Welcome To Our Blog
Welcome to our blog where you can find lots of useful information on how to keep your family safe around electricity, new products, and plenty of tips on how to save power and save money in your home or business.
Use the search button on the top menu to help you find the topics that interest you.
Big Business Turns To Solar
Government Lags Behind, As UsualLast week Telstra signed a deal to purchase the entire output of a new 70MW solar farm to be built in Queensland. Rapidly rising power costs have prompted the move as part of Telstra’s long term energy management strategy. Telstra...
Generator Inlets For Home Back Up Power
A Generator Inlet Makes Home Back Up Power Easy And Safe Connecting a portable generator to power your home during a blackout requires some preparation. You could just throw a cord in through a window and run more cords from a power board to your fridge and freezer...
Trying To Save Money Can Cost You A Fortune
Should you buy your own gear for an electrical job or let the electrician supply it? Some people are very focused on minimising the costs of any home improvement project they undertake. For electrical work, this shows up as the client purchasing and supplying their...
The Dangers In Old Fluorescent Light Fittings
There Could Be A Nasty Surprise Lurking In Your Old Fluorescent Lights. Fluorescent light fittings manufactured before 1980 may contain a dangerous chemical called Polychlorinated Biphenyls or PCBs. PCBs are known to cause a number of serious health effects including...
The $800 Power Point Problem Solved
Add New Power Points Without Expensive Upgrades The Problem In our previous blog post we looked at the cascading series of events and spiralling costs that could result from a simple installation of new power points. Click here to see our previous article "The $800...
The $800 Power Point
How a simple job can turn into a major expense A new client called us to get an extra power point installed in their garage. On checking their switchboard we found they had an old fuse board in poor condition, with no circuit breakers or safety switches. Regulations...
LED Street Lights Cut LCC Power Bill By 72%
Case Study: Launceston City Council Installs First LED Street Lights The Client The Launceston City Council provides services to over 65,000 residents in the municipality. The future direction and focus of the council is guided by the Greater Launceston Plan. The two...
Rewiring Your Home. The Truth About Rewires – Part 3
Did You Get The Rewire You Paid For? In part 1 of our Truth About Rewires series we looked at “The Cheapest Quote Rewire”, where everything is done as cheap and nasty as possible, and in part 2 we investigated “The Cosmetic Rewire” where everything looks good on the...
Rewiring Your Home. The Truth About Rewires – Part 2
Not All Rewires Are Actually Rewires In part 1 of our rewire series we explored the joys of “The Cheapest Quote” rewire, where everything is done to the bare minimum, using the cheapest materials, there’s no time to doing things properly and shortcuts are taken...
Rewiring Your Home. The Truth About Rewires – Part 1
If you have an older home maybe you still have some older wiring in use as well. These days all new wiring is thermoplastic insulated, with a life expectancy of at more than 40 years. Older homes used a variety of cable types, all of which are now due for...
How Much Power Does My Electric Heater Use?
It’s a very common question. Everyone wants to know how much it really costs to run their electric heater. Electric heaters come in a variety of types, including convection, radiant and fan heaters, and a variety of sizes from less than 1 kilowtt to 8.5 kilowatts. No...
Generators Are Lost Opportunity For Tasmania
Hydro Tasmania’s greed and mismanagement, the failure of the Basslink cable and an unexpected drought have brought power generation in Tasmania to a crisis point. We are now in panic mode with large industrial users cutting production and emergency measures in place....
Heat Pump Installations
Heat pumps are the most efficient and popular electric heating solution for dealing with our Launceston winters.
Heat pumps use electricity to operate, but they produce more energy, in the form of heat, than the amount of power consumed. This efficiency advantage is what makes your heat pump cheaper to run than a conventional electric heater.
Solar Power For Business – Still A Great Idea
A business that operates mainly during daylight hours can get a good return on a solar system because they make and use their own power during business hours and then go home and turn off most of their equipment at the end of the day.
Wall and Window Exhaust Fans
There are times when it’s just not possible to install a ceiling mounted exhaust fan. Maybe you have a downstairs bathroom with no ceiling space, only the floor above.
Maybe you have a flat roof with only a few inches clearance between the ceiling and the roofing material and you don’t want to risk cutting a hole for a vent.
Turn Any Broken Power Point Into A USB Power Point
Got a faulty power point somewhere in your home? Would you like to turn that faulty power point in the laundry, garage or anywhere in your home into a USB charging point in your kitchen?
Exhaust Fan Facts
Without a working exhaust fan in place bathrooms quickly become mouldy and full of condensation and kitchens build up a greasy film on cupboards and surfaces near the hotplates.
The most common problem with exhaust fan installations is a lack of roof space above the fan
Lightning Strike – Is Your Home Safe?
While they can be fun to watch, from safe inside your home, lightning is a powerful and potentially dangerous force of nature. Every year between 5 and 10 people are killed by lightning strike in Australia and around 100 seriously injured.
How The Blazing Hot Summer Sun Can Keep You Cool
With solar panels on your roof you can use your own power as you make it and run your air conditioning so you can remain cool and comfortable during even the hottest days.
In fact the hotter it gets the more power you make and the cooler you can be!
The Dangers Of Halogen Downlights
Across Australia, hundreds of homes have been damaged or even completely destroyed by fire caused by old style halogen downlights.
There are millions of the lights still in use across the country and many of them are just a disaster waiting to happen.
New LED Down Lights
LED down lights have greatly improved over the last year or so. There are many new brands on the market and prices have dropped by around 50%.
The new lights on offer are more compact, with the LED drivers built in to the light fitting instead of having a separate driver that plugs into the light. This makes them easier to install, especially in confined spaces.
Does Your Stove Have An Anti Tilt Bracket?
A modern stove without an anti tilt bracket can easily tip forward, causing serious injury – usually to young children.
The most common type of injury happens when the young child pulls down the oven door and stands on the door as a step to get higher up
The Difference Between An Electrician And An Electrical Contractor
A qualified tradesperson is not allowed to carry out electrical work on their own behalf, and charge clients for that work. In order to conduct an electrical business the practitioner must obtain an electrical contractors license.
Gaining a contractors license requires further study, passing more exams and other requirements such as insurance cover and reporting obligations.
Christmas Lights Survival Guide
It seems that every year the bar is raised higher and higher in the neighbourhood Christmas lights competition.
Displays are bigger and brighter, with more and more lights added each successive year. Home owners go to a lot of trouble and some of the displays look quite impressive, but did you know there is a dark side to those festive lights?
Your NBN Connection – What To Expect
NBN Questions Answered Many homes in Launceston have already been connected to the NBN and are now enjoying the benefits of broadband internet. If you haven’t been connected yet, what should you expect? Your NBN connection can happen in up to 3 separate stages, and possibly be carried out by 3 different cre
Do You Guys Do ….. ?
“Do you guys do heat pumps?” “Do you guys do domestic work?”
We often get asked if we do a specific type of electrical job and in most cases the answer is yes, because there is very little that we don’t do.
To give you an idea of the wide range of services we offer
Deadly DIY Electrical
The photo above shows one of four lights installed in a Launceston property by a home handyman. You can see that the red wire – the live wire – is connected directly to the metal body of the light. A potentially deadly situation for anyone trying to change the light globe.
Solar Panels Take Over Japanese Golf Courses
Solar panel manufacturer Kyocera has found a new use for some of these old golf courses, turning them into solar farms.
A 23 megawatt plant is currently under construction near Kyoto and there are plans for other installations, including a 93 megawatt plant that will power over 30,000 homes.
Cold Tassie Winter Leads To Flooded Ceilings
The cold winter of 2015 has seen a larger than usual number of homes flooded by frozen water pipes. With temperatures falling well below zero, water pipes in some ceilings have frozen, causing joints to crack due to expansion of ice in the pipes. When the ice melts the water flows again – into the ceiling space.
Changing To Gas Hot Water
Gas can provide the heat necessary to quickly heat cold water to a suitable temperature for showers, washing up etc. But how easy is it to change? And is gas the best alternative? Keep reading to find out the answers to these questions and more.
