Education is something Congressional Electric, Inc strives to provide not only our technicians and support staff but our customers as well. We want to provide our customers with some basic information on the most common issues and installations in electrical systems. The information included in our electrical education section has been collected from experienced technicians in the trade, the National Electrical Code 2005 and various other electrical resources. If you have any questions or want more information on anything regarding your electrical systems, we are here to assist you. Please feel free to email or call us to speak with an electrician about your problems or concerns. Please understand that the information here is provided to give you a general working knowledge of certain aspects of the electrical trade and should not be used as a self diagnostic tool. Diagnostics should always be performed by a qualified electrician.

Electric Fun Facts

• The first central power plant, Pearl Street Station located in lower Manhattan and built by Thomas Edison began generating electricity on September 4, 1882. It had one generator and it produced power for 800 electric light bulbs.
• Since Pearl Street Station opened in 1882 and lit the first 800 light bulbs the electric utility industry has grown to generate over 2.5 million gigawatt-hours annually, the equivalent of lighting 4.8 billion 60-watt light bulbs for a year.
• High tech paraphernalia like computers, printers and video games used to have almost no effect on our power use; today it is estimated to account for more than 13% of a typical household energy budget. By 2020, it could be as much as 25%.
• Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity – but he did prove that lighting is a form of electrical energy.
• In 1800 Count Alassandro Volta made the “voltaic pile”, a battery.
• Count Alassandro Volta with his experiments with Luigi Galvani, applying electricity to frog legs and making them jump when touched by an electric wire prompted Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to write Frankenstein in 1818.
• The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
• Every year, American homes waste more than $13 billion in energy – an average of $150 per family.
• Thomas Edison didn’t invent the first light bulb, but he did invent one that stayed lit for more than a few seconds. He did however invent more than 2,000 new products, including almost everything needed for us to use electricity in our homes: switches, fuses, sockets and meters.
• A single lighting bolt has enough power in it to service 200,000 homes.