Most people move into a house happy with the way that it is, while others move in seeing all the options that the home has to offer. You can make some upgrades to areas of your house that add value and make the house feel more like what you want it to. This is of course in the way of décor and paint color but it can be more then that too. You can choose to upgrade the layout of the house and remove walls to open the living space. When it comes to the electrical system there are lots of ways to add to your home and upgrade what you already have. The lights in your house may be lacking, leaving space to make some great changes. One addition that people are making more often in their home are recessed lights. When the homes are built they might be skimpy on how many they choose to place or where they place them. Adding more recessed light or upgrading to recessed light has many benefits.

Sentry Electric Lists Advantages of Recessed Lights

Proper Placement of Recessed Lighting Opens the Room: When you have a room that feels a little small and closed off there are a few things that you can do. Of course you can take on a home renovation and open the walls up or you can take a much simpler approach. The best way to open the space up is to add lights to the room. The best lights to do that in a small space is to used recessed lights. They are a great way to add light to a space which will make the room look and feel more open.
Recessed Lighting Leaves Space Open: When you want to start adding light to a room you have to get a table that you can set near a plug. Then you have to purchase a lamp that you can plug in and turn on when you enter the room. This will take up the floor space in your house that you could be using in another way. You can also avoid the table but you have to buy a floor lamp that will take up less space but still has to be in a certain area. The better choice you have is to have recessed lights added to the room. They are wired to a switch and leaves the entire room open. You can decorate in any way that you choose without being limited.
Recessed Lights are Universal: The great thing about recessed lights when it comes to your house is that they are a great choice for any room in the house. You can use them in a kitchen, bathroom and main living room if you want to. You can add décor around the room to set the tone while letting the recessed lights bring in the brightness. They fit any type of style that you want from modern to rustic.

Lighting Upgrades & More in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Southbury, Stamford, CT & Fairfield County, Connecticut

Sentry Electric has the ability to make a plan to upgrade all the lights in your house. Call us today to meet with one of our lighting consultants.

We all know that we’re supposed to stop, drop and roll if you catch on fire, but that only works if you know there’s a fire. In 1915, you’d have a one in ten chance that a fire would kill you if you lived in a home or an apartment. One hundred years later, that statistic has dropped to one in one hundred with the invention of the practical and inexpensive smoke detector. Your home has multiple smoke detectors, but most of us don’t even know how they work. How do they detect smoke? If you know how they work, it will make it easier for you to choose the type of smoke detector and where they should be placed to keep your home and family safe.

Types of Smoke Detectors

You probably thought that all smoke detectors are created equal. Most homes have ionization detectors or photoelectric detectors. They both do the same job but operate in different ways that may lead you to choose one over the other.
Ionization smoke detector. This smoke detector has a very small amount of radioactive material that sits in a chamber between two metal plates. The radioactive material is americium-241. The two plates continuously emit a minor electrical charge back and forth. If smoke enters the chamber, it interferes with the electrical charge, kills the current and causes the alarm to go off.
Photoelectric smoke detector. This smoke detector is also known as an optical smoke detector and uses a tiny beam of light from a diode. This beam of light moves from the diode to the sensor chamber. If smoke comes into contact with this beam of light it will shift the beam of light and the alarm will go off. It would be like the effect of throwing some dirt into the path of a flashlight’s beam.

Best Smoke Detector for Your Home

One isn’t better than the other, but they both use different technology and will react a little differently. They both work better at detecting different types of fire. An ionization detector works better at detecting hot fires because they are extremely sensitive, and a photoelectric smoke detector does a far better job at detecting smoldering fires. The best way to keep your home and family is to have both types of smoke detectors in your home. While this may seem like a hassle, smoke detectors are pretty inexpensive, and much cheaper than the damage your home and family will experience in the event of a fire.

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But, if you want those smoke detectors to keep you safe, you’ll need to make sure they are working. When you hear that chirping sound coming from your smoke detector, it’s time to change the battery. To avoid this chirping sound at 2 am, when you’re sound asleep, change them on a regular basis. A battery should keep a smoke detector working for about 6 months, so change the batteries twice a year. If you have any questions about smoke detectors, contact the experts at Sentry Electrical. We have certified and licensed professionals to take care of all your electrical needs. Contact us today!

Some people wait until there is a problem before they repair or update areas of the house. This is a bad habit and can actually lead to more damage or hazards. When it comes to your electrical work you want to make sure that you have inspections done regularly so that things do not go undetected. The wires that are pulled through the house are considered hot and that means that electricity is pulsing through them. One result of electricity is heat and that can lead to a fire. It is a good idea to keep an eye on problems that might come up and take them on before they cause major damage to your home. That is why you want to make sure you have your electrical system inspected and also make upgrades. There are upgrades that you can make to each room that would be beneficial to you and your family. One area of the house that you can focus on is in the kitchen. The kitchen is a major part of what makes a house work so spending some effort to better it is a good idea.

Sentry Electric Lists Kitchen Electrical Wiring Design Upgrades

Installation of Pop Up Outlets in Granite or Other Countertops: One of the commodities that most homeowner seem to need in their kitchen are outlets. If you are trying to prepare a large meal or canning food or prepping food it is important to have the space and of course the electrical outlets that are needed. The problem is that there is only a certain amount of space that you can have an outlet unless you line a bunch on the walls. This is not pleasing to the eye and that is why you need a better option. One of the ways that you can add what you need is to add a pop up outlet. It is a series of plugs that you can have installed in the counter space that can be pressed down flush. You can pop it up to use it when needed and nicely move it out of the way when you are done.
Install Invisible Electrical Outlets: If you walk in a kitchen in just about any house you will see that there are items that are left on the counters. These might be your coffee maker or your microwave. Does it ever frustrate you when you try and push it back only to have the plug keeping a few inches off the wall? This can make the counters look less streamline. There is a great option that you can have installed in your kitchen. There is an outlet that is called an invisible outlet that is inserted into the wall. This gives the plug part of the cord somewhere to go while still letting you push the item back against the wall.
Updating Kitchen Fluorescent & Other Lighting: Another part of a kitchen that you can spend some effort making updates to is the lighting in your kitchen. You can have lights installed that are more efficient and able to run for more hours. This will eliminate the amount of times that you have to find a ladder and change them out. It is also better for your homes energy usage as well.

Electrical Upgrades & More in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Southbury, Stamford, CT & Fairfield County, Connecticut

Sentry Electric can come out to your home and do a thorough inspection and come up with a plan to upgrade the electrical system in your kitchen. Call to meet with an electrician today.

Over time the choices available when it comes to selecting light bulbs for your home or business have dramatically increased. You need to decide between the traditional incandescent or halogen lights or the trendier LED lights. If you decide on LED lights you also need to decide if you want warm white or cool white lights. The options can be so confusing. Today Sentry Electric is going to explain some of the benefits of the different types of light bulbs and types of lighting within them to help make your decision easier.

Which is Better; Incandescent, Halogen or LED Lights

Your first decision that you will need to make when purchasing light bulbs is whether you will go with the traditional incandescent and halogen bulbs or LED bulbs. LED lights have some amazing features that make them more desirable over traditional lighting. First, LED lights last much longer than the traditional light bulbs. Some are even advertised as lasting a decade or longer. The next benefit is that they are significantly more energy efficient. LED bulbs use up to 80% less power than their predecessors. We haven’t met a homeowner that doesn’t love the concept of lowering their utility bills! The third major benefit of LED lighting is that due to technology used to make the light bulbs they are far safer than incandescent and halogen lights.

Types of White LED Light Bulbs

If you decide that LED lights are for you, your next choice will be what kind of light that you want. You may have noticed LED light bulb boxes with a description saying 2700K to 3500K. What does that K stand for? Light is measured in Kelvins, which is where the K on the box comes from. All light can be measured in Kelvins. A candle flame is around 1850K while the moonlight is about 4100K. Traditional incandescent lights typically range from 2700K to 3300K. LED lights range from 2700K to 6500K. Within that range there are three different kinds of white that LED light bulbs will typically come in.
• Warm White: Warm white is 2700K to 3000K. Warm white is a comfortable white color that is typically the most popular in living areas and residential homes. It is reported that more than 95% of domestic lighting is warm white and most households opt to install 100% warm white in their homes.
• Natural White: Natural white is 4000K to 5000K. Natural white is sharper than warm white and replicates daylight. Natural light is very practical for bathrooms, pantries, and work areas.
• Cool White: Cool white is 5500K to 6500K. It is an artificially white light. Cool white light is frequently used in retail shopping centers and offices. It can be useful in work areas like laundry rooms and garages. Many people say that cool white is harsh looking.

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We hope that this overview of the lighting options available for your home or office is helpful. If you have any questions about what light bulb and color choice is best for your space, one of our technicians can come out and help you understand all of the different options. At Sentry Electric we want you to be happy with the finished product of our electrical work and we know that light bulb selection is a part of that process. Contact us today!

Have you ever walked into the grocery store and as soon as you touch the metal shopping cart you get a jolt of electricity? This is static electricity that has been built up and when you touch it you might get that quick shock. Although it won’t cause any pain it can still cause a reaction. When it comes to the electricity that is running in your house it is a larger issue if you end up getting a shock. The shock that you get can cause injury as well as damage to your house. You want to make sure that you are careful and aware of what might cause a shock and what you can do to prevent them from occurring.

Sentry Electric Offers Tips for How to Keep from Getting Shocked in Your Home

Cover Your Electrical Outlets: The first thing that you can do to protect your family from being shocked is to cover your outlets. The outlets that are not being used are left exposed. That is not a big deal until you have a toddler that is making his or her way around the room. They seem to want to try and put anything in their hand into anything that it might fit. They could have a toy that has metal on it that they try and cram into the socket. This can then lead to the socket causing an electric shock. There is a great way to cover the outlets so that this will not happen. There are plastic covers that can be placed in the socket to prevent this from occurring. You want to make sure that you cover any and all of the outlets that a child may have access too.
Make Electrical Repairs: When you are looking around your house you want to make sure that you check the outlets and the fixtures. If you can see damage to any of these outlets it is a good idea to make sure that they are repaired. If the outlets are damaged it could leave exposed parts of the electrical outlet that could cause a shock. If you are concerned about damaged outlets it is a good idea to have an electrician come out and inspect as well as replace and repair the damage. This is a great way to prevent a potential shock.
Never Overload Electrical Circuits: One way that people end up getting a shock is when they are using their outlet in an incorrect way. The outlets are all installed with a certain amount of voltage that it can handle. When you start to misuse the outlets you can set yourself up for a shock. You want to make sure that you avoid using too many extensions on a particular outlet. This means that you want to avoid adding too many appliances and plugs into one area. This can overload the outlet and that will then cause a shock when you turn the outlet on or when you make any changes.

Electric Outlet Repair, Replacement & More in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Southbury, Stamford, CT & Fairfield County, Connecticut

Sentry Electric can come to your house and do a full electrical inspection. Call us today to have an electrician sent out to your house.