Electrical Industry Articles and Stories

We've talked several times about electrical shock hazards—you and me.

It's an important topic and deserves repeating. I've been around industrial electricity for nigh unto 36 years. And I've seen what happens when you're unexpectedly touched by your work.

If you grew up like I did, in a home where thriftiness was highly valued, you likely heard the phrase “Turn off those lights!” on a regular basis. Leaving lights on in empty rooms was seen as a sign of laziness and wastefulness. Over the past decade, a number of energy codes have picked up on this message, with mandates for sensing and controls to help reduce electricity use and the greenhouse gas emissions that might be related to its production.

I’m currently in the process of planning a kitchen remodeling project and learning even more about LED lighting in the process. For example, one of the electricians looking over the room for an estimate noted that his company pretty much only works with dedicated LED downlights, now – in other words, fixtures that work with embedded LEDs, rather than more generic units that would work with LED bulbs – or any other kind of bulb, for that matter.

I'm not a spring chicken by any stretch of the imagination. But I'm not technology challenged, either. Fired up my first computer in the '80s, and I've had a love affair with tech ever since. Don't tell my wife, okay?

Seriously though, I do like my tech and use it to make life easier for me. I have high-speed internet in the 1 gigabyte range, flying over fiber optics supplied by my electric company.

There’s a lot of electrical work that goes on in our ceilings. Light fixtures, fans, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors – all of these devices often find a home above our heads. The trick for electrical contractors can lie in how to mount these products, given the broad array of ceiling conditions they can encounter.

Grounding is a critical safety component in any electrical system. It provides a safe pathway for excess electrical current that arises through a short circuit or surge event to travel to the earth. Otherwise, that current could end up electrifying adjacent surfaces, creating an obvious safety hazard.