Natural lighting for the workplace

The Dextra group have just released a state of the art lighting facility that allows more  natural lighting for the workplace using artificial means. It also enables the regulation of lighting controls to enable maximum dependency on artificial lighting. allowing for more  natural lighting for the workplace using artificial means.

The latest lighting offering from Dextra is likely to be of interest to work organisations who see the direct correlation between employee productivity and optimum working environments. Inferior lighting solutions have shown in research that there is a link between workplace lighting with office workers sleep, activity and quality of life.

A workplace that makes maximum use of natural daylight is providing the healthiest working environment. Access to natural daylight reduces eye strain, tiredness and other health niggles as well as reducing energy spend significantly.

Daylight regulation lighting controls from Dextra

with this research at the forefront of their minds, Dextra have developed their latest daylight regulation sensor which is designed to make maximum use of the natural daylight available.

Featuring state of the art sensors to respond to changes in lighting levels thanks to the DEXLED luminaire which intelligently directs the output of artificial light according to the natural lighting level which is detected by the sensor. The luninaire then responds with the appropriate output.

This achieves an uplifting and balanced lit working environment. To find out more about the daylight regulation lighting controls from Dextra click here, if you’d like to hear more about what we can offer you or your workplace then please get into contact with us and a member of our team will be in touch with you shortly.

Electricians Runcorn – Reviews from our Customers

If you’re searching for recommended Electricians Runcorn, you’re in the right place. At Red Elec we believe our customers are the best people to tell you how good we are. So we decided to ask our customers in Runcorn to review our electrical skills… Here’s what they said.

Phil Burrows, Runcorn

We needed some outdoor lighting to be fitted to the front, side and back of our house. This is because dark nights are coming early and getting my car up the driveway in the pitch black is quite hard, even with the headlights on full. The lights are just there to pick up my car when it moves into the driveway so they can light-up the way into my garage (at the back of our back garden). Because it’s only my wife who is in the house during the day and she doesn’t have any electrical knowledge, I had to look for an electrician. A friend who I work with told me about Red Elec (as they had done something previously for him) so I gave them a call whilst I was in work and I let the wife know. They came around and sorted it pretty quickly and by the time I was home I had working side lights on my home. Not only will the let me see where I’m going, but they’ll scare off any kids trying to see what they can get from my shed. Thanks Red Elec, I would recommend you to anyone who is looking to have outdoor lighting fitted on their home.

Kristian Smith, Runcorn

My business had a break in the other night and they took very important things for my company, desktops, a laptop and trophies. I was very angry and upset about this as my business is quite a small one and something like this could set me back a fair bit. I got into touch with Red Elec after my mate told me about them. They came round and did a security review of the place and told me that I should have CCTV set up on the perimeters of the building and motion detectors and alarms fitted on the inside along with a very tough door to get through the leads to the main office room (where I keep my important stuff and valuables). They fitted all the necessary equipment and it didn’t cost much at all, they were done within an hour or two and now I have an impenetrable fortress as an office! I would recommend these guys to anyone!

Tommy Vinten, Runcorn

Our home needed re-wiring because, we lived in the home for over 30 years and we never once had it done. I heard it is unsafe to keep the same electrical wiring in your home for very long periods of time (10-15 years+) so I obviously had to find an electrician. I found Red Elec through Google and contacted them, they came out the very next day (upon my request as they were going to come out that very day, but I was busy) and they started cracking on with it, the team were very nice, respectful and knew what they were doing, within a day or two my house was completely re-wired and they even cleaned up after themselves when they were done! 5/5 would recommend to any friend, relative and even neighbours.

Garden Security

With summer coming to an end, darker nights are finally upon us, with the day starting to go darker earlier each day, every year burglaries rise around this time of the year and in particular sheds and garages are more likely to be at risk. This is probably due to the fact that intruders don’t have to enter your home to get what they’re after as a lot of families store bikes, power tools and other things that may or may not be that expensive, but still intruders target these things. Just last week my next door neighbour’s sheds were broken into and it wasn’t even during the night when it happened, it was between 9am and 11am, which means that your outdoor buildings are at risk at all hours.

Easy ways to prevent intruders gaining access to your back garden and to increase garden security are:

• Keep everything locked up, although if the intruder is determined this won’t really stop them from getting to what they’re after, but it will allow your insurance to cover the damages and the costs of anything that is stolen.
• Make the garden harder to gain access to, this can be done just by simply putting up a large side gate that can’t be climbed over, painting anti-vandle paint above fence panels and some people even put nails in the top of gates and fence panels to stop anyone from climbing on them.
• Fit a spot light to the back of your home (Outdoor Lighting), these will light up whenever they detect movement, so if you’re in the house and you notice the light comes on there may either be an intruder in your garden, or it could just be the neighbour’s cat.
• Fit CCTV to the back of your home, this will catch any intruder in your home and the recording can be given to the police, you could always use “dummy CCTV cameras” these are fake cameras that look real, they are mostly used as a deterrent to intruders.
• Try to not store valuables or things that are hard to come by in sheds/garages as these are the objects that are more than likely stolen during a break in.

If you’d like for Red Elec come round to your home for a security check, just to make sure you’re doing everything you possibly can to make sure nobody can break in then get into contact with us as soon as you can. Or if you’d just like more information on what we do, or even a free quote then again don’t hesitate to contact us and one of our team members will be in touch with you shortly.

Electricians Widnes – Reviews from our Customers

If your searching for recommended Electricians Widnes, you’re in the right place.  At Red Elec we believe our customers are the best people to tell you how good we are.  So we decided to ask our customers in Widnes to review our electrical skills… Here’s what they said.

James, Hough Green, Widnes,

We were having our Kitchen refitted.  My son is a kitchen fitter by trade so we could do most of it ourselves.  What we needed was a local electrician that we could trust to do a specialist job.  having watched the programs such as rogue traders, we really wanted a local electrician we could trust.  Stuart at Red Elec came highly recommended and did a great job of my kitchen.  If your looking for Electricians in Widnes, you should definitely consider Red Elec

Mrs Rogers, Cronton, Near Widnes

We needed some outdoor lights fitting on our house.  In the old days we would have just picked up the yellow pages to find an electrician.  But nobody is in there anymore.  So we asked around to find out who the most reliable electricians were that were local to Us.  We chose Red Elec and were not disappointed.  They did a great job of fitting our outdoor lights and we are very pleased.

Jane, Hale Bank, Widnes

We needed a rewire doing on a property we had just bought.  The whole house needed doing.  I have known Stuart at Red Elec for a number of years in the builders trade.  When it comes to house rewires, i would definitely recommend Red Elec.

Electrical Fires

More often than not, electricity is overlooked as fire hazard. This could be because there is no flame with electricity but a lot of people forget about the fact that it can be so dangerous. However, more than 28,000 fires in the home are reported each year with the fault being down to electrical faults, accidents or misuse of electrical equipment.

There are some particular danger signs that you can look out for on any electrical item in your home and these include:

• Hot plugs and sockets
• Fuses that blow frequently
• Flickering lights
• Scorch marks on plugs or the socket
• Badly wired plugs
• Frayed power leads
• Repaired power leads
• Overloaded sockets
• Badly positioned cables
• Water near electrical items

There are some very simple ways to avoid any of these being the reason for any possible electrical fire in your home. Regular maintenance on your electrical appliance, especially ones that are used on a daily basis or contain a motor and run at high speeds should be checked with the latter being serviced at least once a year by an electrician. You should check before using a plug that it is wired correctly. The outer covering of the power cable itself should go inside the plug and there should be no breaks or wires sticking out as this can not only cause electric shocks but in the worst case scenario can cause fire. You should always use plug sockets safely and should never allow the total current used by any appliances plugged into an adaptor to add up to over 13 amps altogether. Finally and most simply is to turn off and unplug your device after using it, it may sound stupid, but many house fires have been caused by something as trivial as accidentally leaving a hair straightener plugged in and turned on.

If you fear that you may be at risk of electrical fire from any of the bullet points seen above, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and one of our qualified electricians will be more than happy to help with your problem.

Outdoor Home Security

When it comes to your outdoor home security, everyone wants to feel safe and secure. Most of the time, it’s the locks on your doors and windows that make you feel secure however in many cases in our modern society, more and more people are turning to electrical security systems to keep their home secure. This can range from motion detecting light sensors which set off a bright light in your driveway to electrically powered gates to enter your driveway in the first place and here at Red Elec, we can help wire in and fix your every electrical security need.

The most common types of electrical home security are burglar and fire alarms which help keep you and your family safe from disaster when it can inevitably strike at any moment, CCTV cameras both indoor and outdoor so you can monitor if there is any suspicious activity around your property and access control in the forms of motorised gates, door intercoms or even a simple key card swiping system. These types of electrical security systems can keep your home infinitely more secure than just simply locking your windows and doors so if you do feel unsafe, don’t hesitate about having something installed.

As well as this, we also offer outdoor lighting. Whether you want the outdoor lighting for security purposes with a motion activated light sensor or whether it’s just for display such as LED bulbs wired into your patio, here at Red Elec we can help with your every need. Please feel free to contact us for any of your electrical problems be it security, lighting or any of the other electrical services we offer and we will be able to fix your problem for you!

Launch of the Red Elec website

Here at RedElec we are pleased to announce the launch of the Red Elec Website, we have been working close with a company called Hot Web Design who gave us the support that we required and have helped us achieve a beautiful looking and easy to use website, they have worked closely with us for our requirements for the site and the functions that it will have.

Hot Web Design started building the website a few days ago and by the time the first day was over you could see how the site was almost finished and it was already taking shape into something that we liked.

If you need a friendly team of experienced web developers who do free designs and re-designs, then you should definitely go to them for it. Although if you’re here for electricians in the North West then look no further as we have the knowledge, experience and the professionally trained friendly electricians.

We can quickly re-wire your property without the stress pilling upon you and we can even wire up your outdoor lighting just to make you feel that little bit more safer at home, if you have an electrical problem or you just need something doing as soon as possible then don’t hesitate to get into contact with us as we offer 24 hour emergency call outs.

Energy Saving Light bulbs FAQ

What’s happened to traditional light bulbs?

Old-fashioned incandescent bulbs have been phased out across most parts of Europe. Most mainstream shops have already phased out all incandescent bulbs and this means the last of the old-fashioned bulbs in corner shops and specialists will soon be gone too.

What are the different types of light bulbs that I can buy?

There are three types of energy-saving light bulb currently on the market and these are:

• Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)
• Halogens
• Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)

Will using energy-saving light bulbs save me money?

Replacing just one 60W incandescent with a CFL bulb (the most common style of energy-saving light bulb) can reduce your electricity bill by around £7 a year, so replacing ten light bulbs with energy-savers could save you £70 a year. LED bulbs are even more efficient than CFLs and save almost £7.50 per bulb per year. LEDs usually cost more to buy initially but have incredibly long life expectancies so you may not need to replace them for up to 30 years! Halogen bulbs are the least efficient so you’re unlikely to notice any reduction in your energy bill.

Which bulbs are most similar to an old-fashioned 60W incandescent?

A 60W incandescent typically emits 700-900 lumens so you’ll need to look for one with a similar brightness. In addition to the brightness, incandescent light has a ‘warm’ yellowish glow, so if you want to match this you’ll need to consider the colour temperature. This is given in kelvin (K) and should be listed on the packaging. Incandescent light has a colour temperature of around 2700K so a similar value should give a similar coloured light, which is sometimes labelled as ‘warm white’ on the box.

Why are some energy-saving light bulbs more expensive than they used to be?

Until 2010, energy companies subsidised and even gave away CFL-type light bulbs to UK homes. But following concerns that consumers were not using the bulbs given to them, these direct promotions were banned and that has meant that the price of CFL bulbs has increased in the past few years.

Are all energy-saving bulbs slow to get bright when you first switch them on?

LEDs and halogens come on instantly but some CFLs still take a few minutes to reach full brightness. At Which? we check the light output of the bulbs we rate when they are first turned on, and also at intervals to ensure the measured light output meets what’s promised on the packaging. The results of our independent testing show which bulbs give out a good level of light at start-up and those that don’t.

Can I use energy-saving bulbs with dimmers?

A bulb’s suitability for use with dimmers should be written on the packaging, so check the box to find out whether the bulb is dimmable before you buy. However some dimmer switches may not be compatible with newer types of bulbs. In general:

• CFLs and halogen bulbs – most modern dimmer switches should work with these bulbs although some older ones may not be compatible.
• LEDs – you may need to upgrade your dimmer switch to cope with low electrical loads. If in doubt ask us to check for you!

Can I find bulbs for chandelier-style light fittings?

Manufacturers now produce energy-saving light bulbs in many more shapes and sizes than they used to – for example candle and smaller globe-shaped bulbs.

If a light bulb fails can I get a refund?

Warranties on LED bulbs typically last between two and four years, so if the bulb fails within this time you should be able to get your money back. Check the box for details, and contact the place of purchase or the manufacturer’s customer service department.

Since I started using LED lights, my digital radio is playing up. Can LED bulbs affect digital radios?

Yes, we have found that some (but not all) LED bulbs can affect digital radios. Our snapshot tests found that some LEDs caused a fuzzy reception, and even a complete loss of signal when placed within a few centimetres of the radio.

How can I dispose of used energy-saving light bulbs?

LEDs and halogens can be disposed of in your normal household waste, but as CFLs contain tiny amounts of mercury these need to be recycled rather than being thrown in the bin. You can find your nearest local recycling site by entering your postcode on the Recolight website. As well as your local council tip, Homebase, Ikea, Robert Dyas and some branches of Sainsbury’s often have recycling points.

If you enjoyed this informative FAQ on “Energy Saving Light bulbs FAQ” then please keep checking this blog as new articles will be updated quite regularly, from articles on what to do if… through to helpful articles that can inform you on how to do something in the best way possible. If you have questions, or you’d like to know what we can do for you, then please don’t hesitate to get into contact with us and a member of our friendly team will be in touch with you shortly.