Archive for the ‘Electrical’ Category

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Let Our Electricians Upgrade Your Fuse Box

Monday, April 6th, 2015

You, like all other homeowners, are quite reliant upon your electrical system. Electricity is used in many different ways throughout most homes, powering our appliances and charging our gadgets. You need to know that your electrical system will work effectively and reliably. Most importantly, though, you must know that you are using electricity safely. This is why you should consider upgrading your old fuse box in Vermont. There are a lot of old homes in this area and, while there is nothing inherently “unsafe” about using an old fuse box, it is often in your best interest to update any such components in an older electrical system. Work with HB Energy Solutions to have your fuse box upgraded by a qualified, professional electrician. 

If you are unsure of when your electrical panel was last inspected, or if you are buying a home which has an old fuse box installed, then scheduling a fuse box inspection today is a good idea. While an older fuse box may still be completely functional, it also may have been installed at a time when safety regulations were more lax than they are today. Plus, a very old fuse box may well mean that the wiring and other components in the electrical system are equally as old. By having everything checked out by a qualified electrician, you can know that you are using electricity safely in your home.

Upgrading your old fuse box to a more modern system, such as a circuit breaker, can help to interrupt overloaded circuits within your electrical system more effectively. Not only that, but it can also help you to reset those circuits more conveniently. We may find during our inspection that your existing fuse box is just not up to current codes and regulations. Whatever the situation may be, our electricians will be able to determine if a fuse box upgrade is indeed in your best interest.

Any work done on any electrical system must be completed by an experienced and licensed electrician. Using electricity in our homes makes our lives infinitely more comfortable and convenient than would otherwise be possible. Just remember, though, that electricity can also be dangerous if not used properly. Allow HB Energy Solutions to upgrade your fuse box so that you can use your electrical system with the well-earned confidence that you deserve.

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How Can a Smart Meter Help My Home?

Friday, March 6th, 2015

A big part of reducing your energy usage is knowing how much energy you use on a weekly or monthly basis. But ascertaining exact numbers on your utility usage can be a challenge. One new tool that is making it easier for homeowners to get a handle on their energy usage is the Smart Meter. In fact, these meters are so helpful that in 2012, they became mandatory throughout the state of California. So what does a Smart Meter do that makes it so helpful? Let’s take a look.

What It Is

You are probably wondering what makes a Smart Meter so different, and here is the reason it is different: it reports on your electrical and natural gas usage daily. For residential properties, a Smart Meter reports on electrical usage every hour and gas usage at the end of every day; in commercial properties, electrical usage is reported every 15 minutes (gas reporting stays the same). The Smart Meter reports all this data to your utility company over a secure wireless network, and you can access your energy usage information right online. The Smart Meter can also work with solar energy, so you’ll be able to see in detail how much energy you are using from the power company and how much is generated by your solar panels. This specific information provides a baseline of your energy usage, which allows you to create a plan to reduce your overall energy usage.

What Are the Benefits?

Here are some of the benefits a Smart Meter can offer:

  • Instant outage reporting – because of the two-way communication between your Smart Meter and your utility company, any outage will be reported immediately by the Smart Meter. This helps provide better service from your utility company.
  • Reduce energy usage – having a direct reporting system allows you to see exactly when you may be overusing energy, which will help you to create an effective energy plan for your home or business.
  • Instant notification of over-usage – the Smart Meter can email you, text you or phone you when your energy usage goes too high, alerting you to potential problems with your energy utilities before they can become serious.

A Smart Meter upgrade for your southern Vermont property may be just the tool you’ve been looking for to help reduce your energy usage.

Professional Smart Meter installation is required, so call the experts at HB Energy Solutions today and see how a Smart Meter can help you!

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Why Switch Your Electric or Gas Meter to a SmartMeter?

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Have you ever wished your gas or electric meter would provide more information than just a tally of your usage? With a SmartMeter, you can get more. SmartMeters are being used around the country by individuals and businesses alike to help track and monitor energy usage in order to help reduce overall energy usage and costs. SmartMeters are not like simple utility meters; they can both output and receive data, making them somewhat complex devices; this is why it’s important to hire an electrical expert in New Hampshire for installation. The trained specialists at HB Energy Solutions are ready to help you install a SmartMeter, so call us today!

What Is a SmartMeter?

A SmartMeter is a metering system that collects electric and natural gas usage information for your home or business. SmartMeters collect residential electrical usage on an hourly basis and business electrical usage every 15 minutes; natural gas usage is collected daily. SmartMeters have two-way communication with your electrical grid; they can also transmit data over a secure wireless network so that you can see your energy usage first-hand.

What Are the Benefits of a SmartMeter?

  • Easy-to-read digital display (for electric meters)
  • Track energy usage hourly, daily, weekly or monthly
  • Sends notification via email, text or phone when your energy usage is higher than normal
  • Can be used for residential or commercial properties

Why Consider a SmartMeter?

The main reason to consider a SmartMeter is to reduce your overall energy usage. This can help you save money, whether for your home or business. Second, reducing your energy usage is good for the environment and your carbon footprint. Future applications for the SmartMeter will include pinpointing power outages.

If you’ve been looking for a way to track, monitor and reduce your energy usage, it may be time to consider the installation of a SmartMeter for your home or business.

Contact HB Energy Solutions and schedule an appointment with one of our electrical installation experts in New Hampshire.

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Tips for Maintaining the Electrical Wiring in Your Home

Thursday, December 4th, 2014

Your number one concern in your home is safety, which is why the electrical system in your home should never be neglected. You use electricity for so many of the tasks you complete throughout the day, and, while it’s generally reliable, there is a safety risk attached when you are dealing with wiring. To protect the electrical components of your home and to protect your safety, follow some of the following tips that can improve the safety of any whole house electrical systems in New Hampshire.

  • Perform a Visual Check: Never ignore a perceived problem with your electrical system—no matter how small. Look for damage in the cables, overloaded sockets, malfunctioning equipment, flickering lights, or other problems that signal something is not quite right. Call a skilled electrician to ask what should be done about your particular issue.
  • Consider a Service Panel Upgrade: You may consider upgrading your service panel if you have an older home or if you’ve had a lot of problems with the service panel in the past. Older homes were not built to handle the amount of electrical appliances we use today. Because your home wasn’t meant to handle the voltage you require, you may blow a fuse (in older service panels) or trip the circuit breakers frequently. In this case, a new panel is often your best bet.
  • Only Allow Experts to Work on Your Home: One of the best ways to make sure the electrical components of your home are in top shape is to make sure you never trust a job to amateurs. Electrical wiring jobs can be dangerous, and faulty wiring can lead to fire hazards or even smaller problems like high energy bills and frequent outages.
  • Schedule Routine Maintenance: Finally, you should schedule routine maintenance to ensure that all of the parts of your electrical system are working as they should. Electrical maintenance is key to keeping your home safe, comfortable, and efficient.

Call HB Energy Solutions for any type of repairs, installation, or maintenance on whole house electrical systems in New Hampshire or to get valuable safety information about your electrical equipment.

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How Whole House Surge Protection Works

Monday, September 8th, 2014

Damage from electrical surges is more common than people often realize. A lightning strike, a downed power line, or an accident at a power plant can result in large surges that can seriously damage appliances in a home and shut down the power. But these large-scale surges are only one type of power surge. There is a more insidious kind that can occur on a daily basis without a homeowner noticing it. Cumulatively, these smaller surges can end up inflicting as much damage on household appliances as the more catastrophic surges associated with storms and other disasters.

Power strips connected to outlets provide one layer of protection from power surges, but they are often not enough. If your home experiences frequent surges, or if you are concerned about protecting your valuable precision electronics, contact HB Energy Solutions and ask us about surge protection for a New Hampshire home. We can install a whole-house surge protector that goes to the next level of guarding your home from the damages of power surges.

What whole-house surge protection is

The small surges that can cause trouble for a home usually occur when a powerful appliance—a refrigerator, an air conditioner, etc.—abruptly makes a large demand on the electrical system, causing an imbalance and subsequent energy surge. You might notice this when the lights briefly flicker as the appliance comes on. These guttering lights are a good sign that you would benefit from the installation of a whole-house surge protector.

Professional electricians connect a surge protector into the home’s electrical panel. Unlike power strips, which simply cut off the power when excessive voltage tries to move through them, a whole-house surge protector diverts the power down through a home’s grounding power line. Each time the surge protector detects anything higher than 120 volts (the standard voltage for U.S. homes) moving through the control panel, it moves the energy safely away. This means that your home has protection from smaller surges without you needing to constantly reset switches.

The whole-house surge protector will also guard against lightning strikes and other major power spikes, although it may need to be reset. A warning light on the protector will inform you when it needs to be reset, so be sure to check on the system after your home experiences any large surge.

Even after you have a whole-house surge protection system installed, you should still keep your point-of-use protectors for your computers and other important appliances: it never hurts to have a second line of defense when it comes to valuable electronics.

At HB Energy Solutions, we not only offer residential whole-house surge protection in New Hampshire, but also surge protection for businesses.

Call our team of trained and certified electrical technicians to find out about all the electrical services we can provide for your home or workplace.

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The Advantages of Whole-House Surge Protection

Friday, June 27th, 2014

Power surges are sometimes an everyday occurrence in homes, a fact that people can find hard to believe. Because the term “power surge” comes pre-packaged with images of downed power lines, lightning strikes, and massive storms, people usually make the connection between a power surge in a home with catastrophic events.

But a power surge is any increase in voltage in an electrical system above normal that lasts for more than 3 nanoseconds. (Less than 3 nanoseconds and it’s known as a power “spike.”) This jump in power can happen because a large appliance in a home makes a sudden larger demand on the power supply, causing an imbalance that raises voltage. This may not trip circuit breakers, but it can cause damage to a home and its appliances.

When it comes to guarding your house from surges both large and small, you should invest in a whole-house surge protector installed with the help of electrical professionals. Contact HB Energy Solutions to speak to one of our staff members regarding surge protection in Southern Vermont.

Why whole-house surge protection?

We recommend that homeowners use power strips (point-of-use surge protectors) for computers, entertainment systems and other precision equipment, but not to rely on them entirely. These strips provide a level of defense against surges that shuts off the power flow to the device when an increase in voltage occurs. However, they do not provide the protection from both extreme and small surges that you will receive from a whole-house protector.

A whole-house surge protector is hard-wired into your electrical panel, where it re-routes increases in power into a home’s grounding. This makes them more effective at protecting a home than power strips that simply cut off current when surges occur. The smaller surges will make it through power strips, causing damage to computers and other appliances in amounts that will cumulatively become ruinous. Larger surges, such as those from a lightning strike, will overcome these defense and cause serious damage. A whole-house surge protector can handle both: regulating small surges and capable of handling enormous ones (except perhaps a lightning bolt striking right next to your home) without permitting damage to your property or equipment.

When it comes to shielding your home from electrical damage and defended your high-precision equipment and computer hard drives and SSDs, you can never have too much surge protection. Along with your power strips (which are also a safe way of increasing the number of outlets in your home) call an electrical contractor to wire a whole-house surge protector.

We will keep your home safe all year long, and we’re always a call away any time of the day or night.

HB Energy Solutions has 22 years of experience providing Southern Vermont with surge protection and other electrical services. Call us today to find out what we can do for your home.

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3 Things to Consider When Adding Outdoor Lighting

Friday, June 20th, 2014

Since you spend most of the night inside your home and not outside it, you probably have not given much thought to your house’s exterior lighting. However, there are numerous benefits to adding on to your outdoor lighting: increased safety on walkways and patios, longer use of outdoor recreational facilities, decrease in the chance of crime, and a higher resale value on the property.

To get all of these benefits, you need to have professional electricians and installers on the job of adding to your outdoor lighting in New Hampshire.

Call HB Energy Solutions today to find out more about the ways our outdoor lighting experts can help improve your home with additional outdoor lighting.

Here are 3 things to consider for your outdoor lighting additions:

  • Add energy-efficient lights: Increasing your outdoor lighting doesn’t mean you have to exponentially increase your electricity bills. You can have energy-efficient LED lights installed as an alternative. Although LED lights costs more upfront than standard incandescent light bulbs, they can last many years more and use significantly less energy. LED lights with the U.S. ENERGY STAR label use at least 75% less energy and last 35 to 50 times longer, which means you have even more years of use to reap the savings from their reduce energy use.
  • Increase front and “guide” lights: If you have a limited budget for outdoor lighting additions, place the focus on lighting the front of the house and the paths leading to the door. The idea is to create a sense of “inviting” visitors toward the front of the house—while also keeping them safe with a well-illuminated walkway. Professional electricians will make sure that the new lighting fixtures fit well with your home’s architectural style.
  • Landscape lighting: Outdoor lighting doesn’t need to focus only on places where people move (although it’s crucial to have this to keep a home safe). Excellent landscape lighting that focuses on gardens and trees are an easy way to enhance your home’s beauty during night. Simple uplighting placed to light up trees—while pointing away from your home’s windows and the neighbors’—does marvels at making your home more appealing.

The electrical worked involved in enhancing the outdoor lighting for a home is complicated and requires technicians who not only know about correct lighting placement but also voltage demands and safety concerns. Only trust this work to experienced electricians with a background in home improvements.

HB Energy Solutions has served New Hampshire with outdoor lighting and numerous other electrical services for 22 years. Aside from our installation work for lighting, we are also available 24 hours for whatever electrical repairs your new lighting system may need.

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3 Reasons to Upgrade Your Circuit Breaker

Friday, May 9th, 2014

The circuit breaker panel has replaced the fuse box as a way to protect homes from the dangers of electrical fires. Whenever a circuit breaker detects an increase in voltage from an overload, the breaker trips and cuts off the circuit’s electrical flow to prevent damage. The homeowner can then easily reset the breaker to re-connect the circuit.

Although circuit breakers improve over the performance of fuses, circuit breaker panels will become outdated and require upgrades. If you have encountered recent trouble from frequently tripped breakers, or if you have a panel that is more than a decade old, you should consider scheduling a professional to investigate it and suggest upgrade options.

For Southern Vermont electrical services to help you with your circuit breaker panel, contact a trusted name: HB Energy Solutions. We have served Vermont and Southern New Hampshire with superb electrical work for twenty-one years.

3 excellent reasons to upgrade your circuit breaker panel

  1. To better handle modern electrical needs: The amount of energy the appliances in modern homes need to operate is far greater than it was even ten years ago. A circuit breaker panel older than this will not have the appropriate capacity to handle the amount of amperage that advanced devices in your home require to run, and this will lead to frequently tripped breakers. Upgrades or even a full replacement of the panel will elevate its capacity to fit your home.
  2. Increase fire safety: The main reason for circuit breakers in the first place is to prevent electrical fires due to short circuits and sparking. An aging panel that no longer fits with the outlets and the energy demands of a home can begin to turn dangerous.
  3. Convenience: Do you want to get up every other day, fumble with the circuit breaker panel, find the tripped switch, and reset it just because you turned on the TV and opened the refrigerator at the same time? Or worse, do you want to stumble in the dark looking for the panel because tripped breakers have shut off the lights during the night? Of course you don’t, and if you start experiencing this you have no excuse to keep going through these motions: just call a skilled electrician to upgrade your circuit breaker.

And, if you still have a fuse box instead of a circuit breaker panel, you should have already replaced it. Fuse boxes are rarely up to the challenge of modern electrical systems, and enlarging the fuses to handle more power is a serious fire hazard.

HB Energy Solutions has the skill in Southern Vermont for electrical upgrades and repairs of all types. We will examine your circuit breaker panel and find the best way to improve it and improve your life.

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It’s Not Just Lightning! Causes of Power Surges

Wednesday, March 12th, 2014

Power surges are both inconvenient and potentially damaging to your house and possessions. They can cause a loss of power in your home, and will inflict injury on appliances—particularly complex devices like computers and home entertainment systems. You want to do as much as you can to protect your home and possession from surges along the power lines.

It’s a popular misconception that power surges are only catastrophic events that occur because of storms and downed power lines. These will indeed cause surges—but there are other, more common causes. And power surges don’t have to be major events; they can occur numerous times during a day without you noticing them. To help guard against these surges, contact our technicians in all things electrical in Southern Vermont at HB Energy Solutions.

What causes power surges?

  • Catastrophic events: We’ll start with the most obvious ones. Lightning storms can cause massive overloads when a bolt strikes near a power line. A lightning bolt can boost electrical pressure by millions of volts, and that’s enough to overpower almost any system—as well as local plug-in surge protectors.
  • Electrical demand from high-powered appliances: Lightning is one of the less common causes of power surges. The most common is from sudden demands on your power from a large system like an air conditioner or a refrigerator. When one of these appliances makes a large power demand, it upsets the steady voltage flow of the system. You may barely notice this (a slight dimming of lights), but it will cause cumulative damage to other appliances throughout your home.
  • Faulty wiring: When you experience a more severe power surge (one not due to a storm) leading to an outage, the cause could be trouble with the wiring somewhere in your home. This is a serious problem because of the potential for fire damage, so contact an electrician to see where the faults are and have the necessary re-wiring done.

Whole-house Surge Protection

You should definitely have power strips for your important devices, such as your computer. However, you need to have extra protection from surges, and only whole-house surge protectors in your breaker boxes and circuit panels can do the full job. You will need electricians to install this for you. For electrical services in Southern Vermont, trust to the over two decades of experience at HB Energy Solutions.

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Electrical Question: How Do Smoke Detectors Work?

Monday, January 27th, 2014

Smoke detectors have been a standard part of homes for long enough now that homeowners rarely think about them. However, it’s important to make certain they receive proper installation, updates, maintenance, and repairs so they continue to keep you and your family prepared for emergencies.

If you’ve ever been curious about how smoke detectors do their job, we have some answers for you. If you are interested in updating your smoke detector to one of the newer models, have a talk with our electricians at HB Energy Solutions. For all things electrical in Southern Vermont, they are the right people to come to.

The basics of the smoke detector

The most common kind of smoke detector in homes today is the photoelectric model. These devices use a beam of light that can determine when there is excessive smoke in a room. Smoke particles scatter light, which then deflects from the main light beam and onto a sensor. The sensor then activates the horn to signal there is too much smoke in the room. Photoelectrical sensors are excellent at detecting the most common kinds of household fires, which smolder and produce large amounts of smoke: a good example would be a mattress fire.

Another type of smoke detector is the ionization detector, which is better at detecting the smaller amount of smoke that comes from fires that are mostly flame. These detectors contain a radioactive element called americium-241 (in a small enough amount to be harmless) inside an ionization chamber, where a battery runs voltage through two metal plates. The americium produces alpha particles that ionize the oxygen and nitrogen in the chamber, and if smoke enters the chamber to interrupt the current of ions moving toward the plates, it sets off the alarm.

There are dual sensor smoke detectors that combine the features of both if you would like s wider range of options for smoke detection. In general, we recommend the photoelectric model for most homes.

Maintain your smoke detector

No matter what kind of smoke detector you have guarding your house, you need to know it is working properly. You should test your smoke detectors once a month and replace the batteries whenever the low-power warning sound comes on.

Hard-wired detectors need electricians

Many smoke detectors are hard-wired into the walls, so for proper installation or replacement you will need an electrician to handle the job. Call us at HB Energy Solutions and speak to our smoke detector experts. They can handle any installations or problems with your electrical system in Southern Vermont in order to keep your family safe.

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