When you are framing a new room and suddenly find yourself puzzled about how high a switch should be from the ground, you understand to some extent how small things can be very important. Installing light switches too low can be annoying, but having them in a higher position is even worse. Moreover, if you […]

If you ask five different individuals which is the best type of switch socket, expect to get five different answers. All of them could be 100 % correct and their answers might be applicable to the current situation. A washroom in Mumbai, a kitchen in London, a workspace in Berlin, or a living room in […]

You may be creating an office at home and are fed up with wires on your desk — there is a smartphone, another smartphone, a tablet, and a laptop, and to top it all off, the lamp needs plugging in, too. Or perhaps you are a builder making a kitchen renovation and your client has […]

Suppose you need to renovate a hallway featuring two endings, with light fixtures at both ends. Or you have a living room that has four ceiling lights controlled by a pair of switches. That raises the same question: such arrangement is possible with a number of 3-way switches scattered along the way of wiring. The […]

You are at the entrance of some steps, in darkness, unable to turn on the light until after reaching the top and flipping the switch. You either have to go up the stairs in utter darkness or head back to the light switch to turn on the lights. The simple solution is to have two […]

If you’re browsing the electrical aisle of a home improvement store, you may feel disoriented. It can be hard to know the difference between toggle switches, rocker switches, push buttons, dimmers and smart switches — they may all look like they perform the same function. But they vary in how they operate, how much they […]

You find yourself at the hardware store holding a ceiling fan package in one hand and a light dimmer switch in the other. You might even wonder whether dimmer switches can regulate fan motors in the way they can with light bulbs. This is a question many home improvement enthusiasts ask themselves. While the answer […]

You’ve arrived at the wall, holding a new switch in your hand, gazing at the fixture that governs both your ceiling fan as well as the accompanying lighting kit — questioning the possibility of using a single dimmer switch for both? This represents one of the most often asked questions regarding home electrical work, the […]

As you return to your living room, turn on the light switch and are momentarily blinded by the six 100-watt-equivalent LED bulbs’ brightness. That kind of lighting is perfect for an operating room but not for an evening in your comfy chair. You may have heard of dimmer switches and would like to get one […]

So, you just got yourself a cool new dimmer switch and you’re staring at the wall plate in your living room, pondering whether you can do the installation yourself or whether you must call an electrician. You’re motivated to dim your dining chandelier while having guests over for dinner, lower the bathroom lights while getting […]

When an electrician based in Chicago retrieved a Leviton Decora plug from its package and gave it to one of his assistants, he was asked, “Why Leviton? What’s wrong with the cheap one?” The electrician had been working with Leviton products for twenty years and experienced multiple problems with cheap brands—the connection problems of backstabbing, […]

When a business traveler from Miami reached Panama City for a week of meetings, he took out his laptop, plugged in its charger, and instantly discovered something unusual. While the plug went easily into the socket and looked the same as the sockets in his home in Florida, he decided to check the voltage with […]