/ By edd / spiral-freezers/ / 0 Comments

Seamless Cellular Coverage With Repeaters

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Have you ever walked into your home or office while talking on the phone and had your call drop suddenly? Mobile “dead zones” are one of the most frustrating things that face today’s cellular users. Our phones have become a lifeline of sorts. We depend on our phone for emails, text message, internet, and most importantly voice service.

Dropped calls have plagued consumers for a number of years, starting from the very first brick phone installed in our cars. While the number of drop calls has fallen it still seems to happen more than anyone would like. Companies like Verizon, and AT&T have spent billions to upgrade their system of networks to prevent this single problem from happening.

Today, most calls are dropped not due to poor towers but poor signal penetrating building materials. Any building that has thick concrete walls or a significant amount of metal pan will completely block most cellular signals. Even some insulation can inhibit the transmission of these signals. Churches, large offices, and most warehouses will suffer from signal lost due to this reason. There are numerous other reasons you may have weak or poor signals but this is the most common in today’s world.

Cell phone repeaters were introduced to the market as a way for the consumer to take charge of poor signal strengths. Sometimes called cell phone amplifiers, these repeaters bring in the strong cellular signal outside and distribute that same strong signal inside via a series of antennas.

Some advantages, besides perfect signal, are an increase in your phone’s battery life. Cell phones use 300% more battery life searching for a signal than if it no longer had to. Less searching for signal also means less radiation is emitted by the phone itself.

When searching for a Cell Phone Repeater system be sure to verify that your product is approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Most products in the US already have this or are currently pending. Signal amplification is marketed as dB gain. Cheaper solutions will advertise a gain of 20dB – 50dB. While more expensive solutions over 50dB are a lot more likely to provide you a solution for your whole home or office. Solutions over 100dB are designed for large commercial facilities. Sadly the most common mistake that people make when buying a repeater system is not checking the load level and dB gain. Ordering a system that only provides a low level gain may only provide a boost in signal to 1 or 2 phones. Most larger gain systems will provide signal for strength for over 10 users at a time. Small offices should pay particular attention to this as it may be a large reason why you go with one solution over another.

While the market for cellular repeaters is booming in the US, it is important for you to choose a company that can design a custom system to fit your building’s needs. Most professional companies offer a money back guarantee and sell products built to last.

For more information please visit: http://www.SeamlessCellular.com

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Source by Walter Reynolds

/ By edd / spiral-freezers/ / 0 Comments

The Wiper Fly Fishing Experience

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Wiper, the hybrid striped bass/white bass, is gaining a lot of popularity in fishing circles across Colorado and surrounding areas that have wiper fisheries. The greatest excitement is probably found among the relatively small circle of fly fishers who pursue them. Once you find these fish, fooling them with a fly is not difficult. The powerful fight that entails is something that will almost make you wonder why you’d fish for anything else.

Now, wiper are fairly mysterious fish and volumes have not been written on the subject of fishing for them. As with any type of fishing article, authors offer information based on their experiences, leaving the door wide open for an array of other tactics, insights, and opinions. It seems everyone I talk to about wiper have their own thoughts that have been formulated not by magazine articles and fishing shows, but from their own personal quests. This article is nothing different. I have put in many hours behind the reel searching for these steamrollers, and the following is a compilation of my experiences.

Fly fishing for wiper can be humbling, but if you get that one trip under your belt where you really get into them and figure them out, you will be hooked for life. Having these hybrid-vigor fueled fish tear line out of your hands is an amazing feeling, and we should consider ourselves lucky to have this fish available to us. It’s like saltwater fishing in the Rockies.

Wiper will eat forage fish about the width of the gape of their mouth, entitling this 6-inch shad to be dinner for the big boys.

Finding the fish:

The most important thing in any type of fishing is locating the fish. If you’re fishing trout in a river you look for pockets and runs of the right depth, size, and water speed. When smallmouth fishing in a lake, you look for certain structure and depth depending on the time of year, or you survey with your electronics. Whatever the scenario, if you find the spots where the living is easy and the food aplenty, you will find big fish.

It is often assumed wiper travel constantly and randomly around the lake in schools at generally high speeds picking off whatever food they come across. My thoughts are that this is partially correct. I have witnessed their schooling mentality and their speed of travel. One moment they will bust near the surface 50 yards to the east, and the next you will see them flashing underneath your boat and onto the west. But I don’t think it is completely random. Those frustrated by this thought, hang in there. This may not be an easy fish to locate, but I don’t think it’s a crap shot.

Every fish has some level of energy conservation written into their DNA. If they did not, they would exhaust themselves swimming about freely all day long. Think about trout in a river – the biggest fish will take the best spots where current is slight but carries plenty of oxygen and food so they can keep growing big and fat.

Wiper are no different. They have spots and patterns on each body of water that provide what they need – food. With little current to speak of in general, forage is the key. They are not so much like bass that they need cover and structure to ambush fish. They are more effective schooling and taking a team-based approach to feeding. The best example of this is when they corral baitfish to the surface, bay, or other type of trap so they can perform their signature “busting” feast.

Wind blowing into any structure makes that structure better. This complex has plenty to offer wiper, especially traps for schooling baitfish.

But what about when they are not busting baitfish near the surface? I believe they are doing similar things subsurface. Here’s where experience with a lake, knowing structure and water temperatures on the lake, and understanding wiper movement comes into play the most. Wiper like other fish will use underwater structure, edges if you will, as their highways. Perhaps it is a depth breakline, submerged road beds, rocks, sunken trees, or humps. Perhaps it’s a weed line, mud line, or inlet/outlet channel. Whatever it is, these edges define a path for them. These fish travel in a route consistent with edges and the availability of food.

The “available and abundant” theory expressed by a variety of authors is alive and well. Wherever there is an abundance of food that is highly available to predators, you will find fish. So is the case with wiper. However, don’t expect the schools to sit still in one area for long. Instead expect the schools to travel paths between or with abundant food sources. That’s right, I said “with.” Wiper are ravenous beasts. They have been known to decimate forage populations. They are living vacuums. In understanding this, definitely consider baitfish schools structure. Wiper almost certainly corral and follow schools of shad and other forage fish when abundantly present. One of the best indicators in finding wiper is prevailing wind. Always check the leeward side of a lake which may harbor schools of baitfish.

Chasing wiper around a lake is not often considered a smart thing to do. It wears out trolling motor batteries and may tear your heart out. Don’t get me wrong, I do it myself all the time – especially when the busting activity is moving slowly in semi-predictable fashion. I am not the type to sit in one spot and fish for hours even if it is the best choice. My only recommendation is to find a happy medium.

Surface water temperatures are one important piece of the puzzle that will help you find wipers. These temps combined with knowledge of the fish’s movement and preferred forage will provide a good starting point to finding wipers on any given day. In the spring as surface water temps approach the 50’s, wiper will become more and more active. Optimal temps are relative to a body of water and strain of fish, but in general the farther away you get from the optimal range for any fish, the lower their metabolism and thus the less they are compelled to eat and the slower their actions will be.

One of the reasons we put the Fish Explorer website together is to provide information that will help you find fish in individual water bodies. Our focus on water temperatures is not simply a novelty. If you understand how water temperatures affect fish on a particular lake, you are one step ahead of the game.

As wiper become more active in the early season, they reportedly go into a false-spawn. At lakes with active, accessible inlet streams at the right time of year, as Jackson Lake in northeast Colorado often experiences, wiper will actually run up the inlets as if spawning. In other places such as Union Reservoir, we have seen hordes of wiper stacked outside the inlet in a typical pre-spawn staging. It is also possible that these fish are relating to the shad that are in spawn mode. Whatever the reason for this activity, it would be a good place to check these inlet areas early in the season and any time of year, especially when the water is flowing.

Outlets are also a good place to scope out wipers any time of year, especially when the faucets are turned on. At Jackson Lake it was reported that several hundred wiper escaped into the outlet river, compelling officials to put in a screen downstream to capture the AWOL and return them to the reservoir.

In both of these cases, one thing is for sure – food organisms up and down the chain are drawn to these areas at any time of the year, which may prove to be enough draw to concentrate these ever-feeding fish.

When surface water temps are in the mid 50’s to mid 60’s wiper fishing seems to be the best in Colorado. They will be active in the upper column of water meaning they are more readily available and recognizable to the fly fisherman. The upper column feeding means that fish will be in the shallows, or they may be over deeper water but up high. During this period, you will also witness good wiper fishing all day, as opposed to the oft-assumed theory that wiper are only low-light feeders. I believe wiper feed all day just like trout in a river, because they inherently like to expend energy by swimming around and thus must eat accordingly.

Analyzing satellite images can help you determine lake structure. In this image of Jackson Lake you can easily see where the “flats” are versus the main basin, which may lead you to warmer water areas in the early-season.

As water temps rise, the fish will typically move deeper to more comfortable water. The temps are better, the forage thinks so too, and sunlight/UV rays will be more dispersed. This is the most difficult time to find wiper, and you really need to put your time in and get to know a lake for its structure and tendencies. Often experimentation and time on the water will be the primary key to your success. During these times you may find wiper moving back to the surface column at night, dawn, dusk, and very cloudy days. This is the typical low-light feeding scenario aforementioned. Wiper will still be feeding mid-day, just deeper. If you’re like most people and like to see fish in the upper column or in close to shorelines, fish the low-light times.

As fall approaches and water temps lower, wiper will move back into the upper column and you will again be greeted with more optimal fishing conditions. As is typical with most fish species, the pre-ice season turns wiper into ravenous beasts. They will feed heavily. Catching this period will often produce larger fish due to the fact the fish have been growing all season and are eager to eat whatever they can before they slow down for the winter.

Two thoughts come to mind at this point as I run out of ideas to express on how to find these fish: non-standard structure and rise identification. As Dick Pearson describes so well in his book “Muskies on the Shield”, structure is not necessarily always stationary and permanent like points, humps, and weeds. Often edges can be defined in less physical terms. Other edges you may consider are baitfish schools, wind current, and my favorite, carp pods.

If you see a swarm of seagulls or diving birds congregating in the middle of a lake, go over and check it out, you might find a nice school of baitfish that has drawn not only flying critters, but wiper as well. If there’s a good wind, look for current or places where the wind makes a “spot” a better “spot”. Examples are wind blown vegetation edges, a wind-blown point, or a saddle. Current will concentrate forage into certain areas and the wiper will be there.

Regarding carp pods – don’t overlook them. We have fished around carp pods and hooked really nice wiper. Stay as far away from the slow-moving mud-stirring pods as you can so not to spook them. Cast right over their edges and off further to the sides, but not right into them. Spooking them may break up the pod and in turn you may lose your structure. We will often fish bugger or crayfish patterns in this scenario, as we think the wiper are taking advantage of the plethora of food items being stirred up by the scrounging carp.

By rise identification, I mean being able to look at a fish breaking the surface and determining what kind of fish it is and what it is doing. One calm day on Union Reservoir, we were looking for wiper and having a tough go at it. There were rises all over the lake that we initially determined were trout or bass taking insects. As we studied the actions more thoroughly we began to notice a difference in rise forms. One type of rise was different than the others – it was more of a quick “pop” than a quick splash or slurp. Soon we discovered these somehow transferred into wiper – although we aren’t sure if they were wiper eating insects or small fish near the surface, or perhaps a school of shad that were semi-frequently slurping the top. We spent the rest of the trip looking for this rise form, quickly casting streamers into the vicinity, and hooking into several wiper.

Observation is key no matter what sort of fish you are going after. Continuously observe everything around you such as water temps, lake structure, bird activity, insect activity, barometric pressure, weather changes, wind direction, wind speed, your partner’s headache, and anything else that could play into the overall puzzle you are trying to solve. Even the smallest things may trigger a thought process that could lead to success.

First, bring binoculars with you. When you have a lot of water to cover, extending your eyesight could give you the edge. They are an invaluable tool on the water when trying to locate busting fish. If you see or hear some splashing on a distant shoreline, break out your binoculars and see if they’re spawning carp, shore birds, or really wiper crashing bait in shallow water. Scan over the lake to see if you can find any surface disturbance or any birds actively feeding. One day a pair of binoculars might be the difference between boom or bust.

Second, it should be mentioned that we don’t always find wiper in large, tight schools. We often see sporadic wiper spooked by the boat jetting away from the boat. I don’t think these are necessarily solo fish, but I don’t think they’re in large schools either. If you see this happen, take some time to fan-cast the area looking for more. Take note of where you saw the fish and come back later. And more importantly try to find some other spots that fit the same makeup where you saw the fish, paying attention to wind direction, structure, depth, etc.

Now on to actually fly fishing for wiper…

Presenting Flies to Wiper:

Presenting to wipers with a fly is not rocket science. Consider the fly and setup you use to be a tool. When you are fishing to wiper in the upper water column, present your fly there. When fishing to wiper down deep, present there.

The type of fly rod you use is determined by what you’re throwing. You will often want to cast far, so I’d recommend not going lighter than a 6wt rod. If you’re finding wiper relating to the surface you will want to throw poppers or high-riding streamers, therefore a 6wt is adequate with floating or short sink-tip lines. If you want to fish a few feet down, throwing a 150-grain RIO 24-foot sink tip is the ticket, and again a fast 6wt rod should do the trick. When you need to get deeper, say 5-10 feet deep, throwing a 200 or 250-grain RIO sink tip would do the trick and you will want to be using a 7wt or 8wt rod simply to be able to handle the heft of these lines. Go to a 300-500 grain line to get deeper, upgrading to a rod between an 8 and 10 weight to carry the load. With a well-made rod with some backbone, you should be able to play even the largest wipers available in the state.

Having a fly rod with a strong backbone is essential for landing the biggest wipers Colorado has to offer.

The main factor with what tippet to use is strength. I am not a firm believer in leader shyness when fishing streamers to stillwater fish. As long as you’re not using telephone cable and you’re not fishing super slow, I don’t think wipers will be deterred by your tippet. I will most often use 15-20 pound fluorocarbon tippet which for me has not broken off on a strike yet. The worst mistake you can make is to go too light and break off on a fish. I’ll use a couple of feet of 40-pound mono looped to a couple feet of 20-pound mono looped to the fluorocarbon tippet. So typically my entire leader is not much more than 6 feet long. However when I fish on or very near the surface, I will go longer.

When you’re fishing to wiper, you will want to vary your retrieve until you find what works best. Typically you cannot strip fast enough through busting schools. But often you will find that quick short strip-strip-strip-pause retrieves work better in other conditions and to well-fed wiper. Vary the pause length….you may be surprised to lose hold of your line as you look up to say something to your buddy on one of the pauses and a wiper grabs the suspended fly and turns at Mach 1 in the opposite direction. One thought that should play into your technique is the belief that some of the biggest wiper will sit below schools of shad, waiting for easy pickings. If you drop your fly through and under the baitfish school you may find a heavy surprise down below. Experiment every time you go out, the mood of the fish seems to change daily.

Bait size is a factor. In some studies on bass feeding, it is proven that fish in certain bodies at a given time of year will have a preferred bait size. For wiper, I have been told that they like to eat baitfish that are as long as the width of the gape of their mouth when open. Experiment with streamer sizes if you’re having trouble locating and hooking fish. If you’re fishing with a partner, start off the day fishing different colors and different sizes until one of you has more success than the other, then switch over to the hot bait. We have had success with streamers as short as one inch to streamers as long as six inches.

Which color fly to use is opening a huge can of worms. As my good friend and perennial fisherman Phil Small says, “If it ain’t chartreuse, it ain’t no use.” That often may be the case, although we fish chartreuse very often which may skew the numbers. One theory I believe in is contrast….to use a fly that is two-colored, often with a light and a dark. The reason this may be effective is that fish see colors differently throughout the day, and therefore may pick up on the contrast if one or both of the colors is less visible at the time. You may try to “match-the-hatch” or go with more of an attractor pattern….and either may work, but I do not know of any tried-and-true pattern that works every time all of the time. It took me a long time to believe in any color theories, but I now believe color has something to do with the equation. So again, experiment daily with color, determine if one pattern is working more so than another, and run with it.

These are some of my most commonly used flies when fishing for wiper. From top, l-r: A saltwater popper, perch-colored Rainy’s CF Baitfish Streamer – unweighted, a home-tied big clouser-style shad imitation, chartreuse/white clouser, another big shad imitation, a streamer weighted body with wrap-around lead, and my favorite crayfish/bugger pattern with twist-tail.

Whether you use weighted streamers or not is another item to experiment with. We have had success fishing very light flies, lead-head or clouser-type flies, and weighted-body flies. Clouser-type flies work very well when using the strip-pause retrieve and when fishing a little lower in the water column. Weightless flies seem to work better when fishing high and fast especially on a sink-tip…but don’t fail to experiment fishing very light flies on floating line quickly right in the surface film which gives an injured baitfish kind of look. You may also try fishing clouser-type flies on floating line to fish just under the surface. If you’re looking for fish down deep, sinking lines and heavy flies will allow you to cover more water quickly.

Whether to use a sparsely tied or a very hairy fly is yet another option that the wipers will help you decide. To give some guidance based on my observations, try sparser streamers in water with good clarity, and thicker, hairier streamers in discolored water or mudlines. Flies that produce more water disturbance as they’re retrieved will appeal better to the lateral line senses utilized more so by fish in darker waters. This is also the case for night fishing.

One area I have yet to experiment with greatly is the use of surface flies, namely poppers. Definitely give poppers a chance, especially in low-light conditions or in busting schools. Vary retrieves from a pop-pop pause, to ripping the popper through the surface film. The typical rule of thumb in top water presentation is to create just enough disturbance to attract fish. You’ll want to try fishing larger poppers that make more noise in choppy conditions, and smaller poppers in still conditions.

And do not forget flies other than streamers. As I mentioned before, we’ve caught plenty of wipers on bugger and crayfish patterns, especially around pods of carp when we were most inclined to throw them. The rule of abundant and available applies anytime you fish. If there’s an abundance of crayfish available to wiper, you better give it a shot. One way to know for sure what the fish are concentrating on is to look for undigested food coming out of a fish you’ve caught. One weekend fishing on Horsetooth Reservoir for smallmouth, we noticed a small orange chunk of crayfish spewed from the mouth of a bass we had on the hook next to the boat. It had been a tough day finding any smallies that day as we rotated between a variety of streamer patterns and retrieves. Truth is the smallies had turned onto the molting crayfish much like trout key in on insect hatches.

Presenting crayfish with a fly rod is not as easy as fishing a tube jig on a spin rod. You want to fish them slow and low, preferably in areas with various sized rip-rap and boulders, even ticking the rocks. Doing so will often lead to plenty of hang-ups and lost flies. To improve your efficiency, fish a short sink-tip line with crayfish patterns designed to ride hook-point-up. The best crayfish patterns are those that are tied more like a wooly bugger, with short or no pincers (chelae), and in a color leaning more towards orange/tan than dark brown. In studies that relate to this subject, smallmouth bass preferred softer molting crayfish over larger hard-shell crayfish, the former tending to be of lighter color.

The jury is still deliberating on whether fishing insect imitations to wiper is effective. I myself have not tried this one lick. Whenever I have found wiper smacking the surface in a manner that might suggest that they are eating insects, a streamer always did the trick. But, perhaps this is a technique to consider. I believe all fish eat insects at some time or another – and I would guess that wipers may do so more than one might think.

For slower fishing, and when letting our fly drop below shad schools, I like to go with a shinier and more active streamer like this sparkly clouser-style streamer.

The Battle:

The wiper fight is what you came for. These fish take a fly in what was described by Dennis McKinney’s DOW Outdoor’s Journal article “Wiper Watch” as a U-turn fashion, which I completely agree with. The initial take is a hard thump, as if they hit it going 30 MPH in the opposite direction. Setting the hook should not be a problem as they tend to hook themselves.

Getting the fish to the reel, meaning picking up all the slack so your reel drag is activated, is not difficult to do with wiper. They will typically take all the slack line at your feet out with them on the first run. Just make sure you’re not wrapped around your feet, bushes, or items in your boat before the strike. Doing so may bring the fight to an abrupt halt and will cost you about one fly.

The fight can vary, but typically they will make a very pronounced initial run followed by a rest period and subsequent sharp runs. Do not overplay the fish to the point it is exhausted, and do not try to net the fish so green that it will injure itself flailing about. Take advantage of their “rest periods” by turning their heads gently, pumping your rod, and reeling in line to bring them closer to you. Let them take drag when they want to run. Do not put too much pressure on the fish as you may wear a hole in their lip that will make escape much easier for them. And do not, by any means, give them slack line.

After a few runs, if the fish seems to be losing some steam, put more pressure on the fish to bring it to the net. Once landed, if you plan to release the fish, handle it gently, support its weight fully when lifted for a photo, and return it to the water promptly. I have had no problem reviving wiper when handled in this manner. We always fish barbless and have not lost any fish due to this factor alone (if we do lose a fish it’s typically our own fault for allowing slack.) I encourage barbless fishing for any type of fishing you may try…hooks are easier to get out of your skin when the inevitable occurs, the hooks set deeper, and as long as you keep your line taught I do not believe you will ever lose a fish due to barbless hooks. But you will lose fish to weak hooks, so use strong saltwater hooks for your wiper flies or they might come back as straight as an arrow.

Smaller Wiper can be “thumbed” out of the water, but if you plan to release the fish, be sure to support their full body and don’t leave them hanging by the lip.

In conclusion, if you have not hooked into a wiper on the fly, you’ve got to give it a shot. But be aware that it may turn you into a wiper junkie. Finding wipers is a majority of the battle, so concentrate your efforts there, and when you do find them get ready for a battle! These observations are only from my experiences and a lot is yet to be written on this subject.

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Source by Matt Snider

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5 Benefits of Upgrading Your HVAC System

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It’s no secret that roughly half of your energy goes to heating and cooling your home or commercial space. If you wish to lower your utility bills, it’s important for you to make smart decisions when it comes to your HVAC system.

If your HVAC repair costs keep rising and your system isn’t performing efficiently anymore, it may be time for an upgrade. An HVAC upgrade will not only lead to a significant difference in your electricity bills, but also bring about a positive change in your comfort level.

In this article, we’ll take a look at five amazing benefits of upgrading your HVAC system.

Comfort Control

Once you upgrade your HVAC system, you’ll be able to control the indoor temperature and ensure that it meets the comfort needs of your family. You’ll be able to program your system so the temperature in every room is adjusted automatically and everyone can feel comfortable.

Reduced Carbon Footprint

As environmental concerns continue to increase in severity, going green is imperative for most home and business owners. Upgrading to a new and improved HVAC system will not only be great for your wallet in the long term but also for the environment.

There are some higher efficiency systems available in the market that utilize one-third less fuel as opposed to older models. This means there’ll be less waste and better preservation of the natural resources.

Increased Resale Value

Are you planning to sell your property? It’s important for you to consider that when buyers evaluate any property, they typically examine the HVAC system and its quality before they can decide whether they should make the final investment or not.

They also consider the operating cost of the system before making the purchase. So, if you want to increase your property’s resale value, it’s advisable that you upgrade to a better and more efficient HVAC system.

Healthier Air

Upgrading HVAC systems will make the air inside your home or commercial space a lot cleaner because newer HVAC systems come with variable speed motors than will allow you to ensure there’s constant air flow and sufficient ventilation.

This is great for people with asthma or allergies because breathing in low-quality air can cause further health complications for them. The new filtration system will make sure that pollutants don’t enter your home, allowing you to keep the health of all the inhabitants as a topmost priority.

Lower Repair Costs

Installing a new system also means that all the parts and the unit as a whole will be under warranty for at least a few years. Even though the upfront cost may be higher, you won’t have to spend as much on maintenance and repair costs for a long time, especially if you take proper care of your HVAC system.

Improving the efficiency of HVAC systems is a priority for most home and business owners and understandably so. If your system is quite old and isn’t working efficiently anymore, it may be time for you take the leap and replace it with a better and improved unit.

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Source by Mike Petty

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5 Energy Saving Secrets For Ironing Your Clothes

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Some smaller home appliances use more power than larger ones. Irons can place a big strain on the power you use. On the up side there are some excellent irons on the market to save energy, not just the electricity you use but your energy as well. Team a good product with these energy saving tips and you could be on the way to doing your bit for saving the planet.

Before you iron all the clothes in the basket take a moment to think about what really does need ironing. Society’s dress code has weakened over the years and long gone are the days of starched shirts, pleated trousers and beautifully pressed handkerchiefs.

Damp clothes iron easier

By taking the clothes off the line before being completely dry means less time for you to pass the iron over them. They will iron easier therefore the iron won’t need to be on for as long. Using a fabric spray works well too as does a light spraying with water. A drop of lavender oil in the water can help the creases unfold once the garment is hung up.

Using a clothes dryer

It is, of course better for the environment, energy consumption and your clothes if you hang your clothes outside on a line. If you must use a dryer make sure the clothes are well spun and remove the clothes from the dryer while still damp or use an iron dry cycle. Always try to keep the use of electrical appliances to a minimum.

Throwing a wash cloth soaked in water and some fabric softener in the dryer will freshen the clothes and make the garments softer, thereby requiring less time on the ironing board.

Iron in bulk

It takes more power to heat an iron than to sustain the heat so rather than turning the iron on for your daily outfit, iron as much as you can in one sitting. Ironing is not a favourite task for many people so setting up the ironing board in front of the television and working your way through the ironing basket can make a huge difference to the tedium of the process.

Outer appearances

Only iron clothes that will be on show such as top shirts and trousers. There is really no benefit to ironing under garments of any kind. In winter, shirts worn under a sweater or jacket only need the collar and front lapels ironed.

Permanent press clothes

When buying clothes, shop for fabrics marked permanent press. These do not need as much ironing as cotton and can be washed on the appropriate cycle in the washing machine saving time and energy on washing as well.

While the invention of the electric iron was a wonderful thing there is no reason to go overboard and iron every thing that goes through the wash. Modern appliances are great time savers but they can also drain our energy reserves if not used efficiently.

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Source by Malcolm Bill

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SodaStream Tips and Tricks

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SodaStream home soda makers are gaining popularity all the time. Here I address some of the most common questions and issues that arise when using a SodaStream for the first time.

Cold water holds gas better than warm water, which is why SodaStream recommends always using cold, refrigerated water when carbonating. The problem is that different refrigerators are different temperatures. So one person may be using water that is 36 degrees while another is using water that is 45 degrees. You will run into troubles carbonating water that is under 40 degrees. The water and CO2 will freeze at the tip causing a blockage that will prevent your water from carbonating. Those who keep their refrigerators extra cold will want to use some room temperature water mixed in with the cold water. You are ideally looking for somewhere between 41 and 45 degrees. Not sure if this is a problem for you? Look at the tip of the SodaStream (the part that goes into the bottle) immediately after using it. You will see very small bits of white ice in this area if the temperature of your water was too low.

The biggest complaint I hear is regarding the carbonation of juices. Many people don’t realize that you can only carbonate plain water with any home soda maker. The flavorings are added after carbonation. This means you can’t take pure fruit juices and carbonate them. Instead you must mix the carbonated water with the juice. This makes for a watered down juice that is not all that fizzy. It is hardly the tasty, healthy alternative to soda you want. Luckily, there is a very simple solution. Buy frozen juice concentrates at your local supermarket. Mix them with the carbonated water. This way, you are not diluting the juice flavor or the carbonation.

There is another option to get fruity flavors other than those offered by SodaStream. Flavored syrups, intended for pancakes or waffles, make a great flavor addition.

Many people want tonic water or club soda rather than plain sparkling water, especially when making alcoholic drinks. You can make club soda by simply adding pinch of salt to your carbonated water. Tonic water is a bit more complicated. It traditionally has quinine as well as a sweetener. Quinine is a bitter compound which is used to treat malaria. Most people don’t stock their pantry with this item. You can add a splash of bitters to the carbonated water to replace the quinine. Three tablespoons of agave syrup per liter mixes well and will give you the slight sweetness found in tonic water.

My next tip is for the small percentage of people who only drink one or two fizzy drinks per week. Soda flavors can easily be mixed in a glass rather than the bottle. This way, if the left-over water in the bottle goes flat, you can recharge it before mixing up your next glass.

I hope these tips and tricks help you get the most out of your SodaStream!

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Source by Heather Krasovec

/ By edd / spiral-freezers/ / 0 Comments

Direct and Indirect Boat Engine Cooling With the Use of a Raw Water Pump

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Anyone that’s new to boating could easily be forgiven for failing to understand how our boat’s engine is cooled. Unless your engine is air or keel cooled (more on this later) its cooling system is very likely to involve a ‘raw water pump’.

Consider this. If your boat’s engine is in an engine room or buried under your decks, how can it be cooled? Your car will have a radiator and a fan. The radiator is a heat exchanger that relies on cold air passing through it to cool the water inside it. The engine hidden away inside your boat does not have this luxury, so we have to cool the engine another way.

A simple way to achieve this is to take a standard water cooled engine and install a pump that takes water from the sea, lake or river and pushes that water straight through the engine and out again. This is basic ‘direct raw water cooling’. To add to the efficiency of this method some bright spark invented the water jacketed exhaust manifold. Instead of the used water being ejected immediately overboard, it is diverted through the exhausts water jacket and out through the exhaust. This not only massively improves the engine cooling but also removes the fire risk associated from an otherwise very hot exhaust. The big drawback to this method, particularly in sea water, is the build up of dried solids from the salt water. This can get so bad as to require an engine change. A further problem is the absence of antifreeze in winter.

A more elegant solution to cooling the engine is ‘indirect raw water cooling’. This method has a sealed water / antifreeze system, much like a car, but instead of a radiator it has a purpose made heat exchanger. This is a vessel with two chambers that are separated from each other by a suitably heat conductive material. Water from the engine is moved by the engines circulatory pump through one side of the heat exchanger, while a raw water pump pumps seawater through the other side of the heat exchanger. This removes heat from the freshwater circuit. The raw water then passes through the exhaust water jacket where it further cools the engine. The build up of solids can affect the heat exchanger over time, but many can be dismantled and cleaned, this is a much cheaper alternative to a possible engine replacement.

This method, used with a thermostat installed, gives us a sealed cooling system full of hot water that we can divert via a ‘calorifier’ to give us a free tank of hot water. A calorifier is simply a tank with metal coils inside that transports the hot engine water through the tank transferring heat on its way back to the engine. The engine cooling water never mixes directly with the water we are going to shower in!

The modern raw water pump is only a fraction of the size of the old inefficient pumps that used to be used, but they are very powerful. They contain a flexible impeller that ideally should be removed according to manufacturers recommended intervals, for careful checking and possible replacement.

Keel cooling, incidentally, is where the engine is cooled by a sealed system, but instead of using a raw water pump the hot engine water is diverted through metal pipes outside the boat where it is cooled and returned to the engine. This system can be affected badly if the boat grounds and the pipes are crushed or breached.

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Source by Stewart Haynes

/ By edd / spiral-freezers/ / 0 Comments

Closing Your Swimming Pool

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Stains, corrosion and scale are not just problems during the swimming season. By using the right products and following the simple procedures below, you will protect your pool during the cold winter weather. Climates vary, so be sure to ask your local pool dealer for specific winterizing instructions.

  1. Take a water sample to your local swimming pool dealer for a complete water analysis. Follow your dealer’s instructions to balance the water as needed.
  2. Clean your pool by brushing the walls, skimming the water surface and vacuuming the pool bottom. Clean pool wall tile and vinyl with cleaner. Empty pump an skimmer basket.
  3. Clean or backwash the filter according to the manufacturer’s instructions using a filter cleaner and degreaser following the label instructions.
  4. Protect your pool water by doing a pool shock. Run the pump for several hours to disperse the product thoroughly.
  5. Protect your pool against algae with the addition of an algaecide.
  6. Lower the water in the pool down to the level recommended by the manufacturer for winterizing.
  7. Drain water from equipment such as pump, filter, heater, chlorinator, hoses and pipes as recommended by the manufacturer. Ask your dealer if you should protect the pipes and equipment with a non-toxic, swimming pool antifreeze. Ladders, chlorinator (if offline model), pump and skimmers baskets should be stored.
  8. Cover the pool using a quality cover to prevent leaves, dirt and debris from accumulating in the pool.

After consulting with your local swimming pool dealer, you may decide to leave your pool open during the winter months. If so, the following are recommended at a minimum:

  1. Operate the pump at least several hours a day or continuously if the temperature gets down to freezing.
  2. Maintain normal pH and minimum free chlorine levels.
  3. Keep the pool free of leaves, dirt and debris.

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Source by Freddy Rodriguez

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Repair and Maintenance for Commercial Air Conditioning

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Commercial air conditioning systems are huge cooling units and consuming mammoth electricity. Added to that if the cooling system is pressured with obstructed air ways and dirty filters, you can imagine.

Unlike home air conditioner, where the space needed to be cooled is less, for industrial air conditioners, it is a completely different story. By the time you figure out where the problem is, it might be too late. Hence, regular maintenance through air conditioning servicing agencies is a must.

Problems and their possible remedies:

You may encounter day today problems with your air conditioner. Here are some simple steps to assess the problem.

A/C is not turning on

Most likely the a/c fuse might have got blown up. Change the fuse. If there is still no change, then you may have to look for broken wires or loose connections in the electrical wiring. It is also possible that the switch is broken inside. Call a technician to check for these faults and replace the blown or loose or broken parts.

No cooling or very little cooling even when the temperature is actually pretty low

Check if any windows are open in the room. This might cause delay in the cooling process as hot air will keep raising the temperature. Close them if open. Next check if the belt of the compressor is loose or slipping. Over oiling might result in slipping. So tighten or replace as needed.

If the condenser filter is clogged, the cooling will not be efficient. You also need to check if any refrigerant is leaking out.

Odour

Odour can mean a lot of things. It can even mean a dead mouse in the air ducts. So cleaning the air ducts as important as cleaning and wiping the cooling unit itself for health reasons. If the condensed water doesn’t have a proper outlet, then it drips inside the cooling unit and becomes stagnant, giving odour.

Noise

Loose nuts and bolts are the main cause for noises. Tighten the bolts and nuts and see if any of the parts inside the a/c are touching each other to create such noise.

Sight glass problems

When there is refrigerant leak or when the system is undercharged, the sight glass gets clouded. This is an indication to repair leak and refill refrigerant.

Maintenance

Once a month: Clean the filters with mild detergent and dry before replacing.

Twice a year: Lubricate the motor and tighten the screws. Clean the water collecting tray and add bleach to it.

Once a year: Clear the air ducts for debris and dead matter, clean the evaporator fins of dust and debris, wipe and clean the coils with corrosion-free detergent.

Air conditioning repair and maintenance are an important part of owning air con. Do it regularly to avoid problems.

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Source by Meadows Leland

/ By edd / spiral-freezers/ / 0 Comments

Roof Ventilation – Installation, Importance, and Costs

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Before we dig any deeper on how much does roof ventilation cost, let’s have a look at its importance. When a roof is built without air intake and exhaust vents, the sun’s heat can cause a buildup of warm air in the attic. This heat could radiate to other areas of a house, which could lead to unbearable indoor conditions during summer. On a typical day’s heat of 90°F, the temperature could rise to 140°F when there is poor airflow. In addition to heat, the existence of moisture in the attic could lead to serious problems in the future if proper venting is not installed.

Shingles and roof decking could suffer and prematurely deteriorate. Radiating heat could also mean air conditioning units and other cooling units need to work harder to keep the temperature down, ultimately increasing the electricity bill.

Uncovering how vents work

There are benefits to having a fully functioning ventilation system for the entire year. Roof vents work by allowing air to freely move from one point of the roof to another. This ensures that no moisture and heat is transferred out of the roof, keeping the house cool. These systems typically have several components systematically placed for optimal function. This air movement can be achieved in two different ways: mechanical and natural. Natural air movement is driven by either stack or wind effect. Meanwhile, mechanical vent systems utilize electrical motors.

Mechanical systems are the most effective. A powered system can effectively transfer hot out and cold air in. However, there are a few tradeoffs to this kind of venting solution. First, some fans require more than 100W of electricity to run. This could increase your electricity bill significantly. Installation is also more complicated, and in most cases, may require professional help. There are also solar-powered fans that allow off-grid operation but are a little bit costly.

How much roof ventilation do I need?

Having enough airflow in your attic definitely, keeps the electricity bills down during summer. Expelling hot air not only keeps the entire house cool, but it also protects the roof structure from moisture-caused damage. However, most homeowners are oblivious about how much airflow they need in their home. It is best to know how much you actually need. This is to ensure that you would have enough airflow to keep the temperature in your attic relatively tolerable.

It’s relatively easy to know just how much ventilation you need for your attic. Generally, you would need 1 vent area (around 1 square foot in size) for every 150 square feet. Assuming that your attic has around 450 square feet of space, you would need to install at least 3 roof vents.

The recommended allocation of vents is at 60% and 40%. The 60% vents would be located in the soffit area and in as cited in the example above, there should be 2 soffit vents installed. The other 40% is for a ridge vent. The type of ventilation may depend on the climate as well as your preferences. If you are still undecided, you should consult a professional to get a second opinion.

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Source by Matt Reardon

/ By edd / spiral-freezers/ / 0 Comments

Heating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Repairing Needs

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Heating and air conditioning, (HVAC) systems consist of many mechanical and electronic components including compressors, pumps, fans, pipes, thermostats, etc. These are delicate appliances and needs proper care and maintenance. Central heating and cooling systems are more prone to failure as they stand the extreme weather conditions. This is the reason, an expert technician is always needed in order to repair, maintain, diagnose, as well as correct the severe problems throughout the system.

Experienced plumbers and HVAC technicians offer comprehensive services for:

1. Compressors

2. Evaporator Coils

Compressors

In AC units, the compressor is the prime component and serves big functions. Its main function is to squeeze the refrigerant that comes to the compressor as a cool and low-pressure gas. The compressor in turn envelops the molecules of the fluid close together. The process of squeezing of molecules together enhances its underlying energy as well as temperature and the working fluid leaves the compressor as a hot and high-pressure gas.

In central air conditioning systems, it is located in a separate box outside the home comfort. If your air conditioner running continuously, but fail to cool or maintain the inner temperature the problem persist in the compressor. Therefore, it is necessary to keep your compressor clean and clear. Expert plumbers can perform the task and clear away any leaves, herbs, mud, debris, grass clippings or dust particles and rinse it off with a hose. It will clean the compressor and make it more efficient. Plumbers also clean the aluminum fins present inside the component.

Evaporator Coils

It is an integral part of the air conditioning unit, which pulls heat out of your home’s atmosphere. Its main part is to allow the liquid to evaporate arriving from the compressor, which extracts heat from the surrounding home air and eventually lowers the air temperature inside.

For your air conditioning unit to work smartly and efficiently, it’s vital to keep these evaporator coils clean and clear. Plumbers and expert HVAC technicians change the filter frequently. They also inspect your air conditioner in order to identify whether your evaporator coil needs a more thorough, professional cleaning.

Specialists also diagnose other components of the system including thermostat, air handlers, furnaces, heat pumps and provide vitally essential HVAC tips to the people. They provide energy saving tips, annual air conditioning and heat pump maintenance programs and regular repairing services to the keep the system efficient, smooth and trouble-free. For complete peace of mind they tend to offer necessary services including heater and furnace repairs and installation, HVAC installation and repair and air conditioning system design.

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Source by Alfred Gordan