Archive for May, 2008

With the rising costs of electricity, I’m not sure I can afford to light my home as I have in the past. Is there an alternative to the traditional light bulb that will cut the cost of living in light?

In the United States alone, light bulbs make up one quarter of all electricity used but they waste nearly half of their energy. All that’s changed with the introduction of the new light-emitting diodes. According to the Department of Energy, this scientific breakthrough is able to reduce energy consumption by 29% by 2025 for a total savings of $125 billion.

According to Gary Stone, founder of Allstar Electrical Services, traditional light bulbs use 95% of their energy to generate heat and only 5% for light, while LEDs use nearly 100% of their power to directly create light, consuming much less energy and saving you money.

I am sick of the light bulbs in my home burning out after what seems like a few months. I have heard LED bulbs last longer. But I’ve also heard they are more expensive. When will there be a long lasting, economical light bulb?

The typical incandescent light bulb lasts about 850 hours and a long-life bulb can last up to 2,500 hours. Still these lengths don’t hold a candle to the new LED technology, according to Gary Stone, founder of Allstar Electrical Services serving all of metro Denver and Colorado Springs plus the Front Range. While LEDs vary in life, they can last up to 50,000 hours or nearly six years of constant use. The downfall to LED lighting, like all products that are relatively new to the market, is that they can cost up to $20 per bulb. It is important to weigh the savings in the cost of energy as well as the lifespan of LED bulbs.

If all of these numbers put you brain into a tailspin, call Stone at Allstar Electrical Services, Inc. for a review of your home’s electrical needs. Allstar Electrical Services has instituted a Premier Customer Service Agreement for customers that ensures same-day response in the event of an emergency. Loyal and long-term customers plus new customers to Allstar Electrical Service are signing up for this opportunity. For just $95 a year, you can be ensured that in the event of a lighting emergency, Stone and his team of licensed and bonded electrical contractors and electricians responds to your needs same day, before other calls. With this Service Agreement, you can rest assured that your needs will be prioritized and your service restored, repairs made, and any electrical faults repaired prior to day’s end.

Call Allstar Electrical Service today and learn more about the Premier Customer Service Agreement.  It’s a good time too to arrange for an Allstar electrician to review your home or business electrical needs.  Allstar can be reached at 303-399-7420 in Denver and 719-314-9419 in Colorado Springs.

With all of the technological advances made to conserve energy, is there a way I can help save the environment and cut my energy costs?

The new LED trend is just one part of the massive effort to conserve energy and our Planet Earth. While it seems small, The Alliance to Save Energy found that since 1973 energy efficiency technologies and conservation efforts have aided to a 40% cut in the level of energy consumed in the United States.

If the amount of energy used in the United States is not curtailed, we will be facing much higher prices if not a complete depletion of fossil fuels. While changing a light bulb seems miniscule, it’s a step to help the environment as well as cut your energy costs.  Contact Gary Stone at Allstar Electrical Service to schedule a review of your home or business today to learn what other savings you can implement into your electrical use.

Allstar Electrical Service installs new service in older homes to boost the home’s ability to run more electrical appliances

Do you love Victorian architecture, older homes and mature landscaping? The thing that lures people to buy a home is rarely the electrical service or features, and that’s hardly ever the case when buying an older home.

And one of the first things new homeowners of older homes discover is that there aren’t enough electrical outlets to service a modern day lifestyle. Even more dismaying is learning that the wiring in your older home is outdated or made of aluminum. And if the overall power system is inadequate, it could be that you will need to add new electrical service to increase the capacity…even to run the most basic electrical appliances.

Gary Stone, founder of Allstar Electrical Service in Denver, Colorado and in Colorado Springs, Colorado, often gets calls for estimates of “what it will take to get the right electricity in our home.”

His first question is, “How old is your home?”

Older homes with only 120-volt service less than 100 amps can’t support major improvements and additions to the electrical plan.

Unique to older homes that haven’t been upgraded to new service is the problem of too few outlets. The National Electrical Code requires outlets every 12 feet or one per wall. Some older homes that have been retrofitted with electrical service don’t feature outlets on exterior walls. The lack of such outlets, says Stone, nearly guarantees inconvenience. In-room lamps can’t be positioned near enough to an outlet and using extension cords isn’t necessarily desirable especially when they’re strung across a room becoming a tripping hazard.

The first electricity was generated and sold out of a plant in Appleton, Wisconsin. It was 1882 and the Appleton plant was the first in the area, extending only as far away as a mile.

It’s not uncommon for homes in some of the older neighborhoods in both Denver and Colorado Springs to date back to 1875. Homes were heated mostly by coal until the 1930’s to 1950’s when electrical service began to be retrofitted into residences. Some types of home construction, particularly plaster exterior walls, didn’t accommodate wiring being installed underneath and it’s not unusual to find a room in one of these older homes with conduit running around the perimeter of the room, outlet to outlet.

The cost of new service in an average-size home can run from $8,000 and more, a big tab to an unsuspecting homeowner who discovers that his/her new abode needs such service.

Of course, says Stone, you can contact Allstar Electrical for a review of your property and its current electrical service before you come to the closing table. But often people fall in love with the address of a certain home and too late discover that upgrades and lighting fixtures exceed their budget so soon after making a home purchase. Still other lenders will require that a home be upgraded to full-capacity code-passing electrical service prior to closing. And as frustrating as that can be for all parties involved to have a closing stalled because of this requirement, it makes living in the residence much more comfortable right from the get-go.

Call Allstar Electrical Service today and inquire about their Premiere Customer Service Agreement, available for an annual fee of only $79, are like an insurance policy—protecting customers against the worry that they’ll ever be left literally in the dark or without other electrical service when an emergency arises.

Contact Allstar Electrical Service, Inc. today to enroll in the Premiere Customer Service Agreement and rest assured that you’ll get priority service if and when an electrical emergency arises. Call Allstar Electrical at 303.399.7420 in Denver and 719-314-9419 in Colorado Springs. Or email President Gary Stone at gstone@allstarelectrical.com.