Archive for the 'House & Home' Category

This is a guest post by George Baker about energy saving. I hope you enjoy reading these simple but effective tips. You will find that going green isn’t all that difficult and all it takes are small simple steps outlined below.

Going green doesn’t have to hurt! You can save the planet and simultaneously pad your pocketbook by making a few simple changes in your everyday life that will reduce your energy consumption and, by proxy, your energy bills. Follow these 5 energy pinching tips to simultaneously shrink your household bills and your carbon contributions.

Dial back a few degrees

Studies show that you can save up to 10% on your heating bill by lowering your heating regulator by only 1 degree. You won’t feel the temperature difference, but your wallet will. Should you choose to be reckless and drop a few more degrees, you might have to wear a light sweater or cuddle up under a cozy blanket, but you’ll save lots of cash in the process.

Pull the plug

Merely leaving chargers and cords plugged in with no device attached burns electricity. It’s easy enough to unplug these glorified wall ornaments when they aren’t in use, and shore up the change they’ll save you. It adds up over time and extends the lifetime of your chargers.

Waste not

Simple waste adds up significantly in water and heating bills. Showering uses an average of 30% less resources than baths, so forgoing a dip in the tub will forgo a dip in your wallet. When cooking or making tea, most folks boil more water than what’s needed. This literally boils away money, wasting gas, electricity, and water. Eye your water and plan in advance.

Using electricity after you’ve left a room by leaving lights or fans is as wasteful as leaving your milk out to spoil. You’ll also reduce electric waste by investing in energy-saving light bulbs. They’ll relieve you of the hassle of changing light bulbs, since they last decades, and save you large chunks of cash throughout their lifetime.

Wasting energy is easy: running a half-empty dishwasher, washing bundle after tiny bundle of undersized laundry loads, or using heat to dry your dishes when they have time to air dry will cost you cash.

If you’re ga-ga over the idea of going green, consider incorporating some good old-fashioned manual labor into your daily routines. Stash away those electric kitchen appliances and wash, beat, grind, mix and fold with pure muscle power. You’ll save money and get in shape.

Pad your pad

Poor insulation turns your windows, walls and doors into anti-green, energy vampires. It’s worth it to invest in some decent insulation; it pays for itself and provides incredible comfort. In addition to insulation, check your windows and doors for drafts. Sometimes a bit of caulking does the trick, and heavy curtains or window seals can effectively rescue you from a heat-sucking vortex that drains your wallet and cramps your style.

Upgrade

When the inevitable time comes, and you can’t live through one more of your spastic washing machine’s seizures, consider the lower tariffs and overall savings of energy friendly appliances. They may seem to cost more up front, but these investments save significant money over time.

Start saving your hard-earned cash today by adding these 5 easy energy saving ideas into your routine. You’ll be doing the planet, and your bankroll, a huge favor.

Helping out with vacuum cleaner bags all day at work has allowed George Baker to become a whiz with Numatic hoover bags.

I bought an old house, a second hand one. The house is over 20 years old. As a result, I “inherited” all sorts of problems that come with an old house. Leaking roofs that does not seem to ever get resolved no matter how many contractors have been brought in. Pest problems like huge rats running over the top of my ceiling and old windows.

Now, what shall I do about my windows.  Yesterday, I called in a man to give me a quote on some mosquito netting for my old windows. The netting has some magnetic strips running over the sides. The only problem is, he can’t put the strips in proper places because of the style of my existing windows and my window grills. He told me that he will need to cut the netting into two at my front door because of the existing door grill so that I can have a place to push open the netting to lock my door. That will mean having an ugly bar running across my front door.

As for the windows, he said that he will have to put in some white silicon to cover the sides and bottoms of the windows before he places the magnetic window strips. That will be even more unsightly. I don’t know whether I should consider replacement windows to solve all these problems. I wish I had thought about all this before purchasing my home. Unfortunately that is all I could afford at the time.

If I could do it all over again and if I had more money, I would go for new homes so I can plan my windows and doors from scratch. I would like to have windows all over the place like some of these Seatle windows. My house is terribly dark during the day. I have to keep a light on all day. It is such a terrible waste of energy.

I guess I have not much of a choice now. I will just have to read more before deciding whether I can replace my windows with newer energy saving ones. If you are buying an old house, do look at the windows and doors carefully and watch out for any water stains in the ceiling as well or any rot in the wood in case of termites. It will certainly save you a lot of headache later on.

I bought my fridge a few years back. I thought that a fridge is one of those investments that you make for your household for a longer term. So, I bought a large (or so I thought) fridge then. However, I didn’t have any kids then and I didn’t cook very much then. Eventually, what I thought was large then is too small now!

It is overflowing with meat and vegetables and fruits and children’s medicine and ice-cream etc. The ones that take up the most space are the bulky fruits. I like to do juicing so I buy them in bulk and store them in the fridge so that they will last longer. With so many food items crammed in my fridge, all of them have so little space to breathe.

The other day, I went to look at fridges. There are so many kinds available now. Two door ones, those that come with special ice-making facilities or cold water dispensers, top freezer, bottom freezer like this hotpoint one. So many to choose from. I like the two door ones but my kitchen is too small. I like the water dispenser too but those usually come with the two door fridges. I especially like the ones with the bottom freezer because I think it makes perfect sense. This way I don’t have to bend up and down to pick up my fruits and vegetables which I reach out for much more than the frozen meats.

I asked the men if they will take a trade-in for my fridge but they would not. They even told me that I would have to pay their transporters to take it away. A perfectly good fridge. What a waste! I am really undecided about what to do now. I toyed with the idea of buying another fridge and placing it beside mine. How lovely it would be if I could have an integrated fridge plus my current fridge side by side. Unfortunately I don’t have the space for it.

Maybe I’ll transport this fridge to my apartment so that I can get a new one. I am sure my tenant would appreciate that but then I will have to make so many transport arrangements and what do I do with the current fridge that is at the apartment? Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.  I can’t make myself throw away a perfectly good fridge so at the moment I will clear the inside a little while I give it more thought.

My dear blog readers, when buying a fridge, I think you should buy as big as you can afford. Plan ahead, so that you don’t get stuck in the kind of dilemma that I am in now. As your family grows, your fridge will appear smaller and smaller.

Last night my husband was telling me that one of the things on his mind is to upgrade our home alarm system. We have been having one for the past two years and it has been serving us reasonably well, with the occassional false alarms. The man who came to fix the alarm for us told us that some people choose not to have the alarm fixed outside the home because of these false alarms. I thought that it was rather strange, having an alarm system but not wanting to have it outside your house to protect the surrounding areas.

We used to have a security patrol service that goes round the housing estate. The security guard informed us that most of the time, the thieves would pick houses with no alarms because it was so much easier. So they would definitely look out for signs of an alarm system. Some houseowners even put up false alarm sets to trick the thieves. However, I think these days the thieves are more high tech and smart to be fooled that easily.

So a real alarm set would still be better. I guess that I should also include a smoke detector and a few good locks when upgrading and hopefully, we can also save on homeowners insurance this way as the safer a house is, the less it is to insure it. We can also sleep better at night this way.

It is July 2010. This week, the fruits from my Chinese New Year calamansi plants started to drop off rapidly. I was surprised they lasted this long! I had expected all the bright orange fruits to drop off right after Chinese New Year. They didn’t. They dropped only a few at a time. However this week, they started dropping off rapidly.

Then I noticed tiny white flowers growing. They look pretty and smell nice. I have two plants. One is in the sun, the other in the shade. The one in the sun has a moderate amount of flowers now. The one in the shade has none.

I love to see flowers growing. I love to have plants in my house. It is nice to see things growing. I feel alive to see growing things. The kids love watching plants grow too. Once in a while, we would go to the garden shop at a supermarket and they would pick out a packet of seeds each. We would plant them. When they grow and start sprouting fruits, flowers or vegetables, they would be delighted.

It is the most simple and basic form of science, an easy and fun way to teach young children about the living things around them. Otherwise, they may not even notice or stop to smell the flowers, just like adults who have forgotten to stop and smell the flowers because even children these days have crazy mad schedules.