Posts Tagged ‘h’

Dual Flush Toilet & Steam Shower Bathroom Design Ideas

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

If you are redesigning an existing bathroom or planning a new one, there are a couple fixtures you should consider: Steam Showers and Dual Flush Toilets. Steam showers multi-task, save space, and provide luxurious comfort while a dual flush toilet saves you money and headache.

In smaller bathrooms, corner stand up steam showers allow you to make the most of your space without compromising features. Less than three feet in depth, these showers can fit almost anywhere. There are even steam shower units designed to fit in standard bathtub enclosures that include a whirlpool bathtub.

This convenient design is probably the most popular, followed closely by the two person steam showers. For large bathrooms, the roomy two person showers are the ultimate luxury item. With dual handheld shower heads, plenty of interior space and a two person whirlpool tub, your master bathroom will never be the same again. By combining a luxury shower, steam room, and whirlpool tub in one unit, both space and money are saved.

Facts You May Not Know About Solar Lights

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Solar lights have become popular and are lights for today and the future. We have been using energy from the sun for years, but it has only been recently that we can use this power in an efficient way. With solar lights, we are able to take another big step towards keeping the earth cleaner and safer.

In addition to being versatile solar lighting has the Green advantage. Sunlight, our renewable and sustainable energy source, provides energy without pollution. As we continue to benefit from sunlight were able to light our great outdoors without contributing to Global Warming.

It is important to understand the way that solar lights work. These lights have a little solar panel right on top of the fixture, which is much like the solar panels you see on homes, just a lot smaller. When it is light outside, the little panels collect the energy from the sun. This energy recharges a small battery inside of the fixture. During the day the battery charges, then when it gets dark, the energy is used to light up the LED. This provides light during the dark hours until the sun comes up again.

A History Of Heating And Todays Methods

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Central heating is very much thought of as a modern-day convenience. However it has been dated back to the ancient Greeks. A system of central heating provides heat to the interior of (or a portion of) a house or factory etc.

It is believed that in around 350 BC the homes of the wealthy and the Great Temples in the ancient times of Greece were heated by warm air that was circulated through flue systems in the floor. Today, because we have electricity to power blowers, forced-air systems warm billions of homes all around the world.

These forced air systems draw air into their pipes through to a furnace where the air is warmed and sent back into the room. There are different sizes of each model system so as to provide for every size room.

These systems are sometimes used with an air filter, an AC (air conditioning) unit, and a humidifier. The pipes in the system are usually made from a hard-warring metal like copper surrounded in insulation for optimum heating.

How reverse osmosis system works and its various uses

Monday, May 18th, 2009

The reverse osmosis system was originally developed for industrial use in printing and photo processing but because of the need for clean water, systems have been adapted for domestic use. Finding the right reverse osmosis filter system for cleaner water at home is important if you understand that there are more than 2000 toxic chemicals in our drinking water.

Reverse osmosis is a process that makes use of high pressure to force unpurified water through a semi-permeable membrane so that toxic chemicals are removed from the water. The only problem with this system of ‘cleaning’ water is that while toxins are removed, almost all other minerals (even trace minerals) are often also purged from the water, leaving water without any nutritional content.

It is important to understand that the concentration of toxins, water pressure and quality of membrane used to design a filtration system. There are generally two types of membranes used in reverse osmosis – the cellulose triacetate (CTA) membrane and the FTC membrane – each with their own functions. While CTA membranes are organic and more cost effective, they tend to attract bacteria growth and sometimes may generate a smaller volume of water with a lower quality.

Know How To Place Stop Losses?

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

The intra day forex market is full of noise that it becomes difficult for new traders to understand where to put the stop loss. There is so much noise in the forex markets in the short run that prices tend to jump 10-20 pips for no apparent reason.

This becomes frustrating for many new day traders. Most constantly find their stop losses being tripped due to noise even when the rates are going in the anticipated direction.

A static 10-20 pip stop loss is an arbitrary choice many traders make. Many new traders also use Trailing Stop Loss. Place your trailing stop loss too close and you will find your stop hit too early. Place it too far and you will have to forgo potential profits if the price retraces.

Many professional forex traders do use stop loss but mostly place it on their computers hiding them from their brokers. Best way to place a stop loss is using a dynamic level.

Because if brokers find many stop losses at a particular price level they can easily trip them using a momentary blip in their price feeds. You cant do anything. It was a momentary spike during to a sudden large transaction in the market. This is known as Stop Hunting.

You and Orchids

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Orchids are very popular plants in Indonesia and easy to find in every island, you do not have to go to the jungle to see them. That is one of the reasons why Indonesia chose Phalaenopsis amabilis as one of our national flowers. Orchids are notoriously lavish blooms that can add glitz and glamour to your walk down the aisle. Simply gorgeous wedding flowers. Orchids dislike sudden change in temperature, however a difference of 10 C – 20 C between day and night temperature is beneficial. The best suitable range is 18 C to 30 C, proper ventilation is must to provide fresh air and also helps in reducing the temperature.

Orchids are found throughout the world from the tropics to the subarctic zone. However, the orchid-richest areas are the tropics and subtropics. Orchids, like tulips , have become a major market throughout the world. Buyers now bid hundreds of dollars on new hybrids or improved ones. Orchids have few insect pests or diseases if properly cared for. It is important to have a problem identified before attempting control. Orchids native to temperate and arctic regions usually grow in soil or leaf litter. They generally have tuberous or bulbous roots which store moisture and nutrients.

Hydroponics: its History

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

History reveals that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is a big evidence of a hydroponic garden. Moreover, the Aztec Indians in the now Mexico had a system of growing crops on rafts. These rafts are in shallow lakes that you can still see in floating gardens near Mexico City. Therefore, history shows the great significance of hydroponic system of growing plants even in ancient times.

Developments with hydroponics did not however take place in Europe until 1699 when Woodward discovered it. He found out that he can grow plants in a solution of water to which soil had been added.

On the other hand, Liebig, a German scientist, originated using nutrient solutions to study the nutritional requirements of plants in the 1850′s. It was then followed by Sachs in 1860. Knop also did some studies of nutrient elements in water solutions in 1861. They grew plants in nutrients-rich solutions with mineral salts. This does away with the soil as a main requirement for growing crops.

Many researches on the nutritional requirements of plants extended through even until the 1870′s. By 1925, practical applications of hydroponics were being introduced for the vast development in the greenhouse industry.

Excessive Heat on Houseplant

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Abide by the fertiliser manufacturer’s instructions and better results will be a little larger, and procure a properly balanced potting compost. It is seldom, if ever, that one sees good-quality plants growing in what is often referred to as garden dirt. Composts should contain peat, sand, fertiliser and all sorts of other ingredients if potted plants are to do well.

When using aerosol sprays of any description (other than those for pest control and cleaning) plants should be carefully avoided; better still to remove them from the room altogether.

Like fertilisers, all insecticides should be used as instructed, as that seemingly harmless little extra may well cause leaf scorch and other damage. Pests should be treated as soon as they are seen, as any delay will make their control just that much more difficult.

Calat heel zebrina requires warm, shady conditions – not a plant to choose for a sunny but unheated room. Though the flowers of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis are superb, like many flowering plants the hibiscus is vulnerable to greenfly attack.

Houseplants Stems Becomes Leafless and Woody

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Almost all the house plants of taller habit which produce growing stems from which branches and leaves emerge can be propagated by means of top or stem cuttings. A top cutting is the end part of the growth, and with many types of plants (the aphelandra is a good example) it provides the best cutting, while other plants produce growth at the top that is often too soft to be of any real value. Stem cuttings are prepared from single leaves with a piece of stem attached, or simply from the piece of stem as in the case of dieffenbachias.

Often enough, with hederas for example, three or four leaves with a longer piece of stem will be used. In these instances it is usually advisable to remove the lower leaf or two and not to bury the remaining leaves in the compost. Plants resulting from this type of cutting are often fuller and of better quality. In the case of cuttings with smaller leaves (hederas, tradescantias and Ficus pinate) it is advisable to insert as many as six cuttings in a pot. Plants so produced are of much better appearance than those from only one or two cuttings in each pot. Hedcras, being easy to propagate, should be inserted directly into the compost in which they are expected to grow – transferring them from peat to compost is not necessary with the easier plants, and causes unnecessary disturbance of the new root system. However, when rooting cuttings of the larger leaved hederas such as H. canariensis they should first be encouraged to root in peat.

Things I Like About My Aunt’s Bamboo Compost Pail

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

She just bought a bamboo compost pail one month or so ago and I have to say, I am filled with envy. I always thought that having a compost bucket in your kitchen was a sure recipe for fruit flies, mold and bad smells, but I had to take it all back when I witnessed this thing.

She can put all the kitchen scraps generated by her family of four in there and she only has to take it out once per week or so. It looks absolutely pretty, and best of all, it has redundant filters so there is absolutely no odor!

Not only does the bamboo look great in her kitchen but the bamboo plant is a fast growing, easy to feed, non-resource intensive renewable resource. Unlike hardwood trees that take decades to grow, bamboo for wood can be grown in just a season, making it one of the most ecological materials in existence.

The compost pail is also very resilient, making it a far superior material over, say, ceramic, when it comes to things falling off the counter (hey, it happens) and unlike some of the stainless steel ones out there, it doesn’t show off every single mark and fingerprint.