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How to Hang Christmas Lights

Christmas day is just two weeks away now! If you haven’t put up your lights for this year, then now is the time. There’s much to do and many things to plan for. Sometimes the excitement is so great that we forget to keep an eye out on mundane dangers (slips, falls, and electric shocks). So to promote a healthy and safe winter season, we wanted to give you some help with hanging your Christmas Lights this year!

Design

Lights and decorations are a creative endeavor but, unlike many would believe, creative efforts require a good deal of planning before the first stroke is made or light is hung. Planning your Christmas light layout is as important as actually having the lights in the first place.

Start by picking a central focus for your lights. Do you want to accent that bay window where you can see the tree from outside? Or maybe there’s a set of trees that would look amazing with the right lighting? At the very least, accent the path leading up to your door as a focus for your lights. Once you have a central focus, you can build outward for a lighting plan that shows care went into the setup.

Look for places to hang lights. Trees, railings, pillars, and along paths are some of the most common locations for lights. The molding around doors and windows can also make a great spot for anchoring lights.

Take careful measurements before you begin. Obviously this means you should consider the lengths of each light string and cord before hanging your lights. But it also means that you should take into account just how many light string you’re placing on a single electrical circuit. You should never place more than three incandescent strings on the same circuit. LED Christmas lights will usually list how many feet of lights can be placed on the same strand, so be aware.

Design Steps:

Pick a focus
Identify anchors and runs for lights
Measure the length of runs and number of light strands

Preparation

Gather all of your materials in advance. Make sure you have someone else around to help if at all possible, especially when climbing a ladder.

Decide on the type of light source you want to use. Are you going to break out those energy-hungry incandescent strings from last year, or do you want to spend the extra money this year for efficient LEDs?
Test your lights in advance, replace any broken bulbs and discard light strings with frayed wires or damaged insulation.
Compare the colors on your light strands. For incandescent lights, not all of them will be quite the same color. The same is true of LEDs because of the binning process (when the LED chips are separated based on colors). Compare the lights in advance and try to keep similar colors grouped together.
Keep your mounting supplies handy. Light clips, staples, and even nails should be kept close at hand. Never allow yourself to overreach or overextend yourself while hanging Christmas lights.
Gather any extension cords in advance. Make sure any extra cords and cables (and the lights you use) are all rated for the outdoors before you plug them in.

Installation

Now that you’re ready, it’s a simple step to set up the lights. It will take time and effort, but you should know exactly where all of your lights are going to end up. If you want to be doubly sure, try laying out the lengths of Christmas lights along where they’ll be hung (on the ground first) to make sure that you have the right lengths.

Take your time. Yes, Christmas is almost upon us but that’s no cause to hurry the process and risk injury. Be sure to move the ladder rather than reaching across a large gap. It’s better to stay safe so you can enjoy the lights when they’re finished at the end of the day.

Stay safe this holiday, both in hanging up lights and in how’re they’re hooked up to your electrical system. If you have any issues with power, circuits, or your breaker box, just call Boulden Brothers for help!

Give us a call at (302) 368-3848 for any of your Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home service needs — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, propane, and more!

Call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer any questions you might have.

For more expert tips on maintaining a safe and efficient home, visit us on our website, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

How Does Geothermal Heating Work?

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As a kid, I read about geothermal power in a work of science fiction years and years ago. The idea that clean, free energy existed under the ground without massive refineries, smokestacks, or nuclear plants seemed very futuristic. A short while later I learned that actual electrical power production using geothermal energy has been possible since the early 1900s, and continues to be used in geothermal hotspots around the world. But when we talk about geothermal heating and cooling in your home, we aren’t talking about the production of power, just a method to regulate temperatures. The principle is the same either way, and it’s just as amazing and clean as it was so many decades ago.

How it Works

The core of the Earth is hot, hot enough that it’s mostly molten metal and rock. Tectonic friction and extreme pressures generate an amazing amount of heat, warming the Earth from inside. In addition to this, the ground is an exceptional insulator, resisting changes in energy fairly well. During the summer, the ground just below the surface is warmed and sees little variation in temperature throughout the seasons. When you move down to about 30 feet, there is almost no change in temperature year-round.

By pushing water beneath the surface into this relatively temperate zone, heat energy can be collected and piped back up into the home where a water radiator warms the entire home. As an added benefit, this same heating system generates enough heat to act as the hot water system for your home. All of this is made possible using an electric pump that replaces the refrigerants, compressors, and furnace fuels used in traditional heating and cooling.

Another version of the geothermal system uses an aquifer. This underground source of water is usually deep enough for the water to already be temperature regulated. Water from the aquifer is pumped up into the home where it is only used for heating (the water never leaves the radiator pipes) before it is returned to the aquifer. This kind of heating doesn’t deplete the aquifer and no water needs to be filled into the system before it can begin working.

In short, a geothermal heating and cooling system use water as a way to move heat into a home during the winter and a way to remove heat from a home during the summer.

Benefits Over Traditional Furnaces

When all is said and done, the goal is to regulate the temperature in the home. So is a geothermal system actually better than a more traditional forced-air furnace? While there’s never a catch-all system that’s right for everyone, a geothermal system is usually more energy-efficient than a forced-air or fueled system. Geothermal heating systems also double as cooling systems during the summer, which makes them a total replacement for a typical HVAC system and putting them on par with reversible heat pumps as well (though again, they are more energy-efficient BTU to BTU).

A few other ways where a geothermal system is more beneficial:

Some systems can be built completely vertical, using a very little area
Water isn’t expended within the system
Zero carbon emissions at the home
Also heats your running water
No toxic refrigerants are used
No external fuel needed

In the interest of fairness, the drawbacks to this system are installation costs and work. If your home isn’t already equipped with a geothermal system, the excavation can take out a sizeable part of your yard (which will take time to restore to normal). The lawn will regrow but the excavation and installation costs can be extreme. If you’re building a new house or looking for ways to save on energy in the long run, it’s a worthwhile expenditure.

Give us a call at (302) 368-3848 for any of your Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home service needs — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, propane, and more!

Call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer any questions you might have.

For more expert tips on maintaining a safe and efficient home, visit us on our website, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

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What Does BTU Stand For?

The short answer is that the British Thermal Unit (BTU) a standard of measurement for work done. A single BTU is the amount of work required for raising the temperature of a pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. This is equal to roughly 1,055 joules. Science mostly uses the joule as the standard unit for work, but BTUs are still used to rate heaters, air conditioners, power generation, and propane systems. Any furnace or HVAC unit you have installed will be listed in terms of BTUs. In fact, the price of propane is measured in relation to BTUs. Propane gas is sold based on the current cost of a single therm (100,000 BTUs).

How Many BTUs Does My Furnace Need?

Similar to how using an air conditioner that is too large or too small for your home will put a strain on the unit, the same goes for your furnace. To heat your home properly, a furnace uses thousands of BTUs. A large system may cycle irregularly, decreasing efficiency, while a small unit cannot adequately heat your home.

The best way to ensure the most efficient BTU rating for your furnace is to get a professional evaluation. Heating professionals and contractors use multiple load calculations to determine exactly how much work a system will need to do to properly regulate your home’s temperature. The simplest calculation is:

BTUs per Square Foot x Square Footage of Home = BTU Output Needed

The average BTU output you need is based on the climate. Cooler climates will naturally need a higher BTU rate for heating in the winter than warmer climates. For residents of our home city, Newark, Delaware, a BTU rating of 40-45 per square foot is roughly optimal. Of course, our techs here at Boulden Brothers can help you identify the most efficient system for your home.

Of course, a similar measurement can be done to estimate cooling needed for your home during the summer. Energystar.gov has an excellent guide on selecting BTU capacity for cooling, and for measuring non-rectangular rooms.

How Does This Help Me?

Knowing how many BTUs your home needs for heating or cooling can guide your future decisions. If you’ve noticed that your home doesn’t heat properly in the winter, a quick check for the BTU output of your furnace can help identify that as the source of the problem. Rather than paying for inspections and repairs, you can schedule a replacement to a more efficient or higher output model.

If you’re planning to upgrade your home with a new addition, you can estimate how powerful of a central heating and air unit you’ll need in the future. You might be fine with your current unit, but adding another 500 square feet of space may put too high a strain on your existing system. You can incorporate the cost of a new central system into the new space, or search for a better solution. Either way, if you call Boulden Brothers for help we’ll be glad to offer assistance.

If you have any further questions on how to maintain your HVAC system, talk to the licensed, trained technicians at Boulden Brothers.

Visit us on our website, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ for more useful information and advice.

You can reach us at (302) 368-3848 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for all your plumbing, electric, propane, and HVAC needs.

Why Does My AC Smell Bad?

Central heating and air has one very specific job: Adjust the temperature of your home to a more comfortable level. Unfortunately, HVAC systems do this by moving and regulating airflow throughout a home. If any portion of that system develops a strong smell you’ll find that same smell filling every room in your house very shortly. Just as some smells aren’t as bad as others, some problems that cause smells aren’t as terrible as others. In fact, you can identify some HVAC problems by the smells they cause so you can identify who you need to contact for help. [Read more…]