Home Air Filters: Knowing Which One to Choose
May 14, 2008
Since air filters are one of the bests tools for eradicating allergens from your home, more people are using them than ever before. The trick is to find the one that works best for you, depending upon your specific needs. Before going shopping, arm yourself with some facts, so that you’ll be more prepared to choose an air filter, rather than listening to various sales pitches from merchants who are interested in making a quick buck. Of the five major types of air filters, here’s a quick look at four of them ? one type (the ozone air filter) is not environmentally friendly, and consumers are not encouraged to purchase filters of this type.
Mechanical Filters ? One of the best types of mechanical filters is the HEPA filter, which forces air through a special screen that traps allergens such as pollen, dust mites and pet dander. If there are any smokers in the house, a HEPA filtered device will also trap smoke and other airborne irritants. Those devices which are unable to trap at least 90% of these particles are ineligible to qualify as a HEPA filtering device. When shopping for mechanical filters of this type, be sure that they truly meet HEPA filtering standards, and that you’re not purchasing a cheap imitation that will offer substandard performance.
Building a Home Addition
May 14, 2008
Besides providing your home with more living space, a home addition can be a terrific investment. However, before embarking on such a project the homeowner should first consider several important items. These items include: home market values in the neighborhood, financing, size and scale of project, architecture, timetable for completion, personal disruption/inconvenience threshold and the sweat equity commitment level.
Size of Addition and Market Value
Prior to actually breaking ground on a home addition, it is best to first determine what you are looking for in terms of additional living space. For example: How many square feet? What types of rooms? Once this is understood, it is then important to find out the market value of homes in the local area with similar size and features to the new and improved home. With this information the homeowner can then calculate the difference between their current home market value and the new and improved home market value. This difference should represent the maximum budget for the new addition if a positive investment is desired. For example, a homeowner would not want to spend $50,000 on a new home addition that provides only $25,000 in increased market value to the improved home.
Make Your Homes Style Unique With Mix and Match Decor
May 13, 2008
You see it all the time in retail discount stores: Color coordinated decor for just about anywhere in your home. And some of the designs are quite pretty. In fact, some people become obsessed by them. They’re usually really cute, come in a variety of colors, shades, patterns and designs, and they just plain make decorating easy. There’s no guesswork - everything is matched for you automatically. But there’s also no unique style. No sense of “you” in the finished style. If you mix and match styles up a bit though, you’ll end up creating something that’s just right for you, your home, and your style preferences. Here are a few tips on doing that.
1. It’s ok to start with a “cookie cutter” design style, pattern, or color theme you’ve found in a general store. These are actually great starting places for getting new decor ideas.
2. Try choosing just one or two matching items from the store. For instance, let’s say you plan to decorate your bathroom in a sea green color scheme. You’ll find plenty of really nice shower curtains to fit this color scheme well, so choose one you like. If you just can’t resist… go ahead and get the matching accessories too, such as the toothbrush holder and soap dish.
10 Spring Cleaning Tips For Your Kitchen
May 12, 2008
The words “spring cleaning” can make the neatest person cringe. They mean more work. As if cleaning all year long wasn’t enough. Spring cleaning is more than just cleaning…it is deep cleaning. Something that most people do not have time for all year long. Since my expertise is cooking, I have decided to focus on spring cleaning and dirt build up prevention tips for the kitchen….
Baking soda or club soda will clean and shine stainless steel sinks easily. Simply apply directly to surface and scrub a dub dub.
To Remove stubborn water spots from a stainless sink scrub with a cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol or vinegar.
To freshen up your “white” porcelain sinks, place paper towels across the bottom of your sink and saturate with bleach. Let sit over night and rinse.
After you’ve cleaned your refrigerator and freezer place an open box of baking soda in the back of each to help absorb odors for about a month.
A few drops vanilla extract on a piece of cotton placed in the refrigerator will also help eliminate odors.
Wipe refrigerator with vinegar after cleaning to help prevent mildew.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Theater ? Without Spending a Fortune
May 11, 2008
So you’ve scraped and saved, now you’ve finally gotten together a semi-respectable home theater system. You want even more, but the idea of spending another few thousand on new front speakers doesn’t cut it. What can you do?
There are ways to get the most out of what you have without breaking the bank. There are several areas you can look at to ensure your theater is set up correctly and performing at its best.
Cables and Interconnects ? It’s imperative the signals are transferred from your source components to your speakers, going through various components along the way, with the least amount of degradation. Make sure your audio, video and speaker cables are all of good quality and that none are old and corroded. You can use contact enhancer to be sure the connection is really good. If you need any quality cables, check here: http://1touchmovie.com/blockbuster/BetterCables.html Make sure to use the highest level of A/V connection your system supports. i.e. if you can use a component or DVI video connection from your DVD to your display device then do it.
Hydrogen Cell Generator For The Home
May 10, 2008
A Hydrogen Cell generator in your house could power up all the appliances and components and even charge your car and at peak times sell energy back to the grid. Imagine being your own power company and getting a check in the mail, from someone other than Enron of course. Otherwise you could use the check to play your friends in racket ball. As many of you know I am a fan of this and other such energy technologies. Making Electricity from Hydrogen and oxygen is easy really. The by products of this process are heat and water. Heat can be used to heat your house and cook food, while the purified water sure beats anything coming out of the tap.
Where do we get the Hydrogen? From Natural Gas, CH4. One Carbon for every 4 hydrogen. With Platinum very inexpensive these days generally everything you need to make a hydrogen cell machine is easily available. GE makes a real cool unit that costs about $7,500 about the same price as a quiet generator producing enough to easily run our Command Center 4-7Kilowatts. There are many companies in the market who now produce these units.
Energy Partners in FL;
Bean Bag Chairs ? Choosing the Right One
May 9, 2008
Decorating can be a big challenge in today’s world. There are all kinds of decorating styles from which to choose. Each room of your home can have a different style including ecclectic, traditional, modern, or formal. But for those casual and impromptu rooms and occasions, a bean bag chair can be just what’s needed. Choosing the right shape, material, size and color are very important.
Shapes ? Bean bags come in many shapes. You can get fun bean bags in the shape of animals, flowers, stars, and lips. You can get functional shapes such as arm chairs and ottomans, video rockers, and teardrops. And you can always get the traditional round shape.
Material ? Bean bags come in any material to suit your needs. These materials include upper lines in faux suede, velvet, faux leather and fur. They also come in more casual material such as cotton, vinyl, denim, and nylon.
Size ? Bean bags can be found in sizes ranging from extra small to extra large and also sofa sized.
Color ? Bean bags come in a wide variety of colors to compliment any room.
Housing and Smart Houses; Energy Self Sufficient Possibilities
May 9, 2008
Housing and smart houses. I believe that we could have avoided this upcoming Natural Gas Shortage by building smarter and more efficient homes. For instance by using small devises which are simple such as using the idea of mini-hydro pumps, reflective energy boosting solar efficiency by 2.5 from a water pond (with 1-2 inches of water covered by a polymer substance of a couple of molecules and a reflective bottom surface), condensation and gravity. These small things can improve the energy efficiency by 10-fold. Here are a few things; this is how I propose which could be done.
Put in a pond which has a reflective ceramic bottom and is filled with water of 2-3 inches depth out side of the house on the East side. The sun comes up and reflects off the water onto a side of the house which has a convex/concave lenses shaped glass window facing 30 degrees as an over hang off the house. On the other side of the lens enclosed is a shaft where the air is heated.
The Science of Architecture
May 8, 2008
You’re told to take vitamins, drink plenty of water, get a good night’s sleep and exercise, but has anyone ever told you that the design of your home and office can impact your health? You wouldn’t be alone in raising an eyebrow and questioning how this could be so, but thousands of years ago, the ancient seers of India spent entire lifetimes observing how man-made structures impact humans beings. Their findings were compiled into a body of knowledge called Vastu Shastra.
In Sanskrit, Vastu means science and Shastra means architecture. It is from this environmental science that some of the worlds’ most enduring structures were created.
According to Vastu, all five elements in nature (earth, water, fire, air and space) are in perfect balance. When we build, this delicate balance is disrupted, which can cause a wide range of physical problems from poor sleep to major illnesses.
You might have experienced this if you’ve ever remodeled or moved into a new home and suddenly your health got worse for no apparent reason. If you work with the natural laws inherent in the universe rather than against them, you can align these five elements to your advantage. This is what Vastu Shastra is all about, and the affects on your health and well-being can be dramatic.
Fire Hazard Alert - Is Your Dryer Ready to Ignite
May 7, 2008
In recent years there has been many stories about dryers catching on fire. Should we be concerned? Yes of course. We should take seriously anything that may put our family at risk.
Was the problem the dryer? Rarely. After investigating it is usually determined to have been the venting within the home catching on fire, and not the dryer.
Obviously appliance manufacturers are concerned about the possibility of any dryer related fires. They have made it a policy to advise both service companies and consumers that the use of plastic venting is prohibited. They have also begun issuing cautions not to exceed suggested maximums for venting length. Let me try to explain the details of this problem.
The drying process
When clothes are being dried inside your family dryer there are two processes happening. Firstly, heat is applied to the air inside the dryer drum as it turns. This raises its internal temperature to approximately 175 Fahrenheit causing moisture to be driven out of the clothes by evaporation. Secondly, large amounts of air is passed through the clothes. Surprisingly, the real trick to efficiently dry clothes is not the heat, but rather this vast volume of air.
