Energy-saving lightbulbs, also called compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), were designed to replace all your incandescent bulbs in an environmental effort to reduce our energy usage and our carbon gas emissions.  The CFLs give off the same amount of light as the incandescent ones, using less power and having a significantly longer lifespan.  Your average incandescent bulb lasts between 750-1,000 hours, while the CFL can last anywhere between 6,000 and 15,000 hours.  Despite the fact that CFLs cost a lot more than regular bulbs, they represent a 12% reduction in your electricity bills, every month for about five years.  Pretty great aren’t they?

Unfortunately it turns out they are not so perfect after all.  For these fluorescent lights to work, they require mercury.  As electrical currents pass through the mercury vapour it gives off UV energy which in turn gets absorbed by the bulb’s inner phosphor coating, which then broadcasts visible light.

Health Issues

Depending on the size of the CFLs, they contain approximately 5mg of mercury.  It is safely contained within the bulbs, but should it somehow break, the vapours can end up in your carpets, your furniture, your clothing, and ultimately in your skin and lungs.  Mercury poisoning can affect your brain, your spinal chord, your kidneys and your liver.

If a CFL breaks, make sure to air out the room by opening all the windows.  Before using a vacuum, be sure to use duct tape to pick up all the shards and pieces off the floor.  If you use the vacuum first you risk releasing mercury into the air.  Throw out any clothing or rugs that came in direct contact with the broken bulb, double bag the whole kit and caboodle and place it outside.

Environmental Issues

Similar to batteries, CFLs should be disposed of at your local toxic waste depot.  Again, if the glass cracks or shatters the mercury will escape, seeping into the soil and the ground water.  Be sure to get in touch with your city’s waste management office to check if they practice safe recycling and disposal of products containing mercury.

Greener Alternatives

The most cost effective, longest lasting, environmentally friendly lighting systems right now are light-emitting diode (LED) technology.  The cost is significantly higher for these lights, but they last 25,000 – 100,000 hours, and most importantly contain no mercury.

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Are Energy-Saving Light Bulbs Good for You?

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Modular houses and buildings are basically structures whose various sections or modules have been prefabricated separately, transported to their respective destinations, and then assembled like giant Lego houses.  These structures are not limited to people dwellings however, as they are often used as extra classrooms for overpopulated schools, as portable healthcare facilities, offices, retail spaces and even fast food restaurants.

How are they Built?

The modular parts are built assembly-line style in giant factories.  They move along a track with either humans or robots inspecting and constructing each piece.   Once the entire package has been completed and is ready for transportation it is loaded onto a flat bed truck where it will be shipped to it’s appropriate lot.  A construction team and a large crane are used to assemble the modules on a ready-made foundation.  This whole process can take anywhere from ten days to three months to complete.

Why Go Modular?

-Since the modules are constructed indoors, the materials are in pristine shape as they are protected from harsh weather conditions.

-Construction is so fast, often half the time it takes to build a regular house or building, that the cost is much lower.

-There is much fewer waste in terms of scrapped materials, as the same modular plans are used multiple times, making material ordering extremely specific and accurate.

-Along with generating less waste, modular homes are more environmentally friendly than site built structures.  The construction process is very clean and quick, causing very little disturbance to the surrounding area.  Modular building systems employ energy-efficient construction methods as well.

-Much cheaper and easier to develop homes and neighbourhoods in remote locations.  Getting the prefabricated homes to a specific location is much cheaper than importing all the necessary materials to a remote or complicated construction site.
-It can be argued that modular homes are built stronger than standard homes, as they need to maintain their structural integrity during the shipping process.  It is during the transportation however, where the modular components might lose some of their initial strength.

How many times have you found that dream house, but the surrounding land is tiny or terrible?  Well with modular home options you can pick your land first.  Now you can choose from the incredibly huge variety of modular home models, and in less than three months you can have that dream house on that perfect property.  It’s cheaper, faster, and greener!

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Modular Homes: A Cheaper & Greener Option for Your New House

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The Joneses live in a house right? Well my friend, you won’t have to keep up with anyone when you go out and buy a castle.

That’s right.  Your very own castle.  Think about it:  Dungeons, a draw bridge, towers from which to shoot crossbows…the possibilities are endless.  Not to mention the fact that after every sentence you ever spoke from now on, you get to say “I live in a castle.”

So how does one purchase a castle?  Well for starters you’d have to move to where the castles are. The fact that you’re reading this means there’s a strong possibility that you speak and understand the mysterious language known as English, in which case you’ll probably want to move to either England, Ireland, or certain parts of Scotland.  If you want to stay in boring North America, you can visit here and here for a list of castles in the United States or Canada respectively, although most of these aren’t for sale.

Naturally, castles are very expensive ranging anywhere from $500,000 to $5,000,000 and beyond.  For the older ones, restoration is pretty much a constant project and they are often poorly insulated, making them very expensive to heat.  Once you own it however, you can make a return on your investment by either renting it out for people to live or to hold events like parties and weddings, charging tourists to visit through it, or by transforming it into a bed and breakfast.

Whatever the case, at the end of the day, anything those lowsy no-good Joneses say to you you can simply reply “Oh yeah?  Well I own a castle.”

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How to Buy a Castle

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Some Background on Underground Homes

The practice of living in buildings which are underground or reinforced by earth is not new. Humans have been using this method for almost as long as we have been constructing shelters; for example choosing a cave as a shelter and using material like earth or sod as a part of your structure. However, progress in this form of architecture has been slow. It has only been during recent years that this architectural practice has been gaining some popularity. This is mainly due to the green movement that has swept the globe. Piling earth against your building walls acts as external thermal mass which will help to reduce heat loss and keep a steady indoor air temperature. Even with this recent interest earth sheltered houses are still considered an unconventional form of building.

How it works

By constructing your home underground and using the earth as a thermal mass this will help to save on energy expenses. Below the frost line the earth is at a constant temperature of 55 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit (or 13 to 14 degrees Celsius). The thermal lag of the earth is also a source of protection against unwanted air infiltration. Therefore, by talking advantage of the passive solar techniques and by keeping unwanted air out, while retaining the air located inside, this will help to keep the air temperature indoors steady and comfortable.

However, it needs to me stated that a professional architect whom specializes in this type of building construction should be hired. Some architects that are unfamiliar with this form of construction may attempt to cut costs by using cheaper materials; or they may unknowingly make a mistake in the design technique. This could lead to problems with water seepage, poor indoor air quality, internal condensation and poor acoustic sound quality.

Types of Earth Sheltering

Earth Berming:

This form of construction involves packing earth against exterior walls and forming a slope that gradually tapers off from the home. For these type of designs it is optional to completely cover the roof with earth and include windows in particular locations.

In-Hill Construction:

This involves setting a house into a hillside or a slope. It is recommended to choose a hill that is facing towards the equator (south for the Northern Hemisphere and north in the Southern Hemisphere). All of the walls are embedded within the earth except for the one wall that is facing out from within the hill.

Underground/Fully Recesses Construction:

This is a process where the ground is excavated so that the house can be constructed below the grade. This design includes a common courtyard or atrium that is placed in the middle of the house to allow for exposure to sunlight and ventilation.

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Earth Sheltered Homes

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Let Go

Downsizing is about learning to let go. In the words of Lone Starr to Princess Vespa “Take only what you need to survive”. Your medical alert systems would fall into this category for instance. Well, you can give yourself a little more leeway than simply packing up a basic survival kit, but the point is to choose your items wisely and not hoard too much. Granted there are many things that hold deep sentimental value but you have to define what your needs are now, and look at this as an opportunity to start anew. Once you’ve sorted through your things and established what you want to keep and what you will let go of, you can have a garage sale and also give some of your things away to good will.

Buy Multifunctional Furniture

When downsizing, you need furniture that serves more than one purpose. A couch that turns into a sofa bed is perfect for when guests sleep over, eliminating the need for a rarely used guestroom. Clever cupboards and shelving systems free up tons of space and are great way to keep your things organized. A box ottoman can be used to stow extra blankets, pillows or whatever other items you may not want out on display. Investing in multifunctional furniture is one of the smartest ways to hide clutter and make your place look sharp.

Move Close to Things You Love

Whether it’s closer to friends, family, the library, coffee shops, or the golf club, look at getting a home that is close to the things you love. You may have moved into a smaller space, but with less maintaining to do around the house, you have more time to be out and about.

Your Home is Your Shelter

People used to believe that renting a home is throwing your money away, but once you’ve sold your home, you can use that money towards paying rent (which will be very manageable now that you are living somewhere smaller). A home doesn’t have to be an investment, it’s the roof over your head.

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Downsizing the Nest

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The following is a basic DIY guide to transforming that empty basement into the bar of your dreams. Okay, it’s actually a guide so basic that if you follow it your project will haunt your darkest nightmares. The picture above is an example of what happens when you hire professionals who know their way around wood, tools, and tape measures. If you follow this guide your bar will look nothing like this. Enjoy!

The first step is to gather the tools you’ll need, they include the following:

Wood saws
Drill
Screws
Clamps
Glue
Wood finisher
Beer

Actually, we’re already getting way ahead of ourselves here. Your first step is to choose where the bar will go, and exactly what type of bar design you’re looking for. Will your bar require plumbing? Will you be installing refrigerators? Will the bar be straight or L-shaped for a specific corner? For a great list of bar design ideas and for purchasing bar plans visit here. Once you’ve got your plans, you no longer need this article, and to you I wish good luck and happy bartending. But for some of you braver souls who’d like to design your own, you should also seek out the advice of professionals. Okay, so that leaves about 3 of you, who are daring enough to base the future of your home bar project on this guide, which was written by someone who can barely operate a hammer. Well, there’s no turning back now, let’s do this!

Framing

So you’ve got your tools and whole lot of wood. The first thing you want to do is to build the frame of your bar. For the most basic box frame you could use 108” 2×4s as well as 29” 2×4s. This will determine the size, shape, width, height, depth, and breadth, of your bar. (Did you go and look up “breadth”? Ha! Got you! It’s basically a fancy way of saying width. Sucker.) Start by building the frame for the front of the bar (customer’s side), then the side frames (depth) and lastly, the frame for the back of the bar (bartender’s side).

Skin that frame!

Okay so once you’ve build the skeleton for your bar you’re going to want to put some skin on that puppy. For the skin you can use just about any material you want: wood, drywall, vinyl and even sheet metal. Once you’ve figured out which material you’re going to use, buy the appropriate sized sheets of it, saw it down to fit the frame, and using your drill you can screw the skin to the frame.

Bar top

The bar top is extremely important, as this is what your friends will be resting their heads on after too many shots of tequila. It will also be where all the drinks go, so you’ll probably want to top the bar with a high quality wood, or if you want to make things fancy you can top it off with some granite or tile. If you plan on adding a bar rail around the bar top, a simple method would be to add two sheets of wood for the top, with one placed about 3” back from the front, leaving a 3” groove to install your rail.

Bar Rail

You can create your own bar rail or you can purchase them pre cut. We recommend pre-cut, as there are many chances for you to ruin everything by attempting to shape your own. Once you’ve measured everything and trimmed your rail, you can glue it to the bar top, using clamps to hold it in place while you drill screws into the bottom. Feel free to leave the rail exposed or add some cushioning for your friends with sensitive elbows if you so desire.

Extras

So now you should have the most basic bar imaginable. If it resembles a origami swan, you should probably go back to step 1, where we told you to seek out a professional. But if you think it can comfortably support a full beer bottle without collapsing into a millions splinters, then you can stain your wood any color you like, and probably even varnish the bar top to protect it from the gallons of liquids that will certainly be spilled on it. You might want to add some sinks, faucets, doors which open and close, and maybe a fridge of some sort, but these things are so far beyond our expertise that we are legally forbidden to discuss them with you. If you want to buy a foot railing of some sort that’s fine, you can usually buy the whole kit, complete with installation instructions, or you can supply your friends with giant telephone books to rest their feet. Let’s face it, when was the last time you actually used a phone book?

In your dreams buddy!

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How to Build a Bar

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Considerations

Boats come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and uses, so one of the first things you’ll want to determine is what you’ll be using it for. Is it to zip around the lake when the whole family is up at the cottage for the weekend? Are you planning a long trip through the Mediterranean with a houseboat or cabin cruiser? Or, is it a peaceful morning of fishing that you had in mind? If so, you can get a small boat with no outboard motor for a few hundred bucks, or go top of the line with a sport fisher, equipped for the deep seas for over $100K.

Can you afford it?

There’s an old saying in the boat world: A boat is a hole in the water to throw money into. The biggest factor when buying a boat is undoubtedly the cost. Whether you go new or used, there are all sorts of hidden fees you may not be aware of. First you’ll have to get your boating license, then there’s usually a sales tax on the boat, plus registration fees. Insurance is another expense you’ll have to factor in.

Once you own a boat, fuel and maintenance will be the largest operating expenses. Marina fuel can be as much as a dollar more per gallon than what you pay to fill up your car. As one boat owner quotes: “Your boat, no matter how efficient, will not match the family truckster in gas mileage. Even if you drive a one-ton Chevy extra cab 4X4 with the 7.2L engine, your 90 HP outboard equipped boat will easily drink it under the table.”

Like websites need a website hosting provider for webspace, you will also need to store the boat somewhere, so if you don’t have a large enough garage at home you will need yard storage or rented space at a marina.

Also, a boat may not come equipped with safety devices so you’ll also need to think about the cost of things like a fire-extinguisher, flares, safety jackets and other floatation devices into your budget. A GPS system is also essential to make sure you don’t find yourself lost at sea.

You should also factor in the cost of electronics, accessories and water toys you may want. But be sure to buy what’s appropriate for your boat type and size.

These are some of the essential costs to factor into your boat budget. A word of advice. Buy a boat that is slightly used which you can work on gradually. Chances are it will already come with most of the things you need which wouldn’t be included with a new boat. If owning a boat is truly a longtime dream of yours, I have no doubt you will find a way to make it work.

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Considering A Boat?

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Your USA work Visa is up and now you want to hit the road. Why not take your home with you? Mehrzeller Caravans offer customers the ultimate in unique and luxurious camper design.

The perfect house for skiing and tobogganing indoors. I have to say I am quite intrigued as to what kind of furniture you’d find inside. You would probably need specialty picture hangers to keep any framed pictures from falling.

This shoe house is the work of entrepreneur and artist Ron Van Zyl, who built it in 1990 for his wife Yvonne.

This Hoovercraft house is situated in New Mexico. Unfortunately, it is stagnant, but it must provide a beautiful view!

Make sure Dan Aykroyd doesn’t see this house or he’ll think aliens have built themselves a space station on Earth.

I wake up early in the morning and I step outside… “SPLASH!”

This was the home of Barcelona’s famous architect Antoni Gaudi . It is located in Barcelona’s Parc Guell, a wonderland park he also designed.

Living Peter Pan’s Lost Boy dream in a suspended circular treehouse.

This geodesic house is inspired by the geodesic dome concept of famous architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller.

When high just isn’t high enough… This is called The House in the Clouds situated in Thorpeness, Suffolk. This unusual house was converted from a water tower in 1923.

Rising 45 feet above the first floor, this pyramid house was built to be energy-efficient and “out of the box”. The house has a passive solar Trombe Wall, composed of a layer of glass, an air barrier and a concrete wall one foot thick.


A design sure to have been the product of copious amounts LSD and magic mushrooms.

I’m not sure if this is a hotel or some type of arctic mansion, but this is awesome!

A little on the sterile side but ideal for building a maze inside.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem like the type of structure that would maximize space. Once you get inside however…

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Unique Home Designs: The Most Unusual Homes

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What makes this metal so attractive is its strength, weight, and resistance to corrosion. It is as strong as steel, only slightly heavier than aluminum, and is not prone to corrosion even when exposed to sea water or chlorine. For these reasons it has been used widely in aerospace and military applications for the last twenty-five years but now, as extraction becomes less expensive, this space-age metal is showing up in a lot of ordinary, every-day places.

Builders of both homes and commercial buildings have long had to deal with the effects of temperature changes and moisture in aluminum-based heating and cooling equipment. Over time, aluminum units get rusty and beat up; they become less efficient and aesthetically poor; simply put, they are not up to the long-term task. Titanium units on the other hand, outlast and out-perform their counterparts in almost every case.

In the world of home and commercial security, monitoring equipment is often sensitive to a variety of environmental variables, including magnetism. With aluminum or steel shielding, sensitive equipment can be protected from weather and impact damage, but with Titanium shielding comes the added benefit of protection against damage by magnetic fields.

Titanium’s strength to weight ratio is causing manufacturers of electronics to give it serious consideration. From durable laptop computers to audio-visual equipment, marine electronics, and medical devices, Titanium is on the move. In the kitchen the metal is being used for commercial-grade appliances and work spaces. One of the world’s most well-known coffee distributors has even introduced a Titanium espresso maker!

Perhaps the most fascinating use of this metal to date is in medical and dental applications. Titanium is known as a biocompatible substance, meaning it is non-toxic and normally not rejected by the human body. These properties have opened the door to joint replacements and surgical implants that can last for twenty to thirty years. Osseointegration is another Titanium property which allows human bone and tissue to integrate with the metal, making it ideal for dental implants which depend on strength and stability.

So next time you hear someone speak of Titanium, remember it’s not just for space shuttles any more.

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Titanium: The Metal of Champions

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Storage Ottawa is perfect for when you want to create some space in the home.  Though different forms of electronic media call for different storage methods there are two things common to all of them. First, temperature change and magnetic fields are the death knell for all electronic media. Storage should always be in areas not prone to direct sunlight, extremes in temperature, or near sources of magnetism, such as stereo speakers. Second, even slight damage to electronic media often results in the entire piece being unusable. Unlike a record, where a scratch only affected the area where it was located, a scratch in a CD usually renders it useless. Backup copies should be made whenever possible.

For DVDs and CDs, make sure you store them in the original packaging if possible. As an alternative, some people replace the manufacturer’s plastic case with a paper sleeve to avoid the constant bending the disc endures in freeing it from the case. Paper sleeves also take up less room and are inexpensive. Regardless of which method you choose, discs should never be stacked one on top of another more than two or three high. Lay them vertically, back-to-back, or purchase a rack with individual slots. Also, be sure to never leave a disc in a player when you’re done with it. Turning the power back on can potentially damage both the disc and the player.

Video game discs are similar to CDs and DVDs but tend to be a bit more durable. They should be stored in the original packaging both to protect them, and also to maintain the greatest value should you decide to sell or trade them in.

For flash drives, memory cards, and MP3 players the biggest enemy is shock damage. These devices are really just small memory chips which store data, and in the case of the music player, the component to read the data is included. These items should be stored in a cool, dry place free from movement or potential impact; and when traveling with them extra caution should be practiced. A flash drive for instance, shouldn’t be thrown into the glove compartment or unused ashtray. Secure it in a place where it will remain still.

Electronic media has many benefits over its older siblings of days gone by. With proper care and storage today’s media can last a life time.If you have a significant number of things to store, you may want to look into inventory management systems to organize and track your media as well.

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Storing Our Media in a Digital World

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