The Best of Swartz Electric

An Annual Roundup

Last month was Swartz’s nine year anniversary. This month is my one year anniversary.  In order to celebrate, I thought I would put together a collection of our most popular blog postings.  I figured I would share our top five posts by analytic data – and then I’d list my personal top three.  Just in case you’re curious, and obviously because I love the posts.

#1 – How To Troubleshoot An Electrical Light Fixture

This is, by far, our most popular page on the entire website.  It’s crazy, but true – this page gets literally hundreds of hits every month, as opposed to a couple or even a dozen monthly for the all our other blog postings.  It’s some basic, helpful, DIY information, and apparently super useful since it’s listed #3 on Google’s search for ‘troubleshoot light fixture’.  Thank you, America!

#2 – The Gazette’s 2015 Best of the Springs Nominations!

I have no idea why this  blog posting is the second most popular on our website in a year of analytics – but it was.  And apparently almost two hundred people used it to go to the Gazette’s voting website and (hopefully!) vote for Swartz Electric as the Best Electrician of Colorado Springs.  The results of the polling are being announced on the sixteenth of this month.  Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

#3 – Ten Electrical Safety Tips for Homeowners

I think the reasons this blog post is still super popular, two years later, is pretty self explanatory.  Someone just wrote an article in February 2015 and referenced it – and we never cease to be flattered by that, or the other pingbacks we receive.  Of course, the most important point you can take away from this article is that we should never try to resolve an electrical problem we aren’t skilled or equipped to handle.  Sometimes, doing it yourself is not a good answer.  (A la Don’t It Yourself)

#4 – Why Federal Pacific Panels Need Replacing

The elimination of FPE panels throughout our region has literally become a personal crusade for Swartz Electric.  Our goal is to remove and replace every single one from every resident’s home – the primary reason being that they are dangerous fire hazards, and electric panels are one of those invisible things we rely on to A) work for us and B) not kill us.  Since FPE panels have a history of failing and burning homes down, they kind of aren’t doing their jobs.  We want them all gone, and so should you!

#5 – Spacing Requirements and Issues Regarding Electrical Cable Installation

I forgot about this one completely since the 2014 NEC came out…  However, we know this is another post that is super popular because it empowers DIY-ers to do dangerous things correctly (hopefully!).  It is important that everyone remembers electric wiring isn’t something to be done casually or with impunity.  When wiring your home, remember you are taking the lives of your family into your own hands if something goes wrong.

Well that is it for our analytics-based top 5!  Do you see why they were popular, and are you guilty of reading them too?

How about visiting my top 3 with me – a choice that was very, very difficult to make since I enjoyed so many of the topics I got to pick, the research I did, and the results or conclusions I came to.  Not only that, but almost every post I wrote over the past year has been a ‘favorite’, in one way or another.  It felt like spending a year reading every book you ever wanted to and then being asked to come up with your top 3 favorites.  An impossible task, but I think I made it work.

Mai’s #1 Blog Pick : If Tesla Was A Man Of Our Time

Aside from the fact that I wrote the article, I actually had a lot of fun researching it.  Not only that, but I feel like the points it made are still valid – Tesla was eccentric, unusual, and actually bizarre in a lot of ways.  If he was a man of our generation, he would probably not have received any recognition of genius or brilliance but been ostracized, medicated, and possibly locked up.  This saddens me, because even in his own time his genius was never truly understood or appreciated.  If he wasn’t a man of the past and he isn’t a man of the present, does that make him a man only for the future?  Points to ponder as I continue to learn and try to understand the man he was.  By the way, you can view the paperwork the FBI confiscated – and later ‘declassified’ – from Tesla at his death here if they interest you.

Mai’s #2 Blog Pick: Lighting Fundamentals

It’s so cheesy, but I love the science, architecture, art, and design that should go behind a space’s lighting.  While I only spent a couple of months studying it in school, I found it completely engrossing and almost … magical.  The idea that light can change, transport, and reshape a space seems foreign to our logic and yet is completely and utterly effective when it comes to directing our eyes and tricking our brains.  With all the developments recently in lighting technology, this powerful arena of design and beauty – nay, art – is only going to get better understood and more fully utilized.  Do I believe most space is incorrectly lit?  Indubitably.  I hope to be a force for changing that in the future, and to see you there!

Mai’s #3 Blog Pick: Will Solar Go Naked, or Just Natural?

Despite its provocative title, this article truly explores the future of solar as we know it.  It addresses the approaching trend of moving from inorganic solar cells to organic materials, utilizing our glass environmental surfaces, and the harvesting of non-usable light spectrums in order to generate power.  Not only that, but it examines the possibility of cross generation – using solar in more ways than one in order to generate not just electricity, but also heat that will generate electricity.  These discussions have been ‘fringe’ beliefs since the seventies, when US consumers began implementing solar and solar thermal on a personal level; however the truth is they are now becoming an accessible reality for commercial and industrial applications, as well as the casual home user.  The truth of the matter is that we all need electricity; we are all consumers, so why can’t we all be producers, as well?

Well that is it for this years best of the Swartz Electric blog roundup – I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!  Have a different opinion, or want to reminisce on your favorite post?  Don’t hesitate to let us know below and join in on the discussion!

Swartz Electric – Your Colorado Springs Electrician performs electrical work throughout Colorado Springs, Monument, Black Forest, Fountain, Falcon, Woodland Park, and everywhere in between. We are the electricians in Colorado Springs to solve your electrical problems and meet your electrical requirements.

Call, e-mail, visit our website, or stop by our office today, and allow Swartz Electric to serve YOU.

This is an original article written by Mai Bjorklund for Swartz Electric. This article may not be copied whole or in part without the express permission of Swartz Electric, LLC.

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