1001people

Tips for Sealing Air Leaks

2011-02-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

• First, test your home for air tightness. On a windy day, carefully hold a lit incense stick or a smoke pen next to your windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and other locations where there is a possible air path to the outside. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you have located an air leak that may need caulking, sealing, or weatherstripping.
Caulk and weatherstrip doors and windows that leak air.
• Caulk and seal air leaks where plumbing, ducting, or electrical wiring penetrates through walls, floors, ceilings, and soffits over cabinets.
• Install foam gaskets behind outlet and switch plates on walls.
• Look for dirty spots in your insulation, which often indicate holes where air leaks into and out of your house. You can seal the holes with low-expansion spray foam made for this purpose.
• Look for dirty spots on your ceiling paint and carpet, which may indicate air leaks at interior wall/ceiling joints and wall/floor joists. These joints can be caulked.

• Install storm windows over single-pane windows or replace them with more efficient windows, such as double-pane. See Windows on page 18 for more information.
• When the fireplace is not in use, keep the flue damper tightly closed. A chimney is designed specifically for smoke to escape, so until you close it, warm air escapes—24 hours a day!
• For new construction, reduce exterior wall leaks by installing house wrap, taping the joints of exterior sheathing, and comprehensively caulking and sealing the exterior walls.
• Use foam sealant around larger gaps around windows, baseboards, and other places where warm air may be leaking out.
• Kitchen exhaust fan covers can keep air from leaking in when the exhaust fan is not in use. The covers typically attach via magnets for ease of replacement.
• Replacing existing door bottoms and thresholds with ones that have pliable sealing gaskets is a great way to eliminate conditioned air leaking out from underneath the doors.
• Fireplace flues are made from metal, and over time repeated heating and cooling can cause the metal to warp or break, creating a channel for hot or cold air loss. Inflatable chimney balloons are designed to fit beneath your fireplace flue during periods of non-use. They are made from several layers of durable plastic and can be removed easily and reused hundreds of times. Should you forget to remove the balloon before making a fire, the balloon will automatically deflate within seconds of coming into contact with heat.

Just Follow Me

2011-02-14T21:53:00.000-08:00

My dad is a patient, loving and giving person but his generous spirit really came to the fore one night as we were driving home after visiting my grandmother. Pulling up at a small intersection, we saw a car stopped in the middle of the road. An older lady was talking on her phone and staring up at a street sign, clearly trying to work out where she was. She came back to her car, looking more flustered by the second. Dad watched her out of his rear-view mirror before pulling over to see if he could help. As he stood at her window and asked if she was OK, she broke down in tears, explaining she had lost her way.

It turned out she was a caregiver and was trying to find the house of the client she was meant to be help- ing that night. When she showed Dad the address she was meant to A be at, Dad handed her his business card and told her to follow him, and to call him on the number on the card if she lost us in traffic.

My dad drove to the address, only a suburb or two out of our way, and found the house for her. The look of gratitude on her face was reward enough for Dad. The next morning as Dad was driving me to school his phone rang. It was the lady he’d helped the night before, calling him to thank him again for his kind deed. I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder to be his daughter.

Emily Prince

Quit smoke, because you care..

2011-02-13T01:20:00.000-08:00

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is the amount of smoke that actually released by a smoker to his/her environment. Scientifically it is estimated that 90% of smoke created by a smoker is becoming ETS. So of all the dangerous chemicals contained within the cigarette smoke, the smoker only took 10% for himself. This means if you standing around a smoking person then you have the chance to get as much of those chemicals as or even more than that smoking person him/herself.

According to CDC, ETS can become a cause of many adverse health effect to those who are exposed with it. Below is the list of those effect:

* ETS exposure causes heart disease and lung cancer in non smoking adults.
* Nonsmokers who are exposed ETS at home or work will have increased risk of having heart disease by 25–30% and increased risk of having lung cancer by 20–30%.
* Breathing ETS has immediate harmful effects on the cardiovascular system, with increased risk of having a heart attack as the result. The risk is even higher to people who already have a heart disease.

There is no risk-free level of ETS exposure. Even brief exposure can be dangerous.

Children gain an even bigger threat,especially when they live with a smoking parents. According to WHO data, environmental tobacco smoke exposure can bring severe effect on children. Those effects are:

* Increased risk of lower respiratory tract illnesses, such as bronchitis and pneumonia in the first year of life.
* Causing chronic respiratory symptoms in school aged children.
* Increases the severity and frequency of symptoms in children with asthma.
* Increasing the risk of having acute and chronic middle ear disease.
* It’s associated with learning difficulties, behavioral problems, and language impairment in the children with smoking parents.
* ETS is associated with physiological changes in children that may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Unfortunately there are many children who are exposed with ETS, in fact almost half of the world’s children are regurarly exposed to ETS. And your children can be one of them!

So for you my friend who smoke,quit smoking is not only about saving yourself. Quit smoking is not just about preventing you from illnesses. Quit smoking is about caring other people. SO if you are a smoking parent, then quit because you care with your children. If you are a smoking husband/wife, then quit because you care with your beloved soulmate. If you are a smoking teacher, then quit because you care with your student. And if you are just simply a smoking person, then quit because you care with other people who live around you.