Category: Home Improvement

Microfiber cloths (available at Costco)

• for wiping kitchen, windows, glass, etc

Pressure Washer (available at Costco)

• clean driveway
• clean house exterior
• clean fence

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes (available at Costco)

• clean glass, including hard (mineral) water stains on shower glass
• clean soap scum on shower tiles
• clean dirt and soap scum on vanity and sink bowls
• clean stainless steel appliances
• clean kitchen countertops
• clean microwave interior
• clean faucets

Continue reading Cleaning Tips

• Ground wires always go to ground
• To see if a circuit is correct, there must be a loop. Follow the black wire from the panel (source) and then through the light or outlet and then along the white wire and back to the panel. If there’s a loop, then it’s correct.

I’ve accumulated quite a bit of tools now to the point that I sometimes forget what I have so I created a personal tool inventory page.

View My Tool Collection

Recently my shower drain wasn’t draining water as fast as it used to. I normally use Drano but heard about the good reviews that Hair and Grease Drain Opener got which also comes with a money-back guarantee so I gave it a shot. Turns out it worked perfectly the first time. Here’s what I did:

1. Poured 2.5 cups of the Hair and Grease Drain Opener liquid down the drain
2. Waiting 6 hours (you can also just wait overnight)
3. Boiled a pot of water
4. Poured the boiling water down the drain
5. Clog was gone

tl;dr

• Put the choke in the off position.
• Pull the start the engine.
• If the engine doesn’t start after two pulls, put the choke in the on position and pull to try to start the engine again

Normally

• when the engine has been off for a long time, e.g. after storage, you need to choke the engine by turning the choke to the on position and then pulling the rope to turn the engine on.
• when the engine has been running and you temporarily turn it off for, say, 15 minutes, then the engine is still warm and you don’t need the choke to be on to restart the engine. if you restart a warmed-up engine with the choke on, the engine won’t start because there will be too much fuel going into the engine.

Continue reading Starting a Small Engine Equipment with Choke Control

If you open your circuit breaker, you’ll see a bunch of breakers with tabs. Each breaker controls a circuit for a certain part of your house, e.g. a circuit for the kitchen, a circuit for the bathroom, etc. Each breaker has a max amp rating, e.g. 15A or 20A. If you multiply the amp rating by 120 volts, you’ll get the max wattage the circuit can handle. e.g. 20×120 = 2400 watts. So if you have 14 circuit breakers that each can support a maximum of 20 amps (or 2400 watts), then your entire circuit breaker panel for your house can handle 14 x 2400 watts = 33,600 watts. However, this is all theoretical. If someone replaced a 15A breaker with a 20A breaker, you’ll have problems, e.g. a possible fire.

Continue reading Calculate Max Wattage a House Can Handle

Calculate Energy Cost For a Device

1. Read the wattage on the label of the device
   If the device doesn’t have a label, you can buy a wattage measuring device, such as the Kill A Watt.
   
2. Calculate Watts Per Day
   To calculate energy consumption costs, simply multiply the unit’s wattage by the number of hours you use it to find the number of watt-hours consumed each day. For example, let’s say you use a 125 watt television for three hours per day. By multiplying the wattage by the number of hours used per day, we find that you are using 375 watt-hours per day.125 watts X 3 hours = 375 watt-hours per day
3. Convert to Kilowatts
   But electricity is measure in kilowatt hours on your electricity bill. Since we know that 1 kilowatt is equal to 1,000 watts, calculating how many kWh a particular device uses is as easy as dividing by 1,000.375 watt-hours per day / 1000 = 0.375 kWh per day
4. Calculate Usage Over a Month Period
   Now to find out how much that’s actually going to cost you on your electric bill, you’ll have to take the equation a bit further. First you’ll need to figure out how many kWh the TV uses per month.375 watt-hours per day X 30 days = 11.25 kWh per month
5. Calculate Monthly Cost
   Next, pull out your last electric bill and see how much you pay per kWh. For this example, let’s say you pay 10 cents per kilowatt hour. To find how much the TV is costing you in a month, multiply your electricity rate by the kWh per month that you calculated above.
   11.25 kWh per month X $0.10 per kWh = $1.13 per month

Continue reading How to Calculate Electric Costs

When deciding on lighting for a particular room, it helps to see how light from different types of light bulbs placed at different locations will look, e.g. do you want a bunch of spot lights or a few flood lights? Below is a simple setup showing how you can attach lights to your ceiling for testing purposes.

Buy these long pendant lights. They’re available on Amazon for $13 for a pack of two.

Continue reading Test Lighting in a Room

How to Wire a Light Switch

Wire a light switch
  

 Wire a light switch (power into light)
  

Wire a light switch (multiple lights from one switch)
    

Wire a light switch (multiple lights and multiple switches)
      

Continue reading Common Home Residential Electrical Wiring Connections

I recently experimented with sounds for my living room and came up with the following setup. Here’s my setup and the reasons for it.

Components:

• Bose SoundTouch 300 Sound Bar: $700
• Bose Acoustimass 300 Subwoofer (Bass Module): $700
• 1 Pair of Bose SoundTouch 10 Speakers: $330 (at Costco)
• 1 Pair of SoundXtra Wall Mounts For Bose SoundTouch 10 Speaker: $70 (on Amazon)

Sub-Total: $1800
Tax: 10% ($180)
Total: ~ $2000

Note: I haven’t bought the Acoustimass yet because it’s pretty expensive. However, I have tested it and it sounds great when your sound source contains bass.

Continue reading Home Sound System Setup Using Bose