Scherer Electric Blog: Archive for the ‘Electrical’ Category

Some Misunderstandings About LED Lights

Monday, June 5th, 2023
lightbulb-LED-100-dollar-bills

We think making an upgrade to your outdoor or indoor lighting in Depew, NY or elsewhere in Western New York to all LED lights is a fantastic idea. Although LED lights are more expensive than incandescent or fluorescent lights, they have numerous benefits such as lengthy lifespans, low heat emissions, lower energy usage, and reduced negative environmental impacts.

Although LED lights aren’t a “new” technology, the explosion of their popularity is a recent phenomenon—and that means there are many misunderstandings about LED lights making the rounds on the internet. We want to clear up a few of these misconceptions so you have a better understanding of what you’ll get when you choose to upgrade your home lighting to LED.

Continue Reading

How Powerful a Whole-House Generator Do I Need?

Monday, May 22nd, 2023
generator-receiving-service

We install whole-house generators in Lancaster, NY and throughout Western New York, and we’ve found that they are one of the most useful upgrades people can make to their homes. Portable generators simply don’t have the power, convenience, reliability, or safety that comes with installing a whole-house generator wired directly into a home’s electrical system. With an automatic generator, the benefits are even greater, since the generator will activate automatically when there’s a power outage.

But once a homeowner decides on getting a standby generator, the next question they have is “How powerful a generator do I need?” Let’s look into that—and remember that you can always rely on our top-notch team to help you find out the ideal generator to install for your house.

Continue Reading

Common Spa and Hot Tub Wiring Problems

Monday, April 24th, 2023
Water_line

Although you can get some use out of your spa during many times of the year, the summer is when you’ll enjoy relaxing in this luxurious oasis the most. 

However, it’s important to remember that spas, hot tubs, and jacuzzis are electrical devices. Like any electrical device, they may encounter wiring and other electrical problems and fail. If you need repairs for your spa, please don’t try to do it yourself or let another amateur take on the job. Any major electrical work requires a professional electrician, and in the case of a spa, a mistake can create a serious risk of electric shock. (Think of a toaster getting knocked into a bathtub and you’ll see why you don’t want any errors.)

Fortunately, when you need spa repair in Buffalo, NY, you don’t have to look far. Scherer Electric is not only Western New York’s favorite electrician, we also handle hot tub, spa, and jacuzzi wiring. Below we’re going to look at several common spa electrical issues that you may need our help for. 

Continue Reading

Troubleshooting Common Indoor Lighting Troubles

Monday, April 10th, 2023
lightbulb-on-its-side

Before we go farther with this post, we want to point out that troubleshooting is much different from repair.

Electrical work is something you need to leave to professionals, so if you have major issues with your indoor lighting you can resolve with basic steps, you want to have actual licensed electricians to do the work.

Amateur tampering with indoor lighting, particularly with the wiring, can create major safety hazards leading to electrical fires and parts of a house catching on fire

Now that we’ve got that important warning out of the way, let’s check out your home’s lighting issues and see what you can do about them.

Continue Reading

Whole-House Generator Myths—And the Facts

Monday, March 27th, 2023
generator-residential

There was once a time when the most common definition of the word myth was stories about ancient gods and heroes. Today, the common definition is anything that’s widely believed yet untrue.

There are whole shows, podcasts, video channels, and books based on breaking about the myths that circulate through our society and which the internet has only made harder to squash.

Are there myths about whole-house generators out there? You bet! 

We’re experts when it comes to whole-house generators, and we’d like to go through a few common myths about these devices and dispel them with the facts.

Continue Reading

What Are the Benefits of a Variable Frequency Drive for a Business?

Monday, March 13th, 2023
electrical-schematic

You may have heard about variable frequency drives (VFDs) before, but not understood what they do or what benefits they may offer to your business.

We hope to change this with some helpful information. VFDs are becoming more and more common in commercial and industrial use because of their benefits, which include higher energy efficiency, fewer breakdowns, longer system life, and lower environmental impact.

But let’s start at the beginning and answer your first question…

Continue Reading

Why You Should ONLY Hire Professional Electricians

Monday, February 27th, 2023
electrical-parts

The title of this post is a bit redundant: it should be “Why You Should ONLY Hire Electricians.” The reason is that any one who’s an amateur electrician is not an electrician!

You can’t have an amateur lawyer or an amateur doctor—when you say “lawyer” or “doctor,” you mean someone who has a law degree or a medical degree and a license to practice. The same criteria applies to electricians. 

Unfortunately, homeowners often make the mistake of thinking an amateur who claims to be an electrician is someone they can trust with important work.

Hiring an amateur “electrician” to fix wiring for your house makes as much sense as hiring a “medical enthusiast” (or whatever title a bogus doctor uses) to handle your surgery. 

We hope this explanation has convinced you to only hire a (professional) electrician in Cheektowaga, NY. If you want to learn more about why to avoid amateurs (and that includes you) for electrical work, follow us below.

Continue Reading

Old Fuel and Your Generator: A Bad Combination

Monday, February 13th, 2023
emergency-home-generator

We strongly recommend whole-house generators to our customers. There are few things more reassuring than knowing that your home will have the electrical power it needs in case of an extended outage.

Power losses are most common during periods of extreme weather, and a home that cannot run its HVAC system for several days at a time under such conditions is likely to be unlivable.

Generators also make homes safer in general, stop refrigerated and frozen food from spoiling, and ensure that powered medical equipment continues to operate.

The best way to power a generator is with natural gas, since this fuel source is piped directly to the generator and there’s no need to keep a separate fuel supply of liquid propane, gasoline, or diesel on hand.

But not all homes have access to a natural gas line. For those homes that rely on a different fuel source, we have some important advice about old, stale fuel.

Continue Reading

Don’t Try to Install Your Own Spa Electrical System!

Monday, January 30th, 2023
pool-at-night

Having a spa or hot tub for your house is a wonderful luxury: you can enjoy the refreshing quality of a pool without all the space that a pool requires, and few sensations are more relaxing than soaking in the water of a hot tub at the end of the day.

Hot tubs are also great for socializing and they can significantly increase the value of a home.

Can you install a spa on your own? Well, we don’t recommend trying it. It’s a lot more complicated than buying a hot tub and plugging it in.

You have to consider the deck, the support, the plumbing connection, the massive weight, the chemicals … there’s far too much to it.

Furthermore, hot tubs and spas have local code and safety requirements they have to meet, and it takes professionals to ensure that your new hot tub meets these codes.

And, above all, you can’t install your own electrical system for your spa!

Continue Reading

Switching to LED Lights: 2023 Is the Year to Do It!

Monday, January 16th, 2023
lightbulb-LED-100-dollar-bills

We don’t like making New Years’ resolutions for others, but sometimes people feel at a loss for what they want to achieve in the new year. So we’d like to make a suggestion, one that’s not too difficult to achieve when you have the right people working with you. 

Change your home’s indoor lighting over entirely to LED lights.

Part of this job you can do on your own. For basic lamps or anyplace you have easily accessible light bulb fixtures, you only need to purchase LED bulbs of the same wattage and replace the old incandescent bulbs with them.

LED lights cost more to purchase, but they aren’t super expensive, and the long-term benefits and savings are well worth it. 

But you have more complex lighting in your house, and this is where you’ll need electrical professionals to handle the retrofit that makes your home into a true LED home. Scherer Electric is the company to trust when it comes to indoor lighting in Orchard Park, NY.

Continue Reading