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Upgrade Your Outdoors With Leading Edge Lighting Solutions from HotWire | eiei home

April 1, 2023 By Hotwire Electric

The return of warm weather causes homeowners across the GTA to gaze longingly out their kitchen windows into the yard and consider possibilities. What if I purchased new patio furniture? What if I added an outdoor kitchen? What if I installed a hot tub or painted the deck? Those are all worthy projects to be sure but we have one more “what if” that trumps them all: What if you added state of the art lighting at various points around the property?

The Value of Outdoor Lighting

A well designed backyard lighting scheme can transform your everyday yard into the social centre of your domestic life. Our managing director Hanna Taylor recently sat down with the good folks at eieihome.com to discuss some of the ways you can infuse your yard with beauty and energy using outdoor lighting. Of course it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to lighting the deck:

“Decks are fantastic use of space… how about adding stair lighting? Or perhaps in-floor lighting? So many options are available and with the right design, lighting is everything…”

As usual Hannah is spot-on with her assessment of the many ways lighting can enhance the deck experience. Those stair lights she mentions are state-of-the-art LEDs that can be utilized in myriad ways to accent various aspects of the stairs. And embedding LED strips right into the floor of the deck is a way to add atmosphere and send your guests into the envy stratosphere.

Call Hotwire Electric today on 416-553-5533

Other Ways Outdoor Lighting can Enhance Your Property

Fortunately, outdoor lighting is not a one trick pony which means it has the ability to enhance the atmosphere in the entire yard, highlight important features in the landscape and add a practical touch that will make night time entertaining a safe, fun experience for everyone.

The Pool Lighting

Did you know you can install beautiful energy-efficient LED lights right inside the pool? The effect they create is stunning. And when paired with an LED lighting scheme around the pool deck they’ll transform your experience of the pool to such a degree you may stop using it during the day and use it only at night.

The Outdoor Kitchen Lighting

The advantages of the outdoor kitchen are such that it has quickly become one of the most popular upgrades people are making to their home. But an outdoor kitchen with substandard lighting is one that isn’t taking full advantage of its potential. Talk to the pros at HotWire Electric about redesigning your outdoor kitchen lighting scheme.

Walkways Lighting

When you enlist Hotwire to install lighting on the pathways in the yard we use those lights to create aesthetic and physical unity. As Hannah says in the eieihome article:

“…we work closely to integrate the space, the use, the client’s vision along with the latest in lighting products,”

Summary

Lighting walkways, the deck, the pool, the outdoor kitchen and more is the most effective way you’ll find to enhance the look and feel of your entire property. At the same time you’ll add a magical element that will blow your guests away and increase the value of your home. And because the lights we install are mostly hyper-efficient LEDs you won’t be jacking up your energy consumption or pushing the planet over the climate edge.

What is a Smart Home and Why Would You Want One?

March 30, 2023 By Hotwire Electric

The digital age has ushered in a slew of new terminology that has altered our conversations and forced us to adapt or be left behind. Terms like “smartphone”, “social media”, “the Internet of things” and “killer app”. In the past couple of years yet another new term has entered the lexicon: “smart home”. But just what is a smart home and why would anyone want their home to be smart? Isn’t it enough that it’s comfortable, convenient and reassuring? Our own Hannah Taylor recently sat down with the folks at eieihome.com to address the topic of the smart home and, as usual, she does a stellar job of reducing a complex subject to easily understandable bits. Such as:

“A Smart Home is generally considered one which has some or all of its utilities, appliances, security and entertainment technology (TV, computer, audio/video) synced together and under the control of a remote device such as a smart phone, tablet or computer application.”

That sums it up pretty well and can serve as a basis for understanding the overall concept from a practical standpoint (thanks Hannah). As you might imagine, however, actually tying together all of the home’s utilities, appliances, security features and entertainment devices is easier said than done.

Want to convert your Home to Smart Home? Contact Hotwire Electric @ 416-553-5533

Can Any Home Be Turned Into a Smart Home?

The smart home is one that, among other things, interacts with the “smart grid” created by the energy provider to minimize home energy use during times of peak demand. It can even shift the use of some devices to a different time of the day when power may be more abundant and/or available for less.

Toronto Electrician Dream Home Lighting Guide

Due to the fact that the wiring in your home must be reconfigured almost from the ground up most smart home wiring is installed during the initial build or during a major renovation. This is not to say that it’s impossible to convert your home unless you’re renovating, just that it’s easier to do when the walls etc are already being taken apart for other, cosmetic reasons.

What are the Advantages of Having a Smart Home Wiring?

The advantages are many as Hannah mentions in the eieihome article:

“Imagine you just left for a flight but forget to turn off the AC or lock a door, those issues are not concerns in Smart Homes”

That’s because in the smart home every feature can be fully automated and/or controlled remotely. So even if you forget to turn off the AC and head to the airport to catch a flight the system will shut down at a given time if programmed to do so. Of, if you haven’t programmed that level of automation into your home, you can still monitor and control all your appliances, security features and lights from your smartphone no matter where you are on planet earth as long as you have an Internet connection.

Get a free estimate for your Smart Home

Summary

The age of the smart home is upon us and those that don’t take advantage of this incredible leap forward in residential technology are destined to wind up paying more for energy and losing out on the amazing safety and convenience features that come with smart home technology. If you’d like to learn more about converting your house into a smart home call HotWire Electric and talk to Hannah or one of our other experts directly.

Electrical Wiring: The Central Nervous System of the Smart House | eiei home

March 28, 2023 By Hotwire Electric

Everyone wants to take advantage of the latest advances in home technology and why not? Turning your home into a high tech smart home has myriad benefits that will enable you and your loved ones to live safer, more comfortable lives. But as we at Hotwire Electric see all the time not every home is ready from a wiring standpoint to pick up the mantle of high tech house.

Why you need Custom Wiring ?

Recently, the good folks at eieihome.com asked us to comment on the situation for an article on their site intended to alert homeowners in the GTA to the dangers of wading into the high tech water without the proper high tech home Electric wiring. As we stated to them:

“Basic wiring is affected by automation. When you no longer turn lights on by wall switch, but rather on a phone or a keypad, iPad or android phones, it requires a different way to wire the home. From Control4, to Lutron or Legrand, our teams are ready to install and incorporate these into the wiring schematics of the home,”

That’s easy for us to say but not always easy for homeowners to understand. Where they typically get a bit lost is in trying to understand why remote operation by a smartphone or tablet requires different wiring than if you turn the light on using a wall switch? It’s a good and valid question and we’ll see if we can explain it.

Wiring for Today’s Technology

While appliances and the like run directly by electricity supplied through power lines don’t need too much in the way special wiring, wiring for automation is a different story. Any light, appliance or other device you wish to control remotely is going to have to have a neutral wire at the associated wall switch. Something the average home doesn’t have. That means dimmers and keypads will need a 3-wire (hot, neutral, load) connection installed or they simply won’t work.

Call Hotwire Electric today on 416-553-5533

Likewise, there’s a good chance your high-tech home is going to call for some in-wall remote control panels and these will have to be installed by one of our master electricians. These panels provide control over clusters or groups of lights and as well as providing the ability to institute lighting macros that may be very complex. Without the in-wall RC panel this type of automation isn’t possible.

But that’s not all. The high tech home is also likely to call for the installation of:

Deep junction boxes to accommodate various size switches.
Whole house surge protectors to ensure your high tech devices are as safe as your porch light.
Proper data wiring that’s a step or 2 up from standard cat 5 or 5e.

Hopefully a picture is beginning to emerge that wiring the high tech house of today is not the same as wiring what passed for a high tech home 30 years ago.

Involving Specialist Electricians Like those at HotWire Electric

As the eieihome.com article points out:

“Complete home automation can involve many different things, from security automation with cameras and motion detection, to thermostats, lighting, and surround sound. With that in mind, when planning your custom home, it’s important to involve your specialist electrical contractor as early on as possible.”

That means the sooner you contact HotWire Electric and get us involved in the planning of your new home or the renovating of your existing home the better. Our experts will be able to assess your needs and design a structured electrical system for you that takes all of your current devices into consideration and yet is also completely scalable to accommodate what may be coming in the years ahead.

The Union of Beauty and Efficiency | Toronto Sun

March 24, 2023 By Hotwire Electric

For years homeowners believed that in order to achieve energy savings they would have to sacrifice aesthetics. And for the most part they were right. But just as you can now get a car that is both energy efficient and fast, you can now drastically reduce the amount of energy your home uses while at the same time enhancing it aesthetically. In an article picked up by the Toronto Sun eieihome.com recently sat down with our own Hannah Taylor to discuss ways you can reduce your home energy consumption while also making your home more beautiful.

The Lighting Revolution is Here and Its Name Is “LED”

Any discussion about saving energy in the home these days has to touch on LED lights. Quite simply they represent nothing short of a revolution in lighting technology that does what formerly seemed impossible: they use about 90% less energy than incandescent lamps, last for up to 20 years (!), improve the quality of the light in your home while also providing you with far more design options than any previous type of light. As the Sun article points out:

LED technology has made an incredible contribution to Canadian energy-saving efforts. Something that is especially evident when it comes to pot lights—a growing staple in Canadian homes, nationwide. “A standard halogen bulb [traditionally used in pot lights] has zero warranty and draws 50watts, where the LED version offers the same for 6w of average,” Taylor states. “Multiply that by 100 pot lights in a home and you are saving astronomically”.

Armed with this knowledge the homeowner is almost compelled to investigate the ways in which they can integrate this technology into their home, since not to do so leads to only one thing: waste.

Toronto Electrician Dream Home Lighting Guide

Other Ways to Save Energy While Enhancing Style

While LED lights should be the centerpiece of any decor that aims to save energy and improve aesthetics there are other measures that can be taken that will also allow you to achieve the same pair of results. One of the best ways is to have the pros from HotWire Electric install lighting controls throughout the house such as:

Dimmers – Dimmers have been around a long time but have only recently begun to receive the credit they deserve for their ability to deliver the powerful combination of aesthetic enhancement and energy savings. Most of the lights in your home should be on dimmers. First, because they’ll allow you to fine tune the mood in any room at the drop of a hat and second, because they’ll save you money in the process.
Motion sensors – Like dimmers this technology has been around a while but is only now seeing application in residential settings. Having your lights hooked up to motion sensors in key parts of the house will ensure you never leave the laundry room light on for days and will give stairways, hallways and other parts of the home a futuristic tilt that will blow guests away.

Guide for Basement Lighting Ideas and Concepts

Contact Hotwire

If you dread the arrival of the electric bill every month. If you wish you could find an energy-efficient way to enhance the look of your decor. If you are ready to embrace true 21st century lighting technology then give Hotwire Electric a call and speak to Hannah or one of our other highly qualified lighting experts. They’ll help set you on a path toward a more beautiful and affordable future.

Fight the Winter Blues with Creative Lighting | HomeStars

March 22, 2023 By Hotwire Electric

It seems winter is never far away in these parts and neither are the winter blues. Being basically housebound for months at a time due to the extreme cold, snow, wind and more is bad enough. But perhaps the hardest thing to deal with come winter time is the darkness. For the most part it’s just accepted by folks in the GTA. After all, there’s not much you can do about it. Or is there?

Homestars has an interesting blog post up where they delve into the subject of winter light deficit and how best to counteract its enervating effects. In the article they interview our own Hotwire Electric lighting expert Hanna and get her suggestions about the most effective ways to combat the winter blues with interior lighting. As usual Hanna has a lot of great suggestions beginning with timers:

“Timers are a must, they automatically adjust for daylight savings and help ensure your home is safe and lit when arriving home during those long dark winter months.”

Having your lights on timers actually makes a lot of sense both from a safety standpoint, as Hanna pointed out, and from the standpoint of keeping your mood up. Because as numerous studies have shown having the house properly lit up when you get home helps you maintain a positive attitude and stave off the winter doldrums.

Yes, But is it Environmentally Responsible?

Aware that turning the lights on earlier and leaving them on longer isn’t exactly the kind of message folks are used to hearing in this age of conservation Hanna wisely mentions ultra-efficient, ultra-long lasting LED bulbs.

LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology represents the largest leap forward in lighting technology since the light bulb itself. LED bulbs use only a tiny fraction of the energy incandescents use to generate the same amount of light. And not only that, they’ll last for up to 20 years. That’s right, 20 years. The bottom line is you can turn the LEDs on earlier, keep them on longer and still retain your environmental credibility while simultaneously saving a boatload of money on your electric bill.

Other Ways to Keep Your Energy Bills in Check This Winter

It’s important from a mental and emotional standpoint to provide yourself and your family members with adequate light during the winter. And while LED bulbs are often just what the doctor ordered from a financial and practical standpoint they’re not the only ways to keep you winter time energy consumption from eating a hole in your bank account. Hanna’s suggestion? Motion sensors:

“Sensors throughout walk in closets, hallways, basements, and laundry rooms are another way to help ensure lights come on when entering an area and turn off automatically when leaving. This ensures no extra energy is left on when the lights are not in use.”

Home for the Holidays

Before wrapping Hanna was asked about ways folks can keep their lighting costs in check during the holiday season when lavish light displays are often expected. Her suggestion:

“To enhance your Holiday parties, you can easily and quickly add a beautiful centre light or add in some retrofit pot lights to illuminate the space. This job can be quickly done and with minor inconvenience…”

Sounds like a great way to add a holiday touch without adding another big holiday related bill.

Stay Lit, Stay Light

Wintertime in the GTA brings with it a darkness many find oppressive. But the winter blues don’t have to get the better of you. By instituting a few of Hanna’s common sense lighting tips you can keep the lights on and keep your spirits up without sending yourself to the poor house or contributing to climate change.

Upgrade Your Outdoors With Leading Edge Lighting Solutions from HotWire | eiei home