Simple Ways to Freshen Up That Stuffy Bathroom or Kitchen

    FORT MILL, SC, August 03, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- If there's one room in the house that cries out for fresh air, it's the kitchen. And if there's a second room that can benefit from Mother Nature's sweet breath, it's the bathroom. When humidity and odors build up in a room, a host of disagreeable results arises, from mold and mildew to dank, unpleasant air.

Exhausting stale indoor air and replacing it with fresh outside air is the best way to ensure continuous indoor air quality, the Home Ventilating Institute says. Modern construction, however, makes it virtually impossible to achieve sufficient exchange of air without mechanical assistance. Fortunately, from venting skylights to high-tech exhaust fans, there are plenty of ways to ensure ventilation in the kitchen and bath without sacrificing a comfortable atmosphere.

Become a fan of fans
Few rooms are as prone to moisture buildup as the bathroom. Since this room is often also one of the most-used in any home, keeping it fresh and comfortable can be a challenge. Venting fans are a must for full bathrooms where bathing occurs, and a comfort-enhancing plus in half baths and powder rooms.

If your bathroom lacks an exhaust fan, installing one is often within the abilities of a savvy do-it-yourselfer. It's important for your fan to vent outdoors. "Exhaust" fans that do not vent outdoors simply recirculate stale, damp air within the room, or shunt it to another area of the home - such as the attic - where moisture can lead to mildew. Consider installing a timer to help ensure your fan runs for an adequate amount of time after every shower or bath.

Skylighten up your life
Thanks to resources like Energy.gov, you may already know that a properly installed, energy-efficient skylight can help you control heating, cooling and lighting costs. Skylights can also be an excellent source of passive ventilation.

"Solar-powered fresh air skylights admit healthful natural light while providing passive ventilation," says Ross Vandermark of VELUX America, (www.veluxusa.com) makers of Energy Star-qualified no leak skylights. "Passive ventilation gives homeowners the benefit of fresh air without adding to their utility bills. Due to its "chimney or stack" effect, a skylight doesn't need to draw electricity to move air the way a ventilation fan does. What's more, skylights can be equipped with solar blinds for additional light control and energy efficiency. And both the no leak solar-powered fresh air skylight and solar-powered blind, as well as the installation, are eligible for a 30 percent federal tax credit as a green home improvement."

Venting skylights in kitchens passively exhaust hot air, moisture and odors while admitting additional light for more pleasant cooking, dining and entertaining. And skylights, along with fashionable accessories including decor-enhancing blinds in colors and patterns, can be controlled manually or by remote control.

The same applies in baths, where humidity levels are often high and the need for ventilation is constant. Skylights also add a big plus in baths with the privacy they afford as opposed to vertical windows. The same holds true in bedrooms. Plus, gazing at the nighttime sky from your bed is sometimes a nice option.

You can learn more about energy-efficient skylights and calculate your tax credit for a new or replacement model at www.veluxusa.com.

Win with windows
Cold weather makes most of us close windows tight until temperatures warm. But as soon as the cold breaks, windows again become a great way to welcome fresh air into our homes.

It's possible to maximize the benefit your home receives from opening the windows. Whenever possible, create a cross-breeze by opening windows on opposite sides of the room or opposite ends of the house. Having two open windows will help maximize airflow.

Avoid blocking windows with furniture or heavy drapes that can block the movement of air. Ensure windows always have screens and keep screens clean and free of debris. Screens should always have locks, especially on second and third-floor windows and in homes where small children and pets are present.

For information on natural light and fresh air through passive ventilation, visit veluxusa.com. You'll also find a skylight planner app on the site for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices that allows homeowners to see exactly how various skylight and blind combinations would look in their own homes. For window and skylight energy efficiency information, visit energystar.gov, nfrc.org, or efficientwindows.org.

Media Contact:
Keith Hobbs - Business Services Associates, Inc. - 9413 Greenfield Drive -
Raleigh, NC 27615-2306 - Phone - 919.844.0064 - E-mail - khobbs@nc.rr.com

View the original article here

LG WCP-300 Wireless Charger: Simple, small, effective

OK, nobody's getting rid of microUSB chargers anytime soon. So to that end we'll keep plowing our way through wireless Qi chargers. When we first saw the LG WCP-300 Wireless Charger (we picked ours up for $39 at Verizon) at Mobile World Congress, it was a pretty unassuming puck. It's smallish (about 2.7 inches in diameter) and is just a bit thicker than the phone you're going to charge it with. The included travel charger is rated at 1.8A, and the puck itself takes that down to 1A. So if you want a faster charge, you'll need to plug in. But wireless charging has always been more about convenience than speed. (The party line is that the WCP-300 will charge a 1500 mAh battery in less than 4 hours.)

So, one puck, one phone. Plug in the microUSB cable, plop a phone on top of it, and you're charging. There's an LED indicator light that doesn't do a whole lot of good unless you place your phone on the puck sideways -- it's hidden, otherwise -- but doing so just looks odd. The face of the puck is matte black. It's ringed in glossy plastic, and the bottom's got four rubber feet that keeps things nicely in place. 

If you're going to delve into the world of wireless charging, you need to know up front that you'll be paying a little bit of a premium. Paying $39 to charge your phone isn't small potatoes. But the LG WCP-300 is a slim and stylish charging puck. In fact, it's probably going to end up in my travel bag, just because. 

We've got more pics after the break.

View the original article here

2Fuse: A quick time killer with simple gameplay

There are in-depth and wonderful games that require hours and days of your time to complete, and then there are the equally necessary games that draw you away from reality for just a few minutes at a time. 2Fuse is in the latter group, and executes on that premise quite well. It's a quick and dead simple puzzle game with just a few rules and some fun animations and sounds to keep it lively, paired with a gameplay model that will keep things fresh no matter how many times you play.

Just because a game is simple doesn't mean it needs to be overlooked -- stick around after the break and learn a little bit more about 2Fuse, a new puzzle game on Android.

 

There are just a few simple rules to understand in order to play 2Fuse, but that doesn't mean it's an easy game to master. When you enter the game to play for the first time, you'll be given a quick tutorial of the game mechanics, which break down pretty simply. The game consists of a 4 by 4 grid of boxes, each having either "1", "2", "3" or a star in them and being either green, red or blue. Your goal is to match up pairs of boxes that are both the same color and type (same number or star), tapping to combine them. Pairing up two "1" boxes creates a single "2" box, and pairing two of those gives you a single "star" box. When you combine the star boxes, you're given different bonuses to help you score higher depending on the color of the boxes you combined -- red for a point multiplier, blue for a time slowdown and green for an instant refresh of available boxes on the screen.

As you pair up the boxes, the open spaces are re-populated with new "1" boxes, which you then continue to combine over and over again. Your goal for 2Fuse is to combine as many boxes as possible before the 60 second timer runs out for the round. You receive points based on the boxes combined, along with whatever bonuses you have associated with them and the combos you put together without making a mistake. As you play, you'll see a bar counting down the amount of time you have left in the round, as well as the status of your bonuses and your score vs. the highest score you've ever had -- but you'll be so frantically tapping pairs of boxes to pay attention to those.

 

After finishing your first round, you'll find there's a little more depth to this game awaiting you. Each game your points are converted into a system of in-game currency of sorts called "volts". These volts can be used to purchase "upgrades" and "boosters" that will help you score higher on subsequent rounds, such as permanent percentage increases to the points you earn every round and increases to your round length. Upgrades are permanent and work every round, while boosters are single-use purchases. As is the case in most games nowadays, you can make in-app purchases for volts if you would like, ranging from $0.99 to $19.99. You can also receive volts for doing things like liking the game on Facebook, rating it in Google Play and viewing the developer's other games.

Once you get a hang of the basic ideas on 2Fuse, you'll quickly get sucked into playing round after round trying to best your previous high score. The in-app purchases aren't at all necessary, and the game is good fun even in its completely free-to-play state. If you're in the mood for another new puzzle game that will help you kill some time -- be it 60 seconds or an hour -- then 2Fuse is worth a look.

View the original article here

Sculptor Whiteread explores the simple life in new UK show

By Li-mei Hoang

LONDON | Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:08pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Garden sheds, tin cans and other everyday objects form the backbone of a new show by British sculptor Rachel Whiteread which celebrates the simple things we take for granted in life.

"Detached", which runs from April 11 to May 25 at London's Gagosian Gallery, is the culmination of three years' work and marks a departure for Whiteread from her large-scale works such as "Embankment", which filled the massive Turbine Hall in London's Tate Modern.

Upon entering the gallery, visitors are greeted by the sight of three concrete casts of common garden sheds, marked with the rough grainy texture of wood and pock marks.

"They are casts from little humble buildings - sheds essentially - and they're cast in concrete, so there is no entrance, you can just see it from the outside," Whiteread said.

The works are a far cry from "Embankment" where Whiteread decked out the Turbine Hall with thousands of translucent white polythene casts of cardboard boxes in stacks or her "Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial" in Vienna where she cast an inverted library in concrete with the closed pages of the books turned outward in remembrance of Austrian Jews killed by the Nazis.

"I'm hoping people will somehow think about how humble the pieces are and maybe how our lives are and how we relate to the world and really that all of this work is made from nothing," the artist told Reuters.

"These things are just very simple objects that we totally take for granted from day to day."

The exhibition also features colored resin casts of doors and windows as well as her experimentation with smaller objects such as tin cans, bones and bottles.

Whiteread, who is the first woman to have won Britain's prestigious Turner Prize, is famous for her large scale installations of houses, buildings and rooms exploring the presence of empty spaces.

"The first thing I ever cast was a spoon. I pressed the spoon into the sand and then poured in some metal and then what I ended up with was a spoon without its 'spooness' and that was a very kind of powerful starting point for me."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

View the original article here