Saturday, June 7, 2014

what electric, wall mounted fireplace has the most realistic fire?




Passionate





Answer
A very popular wall mounted electric fire is the Be Modern Orlando:

http://www.hotprice.co.uk/2118/5359/products/be-modern-orlando-wall-mounted-electric-fire---flat-glass.html

The Be Modern Orlando is available with a curved, black glass fascia or a flat glass fascia. It features LED lighting which have a selection of colours to represent a real fire.

Alternatively, have you seen the new LCD electric fires? These feature a real image of a fire (like a movie) and some offer a selection of scenes and even sound!

Dimplex make 2 electric fires with the LCD effect:

http://www.hotprice.co.uk/2118/3921/products/dimplex-living-art-wall-mounted-lcd-electric-fire---lva191.html

http://www.hotprice.co.uk/2118/4995/products/dimplex-living-art-wall-mounted-mirror-electric-fire----lva192.html

A new manufacturer of electric fires is Celsi Fires. They offer a similar style of electric fires and the flame effect can be seen here:
http://www.bfm-europe.com/index.php?target=steps&task=catstep&brand=10

Split level home, electric heating and fireplace. how to keep the heating cost down.?




tomf


Hello, I am about to buy a split level house with electric heating, and a fireplace. There is an attic fan also. Im trying to figure out if there is any nice routine or way to go about keeping the electricity bill down. Like when should I toss logs in the fireplace, what should I set the electric heater at. Should I turn in the attic fan to circulate the hot air from the basement to the 2nd lvl for a faster warming up. Total new experience to me, I will learn first hand, but I wont object to any advice from people with similiar situations. thanks for reading


Answer
See if you can use "off peak" heating, where you get your electricity for about 1/2 price, but have to have an alternate fuel source for a few hours a day when they potentially may turn off your electric (when prices are at the highest). Electric is the most expensive way to heat if you don't do the off peak method - I would not EVER buy a house that used electric heat unless i could do off peak heating (which is what I have). Natural gas is the way to go, if it is available. It is by far the cheapest. If you are already locked into this house, see if you can convert to natural gas heat. Propane is cheaper than full price electric. Fuel oil is costly - still probably cheaper than full price electric, though.

If you want to heat with wood, you either need a woodstove, or a wood furnace. A fireplace will do little - almost all the heat in the house goes up the flue, because you cannot control the draft. Just use the fireplace for ambiance, and don't use it on very cold days below say 10 degree fareignheit, or you will lose too much home heat up the flue. Your home may not be a layout that you can heat with a woodstove - the air needs to be able to get around. A ranch home, for example, would be really hard to get the woodstove heat to all the rooms. I have a small farmhouse, on the other hand - the old fashioned kind - and the woodstove works great.

Get a programmable thermostat, and have the heat at say 65 at night, and heat up the house an hour before you get up, to say 68. Have it turn the heat down while you are at work. The person who said not to do this is wrong. Every energy expert says to do a programmable thermostat to save money. His/her answer violates the laws of thermodynamics, I do not understand why people think that way! do change your furnace filters often in the winter. The more dust trapping the filter, the more often you have to change it. The cheap blue furnace filters cut down air flow least, so they are easy on the furnace, but they don't trap much dust either. So there is a compromise there. If you have allergies, be resigned to changing furnace filters often.

In a very cold climate, plastic on the windows is great- i do that. You can have the electric company do a thermal imaging picture of your house to look for areas that need improvement. It's about $100, I think. I haven't had it done yet.

ask the previous homeowner for tips. every house has quirks, so you want to know them.




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Friday, June 6, 2014

Colorado bills-Ulitility bills montly?




Littletyke


Im moving to Little, Colorado in a few months. I live in las Vegas, Nv right now. Can anyone give me a rough comparison in costs of the ultilty bills in colorado compared to Vegas. In Vegas we have the following:
Republic Service (Trash)
City of Henderson -
Century link (Phone)
I have an Hoa
NV energy
Souhtwest Gas

What are the ultility places out there in littleton Called?
(any info on property taxes for a 900 sq ft townhome)
phone?
Like Excel, Irea (electric)
water
I live in a 1300 3 bed 2 bath house now with sprinklers for front and back lawns
will be moving to a townhome
900 sq feet, 2 bed 2 bath home, 2 stories, w/ gas fireplace,
no sprinklers the hoa includes lawn, roof, water, trash
so can anyone give me a run down of costs for each ultility bill
ie;trash, water, Electric, other..Give me the costs monthly
compared to Vegas.
Please it would help so Much... As we are really struggling in Vegas with bad job market and we need to know if we will really be saving money by moving into the townhome
(the Hoa monthly is $125, but that includes water, trash)
you give me the other ulitilty costs, names of out there?
Please
Help...

Thanx



Answer
Your gas and electric bills (one bill Excel Energy) will be considerably higher because you will be paying to heat the house. No one can guess what your bills will be. Our bills are fairly low compared to many others because we keep the thermostat at 62, use all compact florescent bulbs and have gas major appliances. We also avoid appliances that heat with electricity

If you have things like an electric clothes dryer, god forbid electric heat or things like a big screen TV and lots of electric appliances expect well over $250 a month. If you seriously conserve, more like $150. Expect higher bills in winter, October - April. The gas fireplace will add considerably to your gas bill.

Also figure a set of good all weather tires for each car at $75+ apiece.

How do you take paint off of brick?




Sherry R


Tudor brick home built in 1926. Homeowner painted the fireplace. We want to know the steps to restore the fireplace back to the original brick. Thanks!


Answer
Getting paint off of anything is always a messy business. With brick, it's extra messy, and hard, because the mortar between the bricks is not at the same level.

Sandblasting works, but requires a lot of equippment, and gets a lot of sand (potentially wet sand, depending on the machine used) all over the room... better for exterior work.

Chemicals may work, but I am not impressed. Usually this just dissolves the paint, and you have to wipe it off. The paint spots you're sure to miss will often seep deeper into the cracks and crevices... but if the paint is some sort of earth tone, this may not be too big a deal, might just make it look like "used" bricks. As a bonus, chemicals usually do not damage the bricks themselves, which would otherwise get some amount of apparent weathering.

A wire brush is probably the second best way to do it. They don't get sand all over like a sandblaster. You have more control over what gets removed, and what does not get removed... but doing this by hand will literally take forever.

Rotary wheels with wire bristles on them can be attached to dremel tools, electric screwdrivers, drills, or even some rotary saws. They sacrifice some of the accuracy of a wire brush for a much faster overall process. This will probably take less time than using paint remover chemicals, but slightly more time than a sand blaster. You're likely to get paint chips and bits of brick and mortar dust everywhere, but at least there will be no wet sand. You might be able to find rotary wheels of different sizes and thicknesses... one like a big roller would be great for the brick surface. A much thinner one should get the horizontal mortar between the brick layers, and a very small one could get the detail work in the vertical mortar between individual bricks in a layer.




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