Tips

Heated Granite Countertops

by
Image borrowed from FeelsWarm

Granite countertops remain one of the coveted kitchen upgrades.  Unfortunately, along with the beautiful colors of natural stone comes the perception of cold.  The mass of the stone acts as a heat sink so even when the stone is at room temperature, it feels cold to the touch.  With our new emphasis on energy conservation, more and more people are using setback thermostats.  While the new high efficiency forced air furnaces bring the air temperature up fairly quickly, the thermal mass of the stone is affected much more slowly.

This has been a problem for years with tile floors and it has been addressed by installing electric or hydronic heating elements in the grout beneath the tile.  If you haven’t experienced this, you’ve missed out.  Stepping onto a cold bathroom floor in the morning can be a bit shocking.  Stepping onto a warm tile floor is wonderful.  If your feet are warm, the rest of you feels warm.

FeelsWarm undercounter installation

Read more

Happy Thanksgiving!

by

Cookie Gobblers made for cookie gobblers…I ran across these on the Internet and thought they looked like a fun project to make and then destroy…though my teeth cringe a little about enduring that much sugar.  The cookies pictured above were from a site called HI Cookery and included instructions for making them here.  The instruction even included a video!

For those with even more ambition, here’s a recipe for making Turkey Cookies with more “from scratch” ingredients.  They’re shown in the picture at the right.  This one requires actually baking some chocolate cookies rather than just cracking open an Oreo.  I found this one at the Worth Pinning site here.

I know you were just dying for a suggestion on how to use up that Candy Corn left over from Halloween…  Here you go!

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Easterday Construction Co., Inc.!

Telkonet Thermostat

by
Telkonet Thermostat Image borrowed from www.eregrinegroup.com

Check out the Telkonet thermostat.  I’ve previously written about the Nest thermostat and the Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat.  Telkonet claims to take it another step further.  Not only is their thermostat programmable, accessible from the Internet and “smart”, but it can calculate roof comfort by aggregating data like time-of-day, solar load, brightness, humidity and occupancy patterns.  It’s Ecoinsight feature determines when a space is occupied or vacant and reverts to preset temperature limits.  Check it out at their site here.

The Ecoinsight thermostat is more for commercial applications than the other two.  While it has Internet connectivity, it may require special networking in order to access it.  This is more efficient where you have multiple installations.

Read more

Double Duty Light Fixture

by
Arcalux HRMS Image borrowed from American Green Technology website
Arcalux HRMS
Image borrowed from American Green Technology website

American Green Technology has a light fixture that does double duty as an air purifier.  From their website:

“Hospital-borne infections are a leading concern for medical professionals and patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 to 10 percent of all patients contract at least one hospital-acquired infection during their stay in an acute-care hospital. There are indications that the future of surgery as we know it may be affected because of uncertainties and fears of post-operative infections.  The CDC estimates that 1.7 million hospital-associated infections (HAI’s), from all types of bacteria combined, cause or contribute to 99,000 deaths each year and is now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, greater than Breast Cancer, Aids and Automobile Accidents combined.”

Isn’t that depressing!  That makes me feel good about my next hospital visit!

Read more

Bath Fan & Speaker In One

by

Homewerks Worldwide has developed a bathroom exhaust fan with bluetooth music streaming capability.  The fan will move 90 cfm at a noise level of only 1.5 sones.

I didn’t realize music in the bathroom was such a thing!  Previously I told you about the Kohler Moxie Showerhead (here) that streams music along with the water.  (See what I did there?)  Before that I told you about the Amerec’s Ipod Shower Docking Station (here).  I guess no one sings acapella in the shower these days.

Read more