Our Electricians’ Tips for a Safe Winter Holiday Season

November 21st, 2022
outdoor-light-bulbs

The end of the year is always a “Season of Lights,” no matter which holidays you’re celebrating. It’s only natural as the weather turns colder and the night falls earlier that people want to feel brightness and cheer all around them, and this means festive lighting displays both indoors and outdoors. 

We want you and your family to have a bright and wonderful winter holiday season. We also want you to be safe! 

Our team of electricians in Orchard Park, NY and throughout Western New York have tips for ways to keep your house safe during the holidays, free from fire danger and electrical shortages.

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Ways to Tell You Need Commercial or Industrial Wiring Upgrades

November 7th, 2022
commercial-building-lobby

It’s hard to imagine there’s any commercial or industrial business that operates without electricity. The electrical demands for most facilities are enormous, and interruptions with the electrical system will usually bring operations to an abrupt halt and result in costly downtime.

You can’t avoid all electrical problems in your business, but if you have damaged or old wiring, you’ll suffer a larger amount of problems and even safety issues. Scherer Electric offers commercial and industrial electric service in Buffalo, NY to upgrade and rewire facilities to meet contemporary demands. 

Below are some of the signs you may notice that will warn you it’s time to call us for upgrades to your commercial/industrial electrical system.

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Track Lighting, Recessed Lighting, Or…? Looking at Indoor Lighting Options

October 24th, 2022
recessed-LED-lights

One of the most cost-effective ways to change the look of your home without having to resort to expensive remodeling is with an update to your indoor lighting in East Aurora, NY. We don’t mean just upgrading old incandescent lights with LED lights—although this is a fantastic idea and will help you save money on your electrical bills. We mean changing the type of lights you have.

If you have overhead lighting that leaves certain areas of your house either too dim or too overlit, or you don’t like the space consumption of using older pendant lights, you have several options to change your home’s indoor lighting. The two prominent ones are recessed lighting and track lighting. We’ll look at the pros and cons of each of these options.

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When Should I Replace My Whole-House Generator?

October 10th, 2022
generator-residential

A whole-house generator can be a literal life-saver for a home during an extended power outage. If you have a whole-house generator, you want to know that you can trust it to work when necessary.

Since no mechanical device can last forever, you might wonder when you’ll need to have your older generator replaced. This is tricky because you don’t use the generator often—in fact, you hope you don’t have to use it at all—and so it’s difficult to determine when it’s declining. 

We’ll look into the question of when to replace a whole-house generator, and when it’s better to arrange for generator repair in Clarence, NY with our electricians.

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Looking Closer Into Circuit Breakers

September 26th, 2022
panel-replacement

One of the most important jobs we do for our many customers is replacing indoor electrical panels in Buffalo, NY and throughout Western New York. Too many homes have outdated electrical panels, or even ones that were never safe in the first place. There are also older homes in the area that still use fuse boxes rather than a circuit breaker panel. We also handle replacing electrical panels that have sustained damage and are no longer reliable or safe.

Today we want to look in more depth at the circuit breakers in your electrical panels. Please note that this isn’t a DIY guide: you shouldn’t attempt to repair or replace any circuit breaker yourself, as this can create major hazards. Always trust licensed professionals like us. We’re offering this information to help you understand circuit breaker problems and when you’ll need to call for assistance.

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What to Do in a Power Outage

September 12th, 2022
flashlight

We often talk about the importance of installing whole-house generators. There’s no better way to avoid the serious problems of an extended loss of power to your home than having a permanent backup generator to take over. With enough fuel (easy if your generator runs on natural gas), you can make it through many days without trouble keeping your family safe, your HVAC system running, your refrigerator working, and any vital medical equipment powered. 

But you may not have a generator (at least, not yet), and we have some recommendations on what to do in case your home suffers from an extended power outage.

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Do I Need GFCI Outlets for My House?

August 15th, 2022
GFCI outlet

If you’re asking this question, it probably means that you know what GFCI outlets look like and you know your home doesn’t have them.

The simple answer to the question is “yes.” You don’t need these outlets in every room (in fact, we don’t recommend that), but they are important safety devices to have in some key rooms such as the kitchen and bathrooms.

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Get the Most Use From Ceiling Fans in the Heat

August 1st, 2022
ceiling-fan-wooden

We know that using a fan can’t work as effectively at cooling as a modern air conditioning system, but they still can help—especially if the fan is a well-installed ceiling fan.

Ceiling fans not only blow air around, but they also create better circulation of air throughout a large space. This isn’t something you’ll get from a floor fan or desk fan. Ceiling fans also have the benefit of not taking up any floor or desk space and having an attractive look that becomes part of a room’s decor. 

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Outdated Wiring Systems We Recommend Changing

July 18th, 2022
electric-house-rewire

We offer many important services to upgrade the electrical systems of homes throughout Western New York. Since the area has so many vintage homes, there’s a large number of houses with wiring decades out of date. Not only do these antiquated wiring systems have trouble handling modern electrical loads, they can create fire hazards.

If you have a home built before 1980, we recommend contacting our electricians to inspect your house and see if you need electrical wiring and rewiring in Depew, NY. 

There are two specific cases of outdated wiring common in New York that we recommend fully upgrading: aluminum wiring and knob-and-tube wiring.

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Ways to Tell Your Electrical Panel Has Damage

July 4th, 2022
outlet-with-scorch-marks

One of the most important jobs we take on as electricians is replacing electrical panels in Orchard Park, NY and elsewhere in our service area. Panels are the central “switching station” for a home’s electrical system: this is where the incoming current divides into the various circuits for the rest of the building. As residential electrical usage increases, old panels become obsolete and need upgrades. 

But panel age isn’t the only reason you may need to have a panel replacement (or in some cases panel repairs). A damaged panel requires professional assistance right away or your home may face serious electrical hazards or a loss of power.

How can you determine if you have a damaged electrical panel? We’ll guide you through the major signs below.

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