Overhead Door of Santa Clara Valley is committed to bringing you the best in residential garage doors, commercial doors and openers and accessories. We have the door to fit your style, your budget and your needs. Whether you need a stylish new garage door for your home, a more energy-efficient commercial door for your business or a better integrated door system for your industrial application, Overhead Door has the products to keep you up and running. As an Overhead Door Red Ribbon Distributor, we have the reliable products you want with the safety you need. As a Red Ribbon Distributor, we have the experience and expertise to keep your garage or commercial door running smoothly, safely and efficiently. Whether you're looking for a product installation, help with a repair or regular maintenance to keep your garage door in the best shape, we can help. Our service technicians are professional, friendly and ready to help. Plus as an Overhead Door distributor, you can rest assured that every member of our team is trained and knowledgeable with over 25 years of combined experience.
Call us for all of your service needs. HOURS OF OPERATION:Monday – Friday8:00 AM – 5:00 PMSaturdayWalk in's only at showroom10:00 AM – 2:00 PM SundayClosedIt may seem like a no-brainer: You turn off your TV, your iPod player, your phone charger, and they’re done using electricity, right? Turns out, plenty of products still suck power even when they’re not on. Standby loss, more popularly known as vampire power or phantom load, accounts for a surprisingly large chunk of the average home and office’s electricity bill. Several sources, including the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), suggest that it can constitute as much as 10 percent of residential energy use. In other words, most of us are basically throwing money out the window—just by making the reasonable assumption that when something is off, it’s actually off. Not all electrical products draw power when they’re “off”—it’s typically the ones with an external power supply, a remote control, or a display like an LED screen.
Still, the average American household includes 20-40 of such items, from DVD players and computers to cell phones and coffeepots, according to LBNL. It can also include microwaves, refrigerators, answering machines, audio systems, and more…basically anything that’s standing by ready, to spring into action. Want to learn more about the usual power-sucking suspects? Take a peek at this handy LBNL chart to find out how much standby power is lost to each. Why the term “vampire power”? Electronics and appliances have two teeth, er, plugs, they can plunge into the outlet, sucking up electricity even when they’re off for the night. There’s one glaring reason to try to banish the phantom load from your home: Free money, in the form of cutting ye olde electric bill. With the U.S. average ringing in at 12 cents per kWh, the numbers add up. Take an average desktop computer, for example. If left in sleep mode half the time for a year, it would use about 95 watts according to LBNL, costing $10 on your bill.
Also costly, though, is the very real environmental toll of maintaining our energy supply. Standby loss is responsible for 1 percent of our polluting greenhouse gases, according to the latest data from LBNL. As Northwestern University’s Eric Masanet, PhD, says, that’s pretty high given that it’s coming from equipment that isn’t providing any use to us. Furthermore, in a recent video dedicated to “putting carbon in its place,” Masanet explains that the average household generates 50 metric tons of CO2 per year, 5.5 of which typically comes from electronics and appliances. Considering the 10 percent household energy use stat we mentioned earlier, this means standby loss could contribute more than half a metric ton of CO2 per household annually. According to this EPA calculator, that’s as much carbon as is sequestered by 14 tree seedlings grown for 10 years…all to power items that aren’t even in use. But there’s an even bigger picture to keep in mind.
George Crabtree, PhD, of Argonne National Laboratories and UIC, points out that though the U.S. makes up only 5 percent of the world’s population, we use 25 percent of its energy. “The rest of the world wants their share, so as a globe, we have to produce a lot more energy over the next few decades—and that’s not easy to do.” What is fairly easy to do? Turning an electrical product off doesn’t stop the energy draw. For many items, unplugging it is the only way to stop the suck. Unplug a device when it’s not in use. Using a power strip helps make that even easier. If 25,000 households cut standby loss in their homes in half, we’ll annually stop CO2 emissions equivalent to 770,740 gallons of gas from polluting the environment. *Many thanks to Eric Masanet, PhD, engineering professor at Northwestern University, and George Crabtree, senior scientist and distinguished fellow at Argonne National Laboratories and professor at UIC, for providing expert counsel and review on this article.
Jason was very knowledgeable and helpful along with the tech who installed the door. Quick, honest, reliable service! Will definitely use again! Garage door spring broke. I called Banko and a tech was out within 2 hours to fix and un-trap both my cars. Tech was personable and finished the job for the quoted price. Banko will be the first place I call whenever my garage door acts up again. 5 tips for creating the ultimate man cave for Super Bowl Sunday The Man cave, they come in all sizes, and no matter how big or small, they are part of a man’s heart. The team at Banko Overhead doors wants to help you create the best spot to enjoy Super Bowl LI. Learn how to create your perfect space to sit back, relax, and enjoy the […] Looking for an inexpensive garage door? If you are getting ready to replace your old garage door with “just one you can find”, or one that’s the lowest price, it is prudent to reconsider your stance. The old saying, “You get what you pay for”, certainly rings true in this situation.