We all invent things in our heads: "I which I had a gadget that would?." Then every once in a while we discover that someone has invented it.I live in Montreal. Winter is cold in Montreal and we are familiar with outdoor electrical outlets all over to keep our cars running. I always wanted an...
When two apartments share the same heat source and only have one thermometer, someone is always unhappy. If the thermostat is upstairs, the downstairs people are too cold, and if the thermostat is downstairs, the upsatirs people have to open the windows, to keep from getting cooked although thos...
In this TV show I showed off two great electrical detective devices.The first is called an Inductive Voltage Detector and can be found at automobile supply stores. The one I showed had the trade name Circuit Alert and was made by GB Instruments. Somehow it knows if a wire is connected to the ho...
Radiant Heating and Convection Heating are the two primary types of ways we heat our houses. FORCED AIR HEATINGConvection heating means moving hot air -- what we usually call a forced air heating system simply heats air and moves it around the house through a system of fans and ducts. Forced air...
Our viewers have been recommending products of late. Here are three that my staff tested and I really liked.The Quiet Fill toilet valve from Korky does in fact fill a toilet differently. A regular toilet will fill with a full flow for a while then slowly the valve closes down and it gets noisie...
Few furnace filters, except expensive HEPA filters, do much about trapping or killing germs. Electronic air filters will reduce somewhat the air born germ count because the high electrical voltages do kill some of the bacteria passing through them and probably all that is caught on the plates. ...
When you want to put a lighting sconce on a wall, there is always the question of how to get the electrical wires to that location. Often it is possible to carry wires up from an electrical outlet, or down from the attic -- now how to hide them.If you are working on the surface, as you are oblig...
Electrical wires are usually screwed onto the terminals of outlets and fixtures. If you pull on that wire, you could pull the electrical connection loose. That is why in household wiring, all wires coming out of junction boxes must be stapled down to the house framing within 6 inches of the box...
Peter in Toronto has forced air heating but no ducts in his bathroom and finished ceilings below. He is wondering just how he can get heat to this room without ductwork.Well, Peter, the only heat available without any ductwork is electric. Actually using electricity to heat one bathroom in an a...
When most people think about having the computer, the TV, the audio and such being run out of a central hub, they usually only think about distribution. Those units do exist. But you can go a step further and get a central hub that filters and conditions the electricity and the signals to separ...
