The Walney windfarm spans over 73 km^2 and consists of 102 turbines. Split into two sections, the total power capacity of the windfarm is 370MW – enough to power 320,000 homes!

The windfarm is located 15km off Walney Island, Cumbria and will be used to feed green energy into the grid.

The UK is one of the most ambitions countries when it comes to offshore wind farms, with the government potentially aiming for as much as 18GW of power to be supplied by wind farms by the year 2020.

As expected, there is a fair deal of controversy surrounding wind power – mainly down to the relatively unpredictable nature of their overall performance. Have an opinion on wind energy? Leave a comment below…

So if you have an outbreak of cockroaches what do you do? Here’s a short guide to give you a hand…

If you spot a cockroach, follow them to see where they go. It’s likely that they will all be coming from the same place, so once you’ve located the source of them you can plan your next steps.

Once you’ve located where they’re coming from, it’s time to get exterminating! You can do this by making up some roach food, which is used to kill the cockroaches.

Making roach food is pretty simple all you need is:

• Boric acid (powdered)
• White Flour
• Sugar

Mix it all together and place in a few small trays. Leave these around the house, in places you’ve seen the cockroaches appear.

If you’re after an easier option then purchase a cockroach trap. The cockroaches will crawl onto this and get stuck.  You can purchase these traps from here. They’re a good non-toxic way of killing off cockroaches.

Once you’ve killed them off, it’s important to prevent them from coming back. Hopefully you would have traced where they were coming and going from, so make sure to seal off any cracks that could be used as access holes to your rooms.

Keeping your kitchen, bathroom and rest of house clean is very important for keeping all kinds of pests and vermin away. So throw out the rubbish on a more regular basis. Also, cockroaches are attracted to water – so fix any leaks or dripping taps that you might have.

If in doubt, just call a professional. They will be able to locate and monitor the bugs to ensure they’re completely eliminated from your property. PGS Services offer pest control services, just give us a call on 0800 043 5911 for more information!

As everyone knows, the search to rent a property can be incredibly stressful but to help with this we’ve decided to write a guide on the best websites to use to help you on your search for an ideal property to rent.

The websites

There are a few main players that aggregate listings from various estate agents – and these are the websites you need to be searching for your property.

The main ones are Findaproperty, Primelocation, Rightmove and Zoopla.

Findaproperty.com

Launched in 1997, Findaproperty.com is now one of the leading websites for property searches. Out of all the property searching websites, it’s probably the most easy to use. There’s a big plus in that it doesn’t force you into signing up to mailing lists, so if you want to quickly check for properties then this is ideal.

At the time of writing, there are around 8700 estate agents listings properties on this website.

Primelocation.com

Primelocation is another big website for property listings. It does rather push you into signing up for property alerts, but the emails you do get are very informative. The website perhaps isn’t as straight forward to Findaproperty.com to use, but the amount of estate agents submitting properties to this website is vast – around 13,000.

Rightmove.co.uk

This website really is the biggest of them all. With over 20,000 estate agents signed up to list property, you are sure to find most properties on Rightmove.

The website is very easy to use and they’ve even added a search for students looking for properties!

For an example of the scale of properties – doing a search for all properties within SW1 yields around 2500 results on primelocation and findaproperty.com. The same search on Rightmove yields over 100 pages of property listings…

But sometimes a smaller selection of properties is actually easier to sift through.

Zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla is fast growing in popularity since its launch in 2008. The website offers a very straight forward interface, which appears to be a mix between Rightmove and Findaproperty.

What really set Zoopla apart from the rest was it’s early adoption of an iPhone app, where you can search for properties to rent wherever you are, on the move! All the major property listing websites eventually caught up to offer this.

Zoopla has quickly risen in web traffic figures, now making it the second most popular property searching website. First place going to Rightmove.

Overall, the rental features of all these websites are quite similar. However, the difference comes in with the quality of properties that are displayed as results and how you get to displaying them.

When I’m searching for properties, I like to be quite exact with my search criteria. When searching by price, it’s sometimes quite frustrating having to limit your searches to round numbers – such as between £800 – £1000, with no option to search for properties at £975, for example.

Sometimes you just need a more flexibility – even if it’s to stop you viewing properties just slightly above your budget.

So let me introduce Globrix.com

Globrix has by far the most extensive and interactive search functionality that I’ve found on any property website. It seems to share property results with Findaproperty – probably because they’re both owned by the same people.

The search on globrix lets you fine tune your budget, room requirements and freshness in a very interactive way. Give it a go here.

Working with what’s there

Remember, it’s not what you have, it’s what you do with what you’ve got. So take a look at the existing lighting in the room and see what you have to work with.

Most rooms with have a single ceiling light hanging in the centre of the room. Purchasing an attractive lampshade can help disperse or even colour the light, but before we talk about this – we need to mention light bulbs.

There is actually a lot more to the colour of light bulbs that first meets the eye.

The type of lightbulb used for the main light will entirely depend on the purpose of the room. If the room is a utility room, where a lot of activities are taken place then using a brighter and clearer light bulb will be best. However, if you require softer light – perhaps for a bedroom or living room, then a softer ‘pearl’ light bulb might be the answer.

There is actually a lot more to the colour of light bulbs that first meets the eye. In fact, all light bulbs make colours in the room appear different.

As an example, lets use a banana. Take a banana out on a sunny day and it’s colour will be bright yellow – its natural colour. Bring it back indoors, where the light is different, and the banana might not appear as bright. This of course is not the banana changing colour, but rather the light source changing.

The measurement of how accurately colours will appear with certain light bulbs is called the Colour Rendering Index

The measurement of how accurately colours will appear with certain light bulbs is called the Colour Rendering Index, CRI for short. Perfect light is measured at CRI 100 and light bulbs that have this rating will produce light that renders colours equivalent to noon on a sunny day – so very bright with accurate colour rendering.

Most fluorescent and energy saving light bulbs of course don’t rank that high, and have a rating of around 60 – 90 CRI. So the light they produce won’t accurate represent everything’s true colour – but this isn’t always a problem.

Another thing, which is more applicable to artistic styling of your room, is the colour temperature of the bulb. This is basically the colour of the light emitted. The technical name of this is the Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT).

Colour temperature is what you mainly need to pay attention to when styling a room with illumination.

Measured in kelvins (K), colour temperature is what you mainly need to pay attention to when styling a room with illumination. Most standard light bulbs range between 2700K to 6500K. 2700K will produce a warm white colour and 6500k will produce a very white day light colour.

This chart from lightbulbs-direct.com represents it well:

Click to enlarge

As mentioned previously, bulbs that have a higher colour temperature and represent daylight will be much better suited for kitchens and general work areas. Warmer light is best for relaxing areas.

Positioning

Positioning of light fixtures is really important in order to create the atmosphere you want. Using spot lamps to create diffused lighting is a great way to illuminate bedrooms.

If you take a simple self-enclosed LED or halogen light bulb and have it point up a wall behind an item of furniture the light will be diffused as it bounces off the wall and the furniture item – creating a warm ambient glow. If done properly, this can create excellent bed time reading light. For this you can use a bulb with a CCT of around 3500K.

Pointing table and floor lamps towards walls and ceilings can also take great advantage of light diffusion. Bouncing light off walls is a great way to create a more even lighting.

Task Lighting

In rooms where certain tasks are performed, such as food preparation, task lighting is a great option for keeping the ambience of a room but providing the necessary illumination needed for the task at hand.

Halogen or LED down lights are best for this as they’re quite directional, so the light doesn’t have to spill over into spaces that you might want to have dimmer.

Placing florescent tubes under cabinets to illuminate work surfaces is also a tried and tested trick.

Using colour

Using coloured bulbs is often quite an impractical solution to illuminating areas, unless it is just for show. We always suggest that people installing artistic lighting try to work with clear lights, as multi-coloured bulbs can often look slightly tacky. White light will always be in fashion, and if you want to change it you can always add a filter or buy a coloured bulb.

Even a standard coloured lampshade can help add a tint of a certain colour to a room.

If you want to use colour in your room, a good trick is to find lamp shades that have the bulbs within in a coloured glass or plastic  enclosure. Even a standard coloured lampshade can help add a tint of a certain colour to a room.

Ceiling Lampshades and lights

The ceiling light will in nearly all cases will be the main lighting feature of a room. It will also determine the room’s style, so it is crucial to get it right.

If you’re going for a minimalistic look, then having a contemporary ceiling lighting fixture instead of a lamp shade will help boost appearances. Something like this that includes halogen spot lights is a good option.

To summarise…

In order to get the lighting right for your room, you need to think of the room’s purpose. If high colour temperature bulbs will produce a lot brighter and harsher light – this can be diffused by bouncing it off walls or filtered through a lamp shade, but if the bulbs are not in enclosures then they could appear too bright for most relaxing spaces. In this case you could opt for warmer coloured lights.

Lighting pieces of furniture or cabinets with down lights can create a great ambience in a room.

Lighting pieces of furniture or cabinets with down lights can create a great ambience in a room. Think about splashing light on walls – if the walls are brightly coloured (ideally white) then you’ll have a nice amount of diffusion and reflected light bouncing off into the room.

This article on creatively lighting your room only scratches the surfaces of the endless lighting possibilities. Got any more tips? Leave a comment below.

The Bathroom

Bathroom renovations are a good way to boost financial and aesthetic value to your property. A typical full make over for your bathroom will cost, on average, around £3500.

But you can do it cheaper. Spending as little as £300 on a new shower can add value.

If you can’t afford a complete renovation, the trick is to replace what really matters. So if that shower cubical isn’t looking too healthy (or hygienic!) then look to replace that with a stylish new showering facility.

Bathroom taps are a great way to boost appearances of a bathroom at a low cost. Going for more contemporary designs to match a minimalistic white tiled bathroom can add a lot of style to the property.

Figures show that a renovated bathroom can add around 2.8 per cent to a property’s value. So if the property is worth £250,000 then you’d be adding approx. £7000 to it’s value.

Quick tip: When renovating a bathroom, don’t spend too much if you’re looking to make a return. You only really need to replace the essentials such as the shower, bath, taps, basin, tiles and toilet.

The Kitchen

Now on to the Kitchen, this is where the money can really be made.

Renovating a kitchen to  modern standards see the best financial return out of any room in a property. When re-doing your kitchen, if possible think about it as a communal space and try to maximise on workspace – this is often appealing to property buyers.

Aim for the best fixtures that you can afford. Unfortunately cheaper hobs, even though might offer less initial outlay, will be considerably more unreliable than middle or high end models.

A typical kitchen renovation will cost around £7000 on average. However you should aim to spend an amount that is proportional to the value and quality of your property. So if your property is worth £120,000 then don’t go spending £20,000 on a new kitchen.

Don’t skip on quality though. Improving your kitchen can add an incredibly impressive 5 – 15 per cent to your home – depending on the standard of the home and how flashy the new kitchen is.

So overall these are the best two rooms to renovate when thinking about boosting property value. The kitchen should probably be your first bet, then the bathroom afterwards. Get these to good or excellent standards and you’ll see the property price increase!

So if we’re going to stay at home when it snows, then we might as well learn how to clear the snow efficiently – for the sake of safety. This blog will give you some tips on doing so…

Got salt?

If the conditions get cold, keep an eye on the forecast. If there is a possibility of snow, lay down salt onto pathways and areas that people walk as this will help melt the ice.

The way in which salt does this is by lowering the temperature that water on the ground freezes. By adding a 10% salt-to-water solution, you’ll reduce the freezing temperature of the water from 0c to around -6c. The higher the concentration of salt, the lower the freezing temperature of the water will be.

Get scooping!

For snow that settles, it’s worth getting a good quality snow shovel as these are designed to shift large quantities of snow off pathways. Halfords do a good one for under ten pounds.

Remember when you pile up snow it increases the density and thus will take longer to melt. So to avoid making big piles when shovelling out the way. Just evenly distribute it – or put it in a place where it won’t cause disruption.

Clear the pavement

According to Direct.gov.uk it’s a bit of a myth that if you clear a part of the pavement from ice and someone slips on it you’ll get sued. Everyone is responsible for their own actions when walking on snow and ice, so you’ll most probably be fine if you wish to chip in and clear the ice from the pavement outside your property.

Extra tip for larger property owners

If the snow is going to be really heavy, it is often a good idea to mark out your drive way to avoid driving into any flower beds! You can do this easily by placing cones with brightly coloured string joining each one. If you can, keep your cars in a garage to avoid them being covered by snow. Remember to put down plenty of salt, sand or loose gravel so your car grips the drive way.

The technology behind motion sensors has been around for a while, with many security lights using them to only activate when a moving object is sensed.

It was often overlooked at how much people’s carbon emissions would be saved by using these for outside lighting systems. Now that property owners realise this – and also how much can be saved from not lighting unused spaces – motion sensors are now being brought into the home and larger buildings such as hotels.

There are various different types of motion sensors that can be used but the most common is Passive Infrared sensors (PIR). Other technologies include Ultrasonic and Microwave.

Motion sensors are only really effective at energy saving in low traffic rooms. Many large modern buildings install them in corridors and infrequently used toilets. Having a motion sensor in a high traffic room will be largely ineffective, for the lights will be rarely need to be switched on or off – perhaps once twice a day.

A popular method for ultra-energy efficiency is to couple motion sensors with LED lighting. As LED bulbs use so little electricity, this will cut your bill considerably.

But how much will you actually save? Well, I came across an excellent article by The Simple Dollar about how efficient Motion sensors actually are, take a read of it here.

This will keep you going for now, but I’ll be writing more on Motion sensors in the home in the next few weeks, so check back soon!

Since its launch, many qualified tradesmen have found it a burden due to the amount of bureaucracy and cost of the qualification.

As a result the government has opened up the Part P qualification to a public consultation, to determine whether it’s revoked or amended.

The Part P is still crucial to ensure electrical safety in homes. Phil Buckle from the Electrical Safety Council states that “As a charity, our core concern is consumer safety. But we understand that there needs to be a balance  -  between the public’s need  to be confident in the standard of electrical work being carried out in their homes and the industry’s desire to avoid unnecessary red tape – and to ensure this, we have worked with a range of stakeholders, from consumer bodies to industry groups. Our bottom line is that we need to reduce the complexities of Part P without compromising safety”

It’s important that Part P stays though, as since its launch there has been a 17.5% reduction in the number of domestic fires that are a result of bad mains wiring.

There has been an online petition set up to keep Part P in place, you can sign it here.

Today’s blog comes directly from them and describes what they do and how you can benefit from their services.

Checkatrade.com the consumers champion is fast becoming the No 1 free information website to use when looking for a Tradesperson/Service Provider. Taking the time to check out a Company or a Sole Trader prior to employing them is extremely important. Do they have the correct and up to date Public Liability Insurance, the right qualifications, where are they based, how much work have they carried out in and around your area, do they have a good history of customer satisfaction. Checkatrade.com, have checked and display all this information and more. A few minutes spent at the beginning could save hours of heartache for you at the end. So make sure that you are not the victim of a Rogue Trader and visit Checkatrade.com.

National Award Winner, Checkatrade.com is a business tool for honest, reliable and accountable trades and service providers to effectively prove the level of their reputation. The benefits of membership include

• To build your reputation, gain credibility & consumer confidence
• Increased success with quotations
• Free website
• A saving on money and time
• Checkatrad.com advertising
• Dedicated customer services
• Unlimited amounts of marketing materials
• Dedicated Members area
• Having your say on how Checkatrade develops
• Discounted services
• Trade chat forum

Checkatrade.com is transparent and fair in the way that we operate. Every trade or service that applies to join Checkatrade.com is rigorously vetted and the results are made available to the public. From 1998, our dedication to tackling dishonesty among tradesmen allows only the best to join us. Our retention rate for member businesses is 97% .Businesses agree to be monitored by their customers and have the results published for all to see.

But why has it suddenly turned so cold, when typically it should be slightly milder now we’re into February? Yesterday (31/01/12) in Moscow, it was -16c when the typical average for this time of year is -8!

For the UK, the cold spell is caused by a rush of extremely cold air travelling across europe as a result of a high pressure build up. It’s apparently here to stay for the next month, so make sure to get your heating sorted as soon as you can!

Looking at the bigger picture though, it’s becoming increasingly evident that the cold winters and hot summers are being caused by global warming, which is a direct result of the global carbon emissions being far too high causing irreversible damage.

This year, perhaps start thinking about your Carbon footprint with your heating system. By installing a highly efficient heating system, or even better a renewable energy system, you’ll be reducing the amount of carbon you emit into the atmosphere and thus doing your bit to help the environment.

We’ve been writing about renewable energy over the past year and a half on our blog. You can view these eco-friendly articles here.

To address the problem of global warming, we need to all focus on changing our life styles for the benefit for the environment. The world leaders are finally waking up and addressing the problem, with carbon emissions targets being set and billions being spent on the development of wind farms, eco friendly power stations and providing funding for the retrofitting of homes with insulation and renewable power sources.

Want to learn more? Visit the Energy Saving Trust’s website.