Lighting Upgrades For Your Home

The lighting around you house is part of what makes it your home. To often though it is left as an after thought and old, inefficient and down right ugly lights are left in place whilst rooms are improved in other areas. We can work with you to help improve your lighting plan and save money by upgrading lights to LED fittings. 

Wanting more? What about controlling your lights from your smart phone, everything else has an app, why not your home?

Pendant Lights

Despite the popularity of recessed down lighting in many homes the pendant light will always have its place to make a bold design statement or to provide subtle mood lighting. An ever changing range in different materials, colours and shapes will mean they will always be around and can be updated with a new shade or lamp. Consider using them in the following areas:

KITCHEN: Over an island bench or serving space, but be sure they don't hang too low you will want to be able to see past them.
BEDROOM: Low hanging pendants beside the bed provide bedside reading light and a feature look. Without taking up space on the bedside table. Add bedside switches and dimmers for added function. 
ENTRANCES: A real statement when you walk through the door, especially if you have high ceilings or a stairway
DINING ROOMS: Having a big bold statement piece in the centre of your dining table looks great, or for larger areas, a cluster of smaller lights or evenly spread along the length. 

LED Down Lights

Recessed light fittings such as down lights are a very popular choice due to there ability to provide different types of lighting, whether it be task, ambient or accent, without a visible fixture. The lamp technologies in these lights vary, but one type that is becoming increasingly common is the LED based lamps. And for a good reason too! They use typically 80% less power than traditional lamps, they last longer and they are becoming more affordable to purchase good quality products.

Halogen lamps use 50Watts compared to around 10W for an LED equivalent. With halogen, a lot of that power is wasted in heat dissipation - and that is NOT good! The temperatures of a halogen lamp can reach anywhere up to 370C, if a lamp hasn't been properly installed can be a fire hazard together with ceiling debris such as ceiling insulation, timbers or debris. Our blog pages contain lots of information about down lights, LEDs and selecting the best light colour.

Smart Devices

We live in a connected world, more and more of our daily interactions with every day appliances can be controlled through our smart phone or home device. Over the next few years there will be a stronger alliance between your home and your devices, being able to control your lighting can be just the start of your home automation journey. There are plenty of options to choose from, our advice is to choose a brand or technology that will encompass more of your home than just one area. If you are investing in these devices you will become frustrated in swapping between apps to control your lights, then your air conditioner etc... Clipsal have recently introduced a new range of accessories for the home and are moving away from the old style of light switches which have become common place over the past decades. This new platform introduces light switches and dimmers with BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology and more smart home solutions will follow on this platform. Of course, not every room will want or need to be connected but you will want a seamless look through your home. So traditional switches and sockets can be replaced by the new look and gives you the opportunity to upgrade as and when you are ready. Get in touch with us to discuss how we can connect your home into this exciting new technology.

ELEXCEL - Electricians For Your Home

Those white boxes on our walls are something we often take for granted. We need to ensure that our power needs are met in our homes, but we also need them to be safe. ELEXCEL can help you by replacing damaged or worn out socket outlets, provide additional outlets, change the look by installing some great new products and ensure your family and home are safe by ensuring electrical protective devices are installed and working correctly.

Safety First - INSTALLATION AND TEST OF SAFETY SWITCHES 

RCD's or safety switches as they are commonly known are the devices that are usually installed in your switchboard and these protect you from electric shock by detecting stray current flow and disconnecting the supply quickly before harm is caused. 

We cannot stress enough how important it is to test your safety switch on a regular basis. This will ensure the device is working and "exercises" the switching mechanism.

ELEXCEL can install safety switches on your electrical circuits providing you with protection on all of your electrical circuits, not just the power outlets. See our BLOG pages for more on electrical safety or give us a call on 07 5628 0550

Socket Outlets

There is no need to suffer those ugly looking power points on your walls that have been there since the house was built, probably suffering from yellowing plastics and coats of paint. Loose fitting plugs and fiddly switches. These components get used a lot in your home, so why not give them some love? There are some great examples of stylish looking outlets that can complement the look of your kitchen splash back or vanity. Or you may be looking for added functionality such as ridding that cumbersome power board and installing a 4 or 5 gang outlet. We can even incorporate USB charging outlets for your devices to free up some clutter! Those classic and 2000 series style sockets are decades old now, isn't it time to get something more modern? I bet you wouldn't be using the same mobile phone that was around when they were introduced...

Surge Protection

Computers, printers, televisions, music centres, washing machines and even LED down lights - there are so many items in your home that contain sensitive electrical components. Have you ever added up how many dollars it would cost to replace them. All to often, we hear about homes that have suffered from an electrical surge which has damaged many devices and appliances in just one go!

A Surge Protection Device (SPD) protects your electrical equipment from transient voltages. This means that anything over the typical 240VAC that is fed into your home is diverted by the device away from your equipment. Whilst these wont protect your electrical items from the immense power of a direct lighting strike, they will help to protect against the everyday transient voltage surges caused by air conditioners and fridges turning on and off, and those supply issues from the grid such as downed power lines or faulty transformers. 

Power board SPD's are a common up sell from appliance stores, but these should really only be used on vey sensitive equipment as the use of these boards can cause safety switches to nuisance trip. ELEXCEL can supply and install a Surge Protection Device in your switchboard to provide protection for the whole house. Send us a picture of your switchboard and we can give you an estimate on the small price to pay to protect.