Low voltage power supply meaning

You’ve recently purchased a new device and you notice on the box that it says “low voltage.” We often hear of a number of people who are confused as to what this actually means: some suggest it uses less electricity and saves you money, while others say that means it’s safer to use. Those in the latter group are closer to correct; here is what “low voltage” really means.

Low voltage is a designation that indicates that something uses a lower stream of power than a traditional wall socket provides. Usually this means they come with some sort of a transformer or step-down device that reduces the voltage to a much lower level, which in turn means it’s much safer to use. Ultra-low voltage is even safer still, usually running at no more than roughly five volts or so, posing little risk of arcing and almost no risk of serious injury. This way if anything were to happen to cause a short in the device which deals an electrical shock, you’re not at risk for anything more than a small twinge of pain and maybe a singed hair or two.

Defining Low Voltage

The United States doesn’t actually have a threshold for “low voltage” per se, but it’s generally accepted that the maximum voltage for this level is considered to be around 50 volts. Conversely, anything greater than 600 volts is considered to be “high voltage.”

In the U.S., the standard wall socket runs at 120 volts, while the larger, round wall sockets that are usually found in your laundry closet to power your washer and electric dryer run 220 volts. However, both of these devices also carry a heavy risk for electrocution, serious injury, and possibly even death if exposed to the full current. “High voltage” areas have an even greater risk; imagine a major power substation, which can often carry voltage levels in the hundreds of thousands.

Why Use Low Voltage

If lower voltage is so much safer than high voltage, why run high voltage at all? The answer is sending low voltages over long distances is impossible. Every type of electric line loses voltage as you send the power over distance along a cable due to a factor known as “resistance.” The longer the distance, the more voltage you lose. AC voltage is less prone to this loss compared to DC voltage, which is why it’s used in most homes.

Therefore, sending electricity along lines over hundreds of miles requires hundreds of thousands of volts, whereas voltage from your wall socket to your new television can comfortably sit at 120, and even then your TV will likely transform the current down to a lower level in order to run off an even, consistent power current.

If you’re serious about the security of your home, you probably have at least one motion sensor light installed. These lights are an important part of keeping away unwanted intruders and trespassers, provided they’re working right. However, many homeowners who have had one of these lights for several years are well aware of just how incredibly unreliable they can be. After even just a few short years, you could notice your motion sensor light turning on and off inappropriately.

Are you sick of dealing with your obnoxious motion sensor light but don’t want to give up the security it provides? Here are a few troubleshooting tips that will hopefully help you identify the problem and get it working properly again.

Check Positioning

While you may have initially set your light exactly how you’d like when you first installed it, winds or even other small impacts could have knocked the sensor out of alignment, causing it to trigger too soon or at completely the wrong time. If your light is turning on inconsistently, the first thing you should do is fix the alignment sensor and make sure it’s pointed where you want it to be.

Check Bulbs

Lamp not turning on properly? You might have dead lightbulbs. This is a fairly easy fix; simply grab a couple of new, energy efficient outdoor-rated lightbulbs, hop up on a ladder, and swap them out. Then stick your sensor into “test” mode, climb down, and wave your arms around in front of your sensor. Provided your sensor isn’t the issue, your light should turn right on, negating the issue.

Adjust Sensitivity

If your lamp isn’t turning on properly, you may need to adjust the sensitivity settings on your motion sensor. Stick the lamp into test mode by climbing up on a ladder, then climb down and walk through the area you want to have illuminated. If it lights up too easily, turn down the sensitivity. If it fails to turn on, try turning it up. You may also want to try climbing down and not standing in the sensor area to see if your lights turn on. If they do, then you might want to consider turning the sensitivity down, as your motion sensor could be picking up something as small as a light breeze traveling through grass.

If none of these repairs have worked, you should contact a Marietta electrician for help replacing the fixture with a new, state-of-the-art, energy efficient model.

Looking to save money in your home? Reducing your electricity consumption is a great place to start, and one of the easiest ways you can make a huge difference in your monthly bill is switching over to bright, efficient LED bulbs. Yet many people still refuse to believe that light emitting diode (LED) technology is worth the time or financial investment. Here are four of the most common myths we frequently hear about LED lighting and the truth about them.

LED Lights Will Be Cheaper in the Future

Most people are hesitant to adopt new technology, especially when the tech is still in the “early adopter” stage. This is usually when it’s at its least reliable and most expensive. However, people who still insist that LED lighting will experience another sharp drop in cost don’t realize that the biggest cost reduction has already happened and that any other price reductions will occur far more slowly. In fact, now may be as good a time as any to make the switch to maximize the savings on your energy bill.

LED Lighting Isn’t Any More Efficient

A lot of consumers mistakenly believe that LED lighting is just another fad and doesn’t actually save all that much energy, and therefore won’t actually help your energy bills. This is completely false. An LED bulb is considerably more energy-efficient than any other readily-available form of lightbulb. Look at it this way: the light output of a 100-watt incandescent lightbulb is equaled by just a 15-watt fluorescent light and an 8-watt LED, making LED bulbs nearly twice as efficient as a fluorescent bulb and nearly 12 times more efficient than your standard incandescent lightbulb.

LED Lights Aren’t Very Bright

If the last myth is any indication, LEDs are not just bright, but can be extremely bright. If an LED only needs eight watts to equal a 100-watt incandescent bulb, imagine how much light a 100-watt LED could put out. LEDs are now being used for everything from car headlights to outdoor floodlights to lighting huge parking lots to even illuminating massive professional sports stadiums, and doing all of it while using a mere fraction of the electricity!

LED Lights Are Too Expensive

This myth has kind of held over since the early days of these bulbs being on the market, when they were substantially more expensive than a normal or fluorescent lightbulb. However, today that’s anything but true. In fact, LED bulbs are now only slightly more expensive than a regular lightbulb, and actually save you a ton of money in the long run. Whereas a normal lightbulb is rated for only around 1,200 hours of usage before burning out and a compact fluorescent usually gets only about 8,000 hours, an LED lightbulb can last for nearly 50,000 hours! If you do the math, that’s over five and a half years of constant running before burning out! The amount of money you’ll save on purchasing new bulbs alone make this investment worthwhile, let alone the amount of energy you’ll save on your utility bills.

Becoming more energy-efficient isn’t always simple or straightforward. While you might put energy-saving tips into practice, doing so in rooms that aren’t big consumers of electricity won’t make that much of a noticeable difference on your energy bills. Therefore, if you’re looking to cut back on your electric bills and save yourself money, knowing where to make the most difference will give you an ideal place to start. Here are some of the top energy-consuming rooms in your home and what you can do to cut back on your energy usage in them.

HVAC Closet

The air conditioning and heating central units are often kept in a closet somewhere in a home, though they can also be found in the attic or even in the garage. Wherever your units are kept, that’s where you should start. Heating and cooling uses nearly half of the energy every home consumes each year, so even small cutbacks on energy consumption in this regard can have a profound impact on your electric bill at the end of each month, particularly during winter (heaters use more electricity than air conditioners).

Garage

Your water heater is usually found stashed somewhere in your garage, and this energy-consuming giant uses the second-most energy of anything in your home, behind only your heater and air conditioner. Getting water up to your preferred temperature and then keeping it there so you can have a warm shower each morning uses an estimated 14 percent of your home’s energy each year. Consider replacing your old tank-style water heater with a new tankless heater and you’ll never have to worry about your water heater springing a leak or paying to keep a tank of water at a certain temperature ever again, just to heat water when you need it.

Laundry Closet

If you’ve never looked at the back of your washer and dryer, you’ve probably never noticed that the plug in back looks different. While the type of plug varies, some of them are designed to carry up to 250 volts of power, which is needed to run these huge appliances. Even today’s energy-efficient options still consume a ton of power, as much as 13 percent of your energy each year, depending on how often you have to wash a load of laundry.

Kitchen

You pay dearly to run your kitchen appliances, most notably your refrigerator, electric oven, electric range, and microwave. In fact, your refrigerator/freezer, electric oven, and dishwasher alone use as much as ten percent of your annual electricity consumption. When you also consider that your microwave and other appliances also use energy, you can see how easy it is for this area to be a big energy consumer.

When it comes cooking, the tools you use to prepare your food is almost as important as the quality of the food you’re preparing. With the right tools, a skilled chef can make a gourmet meal that will have your taste buds signing, however the wrong tools can make it borderline impossible to get the results you’re looking for. When it comes to picking the “right” tools, perhaps no debate has raged harder than that over whether a gas or electric stovetop is preferable. While many people contend that gas is the only way to go when cooking thanks to its even, predictable heating, there are plenty of other people who contend that an electric range has its own benefits that make it far superior for the average home. Which one should you choose? This blog will hopefully help you make an educated decision.

Gas Ranges

Cooking aficionados will tell you that gas is the only way to go. The stovetop heat is more even and predictable, easier to control, and provides for an easier and less stressful cooking experience. Gas also burns clean, and is relatively inexpensive, which means those recipes that call for a long simmering don’t cost nearly as much as an electric range.

However, they’re substantially more dangerous. When you think about it, cooking on a gas range is cooking over a literal open flame, which means there’s always the risk of fire, especially if a small bit of oil were to slip out of a pan and onto the flame itself (which is far more possible than you might think). These units are also far more expensive than an electric range, and even more risky when it comes to connecting them: you need to run a gas line to them, which means you need a hose, and that hose could be prone to leaks if not properly cared for.

Electric Ranges

An electric range is a less-expensive alternative to a gas range, and is also far simpler. While a gas stove requires both an electrical hookup and a gas line running to it, an electric stove simply requires you to plug it in and away you go. These appliances are generally far easier to clean than a gas range, and even provide some features that you won’t find in a gas-powered unit, such as a fan or even an electric grill.

However, that being said they do also have their disadvantages. We’ve mentioned their shortcomings when it comes to cooking performance, but they also take far longer to cool down when you’re done cooking. Don’t leave a pot on a hot burner, it’ll continue to stay that way for quite a while. Furthermore, if the power were to ever go out for a long period of time, your gas range would still work, provided you have a small cigarette lighter to ignite it. Not so with an electric range: without power, you’re stranded.

Does your home need an electrical system upgrade? You might not be aware, but what’s inside your walls may actually be placing your most valuable investment at risk. An aging electrical system can be the source for a number of headaches when it malfunctions, but it can also even increase the risk of a devastating house fire should something go wrong and the proper precautions not be taken. Here are three reasons why you should consider upgrading your electrical system as well as some things you can do to improve your overall electrical safety and functionality.

Constantly Tripping Breakers

Older systems were not designed to handle the electrical loads we place on homes these days. That means you may be feeling the pain and frustration of a constantly-tripping circuit breaker. If you find that you can’t run a combination of appliances in your kitchen at the same time, such as the oven, microwave, and a handheld mixer, odds are your electrical system is outdated and needs some work. Upgrading the wiring in your walls will dramatically improve your home’s safety and longevity, but replacing your electrical panel while you’re at it can really increase your home’s ability to handle a much heavier electrical load.

You’re Remodeling

If you’re remodeling, now’s the perfect time to install the upgrades you’ve been needing to place into your home. Need to add a new outlet for a light or in that perfect spot for your room to look right? Now’s the time to do it. Remodeling also lets you install new lights, add surge protection, or even add wiring for a new hot-tub in the backyard. Even if you don’t want to add anything new, replacing what’s old is perhaps even more important. If you have exposed electrical wire, outdated outlets, or are experiencing regular brown-outs, doing some major remodeling work is a perfect time to make your home is ready to handle the many years ahead.

Your Home’s Age

So you’re considering doing some serious work on your home, and that gives you an opportunity to make some changes to your electrical system. Are they really necessary? The easiest way to find out is to ask how old your home is. If your home has entirely original electrical work and is more than 20 years old, odds are you’re probably missing out on some excellent energy-efficiency technology. However, you also probably have some features that have since been noted as dangerous and are now against building codes. If your home is fairly new, however, such as 10 years old or less, odds are you probably don’t need much in the way of upgrades. That being said, if you want to add something such as a USB-port wall socket, now’s a great opportunity to make that swap.

It’s never fun opening your electric bill each month, especially when the news is usually… shocking. With energy costs on the rise, now’s a great time to start developing better energy-usage habits in order to save money.

Quick and Easy Electrical Efficiency Tips

Energy efficiency doesn’t have to cost a ton upfront: you can save a bundle of energy just by making a few small investments and changing the way you do a few things. Here are four ways to improve your energy efficiency in your own home.

Use a Programmable Thermostat

Your heater and air conditioner are the two largest energy consumers in your home, and nothing else really even comes close. So if you’re looking for a way to cut back on the amount you’re spending each month, this is a good place to start. One of the cheapest and most valuable investments you can make in your system is a programmable thermostat, which can turn itself on and off in order to self-manage and reach your desired comfort level while using less energy, all for usually around $100 to $200.

Switch to LED Bulbs

The lighting in your home is approximately 10 percent of your energy consumption, which means making better decisions could lead to substantial savings. The best decision you could make: switch over to LED bulbs, which use a mere fraction of the energy a regular incandescent lightbulb consumes while carrying a price tag that’s just slightly above what a regular bulb costs.

Unplug Devices

Just because you turn something off doesn’t mean it isn’t using any electricity. Energy leeches like your computer, your cable box, battery chargers, and other electronics will still continue to drain energy while they’re not in use. The only way to truly turn these things off is to pull the plug completely. If you’re not using it, pull the plug. This is also a good habit to be in as it reduces the risk of a short or spark causing a fire.

Turn Down Your Hot Water Heater

Do you love piping hot showers? If you do, you probably don’t love your energy bills. Your hot water heater uses a lot of electricity to keep the water in the tank at a certain temperature, and the higher the temperature, the more energy it needs to use. Turning your water heater down to a more reasonable level (usually around 120 degrees) could save you a bundle of money each year, and you may not even notice the difference if you adjust your shower temperatures right.

Need an electrical repair? Call the Marietta electricians at Lightning Bug Electric today at (404) 471-3847!