Amsterdam is famous for its canal systems, bicycles and artistic heritage. It also houses a number of famous museums and landmarks that includes: Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank’s House.

There are approximately 881,000 bicycles throughout Amsterdam that are used by daily commuters, children, people on their daily shop or transporting ladders across the 80 bridges in the canal ring (Yes, people actually do this). Bike usage throughout Amsterdam has grown by more than 40% in the last 20 years, this is also means that the use of cars has decreased in this tourist hotspot.

Bicycles weren’t always a thing in Amsterdam, cars once outnumbered bicycles and in the 1970’s bicycle use plunged from a staggering 80% usage down to only 20%. In 1971, more than 3,000 Amsterdam citizens were killed by cars and 450 of those deaths were children, bearing in mind this death figure was produced in only one year. The outcome of this disaster lead to the encouragement of swapping the use of motor-vehicles for the use of bicycles.

A mixed plan from the 1960’s was to fill in the 165 beautiful canals that masked the city centre to make way for new roads to meet the demand of the ever-growing motor vehicle (I am so thankful this did not actually happen). The oil crisis that took place in 1973 shook the whole world, including Amsterdam. This crisis caused the price of oil to quadrupled in price, which effected the production and the running of motor vehicles. Post to the oil crisis- the Amsterdam prime minister, Den Uyl, attempted to encouraged all Dutch citizens to adopt a new way of life and become more environmentally concerned with the way they live their day to day lives. The government then started to introduce Car-Free Sundays: extremely deserted and quiet motorways so empty that children played. This jogged the memory of the citizens of what life was like before the motor vehicle was introduced into their lives.

Amsterdam has a goal to be emission Free by 2025, and they encouraging this goal by swapping out their combustion engine taxis for electric taxis which includes brands such as: Nissan and Tesla. Holland has the highest density of EV chargers compared to the rest of the world. Each month, 25 new charging points need to be installed around Amsterdam’s city centre to keep up with the growing demand. Taxi electric is a fleet of Nissan leaf electric taxi’s that patrol Amsterdam’s. Taxi Electric was the first fully established electric taxi company in Amsterdam which was founded in 2011.  TCA is also another electric taxi that operate within Amsterdam who also use Nissan as their EV vehicle supplier, the model that they use is the 100% electric “e-NV200” which seats 4 additional passengers and boasts a 3.1m cubed cargo boot capacity. TCA’s clientele includes: hotels, airports, businesses and people with decreased mobility. TCA’s Nissan e-NV200s only take 30 minutes to charge 80% of the car’s battery and save approximately 200,000 litres of petrol per year.

In 2017, the UK government made an agreement to ban the sales of all new petrol and diesel cars by the year 2040. All car models for sale pre-2040, need to meet an air quality test by passing a new real driving emissions (RDE) test.

For more details on electric chargers and how to make the switch to electric get in touch! 


 

Why do you need a solar battery?

Heard the buzz about Tesla Powerwalls and wonder what they actually do? Here’s our overview of all PV (Photo-Voltaic) batteries for use at home.

What are they?

PV Batteries are added onto solar systems to store any unused power generated for use later in the day. Some brands of PV batteries allow you to control when your battery charges from the grid to make the most of the Economy 7 Tariff. If you don’t have solar panels installed, you can still have this installed to only be used for off-peak charging and back up.

Who can have PV batteries?

Anyone with solar systems installed can have PV batteries installed onto their existing system. The Tesla Powerwall 2 is compatible with all types of solar systems. However, bear in mind that some other brands of battery may not be compatible across all solar systems available.

What if I don’t have solar?

No problem! The Tesla Powerwall 2 allows for users without solar panels to have it installed to use only for off-peak charging using economy 7 tariff meaning cheaper electricity during the day, not just at night!

What does it cost to install a PV battery?

The cost is dependent on the system being installed, contact us today for a bespoke quotation!

One thing worth bearing in mind is that if you don’t have solar panels yet and decide to add a battery with your installation plans you can get all of it installed under the 5% VAT bracket! Saving yourself a healthy 15% in VAT.  However, if they are installed after the solar panels  – so added on – the rate then reverts to 20%. A huge incentive to think about a solar battery upfront as part of your renewable energy plans at home.

 


The John Lewis advert has officially been released and Christmas can now commence!

Whilst untangling the fairy lights is nobody’s favourite job, London plays home to some of the best Christmas lights in the world. As electricians specialising in the London luxury retail and residential market we know a thing or do about London’s Christmas lights, so here’s 20 of our favourite places to view the festive wintery wonderland.

#1 Oxford Street

Due to be viewed by over 200 million shoppers, this festive combination of colourful neon style lights and 1778 LED baubles brings together the “Christmas is calling” theme. The busiest street in London lays claim to being the first to switch on its festive array in 2018.

#2 Carnaby Street

Round the corner from Oxford street lays one of London’s more quirkier corners – Carnaby Street. Paying tribute to one of Britain’s greatest band and in celebration of the hit film Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen lyrics decorate the street in amazing neon lighting.

#3 Bond Street

Bring back last year’s delicate décor, Bond Street’s lighting celebrates everyone’s favourite Christmas bird (no, not a turkey). Illuminating Bond Street, Albemarle Street and Bruton Street, these festive feathers shine brightly across one of the city’s more luxury shopping districts.

#4 Covent Garden

London electricians Christmas lights

Decorated with 40 marvellous mistletoe chandeliers and almost 700 glowing berries, Convent Garden becomes one of London’s most romantic spots. The historic Market building is playing host to over 320m of garlands with over 100,000 suspended lights, whilst once again the Piazza hosts London’s largest Christmas Tree.

#5 Marylebone

Now fully pedestrianised between 3pm-7pm every night, Marylebone high street is fully of festive cheer and an excellent to walk around and soak in the atmosphere without risk of being run over by an oh so silent electric car.

#6 Regent Street

For the third year running the angels are taking over Regent Street, taking the form of 17m wide sweeping angels. There biggest installation yet stretches down the parade from Langham Place to St James’s Market with over 300,000 lights.

#7 Seven Dials

Perfectly placed around this infamous junction Seven Dials kicked off their festive illumination with an epic street party featuring a live orchestra and many more activities.

#8 Duke of York Square

See Chelsea light up this weekend accompanied by Father Christmas and real reindeer. On top there will be a festive food market and horse and carriage rides all afternoon as well as performances from the local choir.

#9 Greenwich Market

The stunning Greenwich lantern procession and Christmas lights switch on takes places next week. Local schools will parade their homemade lanterns though the Old Navel College grounds to the market for the big countdown.

 


In an age where staying in is the new going out, home cinemas are becoming the latest must have for property owners. From luxury sheds to basement conversions, you can be transported in to movie heaven. As cinema attendance continues to decrease, more people are investing in their home movie experience, with streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime delivering high quality viewing directly to your TV. Home cinema technology has come along way from the Kodak 8mm film projector in the 1950s and 60s.

Locations for home cinema rooms generally come in 3 categories; basement, shed and existing family room. It’s important to use a room that can be closed off to other parts of the house to help avoid noise and light saturation from other locations. For a fully immersive experience, viewers want to lock themselves away from everyday life and become part of the onscreen action.

Getting the atmosphere right in your cinema room can be a fine balance of lighting and audio. A combination of LED downlights and LED strip is the most common trend at the moment. Recessed spotlights help provide a true movie feel, whilst the dimmable feature on LED lighting means you can change the light levels seamlessly and without the risk of flicker. The centrepiece of the room is of course the television or screen, so draw attention to it. You can continue with LED strip lights here if you wish to outline it or you could use it to backlight it which can provide a really cool effect which provides a great sense of depth. Matching all of this technology with a smart integration system such as Rako means your room can be movie-ready at the touch of a button.

Home cinema: Sonos playbar

Sonos Playbar

Audio is just as important as lighting when being immersed in a film. Our friends at Sonos have created a home theatre package based around their version of a soundbar called a Playbar. The Playbar has six mid-woofers to cover the low frequencies and three tweeters to cover the high, all driven by nine class-D amplifiers. More importantly, it’s a smart component making 24 million calculations per second, adding, subtracting, equalizing, and otherwise intelligently adjusting each element to keep the system balanced perfectly. Sonos also integrates with Rako and can controlled with Amazon’s Alexa.

When is comes to décor, comfort is everything. Best to avoid a noisy wooden floor in favour of a luxuriously thick carpet. And of course you’ll need plenty of places to sit, with the seat of choice varying between recliners, sofa and beanbags. Our upholsterer can design the perfect seating to match your room’s identity and colour scheme. Another fabric you will also need to consider is black out blinds or curtains, should your film rooms be above ground. Our Kent based suppliers Silent Gliss produce revolutionary electric blinds and curtains, that can be controlled with a remote or integrated into your Rako lighting system. They have created both battery and mains powered roller and roman blinds which can be retro fitted into your home with minimal fuss.

For the ultimate in cinema luxury, air conditioning is a must. Balancing the temperature and humid can be pivotal for you viewing experience. Proving both cool and hot air, you can easily change the temperature to ensure comfortable viewing for all.

Whatever your design, our team are on hand to assist and recommend you with the perfect home cinema for every budget.


It sounds like Alexa and Cortana could soon be on talking terms, with the two powerhouses in tech announcing a partnership to integrate their voice control systems. This cross-platform integration will also allow Mircrosoft’s Cortana to access some of the more unique aspects of Amazon’s Alexa; from shopping on amazon to controlling smart home devices such as Rako. Whilst Alexa will be able to use Cortana for features such as Microsoft’s Office products, which is built directly into the programs.

As these ladies move into more and more homes, so is smart home integration, with Rako leading the charge. Designed and manufactured in the UK, this fifteen year old company has a wealth of experience in lighting controls, backed by an extensive product range. Rako’s innovative ideas and continuous product development has lead them to become a market leader in the wireless field.

If you say the words “smart integration” to many electricians unfortunately you won’t always get a welcome response. The daunting task of learning a new installation method and some basic programming puts many contractors off providing this service. Here at Opulous, our expertise is very frequently called upon to install Rako following a standard electrical installation. Our team can help you plan your project with your existing electrician or we can install the entire system from the very beginning. Due to the way Rako has been designed the cost of an installation may be more attractive than you think.

London Electricians: Rako

Rako produce wired and wireless solutions for new builds and retrofit projects, with both systems able to integrate with each other seamlessly. The RMT500 is a clever and compact 500W RF dimmer designed to fit through a standard down-light cut-out. Once programmed this device can dim GU10 LED lamps, tungsten, low voltage halogen and other trailing edge dimmable loads. For new builds, a rack mounted dimming solution may be more suitable, as these are designed to be wall mounted in an electrical cupboard. Devices such as the RMT-PILL makes retro fitting this system even easier. This crafty device is small enough to fit inside a back box, meaning that it can be installed into an existing circuit whilst leavening room for a Rako control panel to cover it. This innovation and ingenuity makes installations quicker for the engineer and less messy for the client, preventing the need for more holes to be made.

Dimming is one side of a Rako lighting install, but how you control it is another. There are three different methods to controlling your light; control panel, phone app or Amazon’s Alexa. Wireless control panels can be both flush or surface mounted, neither need wires and surface mounting eliminates the need for a back-box. Wired panels connect using a cat5 network with LED tell-back indicators. Using Rako’s plate designer you have the option of 13 finishes and up to 10 custom buttons. In contrast via a WTC Bridge your system can be connected to the internet for app control via smartphones as well as time clock feature allowing advanced programming, timed events, and holiday mode control.

London Electricians: Rako

The latest release from the Kent based company is the Cloud Gateway, this genius piece of kit allows Alexa to dim your lighting on command, without the use of a control panel or phone. Due to the new partnership Cortana will also be able to assist with turning off your Rako lighting system before bed. Rest assured that support for the Google Play system are also on the horizon. In addition, you can utilise the Apple Homekit app on your iPhone as this can also be used to control the system. By installing a Cloud Gateway and registering an account online, home automation devices can talk to Rako products over the internet. The system must include a Bridge connected to the same network as the Cloud Gateway. Controlling your system doesn’t just stop at a mobile phone, you can now download the official app to your Apple watch or ipad and play with the RGB colour wheel.

Home integration doesn’t just stop at smart lighting, Rako also produce a range of products giving comprehensive control of motorised curtains and blinds with options for mains and low voltage motor types. Systems can be stand-alone or integrated with lighting and have full app control from smart devices. The RACUB is a compact dual relay radio frequency switching module designed to fit local to a motor. Ideal for integrating motorised curtains, blinds and projector screens with the lighting control system. Combined with the lighting system these products are especially popular with the growing number of home cinemas. You can also use a host of other third party systems such as Control4, Crestron and Demopad via any of the Rako bridges. By connecting to the Ethernet integration is achieved using IP control.

This company really have thought of everything when it comes to lighting, long gone are the old fashioned mechanical socket timers, with a Rako system you can enable “holiday mode”. This automatic lighting and curtain function provides the impression that someone is home, giving the owner invaluable security when they are away from home. The lighting system can also be linked with the fire and burglar detection, allowing the lights to react by coming on when the sirens are sounded, turning your system into the ultimate alarm.

From one room to your entire house, Rako is suitable for many different applications, domestic and commercial. If you’ve got a project coming up or in production our team are on hand to help you plan the perfect system to meet your needs and requirements. All engineers at Opulous are all trained in wireless lighting installation, with the technical staff taking on the programming side. Get in touch if to find out more!


Everybody is familiar with the green stickers covering plugs in offices and public places across the UK, New Zealand and Australia. With retailers such as Harrods and Selfridges requiring all electrical items to be tested before the installation of a pop up store, Opulous has never tested more in a year. PAT testing is an important part of any health & safety policy and essential to avoiding electrical incidents. This blog will help to bust the many myths and misunderstandings surrounding portable appliance testing – who should do it, how often, why it is done, and whether it is the law.

What is PAT testing?

Portable appliance testing is the term used to describe the examination, inspection and testing of electrical appliances and equipment to ensure they’re safe to be used. If it is electrical and has a plug on it, whether it is in regular use or not, then it must be maintained safely. Most electrical safety defects can be found by visual examination from a competent person, however internal defects can only be found by testing with a PAT test meter. A simple user check by the person using an appliance can be a very useful part of the appliance’s maintenance regime, ensuring that damaged to items can be reported, repaired or replaced. Although the green stickers are not essential, they make the job of identifying an item that have passed the testing easier, they also indicate when the next pat testing is due.

 

Should I PAT test every year?

The common myth is that portable appliance testing should be carried out annually. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition. Whilst, there is no regulation surrounding what needs to be done, by whom or how frequently, it is common places for insurance companies to set boundaries regarding this. For example, equipment that is used regularly should be tested more frequently. The type of equipment is another major factor in determining PAT testing frequency as hand held appliances are more likely to become damaged than those that are stationary. Class one appliances such as irons and kettles, carry the greatest risk of danger and should be tested more often.

 

Who should carry out PAT testing?

Whilst the visual inspection can be carried out by a competent member of staff in low risk environments. When undertaking a combined inspection and testing, a greater level of knowledge and experience is required. To carry out a portable appliance examination the electrician will need to have the correct equipment and understanding of how to carry out the testing correctly. In addition, they will need to be able to decipher the results, to ensure that the appliance has passed the testing.

 

What does Opulous offer?

Here at Opulous, PAT testing is one of the many services that we offer for retailers across London, our aim is to fit in around your stores schedule. Get in touch with our team to book an onsite visit.