At GVEC Home, we understand that many consumers want to bring their homes up to date with the latest efficiency standards. The good news is that many efficiency upgrades are relatively easy for homeowners to do themselves. Here are a few do-it-yourself upgrades you should consider making around your house.
Add LEDs for Greater Energy Efficiency
For generations, incandescent lighting was the standard. Many of you probably still remember a time when, after changing a lightbulb and shaking the old bulb, you’d hear the jiggling noise of broken filaments, confirming the bulb was dead. Today, LED lighting is making that dead-filament dance a thing of the past.
LED technology can help you achieve significant savings on lighting your home. For one, LEDs lasts much longer than incandescents. Plus, LED brightness has greatly improved over time and is now comparable to that of incandescent bulbs. Certainly, the up-front cost of LED bulbs is slightly higher; however, it’s important to remember that these bulbs outlast incandescents by many years while using far less energy and saving money on your electric bill. In fact, LEDs use less energy per lumen than any lighting type! These factors make LED lighting the clear winner against incandescent bulbs and against other lighting technologies, too. Switching to LEDs throughout your home is a quick, easy way to improve your home’s overall energy efficiency.
Consider the Smart Home
In addition to transitioning to LED lighting, replacing your home’s traditional devices with “smart” devices wherever possible is another great way to bring your home up to date with the latest efficiency standards. Smart devices, including thermostats, lighting, appliances, TVs and more, allow homeowners to manage energy usage in ways never before possible. For example, with smart lighting (LEDs, of course), you can gauge the kilowatt-hours a lighting fixture is using and turn off lights remotely when you’re away. You can even control lights with your voice if you have a virtual assistant.
Whole-Home Surge Protection
Power surges can cause fires and damage your appliances, presenting a general risk to your health and wellbeing. Surges are essentially quick bursts of electricity that occur when the voltage rises above a designated level. These short-lived bursts can damage or ruin most electronics.
Whole-home surge protectors are installed near a home’s main electrical breaker box. Installation should be completed by a professional electrician like those at GVEC Home, as this work requires in-depth electrical training and knowledge. One of a whole-home protector’s biggest benefits is that it guards against power surges in devices that usually aren’t plugged into individual protectors, including refrigerators, stoves, air conditioners, and other large appliances. Such devices can sometimes generate internal electrical surges just by kicking on and off. These internal surges usually won’t ruin a large appliance all at once, but can significantly decrease efficiency and useful lifespan over time.
Any modern home can benefit from whole-home surge protection, but the “smarter” the home, the greater the benefit. This is because smart devices, with their sophisticated array of computerized circuitry, tend to be both more expensive than their traditional counterparts and especially susceptible to power fluctuations. Even after installing a whole-home surge protector, we recommend using individual plug-in surge-protection strips for sensitive electronics. A whole-home surge protector is a great way to complete the modernization of your home’s energy efficiency standards.
Contact GVEC Home Today
GVEC Home Electrician services offers whole home surge protection, while the Cooperative offers a free in-home energy audit for members. This service, which is conducted by a GVEC Energy Solutions Specialist, is designed to help your home achieve maximum energy efficiency.
We offer a range of other products and services, too, including solar panel sales and installation, AC/heating sales, installation and service, and more. For more information about energy efficiency or any GVEC Home product or service, call us today at 888.590.7773.
