Cold Weather in South Florida

Happy New Year

Buying or selling a home: What needs to happen?

Is Your Generator Properly Working?

The Story Behind the Power Surge

The Future of the Incandescent Light

Non-residential Building Safety Inspection

It was a little over thirty years ago when I started my electric business. Back then, many of the products that you see on the market now were not available and many of them were not invented for several years.

Wiring devices such as switches, receptacles, dimmers and motion detectors have made many improvements in their style and uses. For example, 30 years ago, receptacles came only in ivory or brown. Many devices are now available in over 20 colors giving you the flexibility to closely match the different colors you may have throughout your home or office.

Tamper proof receptacles are relatively new on the market and protect against someone getting a shock while inserting foreign objects into the receptacle openings. These receptacles are now required on all newly constructed homes. They are also a good precaution for families with inquisitive children.

There are many new, smarter switches on the market now. The motion switch is good for rooms where the switch location is hard to find in the dark, or in areas where someone forgets to turn the light off when they leave the room. These switches also have a manual on/off capability and some are dimmable. These switches are easily adjustable to program delayed off time from a few seconds to several minutes. The hall, guest bathroom, laundry and garage are good places for these devices.

The original Lutron dimmer switch was introduced in 1961. It had a rotary dial and sold for $3.98. Since then, there have been more advances in dimmer switches than most of the new wall devices. Today you can control a dimmer with a remote control. These remotes are great for dimming the lights while watching a movie or turning the light off when going to bed.

The new electronic dimmers allow you to dim the lights from many locations. It was not too many years ago that you only had one location to work the dimmer even though several switches worked to turn the light on and off.

To emphasize the changes in the industry over the last few years, I purchased my first cell phone in the 1980's for $1600. It was a Motorola Transportable. It weighed about 4-5 pounds and only made and received phone calls. In this new age of electronics you can now control your home's automation, view your security cameras and program your DVR from remote locations, including your cell phone.

The cold weather we had in January caused some minor electrical problems in older homes in the area. Many of the homes that were built in the sixties were not built with central air conditioning. Because of this, the electrical service was rated at only 125 amps. When central air conditioning started to become popular, they were added later, which put an additional load on the main electrical service.

A central air conditioning system there has two parts. The air conditioning portion for an average house uses around twenty five to thirty amps of power to operate, depending on the size of the unit. The heat on the other hand was never designed to really heat the house because South Florida did not have many cold days. The early heat strips installed in the units were designed to take the chill off and many of them were only rated at 5000 watts and used a little over twenty amps of power. Later the 10,000 watt heat strips were added. These used over forty amps of power to warm the house.

This year, with the cold lasting for many days and the temperature staying below sixty degrees, many of the homes never got warm even though the heat ran constantly. This has caused some of the circuit breakers and panels to break down.

Another problem that we are finding is that when customers are having their air conditioning changed out to a new system the new units will come with a 10,000 watt heat strip which replaces the old 5,000 watt strip. In several instances, the air conditioning installers will connect the new unit to the old wiring which is not heavy enough to handle the new heat load. It will work fine for the A/C portion, but when the customer needs heat it will overload the wiring and the circuit breaker will trip. Unfortunately, you will not know about this problem until it is time to use the heat.

According to a report from the Broward County Sheriff's office, space heaters were often the cause of electrical failures due to circuits being overloaded. In one case, several space heaters were plugged to outlets in an attempt to heat the room. These heaters overloaded the circuit and damaged the wiring. They did not say why the circuit breaker did not trip. In another case, someone left a space heater on unattended for two days, which caused the insulation on the wire to heat up and start a fire. Fortunately there were no injuries in either incident. The fire marshal indicated that the space heaters were approved, but they exceeded the circuit wiring they were plugged into. It is important that consumers check the power consumption of the units to ensure that they do not exceed the wattage of the circuit that will power them.

For your information, a 15 amp circuit which supplies the living room and bedrooms will handle 1400 watts of power and a 20 amp circuit which supplies the kitchen and dining room will handle 1900 watts of power.

As we begin the year we are seeing an increase in business. Some of the work is in remodeling and additions, and much of this is from customers taking advantage of low prices on properties and fixing them up. We also have some work from new businesses starting up and moving into properties that have been vacant for a while. One of the properties we are working for is a car dealership which closed and has been vacant for a while. While the property was closed there was extensive damage to both the electrical system and the interior of the building.

When a property becomes vacant, it becomes a target for either the homeless or criminal activity. In the past couple of years we have seen properties where wire looters have broken in and stolen the copper wires from the electric services and from inside service panels. Scrap dealers will pay between $1.50 & $2.00 a pound for this wire. These looters also destroy the equipment because they are not gentle when they remove the wire. The cost to repair the damage is usually in the thousands of dollars.

When a property becomes vacant it may be beneficial to keep the power turned on until the property is re-occupied. By doing this the lights could be operational and the alarm system kept on. This would incur a minimal monthly charge which could save your property from vandalism.

When the power is cut off for any period of time, Florida Power and Light requires an electrical inspection to have the power turned back on. We recently had a customer call for an inspection to a property in Margate so FP&L would turn the power back on. We made the inspection and everything was in good condition. We then submitted the report to the customer who was a property manager representing the owner. A few days later we were told that we would need an electrical permit and an inspection from the city before FP&L would turn the power back on. The price for the permit was $125.00 plus the time it took to process the paper work.

To avoid paying for the permit and inspection you could leave the power on and just change the name on the account while the property is vacant. This involves a phone call to FP&L to set up an account and a deposit. You will receive monthly bills until the account is put in the name of the new tenant.

An intelligent buyer will require an inspection of the property prior to closing on the purchase. The inspections can include roofing, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical and structural condition of the property. These inspections are not expensive and may find defects that need to be addressed before the closing.

The seller could have this inspection before listing the property for sale. This would give them time to make any corrections before the potential buyer makes the offer and allow for the repair costs prior to establishing the listing price. The buyer will probably ask for their own inspection, but the seller should be confident in what he is offering.

Open permits are contractor permits that have not been closed out by the City and are sometimes unknown to the owners. This can cause problems just before the closing when the title company does a property search with the Building Department. Owners can very easily check for themselves by contacting the Building Department and providing their address and the property legal description.

When the seller and buyer both have this information it could make the transaction should go smoothly. This gives the seller an advantage over other properties on the market.

Remember how your home town use to look? There is a web page with a collection of penny post cards from the past. All you need to do is CLICK HERE and click on the State and the County. Enjoy.

In 2008, South Florida experienced a major power blackout. The problem as reported in Electrical Contractor Magazine was caused by human error. According to the article there were 584,000 customers affected in South Florida and 1 million customers across the state.

The preliminary findings showed that a field engineer while working on a switch disabled two levels of protection and thus caused a chain reaction across the grid. The grid is designed to shut down to avoid damage to the equipment when the voltage drops below a certain level. The total shutdown included 26 transmission lines, 38 substations and 3,400 megawatts of power.

Most of the power was restored in less than five hours. Florida Power and Light has taken steps with its employees to be certain that there is no recurrence of this mistake.

The article above shows that there is a need for more training of electricians in our industry. The older workforce will be retiring in the next few years and there are not many people looking to enter the trades. To accommodate growth in the industry and to replace those retiring there is an expected turn over rate of 27%. According to the department of labor there will be a need to train 270,000 new electrical workers by 2016. There is an expected need of 877,000 electrical workers by 2016, which is an additional 66,000 skilled workers.

It is that time of year again when everyone who is relying on using a generator, in the event of a power, outage should have it serviced. If you find that it does not start and you are not mechanical, there are several small engine repair shops that can help you get it running again.

A power surge is a significant increase in voltage above the normal 120/240 volts coming to your home. Spikes and surges are measured in nanoseconds (billionths of a second) a surge will last three or more nanoseconds and a spike last less than three nanoseconds. If a spike or a surge is high enough it can damage your equipment.

The most thought of source of a surge is lightning, which can cause major damage and is difficult to completely protect against. Most of the more common sources of surges and spikes are internal to your home. High-power equipment like air conditioners, elevators and motors can cause a sudden draw on power when they start up. Other sources of power surges could be faulty equipment from the power company, an accident or storm that causes a downed power line or a poor connection in your electrical system.

Surge protectors have been on the market for many years and are now becoming more popular as protection for your sensitive equipment. A power strip surge protector is recommended as a secondary level of protection at any location with multiple devices plugged into it.

The Future of the Incandescent Light

New technology offers energy savings and a reduction of heat. The incandescent light bulb operates by heating a tungsten filament or wire until it glows and produces light. The light you see wastes about 90% of the energy used to create it.

Australia has banned incandescent lights beginning in 2010. The United States will begin phasing out the incandescent bulb beginning in 2012 with the 100-watt bulb and complete the process by 2014. Light bulbs must use 25 to 30 percent less wattage by 2014 and by 2020 bulbs must be 70% more efficient than they are today.

The replacement bulbs will be energy efficient fluorescent tubes, CFL or LED bulbs. The fluorescent tubes have been around for many years and are more energy efficient than the incandescent bulbs. These lights are the type seen as ceiling fixtures. The new electronic T-8 bulb is replacing the older T-12 bulb. It is brighter and more efficient than the older T-12 bulb. The T-12 bulb is not scheduled to go out of production; however the magnetic ballast that powers them will go out of production in June of 2010. The replacement ballast is the electronic ballast, which is sold with all new T-8 fixtures today.

The new T-8 bulbs are being developed with low mercury and should be safer for the environment. They offer more color choices and are brighter than their predecessors.

The CFL fluorescent bulb will replace the screw base incandescent bulb. They are being developed to have dimming capabilities and a longer life than the incandescent bulb.

The LED bulbs are the way of the future. They are being made to be direct replacements for most existing incandescent bulbs and CFL fluorescent bulbs. The LED’s are very bright, dimmable, last up to ten years and are also energy efficient.

The main difference in these bulbs is the price. For example, a fluorescent flood bulb that is equal in lumens to a LED bulb will cost around $5.00. The equivalent LED bulb will cost around $85.00. This price difference should decrease as LED technology advances.

With incandescent lights we used watts as a measure for brightness. The new technology uses lumens as a comparison for brightness. An example of this is a 90-watt incandescent light produces 1310 limens. A 23-watt fluorescent CFL bulb is equivalent to a 100-watt light that produces 1600 lumens.

“Kelvin temperatures” are a measurement of color. A 2700 to 3000 Kelvin rating will resemble the color of an incandescent bulb. The higher temperatures of 5000 to 6500 will provide a more intense blue color.

The Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals adopted a policy in 2005 that requires non residential buildings over 3500 square feet to have a Building Safety Inspection when the building reaches forty years of age. Single-family homes and duplexes are exempt from this inspection. This is a Broward County requirement that is administered through the Cities in the County. There is a $300.00 fee to be attached to the inspection when the report is turned in. The County has a calendar to phase these inspections in that extends out to 2011.

The owners of these buildings are required to provide a written report by a Florida Registered Architect or Professional Engineer. The report will evaluate the condition of the structural and electrical components of the building. The owners will have ninety days from the date of the letter to complete the inspection and return the forms. The forms can be downloaded from Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals website. Look under Building Safety Inspection Program.

If the building is found to be safe, in both structure and electric, you will not need to do anything for ten years. Ongoing inspections will need to be done every ten years from the date of your first inspection.

Buildings that need repairs will need to be brought into compliance within 180 days from the date of the inspection.

The building structure will include the roof, walls, slab and any areas where safety is an issue. The electrical inspection will include the condition of the electrical equipment, grounding, exit signs, emergency lights and any items that are related to code compliance.