Should I Upgrade My Electrical System If I Remodel My Home?

December 20, 2020

Remodeling your Seguin, TX, home can be a great way to add style, convenience and value. When performing a remodel, though, it’s important to do it safely. One important component of safely remodeling your home is ensuring that any electrical changes are done correctly. To help better understand why home remodeling and electrical work go hand-in-hand, we offer this basic guide. Basic Remodels Are a Judgment Call If you’re only performing a basic remodel to existing spaces, you may not need the services of a fully licensed professional electrician like those available at GVEC. For example, if you’re only changing the cabinets in your kitchen or the tile in your bathroom, your electrical demands should largely stay the same. However, it’s a good idea to have your home’s electrical system regularly inspected, and a home remodel, no matter what it entails, offers a great opportunity to have this service performed. Major Renovations Are a Must To perform major renovations, even on existing rooms, you’ll want to call in a professional electrician from GVEC as part of the process. For example, any lighting fixtures or electrical outlets you change or add could put a particular circuit over its capacity limit, causing...

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Five Tips for Making Sure Your Home Electrical System is Ready for Winter

December 10, 2020

Ready or not, winter will be here soon in South Central Texas. With the change in seasons comes some unique electrical demands. The following five tips from GVEC Electrician services are suggested to help you avoid the electrical winter blues. 1. Properly Label Your Circuit Breaker If an unexpected electrical problem arises in your home, it’s important to have your circuit breakers properly labeled to help you better understand what caused the problem and address it as quickly as possible. If your breaker box is located outside, this is especially important, since the short days could make it exceptionally difficult to navigate your way around a mislabeled or unlabeled electrical panel. 2. Understand Your System’s Limits Hanging festive, multi-colored light displays can be a great way to brighten your home for the holidays. Remember, though, that these lights can draw significant amounts of power. If you have any doubt whether the display you’re planning is too much for your home electrical system, we strongly suggest consulting a professional, fully licensed electrician like those available from GVEC. We can help you better understand if the number of lights and size of the display you’re planning is well-suited for your home electrical...

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How Much Will It Cost to Rewire My House?

November 20, 2020

If you’re having intermittent issues with your home’s electrical system, there could be several culprits behind the problem. If the problems persist, or you home is old enough to have very outdated electrical technology in it, you may need to replace some or all of your home’s wiring. While rewiring your home is usually the last option for the pros at GVEC, it can help solve a lot of problems and ensure your home is safe from electrical fires caused by faulty wiring. How Much Does It Cost? It is difficult for GVEC to provide an exact cost for rewiring without seeing your home in person. The cost of a job will be based on the size of your home, the existing electrical system, the design of the new electrical system, and other factors. How Long Does It Take? Rewiring a home is no small job, even for an experienced company like GVEC. As with the cost, the time it takes to rewire a home depends on a variety of factors. These can include removing the old wiring, running new wiring and making all necessary connections. Older homes, whose breaker may need to be replaced, may take a little longer....

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Christmas Light Installation Safety Tips

November 5, 2020

Christmas lights are great for getting everyone into the holiday spirit. However, they can put your home and safety at risk if not handled correctly. Here are several safety tips to follow for safely installing them. Check and Test Your Christmas Lights Check your lights to make sure there aren’t any frayed or loose wires. These can short circuit and cause a fire. It’s also a good idea to test your lights for bad bulbs before you hang the lights because it’s easier to replace them when they’re on the ground. Switch to LED Lights LED lights are safer than incandescent bulbs. They stay cool, unlike traditional lights that can overheat and start a fire. Connect Outdoor Christmas Lights to a GFCI Outlet Your outdoor lights should be plugged into a GFCI outlet. If there’s a short or overload, the GFCI outlet will trip the breaker in your electrical panel. This can prevent fires. If you’re in Gonzales, Cuero, La Vernia, Seguin, Schertz, or surrounding areas and need additional GFCI outlets installed, GVEC handles outdoor electrical needs. We serve South Central Texas. Limit the Length of Holiday Lights If you’re using incandescent Christmas lights, don’t have more than three sets...

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Are LED Lights Better Than Incandescent?

October 15, 2020

Updates in the lighting industry over the last decade or so have produced a broad range of bulb choices for homeowners. While LED bulbs have a higher initial cost, they come with many advantages over traditional incandescent bulbs. Let’s take a look at the properties that can make a difference when selecting light bulbs for your house. Which Is More Energy-Efficient, LED Bulbs or Incandescents? LED bulbs are far more energy-efficient than incandescent lights. According to Energy.gov, LEDs use 75% less energy to operate than incandescents. In fact, they can last up to 25 times longer. Incandescent bulbs burn out quickly compared to LEDs, which can last through multiple years of regular, day-to-day usage. Using LED lights may mean initially paying more for the bulb but less down the road in utility and replacement costs. LED Color Versus Incandescent Color The range of color a light bulb emits may not be important to some people. However, for homeowners who spend time and money selecting specific color palettes and purchasing furniture to match, light bulb colors will probably matter more. Both LED bulbs and incandescents come in warm white, casting a yellowish light. This lighting color has been associated with incandescent...

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What Should I Do If An Appliance Continuously Blows A Fuse or Trips a Breaker?

October 5, 2020

At a minimum, a blown fuse or tripped circuit breaker will render a washer, refrigerator or other appliance inoperable until the fuse is replaced or the breaker reset. In some cases, the problem could be caused by a frayed wire or a loose connection that needs to be fixed immediately. Let’s take a look at how you might address the problem when appliances are routinely impacted by blown fuses or tripped breakers. Are You Overloading Your Home’s Electrical System? Typically, a fuse will blow or a breaker will be tripped because there are too many devices drawing power from the circuit the fuse or breaker controls. If most or all of your appliances are connected to one circuit, it may be best to move some of them to a new circuit. It might also be a good idea to move computers, televisions or other electronic devices to other circuits to reduce the chances of this problem happening again. Check Your Appliances If the circuit that delivers power to your appliance isn’t bearing too heavy of a load, the problem may be caused by a frayed wire, loose connection or some other problem with the appliance itself. Is the appliance properly...

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What Are Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupters? Why Do I Need Them?

September 21, 2020

Electrical fires are one of the most common causes of household fires. Each year, there are more than 51,000 electrical fires in American homes. Those fires cause an estimated 1,400 injuries, 500 deaths, and $1.4 billion in property damage. An arc-fault circuit interrupter is a device that lowers your risk of an electrical fire in your home in New Braunfels, TX, and the surrounding areas. What an Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter Is An arc-fault circuit interrupter is a circuit breaker that detects arc faults. The device detects low- and high-voltage arcs. These arcs can create a small fire within a wall that spreads through insulation and other materials without you realizing your home is on fire. How an Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter Works Arc-fault circuit interrupters have an internal microchip. It detects arcing conditions. The chip can tell the difference between normal or safe arcing conditions, such as when a light switch is flipped, and dangerous conditions, such as an appliance demanding too much electricity. It interrupts the flow of electricity during the dangerous arcing events. Why You Need Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupters The National Electric Code and Consumer Product Safety Commission require these devices in newly built residences, including single-unit and multi-unit...

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Do I Need a Professional Electrician for Smart Home Setup and Installation?

September 10, 2020

If you’re planning on installing a total smart home system, it’s a good idea to have professional electricians do the work. They’ll take care of all the setup so you don’t have to figure it out. Here are the benefits of hiring an electrician. Convenience It can take days to set up a smart home system if you try to do it yourself. You’ll have to run wiring in walls and make sure all the hardware is set up correctly. You may have to call the manufacturer’s support team if you run into a problem, and they’re sometimes not located in the same city or in the United States. Knowledge and Experience Electricians can tell you about the system and how to make the best use of it. They can answer questions about wiring that may need to be added or rerouted. This can save you time and frustration. GVEC Home® electricians can install smart home systems or perform any other electrical jobs for customers in South Central Texas. Our offices are located in Gonzales, Seguin, Cuero, La Vernia and Schertz, and we serve all surrounding areas, including New Braunfels. Safety Products like smart doorbells, thermostats and security systems require...

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Explaining Electricity to Your Kids

August 20, 2020

Childproofing your home is a responsible way to keep your kids safe, but eventually your child will need to learn how to respect electricity. Children are naturally curious and prone to poking fingers and objects into electrical outlets. When you teach your children about electricity, the risk of accidents decreases. Here are three tips for explaining electricity to the youngest members of your family. 1. Keep It Simple and Fun Children don’t need to know the science behind electricity to learn to respect and navigate its dangers. Besides, most kids will learn the science in school. We suggest relaying to your kids that electricity is everywhere. It’s an important resource that makes modern life possible, but it can be dangerous, too. As such, electricity must be valued and respected. We further suggest avoiding the use of language that could instill fear in your child. Try striking an appropriate balance between being informative and helping your child respect the dangers electricity poses. 2. Be Patient and Answer Questions About Electricity Your child will naturally have questions about electricity as you start to explain the concept. Be patient, and listen carefully as they restate what you say and ask questions. These are...

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How Does My Breaker Panel Work?

August 10, 2020

When your lights and power go out in a certain area of your home, one of the first places to consider checking is your breaker panel. Chances are, one of the breakers may have been tripped, and you can reset it to restore power. Understanding how the breaker box in your house works helps you to better understand when an issue might require a professional electrician from GVEC Electrician services in Gonzales, TX, Schertz, Cuero, La Vernia, New Braunfels, Seguin and surrounding areas. Why You Need a Breaker Panel Breaker panels are safety mechanisms that help protect your residence from fires and significant damage to electrical wiring. The breakers work by shutting off electrical flow to any circuits that experience spikes in the flow of electricity. These spikes overload the circuit, tripping the breaker and automatically cutting power, which helps safely prevent any serious problems. What Trips a Breaker in the Panel? The most common reason for breakers getting tripped in a circuit panel is lightning strikes near your home. Other reasons for tripped breakers inside the panel include: Excessive electricity demand by large appliances Running too many electrical devices at once on the same breaker, especially in older houses...

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