Finding such cleaning agents is not at all difficult. Surprisingly you can find them in your kitchen. Things like salt and vinegar can do wonders when it comes to home cleaning. Salt and vinegar are no more treated as items need to add flavor to dishes. But they have become an essential part of green home cleaning methods.

Salt is very effective in removing stains. It also works as mild abrasive. Vinegar can be added to salt. The combination works well when you need to neutralize odors or scrub any surface. Vinegar can be also used effectively for cleaning litter boxes. In fact it can easily remove heavy stains from your garments. Shower curtains can be also cleaned with the help of vinegar. One of the most popular usages of vinegar is to use it as a soap scum remover. A combination of salt and vinegar is good for scrubbing in the bathroom.

Do you want your mirror to get back its lost shine? Clean it with a mixture of water and vinegar or water and lemon juice. If you wish to use a mild abrasive in your kitchen try baking soda.

When you think of green home cleaning, the cleaning agents are not all you should concentrate on. You should consider the cleaning tools as well. For example the vacuum cleaners you use may not be very safe for the environment. As an alternative you can try HEPA vacuums. They clean your home properly and don’t even have any harmful impact on the environment.

You can consult professional home cleaners or go through the home improvement blogs and articles on the web for more eco-friendly home cleaning tips.

Eco-Friendly Ways to Clean Your Home is a post from: Fataltraction.com

Mark LaLiberte, a building science expert recognized internationally as a distinguished author and consultant, offers consumers these tips:

• Reduce wind impact. For example, 19/32″ thick plywood-one of the toughest, most reliable materials around-can minimize wood panel wind uplift and reduce the risk of damage from flying debris, if the nails are six inches apart and penetrate into the roof framing. Plytanium® Plywood from Georgia-Pacific offers greater impact resistance and holds nails securely. Approximately 80 percent of residential hurricane damage starts with wind entry through the garage doors. Reinforce garage doors with steel bracing and install impact-resistant windows, doors or coverings, such as plywood shutters.

• Resist mold. You can reduce the risk of mold growth in wall cavities by installing paperless moisture- and mold-resistant drywall such as DensArmor Plus™ from Georgia-Pacific. For more information, visit www.stopfeedingmold.com.

• Avoid “overturning.” When wind hits a building, uplift on the roof and pressure on the walls can cause it to “overturn,” or rotate off of its foundation. Tension tie-downs or anchorage to the foundation can help resist overturning during severe storms.

• Reduce the risk of shock. The main electrical panel board (electric fuses or circuit breakers) should be at least 12″ above the projected flood elevation. In areas that could get wet, connect all receptacles to a ground fault interrupter circuit.

• Combine a strong roof sheathing with energy savings. Select a durable roof sheathing that holds shingles firmly in strong wind and can resist moisture damage due to occasional leaks. A roof sheathing with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star qualification can keep your home comfortable while potentially saving on cooling energy consumption.

A WeatherBuilt Home Performs Better During Storm Season is a post from: Fataltraction.com

There are two main categories of pumps: positive displacement pumps and dynamic pumps. Positive displacement pumps have little leakage as they used sealed chambers to force the fluid or gas. Dynamic pumps use momentum to move the fluid or gas and the chambers are not sealed. In these two categories there are various types of pumps.

The following list explains the different types of pumps most commonly found in residential and industrial settings. These are a good representation of the many styles and models of pumps that are manufactured. Most pumps are made for a specific use and that is represented in this list as well.

- A centrifugal pump can handle a large load. They are used most often with oil or chemical processing. They have an impeller that forces the liquid or gas into a rotary motion. This rotary motion cause pressure to build.

- Electromagnetic pumps are made to move liquid sodium and potassium. They are used in the cooling systems of nuclear reactors. These pumps use electrical conductors and magnetic pipes.

- Jet Pumps use high velocity to move fluid. They require a jet of steam or water to carry the fluid through it. The jet pressure makes a vacuum that sucks more fluid. They are so powerful that they are most often used to move water from deep wells.

- A screw pump is also called a positive displacement pump. It is a widely used pump because it does not form clumps when pumping solids and keeps a constant speed.

These four pump types only represent a portion of the pumps on the market. They are, however, the most popular models.

Pumps are found in many environments. They range from industrial plants to a home water system. The way a pump works depends largely on the category of pump it is and the type of pump it is. The use is then based on these factors. All pumps work under the same principles, though. Pumps use pressure to move liquid or gas to a different location.

A Tutorial To Pumps is a post from: Fataltraction.com

There are three main types of bathroom furniture. Stand alone, modular and fitted. Stand alone furniture as the name suggests is designed to stand on its own and is not normally attached to the piece next to it. In fact most free standing furniture does not have a clean edge so it is normally impossible to attach another piece to the side without leaving a small gap between the two pieces. The most common type of freestanding furniture is the vanity unit. This allows for storage under the basin but takes up the minimum amount of space. This is ideal for storage in small bathrooms.

Modular furniture is similar to stand alone furniture but have flat sides so that pieces can be added together to make a line (or run) of furniture. This allows for a lot more units to be fitted within the bathroom. Normally this type of furniture incorporates a back to wall toilet and cistern housing. These types of units are best fitted with a gap at either end, as they do not come with filler panels or extra worktop to fill in odd spaces.

Fitted furniture is similar to modular but has a range of units and additional items to ensure that it can be fitted wall to wall without any gaps. This type of furniture also has the largest number of unit sizes and styles available. Fitted furniture in small bathrooms can have the effect of making the room appear smaller.

Wooden Bathroom Products: All wooden bathroom products must be treated with the utmost of care within the bathroom. Whilst wooden products are coated with a specially finished lacquer which is specifically designed to withstand splashes and condensation, it is important to ensure that water is not in prolonged contact with these surfaces as this will over time lead to surface damage.

A to Z for Bathroom Furniture is a post from: Fataltraction.com

The EZ Talk feature of the “Talking Thermostat” from the Coleman® brand of York, a Johnson Controls Company, audibly guides homeowners through every step of programming a heating/cooling system thermostat. A Coleman Heating and Air Conditioning dealer can even customize the prerecorded messages in either a male or female voice.

If service is required, the thermostat can say the name and contact information of the dealer or contractor who installed the equipment. This provides homeowners with an easy, one-touch dealer locator that takes the guesswork out of who to call and saves time.

Separate weekday and weekend schedules allow you to set four different time/temperature settings each day, while a manual override feature makes it possible to change these settings. The thermostat is designed to protect your home comfort system with a number of alerts:

• A low-battery warning informs you when it is time to change the batteries, helping to maintain the efficiency of the system.

• In the event of a power outage, the backup battery saves the schedule and saves the homeowner from resetting the schedule.

• The Talking Thermostat automatically turns on the heat at 40 degrees, even if the batteries are dead or not installed. This is a great feature for vacation homes or when you are on vacation or away from your house for a long time.

• The Talking Thermostat reminds you when it is time to clean or replace a filter.

• Another alert reminds you to perform annual maintenance and routine service to keep the system performing at optimum efficiency.

The user-friendly Talking Thermostat from Coleman Heating and Air Conditioning offers a number of additional features that will appeal to homeowners/tenants, including an easy-to-read, lighted LCD display that shows current temperature, set points and the heating or cooling mode of operation.

A Thermostat That Speaks To A Consumer’s Needs is a post from: Fataltraction.com

The wonderful weather of Summer presents the easy opportunity to request that an electrician visit and have your home’s electrical system thoroughly checked. Similar to the way we as people go to the doctor for a physical, a home’s electrical system should receive annual or semi-annual inspections. The main reasons we would do this are to protect the longevity of the house, protect the inhabitant’s well being and maintain the best efficiency – which can save you money on your energy bill.

Throughout the year as electrical devices in the home wear and tear, make a list and store it in an accessible place. The more work that can be done in one visit by an electrician, the more you will save versus paying for several visits. Most electrical problems should only be handled by a professional. This is mainly due to the safety risk involved as well as any job not done correctly can cost time and money in the future if not up to code. Once you have enough items on your list to take action, review the home for any other electrical problems that may have been overlooked.

This is also a great time to do an evaluation of your electrical usage needs. Do you or your family need more power in the home? If so, include that on the list and ask the electrician if an upgrade is available. Finally, in preparing for your checkup, it may also be appropriate to determine if your home could use money saving electrical fixture upgrades. For example, you may want to upgrade frequently used rooms from common incandescent lights to fluorescent ones. This will reduce the electrical consumption and lower your energy bill.

The next step is to request an estimate and evaluate the electrician. To contact electricians many people use the internet. One website that focuses on the Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland area provides brief descriptions of trusted Electrical Contractors is http://www.allaroundthehome.com/electricians.asp. This site allows the home-owner to make a decision on which electricians they wish to request a free estimate from, without the fear of having to field dozens of sales calls from contractors they didn’t select.

“We set this site up because we wanted to allow homeowners to decide which electricians should contact them. We feel that this type of service request can be treated more as a consultation if we hand the decision to the homeowner. Many other contractor referral sites sell a person’s contact info to several contractors and this leads to them being pushed by too many salespeople. Our website opens the opportunity for the more professional, consultative approach from the contractor to the homeowner,” says All Around the Home’s Co-Owner, Ryan Corey.

Using a site like this can allow you to choose one or more local electricians that appear to be a good fit for you and your job. Once you have the chance to speak to the contractor you can ask more qualifying questions. What might you want to ask when chatting with an electrical contractor?

* Number of years of experience
* Types of specialty
* Type of charge: by the job or by the hour
* “Ballpark estimate” for your job

Depending on your job, the best rate may not be the best fit. This often correlates with experience, and that is a matter of your personal preference.

Finally, once the job is set up, prepare for the electrician’s visit. Be sure to clear all work areas of any fragile items, home decorations and furnishings. It is also necessary to make sure that the panel box is clear and ready to be accessed. This will save the electrician time, which means you save money. Once the visit is complete you can rest assured that your home’s electrical safety has been optimized and you will be operating at an efficient level.

A Summer Electrical Check-Up for Your Home is a post from: Fataltraction.com

The solid wood top must be attached to the cabinet box using only wood screws and washers. It is not recommended at all to glue the top on the cabinet box; the top and the box expand and contract at different rates, therefore cracks might eventually appear, most probably on the cabinets’ surface.

The proper way of installing a solid wood top is using metal fixings along the cabinet box (see our web page).
The metal fixings must be uniformly distributed throughout the length of the top, spaced at a 1′ – 1.5′ distance from each other. Across the width, the top is usually fixed to each metal support with three screws, one in the middle, one toward the front edge and one toward the rear edge. The supports must be perfectly leveled; otherwise tensions can develop in the wood, leading to warping, cupping, or cracks.
We recommend pre-drilling the screw holes into the wood countertop, in order to avoid cracks and splits. For the same reason, it is a good idea not to over tighten the screws. The finishing will considerably diminish the extent of such movements, but will not eliminate them altogether. Due to the panel’s laminated structure, the lengthwise movements are insignificant, so the installer should pay attention to the movements occurring across the panel’s width. In order to prevent the development of inner tensions, the holes in the metal fixings should be elongated in the direction of the movements (see our web page ).

When exposed to normal humidity levels – i.e. 50-60% – the worktop’s width will expand by 1/12”-1/24”, but when exposed to a level of 80-90%, this measurement may expand by up to 1/2″ or even more for some species. Therefore, when the rear edge of the counter top is installed against a wall, the wall might restrict the top’s natural movements, leading to undesired tensions in the wood. To avoid this, you can allow a 1/4”-1/2” joint between the wall and the countertop edge and caulk it with a thin bid of acid-free silicone.
Additionally, you can firmly fix the rear edge to the metal supports underneath and thus, allow the natural movements to occur at the expense of the opposite edge.
In this case, the holes in the metal fixings corresponding to the rear edge will be no larger than the screws diameter, while the holes corresponding to the middle section and the front edge will be elongated.

For additional information regarding the installation of wood countertops, bar tops and kitchen islands, please visit our web page.

A short installation guide of solid wood countertops and kitchen islands. is a post from: Fataltraction.com

Toilets that we are used to using are a relatively recent invention, and used to be only affordable by the very wealthy. Even now the evolution of the toilet is still in progress with technological advances including automatic flushing controlled by sensors and economy settings to allow less water to be used when the toilet fills up. The issue of hygiene is a constant one and, along with all the different types of toilet cleaners and fragranced deodorizers there are even public toilets that clean
themselves after each visit.

The prevalence of indoor plumbing has been the main factor in the availability of toilets inside our homes. It is this plumbing that ensures the toilet keeps functioning correctly and we don’t have to do anything more than pull the chain or press the handle. Before this all toilets were separate from the main house in small outhouses. The water supply that these outhouses were connected to was totally detached from the ones used inside the house.

Toilets in outhouses began in a very basic fashion, a hole in the ground. Then seats were fashioned from planks of wood with openings in them to enable a person to dispose of their toilet waste while sitting rather than squatting. These primitive toilet facilities were then enclosed to provide a little privacy for the occupants. Wealthy house owners could use chamber pots in the privacy and comfort of their own bedrooms, or bed chambers. These were usually made from ceramic and were emptied by servants. As these pots became a more accepted method of going to the toilet there were fewer places to empty them, especially in towns and cities, and people would throw the contents out of their windows onto the streets.

Thankfully we have progressed a long way since the days if having to dodge the contents of someone’s toilet being thrown over our heads as we walked along the street.

A Short History Of The Toilet is a post from: Fataltraction.com

ABB is at the forefront of circuit breaker manufacturers, offering homes and industries the ability to achieve maximum performance while limiting the negative impact on the environment. With companies operating in over 100 countries around the globe, ABB is a leader in its field. ABB offers products from miniature circuit breakers to molded-case breakers and guarantees its products are among the safest and most dependable on the market.

Perhaps better known for home appliances and products for various industries, Siemens is also a leading circuit breaker manufacturer. In 1998, Siemens executed a major recall of one of their circuit breaker products. The breaker in question was mostly used in hot tubs and spas. Although Siemens claims they are unaware of any injuries due to malfunction, they erred on the side of caution. The breakers were found to have the potential cause electrocution of people in hot tubs.

GE circuit breakers are probably some of the best-known and used circuit breakers on the market. GE offers circuit breakers that are compliant with Federal regulations. This circuit breaker manufacturer offers a wide range of products for all voltage needs. From home to industrial electrical necessities, GE has products for both low and high voltage electrical outputs.

ITE is credited as the founder of 5 kV air magnetic circuit breakers. They were among the first circuit breaker manufacturers to offer low energy and high quality solutions to industrial electrical needs. ITE also offers medium and high voltage circuit breakers for a variety of purposes.

Cutler-Hammer (Eaton) is also a well-known circuit breaker manufacturer. Perhaps one of the most innovative technologies to come from this company in recent years is the fireguard circuit breaker. Cutler-Hammer’s FireGuard provides protection from fire hazards that result from arcing faults. FireGuard circuit breakers will likely become the standard circuit breakers used in 21st century homes because they provide advanced protection against some of the most common causes of house fires.

The reliability of Federal Pacific, an established circuit breaker manufacturer, is questionable at best. These breakers have a notorious reputation for failure to trip when hit with a power surge. Some experts claim the rate to be upwards of 25%. Failure to trip during a power surge can cause structural fires. Rumors have circulated that the company was “de-listed” from the UL, although the company states they simply “went out of business”. Regardless of the actual reason for this, most electrical experts recommend discontinuing the use of these circuit breakers since most tests show an unacceptable failure rate.

Another circuit breaker manufacturer, Square D, has a long history in the circuit breaker business. This company was the first to offer plug-in type circuit breakers in 1951, which was then highly innovative technology. Since that time, Square D continues to be a leader in circuit breaker technology and offers a wide variety of products for both home and industry.

According to product reviews, ETA is the leading manufacturer of circuit breakers around the world. Their circuit breakers are crafted with precision and are used for a variety of circuit protection technologies. Thermal, magnetic, high-performance and electronic are just a few of ETA’s specialties. They continue to strive to create and produce the best circuit protection on the market.

Since 1947, Westinghouse circuit breakers have been among the most durable and reliable on the market. In tests, these breakers continue to deliver high performance to industries and their electrical needs. It is likely that Westinghouse will continue to be a leader in this field because they continually strive to meet the needs of advancing technologies.

A Review of Prominent Circuit Breaker Manufacturers is a post from: Fataltraction.com

Many factors determine how often air filters should be changed. Equipment efficiency declines if you wait too long and operating costs increase. Replacing your air conditioner filter too often can be a waste of your hard earned money, especially if you are using an expensive type of filter. A possible solution to this is to use electrostatic filters which you clean and reuse.

It is important to keep in mind that the more efficient your air conditioner filter is the more often it will have to be cleaned or replaced. For most people, pleated filters will do an adequate job. These filters are ten to sixty percent efficient and some manufacturers claim even higher efficiencies.

Pleated air conditioner filters should be changed every three to six months depending on how dusty it is where you live. If you live in an area with lots of dust then your filter may need to be changed every couple of months.

If you require more efficient air filtration you may want an electrostatic, electronic or even a HEPA filter. The more efficient the filter is the more often it will have to be cleaned or replaced.

Electrostatic filters offer the greatest value. They cost 2 to 6 times more than an efficient disposable filter but are reusable. You simply rinse them with water and they are ready to use again.

Electronic filters will never become dirty enough to effect airflow. They just become inefficient and there ability to remove dust from the air deminishes. To clean these filters you have to remove the electronic cells and soak them in something like HVAC cleaner and then rinse them and let them dry.

HEPA filters are the most efficient filters available but become plugged very quickly. They need to be checked monthly and often cause too much restriction to airflow to be used at all. An air conditioner contractor will be able to tell you if it is worth trying one of these in your system.

Economy panel filters that you can get from your local hardware store are probably the worst type of filters that you could possibly use in your air conditioner. These are the ones that you could almost read a book through. These filters are at the bottom of the list, when it comes to efficiency.

These filters do such a poor job you could leave one in your air conditioner for a year and it might not collect enough dust to require changing. The unfortunate thing is the evaporator coil of your air conditioner would need to be cleaned every year to remove the dirt that should have been stopped by the filter.

A Review Of Air Conditioner Filters And Furnace Filters is a post from: Fataltraction.com