A short YouTube interview (host: Andrew Lam; guest: Patrick Brown of Vine Electric) about electrical upgrades that provide good return on investment when selling or living in a home. Key recommendations include panel upgrades and switching to LED lighting (noted benefits: ~25–30 year lifespan, dimmable without flicker, low heat output). The video also covers common code/inspection issues (e.g., 14-gauge wire on 20A breakers), Vine Electric services (panel upgrades, recessed lighting, fan installs, hot tub/spa wiring), free estimates, and paid detailed home inspections.
Questions this video answers
Around 25–30 years.
14 gauge wire being used on 20 amp breakers.
No — estimates are free.
Yes — they charge a fee that depends on the number of rooms; it's a thorough inspection.
Chapters
Today we're talking about what electrical upgrades give you the best bang for your buck and how LED light bulbs can save you money. Thanks again for joining us on our video blog. This is Andrew Lam, team leader of the Lam team at RE Max and we wanted to of course, draw your attention to a couple of spots on the blog before we get started. If you are a home buyer looking to purchase a home sometime in the next three to six months, please feel free to use our search all homes link. That will take you to basically a backstage pass at the MLS to view every home available. And it will actually tell you which homes are marked contingent, meaning they have an offer and which ones are still available, marked as active. And if you're a home seller or you would like to know what your home is worth in today's market, definitely make use of our free home value link. That will let you know what the homes around you are selling for and give you an idea of of what yours can sell for in today's market. So today we're joined by Patrick Brown from Vine Electric and just wanted to ask him a couple of questions to give you guys some value regarding what an electric company can do for you and how they can help you in your home and the sale of your home or even help with upgrades to increase the value of your home while you're there and when you're going to sell. So, Patrick, here's a great question we get a lot of in regards to remodels and upgrades, what type of upgrades do you guys generally do that kind of give homeowners the most bang for their buck in terms of lowering their energy bills every month and adding value to their home?
Typically it would be a panel upgrade. As far as lighting goes, it's LED lighting.
Okay. How long does an LED light last versus your general? I mean, there's fluorescents, there's so many now there's incandescent.
Yeah. It depends on the LED light bulb itself, but they're saying typically around 25, 30 years.
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah, that makes sense. So not only lowering your energy bills, but you also don't need to replace them as often. Correct. Which is nice. And then what kind of, you know, electrical jobs do you do?
We do panel upgrades, we do home free wires.
Okay.
Recessed lighting, fan installations, pretty much everything. Hot tubs, spas, you name it.
Nice. Okay. And then another question that I'm getting a lot because we just had the situation over and over again. People get pools installed and you know, the pool company comes and messes with, with the electrical box or solar comes in and they mess with the electrical box. When you go to sell a home, home inspector comes, looks at the electrical and then, you know, tells you whether things are good or bad or if there's potential for overload and fire. We're seeing a lot of, you know, 14 gauge wire. This is kind of technical, but 14 gauge wire to 20amp breakers.
Sure.
How do you ensure that, you know, getting other things installed like pools, hot tubs, all that does not mess with your ability to then sell the home or, you know, that everyone's doing work up to code.
Right. To answer that question, you know, everything has to be done per code.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? So if There is a 14 gauge wire on a 20amp breaker, that has to be addressed, you know, and a lot of times we'll make the customer or the client aware of that and it just needs to be taken care of the right way. It may not necessarily pan out downstream, depending on what they have that thing hooked up to. But it's just best to have the electrical done the correct way. That way that it prevents fires.
Do you guys ever come out and inspect a home prior to a sale or. I mean, I'm sure people generally get a home inspection and then call you guys at the recommendation of the home inspector. But is there a fee for you guys to come out and just take a look?
It's free for an estimate. However we have done, and we do, we've recently done home inspections, but we have a fee that we charge per. It depends on how many rooms are in the house and it's pretty thorough. Just kind of depends on what they want. But it's free for. You can call over the phone and pretty much explain what you have prices for that.
So we're hearing a lot about LED lighting now and how more efficient it is, how much better it is on your bank account. So what are the benefits of trading out your incandescents for LED bulbs?
Two of the cool things I can think about is dimmable without, you know, sputtering, or they'll have a tendency to flicker.
Okay.
They've gotten a lot better with that. The other thing I can think of that comes to mind is they generate little to no heat. So if you have a ton of can lights in the kitchen or in the living room, you're going to lose a lot of that heat that typically the incandescents or the fluorescents put out.
Right. So if you're in the kitchen cooking up a meal, you're in there for a couple hours. Obviously, the stove is making it hot, but the lighting above you is also making it hot. That's what kind of adds to that feeling. Like you're in a hot kitchen feeling.
Exactly.
Okay.
And that's another way to save power as far as the AC and all those other good things.
Right. Okay. Well, thanks for joining us.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, Tom, thanks again for joining us on our video blog today. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to give us a call or email us or drop them in the comments below. And we would love to answer your questions right here on this video blog. Feel free to email those over and any question you can think of. I'm sure we can find the answer. Thanks and have a great day.
