Electricity is all around you in your Tallahassee-area home, but—“out of sight, out of mind”—you probably rarely think about it as it powers your lights, appliances, and numerous other modern conveniences. Your home’s electricity may be nebulous, but it’s a powerful force that deserves respect and care. According to a recent National Institute of Health Study, electrical injuries in the U.S. cause approximately 1,000 deaths and 30,000 injuries annually, with 20% of these injuries affecting children.

Florida Attorney General Ashely Moody released a consumer alert earlier this month warning the public to protect themselves from the 12 scams of Christmas, which include:

Tallahassee’s Outdoor Kitchens

Given our temperate climate, many Tallahassee-area residents barbecue throughout the year. Not only does barbecue cooking taste fantastic, but alfresco cooking—and dining—lets us spend more of our valuable time enjoying the fresh air and open spaces of our respective yards.

With advancing technologies, security cameras have emerged over the past decade as a first-line security tool on par with alarms for homes and businesses. Sophisticated security camera systems are becoming more affordable, and research has determined that security cameras provide excellent deterrence value against criminal activity. Along with affordability, reasons homeowners and businesses are turning to security cameras instead of or as a supplement to alarm systems include the following:

It may have seemed like an exceptionally calm hurricane season for Florida this year, but tropical storm activity started ramping up in the second half of September. Since September and October are considered part of the state’s peak hurricane season, residents should pay close attention to the weather and have a hurricane preparation plan in place. Note that 40% of all hurricanes that make a U.S. landfall impact Florida and that the Tallahassee area has weathered almost 60 tropical storms since 1930.

If your Tallahassee-area home has knob-and-tube wiring, you might want to think about rewiring it. If you don’t know what knob-and-tube wiring is, no surprise as that form of home wiring technology started becoming obsolete about 100 years ago. While knob-and-tube wiring may still be present in some older Tallahassee homes, most older home buyers have upgraded such wiring over the decades because it provides limited amperage and is considered a safety hazard by electrical codes.