Wood pellet stoves have been an increasingly popular fireplace alternative in recent years. They are highly efficient, and make use of wood pellets that burn more cleanly, with less ash, and with higher heat output than conventional cordwood. But not all of us have wood pellet stoves. For the rest of us, there’s the Tacoma Firelog. We ran into the folks from Tacoma Firelogs at a recent National Hardware Show and they sent us some of their product for a test drive. I know what you’re thinking. San Diego isn’t exactly known for being an ideal test location for products that warm you up. [Read more...]
Wood Pellets On Steroids – Tacoma Firelogs
Flat Roof Insulation How To
Like most Southern Californians, we use our garage for just about everything EXCEPT storing a car. It’s a luxury not all parts of the country have, but it affords Californians with some square footage that might normally be a basement in other parts of the country. In our case the garage is a HomeFixated proving ground, workshop and all-around man-cave (you do need to ignore the washer and dryer, which completely mess with the man-cave feng shui). Our garage has a flat and dark-colored roof, and in the summer it turns into an oven that will literally broil you if dare set foot inside it mid-day. When we recently needed to reroof the garage, I decided to capitalize on the opportunity and install some rigid foam board insulation as well. [Read more...]
Reach Barrier Garage Door Insulation Kit How-To
If you’re like most of the US population of homeowners, your garage door is a simple steel door with little to no insulation. This style of garage door has one redeeming value; it is cheap. One selling point you won’t hear mentioned is that thin metal doors are great at insulating. In fact, this type of garage door turns into a massive radiator in the summer and a massive heat loser in the winter. Living in San Diego, where winters don’t truly exist, my concern was more with the giant radiator-effect our door has. It doesn’t help that our door is brown and subject to direct sun exposure in the afternoon. Last month, while prowling the countless exhibits of the 2012 National Hardware Show, a booth showing off a radiant barrier garage door insulation kit caught my attention. [Read more...]
Save $180 A Year: Honeywell RTH7600D Touchscreen 7-Day Programmable Thermostat
Want to save an average of $180 a year? Want to help do your part to conserve energy? Want me to get back to that part about saving money?
If you’re using an old thermostat, you can save energy and money (on your heating and cooling bills) by switching to a smarter, programmable thermostat – and we found one that has been very well reviewed! [Read more...]
Wood Pellet Stoves, Furnaces and Fireplaces – The Way To Go?
There’s a lot of products out there that are labelled “eco” and “green” and “environmentally-friendly”. Whether they truly are is often up for debate. Sometimes the products offered are more eco-friendly than, say, burning coal, but aren’t exactly offering a big, snuggly hug to Mother Earth either. [Read more...]
Kickspace Heaters – Flippin’ Sweet
It’s not terribly often that I get excited about heaters; I have a “fur coat” on me year round so I am rarely cold. However, I do have a wife who stays cold when the temperatures dip below about 80° so I try to be empathetic for her sake. In honor of that faint din of empathy I present to you the Kickspace Twin-Flo Heaters. Meet the Mighty Mouse of the heating world. These tiny heaters come in three sizes 4200 BTUs, 8400 BTUs and 12000 BTUs which is pretty impressive for something the size of my lunch yesterday. And no, you are not mistaken, the picture is of one of the Kickspace Twin-Flo heaters installed underneath a kitchen cabinet. [Read more...]
Where My Drafts At? Black & Decker Thermal Leak Detector
When the weather gets cooler and you start cranking up your furnace, the last thing you want is have all that fuzzy, costly warmness leak outside – or have nasty, prickly cold seep inside. [Read more...]
Almost as Good as a Double Rainbow: The Kleen-Screen
For me, one of the best feelings in the world is coming into an air-conditioned building from having walked around outside in the heat. It’s instant, amazing gratification. Maybe that’s why I like Las Vegas so much? While my happy reaction pales in comparison to, say, how this guy feels when he sees a double rainbow, it still ranks up there as awesome. [Read more...]
SolarFlare Infrared Heaters Get Spacey
With the SolarFlare Infrared Heaters, there’s really just one hurdle in buying one: the brand name. Colour me jerk, but having something in my home emblazoned with “SolarFlare” isn’t really comforting. I’m far too much of a sci-fi geek not to think of an actual solar flare – an unpredictable ribbon of the hottest hot that exists, a shot of energy from the sun that would surely cause instant death to anything it comes near. But if that doesn’t bother you, the SolarFlare Infrared Heater could be the compact heater your space needs. [Read more...]
Scotch Tough Duct Tape, The Review Is Clear
Our friend Tony over PoundedThumb.net recently reviewed a batch of Scotch duct tape. Since I’m too lazy to duplicate his efforts, and it got cold outside here in San Diego (52 degrees. . . . brrrr), I’ll summarize his thoughts and testing here. [Read more...]
