Beat the Summer Heat - What Size A/C Do I Need?
September 30, 2008
A larger air conditioner will not always provide more cooling. It should be sized for the room area. If properly sized it should operate long enough to remove moisture from the air. It is the moisture removed from the room which actually produces the feeling of cooling. Unfortunately many people in their rush to purchase a window air conditioner buy too large a model.
Too large a unit can actually provide less cooling than a smaller, properly sized unit. This is because with an oversized air conditioner its run time is too short. Consequently it does not remove enough moisture from the room to produce a feeling of comfort. If you’re A/C seems to cycle off and then back on every few minutes and does a poor job of cooling, it is probably oversized for the room.
Air conditioners are rated in BTU’s. British Thermal Units are a measurement of how much heat is being transferred form the room being cooled to where the heat is dumped out of doors. This is why the cooing coil inside the room is cool to the touch, while the part that hangs outside is extremely hot.
Brighten Your Path By Installing Decorative Landscape Lighting
September 29, 2008
Landscape lighting can add a beautiful quality to any home. There are many choices available to someone who is considering it. Landscape lighting, and any outdoor lighting, can help protect a home as well as keep people from stumbling in the yard. Mainly, people purchase landscape lighting to enhance the appearance of their yard or landscaping.
There are many types of landscape lighting. You can purchase low voltage landscape lighting is recommended if you are interested in conserving energy. Another option to conserving energy is solar landscape lighting. Solar, or from the sun, is powered from the suns rays. It stores energy during the day while the sun is out and then, at night, when it is dark, they are lit using this saved energy. They give off a faint glow that really can light up a little area or large area. These types of outdoor landscape lighting can be great ways to light your yard cost efficiently.
Reviewing and Evaluating Laminate Floors
September 28, 2008
Since the introduction of laminate flooring into the US in 1982, the sector has experienced growth of up to 20% per annum at the expense of other floor types, making laminate the fastest growing floor type in the country. The appeal lies not only in its aesthetic value of its representation of real hardwood, but also due to its incredible durability and ease of maintenance.
Pergo were the first company to introduce laminate flooring into the U.S, and held the majority share of the consumer market for many years. As the popularity of laminate flooring grew, new players began entering the market and quickly gaining market share. Today there are hundreds of brands available to the consumer, some good quality and some inferior. With all the latest advancements in laminate technology, it seems that a new style is being introduced almost every week, making it a daunting task for the consumer to determine which floor best suits their needs.
The following factors will help you evaluate different brands and styles of laminate flooring in order to determine which laminate floor best suites your application.
Router Bits Basics
September 27, 2008
A router bit is a tool for woodworking giving a quality finish to woodwork. It cuts wood providing a way to give a clean and even a decorative edge to woodwork. The following is some basic information about router bits to get you started in your woodworking efforts.
The Parts of a Router Bit
Here are the there main parts of a router bit:1) The shank- the part of the router bit that is inserted into the collet (the sleeve of the router).2) The cutting edge- this part cuts and removes the wood. They are available in several sizes and shapes. 3) The pilot- the guide for the router in order to make a correct cut. It can be an extension of the shank or a ball bearing attachment.
The Different Kinds of Router Bits
I Need What Part?
September 26, 2008
One of the first things you learn as a homeowner is that you may own your home, but you don’t actually live in it full time. You get to spend the rest of your time living in the hardware store or hardware dept of your local retail store. Unfortunately the older the home the more frequent you visit this vast place with aisles and aisles of thingies and who whos, that previously meant little more than, ‘’?that aisle that my dad use to get all kinds of shiny pipes, connectors, and silver and brass things." A place where he spent many hours, (and you will too), talking about stuff with strange names and even stranger looking objects’d plumbing.
For now I’m just going to talk about plumbing. The first thing to realize is that older homes have plumbing systems that use galvanized pipe, which will corrode over time, leading to low pressure and leaks, (modern homes use copper and flexible pipe). Also in most modern homes there are usually "stop valves", (these are the little turn thingies) under each sink and toilet in the house, the most important one is the main water cut off. KNOW WHERE THIS IS LOCATED!! Or be ready to watch "Ole Faithful" wash your ceiling.
Sleeping Beauties: Porches For Dreaming
September 26, 2008
There’s something magical about sleeping outside, drinking in the night sounds of crickets, frogs and wind chimes, watching fireflies and stars, and feeling the cool night breeze. You’ll find children giggling long past their bedtime from sheer excitement.
A treat for adults and children alike, sleeping outdoors has long been a part of camping tradition, but many adults also have fond memories of childhood nights in their parents’ or grandparents’ sleeping porch.
The cover story of Architectural Digest’s October 2003 issue featured a visit to the Montana ranch of Dennis Quaid where he has built a magnificent home that includes a wraparound Pennsylvania bluestone porch and a tree house for his son Jack. In addition, the actor “requested specially” a sleeping porch adjacent to the veranda.
In doing so, he joins the ranks of such luminaries as former U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, author Jack London and baseball legend Babe Ruth, all of whom enjoyed slumbering in screened-in rooms.
A sleeping porch has been defined as a well-ventilated, usually screened, porch used as occasional sleeping quarters. Before the advent of air-conditioning, families often created an area on outdoor porches where children would sleep during the hot summer nights. Sleeping porches were, more often than not, on a home’s second storey, frequently above a ground-level porch.
The Motors Best Friend
September 25, 2008
The starting current of motor can become 3 to 6 times the normal running current! That’s normal for motors. The motor can experience this high current for a period ranging from 20 to 50 seconds.
A fuse will not be very useful in protecting a motor from this type of overload condition. A selected fuse large enough to permit passage of the necessary starting current would give little or no protection against overheating of the windings under normal running load conditions. The same case happens for the circuit breaker.
Overload relays offer protection of motors that is both compatible with the starting current of the circuit, and the requirement of protection in the event of overload running condition.
These conditions need to be adjustable. A particular motor requiring 56 seconds starting time under normal load will suffer serious damage if the rotor locks and the motor is not tripped in 20 seconds. Another motor may be able to withstand 25 percent overload for 30 minutes. A hermetically sealed compressor motor may burn in 3 minutes at 25 percent overload!
Successful Motor Protection Formulae
September 24, 2008
As we have discussed before, all overload relays have one major limitation - because they operate on line current, they do not directly sense the motor temperatures.
However, with proper heater selection and careful attention to the factors that affect heater performance, the overload relay can work extremely well to protect the motors.
Some of these factors that need close attention are:
Motor full load current Motor temperature rise rating Service factor Ambient temperature at the motor and at the protector Motor locked rotor current ratio Starting time Duty cycle Locked rotor endurance time.
If attention is not given to these factors, the overload relay will perform poorly. The other factor to be considered is maintenance. Below are some maintenance routines:
Cleaning - The overload relays should be cleaned periodically. Dirt or dust created by the operating conditions in the plant tends to settle around the moving parts in the device and prevent it from operating properly.
Tightening connections - Because most overload relays make use of current flowing through heater elements to sense overloaded conditions, it is important that the electrical terminals are not loose. Loose electrical connections can create extra heat and cause false tripping of the relays.
Getting the Power to Control
September 23, 2008
One of the advantages of using machines to control processes for you is that you can harness tremendous amounts of power and energy which humans do not possess.
By a flick of a switch, huge sliding flood gates can move to allow large quantities of water to flow out of a dam. With just a slight twist on a handle, supertankers weighing hundreds of thousands of tons are able to turn because of the corresponding rotation of huge rudders.
Similarly, processes operating valves can be remotely operated to control flow, temperatures, pressures and so on.
All these final control elements - flood gates, rudder, valves - must be operated by actuators. The function of the actuator is to move to control elements in the processes.
In order to move the actuator, there must be a medium for transmitting the required power or action. All the actuators are mechanical in nature. The common means of transmitting the power are: pneumatic (air), hydraulic (fluid), and electrical (motors).
Five Tips For Garden Sanctuaries
September 22, 2008
The design of your garden has an amazing affect on your family’s health and well-being. Here is how you can create harmony in your garden-which is considered a living entity-and bring peace and happiness within your home.
Vastu Shastra is an environmental science written about some 7,000 ? 10,000 years ago in India by rishis, or men of great wisdom. They observed the workings of Nature and recorded how different rays of the sun, the magnetic poles, the makeup of the land, soil, slope, structures, etc. affected all living things. It is the oldest recorded architectural treatise known to man and it is from this science that some of the world’s most enduring structures have been created.
According to the science of Vastu Shastra, all five elements (earth, water, fire, air and space) need to be in harmony. When a seed is planted, it requires that all five elements be balanced for a seed to germinate, sprout and become a strong, healthy plant. The disproportion of any one element- whether it is the quality of the earth (soil ph), the amount and quality of water, wind (air), sun (fire), or the amount of space it is planted in-will inhibit its growth. In this way a wise gardener sets up a balanced environment for his plants to grow free from disease and stress.
