We were recently interviewed for a story on WHYY about the frequent power outages in our area:

Why does it seem like the outages are concentrated in Chester County? Goglia said it could be due to the more rural, undeveloped areas in southern Chester County, many bordering on Delaware and Maryland. The abundance of trees increases the chances that one might fall down and knock out power lines.”

Read the rest of the story here »

June is the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season, and it’s a good time to get prepared for power outages. Give us a call and we can help you with a generator that’s right for you.

For a little more than the price of a portable generator you can have a trouble-free standby generator. No need to roll out run cords or mess with gasoline. This Generac automatic standby generator (pictured above) is ready for a power outage.

Pictured here is a Generac 10-circuit automatic transfer panel, installed in Oxford, PA in Chester County.

The recent ice storms left people without power for days and even some up to weeks. Don’t let this happen to you! We can help with a generator back up system that’s right for you, from portable generators to whole-house standby generator systems.

Even if you have a portable generator we can make it a easy and safe hook up so you don’t have to run dangerous extension cords in your house through windows and doors or even worse, jury-rig your wiring.

Working as an electrician generates a lot of unusable scrap materials. We are careful to recycle where we can, including breaker panels, meter boxes, outlet boxes, light fixtures, ceiling fans, motors, batteries, copper and aluminum wire and more.

A burned-out dusk to dawn photo cell that controls a lamp post light in the 55 and older villages at Penn Ridge in West Grove, PA.

This summer we had several calls for lighting repairs from the lightning storm surges. Lightning can damage electrical equipment and accessories including timers, photo cells, ballasts and transformers.

We can help troubleshoot, maintain and repair your lighting systems for your home and business. We can replace from fluorescent bulbs, CFL, LED, metal halide, high pressure sodium and more. We also replace  and install photo cells, timers, ballasts and more.

A replacement 150-watt ballast from a lightning damaged lamp post light im New Daleville

Southern Chester County Electric  sponsored the Oxford Elite girls softball team this year, and we’d like to congratulate the girls and the coaches on a great season!

Ceiling fans make a great addition to your outdoor porches and gazebos. They can make these areas cool and comfortable on hot summer days and nights.

Note that only properly rated fans should be used in an outdoor area. Even though they aren’t exposed to direct weather such as rain or snow, these areas can still be exposed to moisture.

Outdoor rated ceiling fans are designed to keep moisture from damaging the fans and prevent moisture from penetrating the motor and electronic components.

These two Monte Carlo outdoor fans were installed on a screened-in back porch in Lincoln University, PA.

Generators can be used to power your home when utility power is lost. There are many options to choose from, with different power sources and capacities.

Most commonly used are the portable gasoline powered plug in types and also the whole house automatic generators that run on propane or natural gas. Both can do the job and keep refrigerators, freezers, pumps and heaters running until utility power is restored.

The advantage of a whole house generator is they can handle a larger load like A/C units and hot water heaters. Also with an automatic transfer switch (ATS) the house changes over from utility power to generator power automatically. This can be a big advantage especially if you’re away on vacation and a bad storm hits at home and knocks out the utility power.

The ATS unit detects the outage and starts the generator, which begins to power the whole house. When the utility power is restored the ATS switches back over and shuts down the generator.

The pictures here show a new Generac generator installation with ATS in Avondale, Pennsylvania here in Chester county.

Recessed outlets are great for outdoor use, since they are low profile and recess neatly into the wall, eliminating the usual unsightly bubble covers. They can be installed on all types of surfaces such as siding or masonry. An in-use cover allows you to plug in and keep the cover closed and weather tight.

Recessed outlets are also great for your flat screen TVs. They can be neatly installed behind the panel and allow all the hook ups to be behind the tv.

PECO announced that they will no longer have off-peak service  the end of this year. The off peak rate was mostly used for the hot water heaters so that people could save a considerable amount on their electric bills.

Electric water heaters consume a lot of electricity; they run throughout out the day and night to keep the water hot. A water heater timer can help you lower your consumption by only turning on and heating the water when needed.

The Little Grey box by Intermatic is made just for water heaters. It has two sets of trips so it can be set to turn off when you go to bed at night, and then back on in the morning as needed. It can be deactivated while you’re away at work.

Contact us if you have more questions on this device or need it it installed.