Green Building & Zero Energy Homes, Alternative Energy, Metal Roofing, Portable Buildings, Green Home Improvements, and Green Living Tips

Are you in the midst of planning a baby shower for a close friend or family member? Between food, location, invitations, games, and decorations, planning all the little details of this exciting occasion can get stressful, and the best way to pull this event off just right is to focus on a couple of key things. There is no right way to throw a great baby shower, and years down the line people will remember the good time spent together, rather than the color of balloons you worried so much about. So make people your first priority: if the new mommy and her guests are comfortable, excited, and happy to be celebrating the coming of the newest member of the family, your shower will be a blast!

Here are 5 easy tips that will help you focus your efforts in the right direction.

1. Take cues from the new mommy.

If you are throwing a baby shower for a close friend or family member, chances are you already know her personality and preferences. If you are not sure about something, do not shy away from asking advice from other people who know her well. Use this information to your advantage to figure out what would be most delightful to her on this special day. When you make decisions about location, guest list, food, and activities, consider whether she would really enjoy your choices. Perhaps you are planning to pull out all the stops, rent a big space, invite 50 people, and have a marathon of games with prizes, and she would prefer a low key house party, laughing and chatting with a few closest friends and relatives. If you take her cue on the major stuff, there will still be plenty of room to show your creativity, love and care for the new mommy.

2. Stay organized.

A baby shower is an important event, so for everything to turn out just right, it is a good idea to start planning a few months in advance, and keep yourself organized throughout the process. Starting early will be especially critical if you are planning to invite a lot of people. This will require more coordination and advanced planning to send out invitations, find and book a larger space, as well as plan out the catering or restaurant food menu. In case a venue or caterer that you want are not available, you should leave yourself enough time to find another great option. Having a running checklist is a really easy and helpful way to stay on top of everything.

3. Set the Date

Set the date for the baby shower early and let the guests know in advance, so that more people will be likely to attend. Timing is especially important if the baby shower happens to be around major holidays, when more people are likely to travel. If you have guests coming out of town, it will also make their lives easier if they can get a head start planning the trip to attend the baby shower. Find out if and when the new mommy will have other baby showers hosted by another family member or friend, so that no conflicts of interest arise.

4. Budgeting

Setting your budget early in the planning process will help all the other pieces fall into place. Your budget will help you determine the amount of people you can realistically invite, as well as your food, location, and decoration options. You can throw a wonderful baby shower, even on a small budget. Food and location are usually the biggest cost, which means that you could stay within budget by hosting the shower at home, as well as cooking and buying food yourself, instead of ordering catering. If you have a really big guest list, consider co-hosting the shower with a family member or friend, who would also be willing to contribute to the budget.

5. Guest list and Invitations

One of the first steps to planning and hosting a successful baby shower is to create the guest list. The guest list will give you an idea how many people will ultimately be at the shower, which will play a key role in figuring out your budget. Make sure you have emails, up-to-date addresses and phone numbers for everyone on the list. You can also use the guest list to keep track of RSVPs, and hen give it to the mommy-to-be so she has everyone’s correct contact information to send Thank You cards to.

On the invitations, include the event’s location, map and directions to the location, the event’s date, time, your phone number and the RSVP date. Send invitations five or six weeks before the event.

6. Theme

Having a theme for the baby shower can be both fun for the guests, and helpful to you as the organizer. The theme will set the tone for the party, and can be a source of enjoyment and surprises for the guests. Having a theme will make it easier for you to think about decorations, games, prizes, and anything else you may want to include. You can choose from a wide variety of baby shower themes & ideas online, or invent one that will have personal special meaning to the new mommy.

Deciding to replace your current windows shouldn’t just be left to chance. You can improve the overall appearance of your home, and reduce your energy costs quite dramatically by installing right replacement windows.

These days everyone is working hard to reduce their energy costs; Homeowners buy appliances that have excellent Energy star ratings, they make sure their homes are well insulated for winter, and that their windows and doors don’t leak, letting precious warm air escape on cold winter nights.

Materials

When looking at replacement windows to reduce your energy costs it’s very important that you choose the right materials to ensure the highest level of insulation. Consider vinyl windows have become the firm favorite for this. Vinyl is a form of plastic better known as PVC; it is very well insulated and is completely maintenance free.

Unlike many of the other window materials, vinyl doesn’t chip or peel; it can withstand any weather and is fully insulated. Being able to get a properly fitter and well-insulated windows can help to reduce your energy costs dramatically.

Glazing

The next thing to consider is glazing; you will probably be given the choice of two, double or triple glazing. Double glazing is two panes of glass filled with gas, these are normally adequate for most climates. Triple glazing is taking it one step further and is three panes of glass filled with inert gas.

For highly efficient ratings the triple glazing is the best choice, especially if you live in a very cold climate. this type of glazing is used widely in Scandinavia, which experiences freezing winters.

Overall Energy Efficiency

When looking at vinyl windows you will be advised of two factors, the U and R factors. These probably mean absolutely nothing to you, but the U factor is the energy efficiency while the R factor is the insulation factor. Windows are not considered energy efficient unless they have a U factor of less than 0.35. Now you will be amazed to find that you can find triple glazing windows at a factor of 0.8, proving they are highly energy efficient.

For more information on vinyl windows visit www.clerawindows.com/windows

Current Advances in Pest Control Are Taking the Industry In A Greener Direction

There are few industries that the overall shift towards greener methods of doing business has not had an impact on. The world of pest control is no exception, and in part to do its historical reputation as a major polluter of the environment it is poised to be one of the more important consumer product sectors of the economy that will benefit from increased investment in green technologies. Not only are there opportunities for pest control companies to do things better by using greener alternatives, but there is a huge marketing opportunity available for the companies that take advantage of the demand for these safer and less harmful products.

For far too long, pest control has been reliant on chemical formulas that are known to cause harm both to humans and to the environment at large, including among other species, birds and fish, both of which are incredibly susceptible to pesticide runoff and contamination. In fact, many of the recent ecological crises worldwide can be reasonably assumed to have been caused at least in small part by the over-reliance on traditional pesticides.

Through natural selection they can become nearly immune to a previously fatal dose within as few as three generations. This means that the two choices left to those who wish to get rid of them are either to use larger and larger amounts of the old pesticides or to find new, natural and more effective ways to repel and kill these bugs.

The biggest trend currently in the green and organic pest control market is the usage of two specific natural products for pest control needs. The first is diatomaceous earth, which in addition to pest control can be used for filtering and cleaning, and is a great all around organic product in a wide range of applications.

The second such product that can be employed in many different places including the elimination of pests is boric acid. Much like the previously mentioned diatomaceous earth, it is completely non-toxic and not harmful to the environment, but has the same insect killing potential of more powerful chemical pesticides.

In addition to these two dry powder products, there are new spray products being introduced to the market regularly that can take the place of traditional sprayed insecticides, even for large scale and commercial applications. Most of these are the result of increased research over the past two decades into the insect killing properties of various plant extracts such as rosemary and peppermint oils. Not only do these kill insects but they also can have a beneficial repellent effect, whether applied outdoors or inside one’s home or business. Unlike most chemically based spray insecticides, those based on plant extracts have absolutely no aquatic or avian toxicity, which is obviously a huge benefit to the environment where they are applied.

The future is likely to hold even more advances in the natural pest control category, particularly as companies place more emphasis on the research and development of natural alternatives to chemical pesticides. This can only be a positive for the future, as the reliance on pesticides has done quite a bit more harm than good over the past century.

Author Bio

Sam Gerald is a staff writer for Do My Own Pest Control. He is committed to helping people find the latest and best green options for their pest control needs.

There are three main classes of chimney liners; they include clay, concrete, and metal. All of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. Metal flue liners are normally put up when repairing a chimney. They are made of aluminum or stainless steel.

A flue liner is designed to help protect areas of the house that are close to the fire place. A chimney emits a lot of heat that can damage the walls and make them cracks. It is for this reason that special chimney liners are installed to help control this heat. They are of different prices because some are better than others. A liner which is not set up correctly can cause build-up of carbon monoxide which is fatal.

Aluminum is used with gas fireplaces. For fireplaces that use wood, this is not an ideal option. Stainless steel is used in fireplaces which are made of either wood or oil. Metallic types should be covered with insulation, this helps to improve their efficiency and safety.

The other type is the clay type. It is made up of clay tiles, which are cheap, this makes them very common. This type is very effective especially in an open fireplace. They last for a very long time, about seventy years. One of the disadvantages of this type is that they’re ceramic, and if fire occurs they crack. The second disadvantage is that tiles cannot adequately accommodate the liquid combustion byproducts produced by current gas appliances.

The other type is cast in place. Heat resistant cast is poured into the interior of the chimney. This cast is formed from lightweight, powdered volcanic rock and cement material. This forms an insulated way for gases to escape. They are good because they can be used with all types of fireplaces, they can also be used to improve on the old types. They, however, have one disadvantage, which is that, their installation cannot be reversed.

These liners can also be categorized in using another criterion, and they fall into two categories, the rigid and the flexible type. They are designed in different ways, and they serve different purposes. The rigid type is used when the vent interior is straight and does not have any imperfections. It is made of metal alloys but they are not of the same kind.

The other type, that is the flexible one, is used where there are some bends or imperfections. They are made of stainless steel. However, there are different types of this flexible type, there are some that have a smooth wall interior, and a substantial thickness, while others are made of thin material. The ones with thick material are better as compared to the others. The higher the quality, the more expensive they are.

In conclusion, liners play a crucial task in efficiently burning fuel, and protecting the house from being damaged by fire. They often get damaged, and as a good homeowner, you should ensure they are in good working condition.

It is hard to imagine going back to a world without computers, they store critical data for our every day lives. Now, the same is true for large companies, governments and organizations; they would not be able to run without their data. That is why there are data centers across the US that store and update that information constantly. The drawback is that these centers use a lot of power to keep the world of data just a click away. According to the EPA, the nation’s servers and data centers consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption) for a total electricity cost of about $4.5 billion.

What is a data center?

A data center is essentially a secure, climate controlled space with rows and rows of servers, which store information on chains of hard drives that run continuously. A data center needs energy to power the actual IT equipment (i.e. servers), which can get really hot and need to be cooled constantly, as well as overhead energy to run the facility (i.e. cooling, lighting). Typically, heavy- duty air conditioning does the cooling job, racking up huge energy bills. The more efficient a data center, the lower the overhead required to operate the facility. Conventional data centers run at an average overhead of 100%. Things are much different in an energy efficient data center. For example, Google has been able to reduce this overhead to just 14% in its energy efficient data centers, and they have also reduced overall electricity consumption by 50% compared to a typical data center. This means that most of the energy goes towards powering Google’s IT equipment that directly does the data center’s work – that of serving Google searches and applications.

High Energy Consumption

As one of the fastest growing sectors, national energy consumption by servers and data centers has doubled and is now around 3%, which is more than 100 billion kWh, representing a $7.4 billion annual electricity cost. As more information comes on line, data centers will consume even more energy. To address this issue, a global taskforce comprised of representatives from the U.S., European Union, and Japan has been meeting regularly since February 2010 to provide greater detail on metrics to improve energy efficiency in the IT industry. IT giant such as Google have also joined in the effort to improve efficiency on a broader scale. In 2007, Google teamed with Intel and other industry partners to found the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a group which champions more efficient computing. This non-profit consortium is committed to cutting the energy consumed by computers in half – reducing global CO2 emissions by 54 million tons per year. One of the most effective methods to reduce high energy costs has been the creation of energy efficient data centers, which are quickly gaining popularity. They significantly reduce the amount of energy it takes to power our digital lives.

Advantages of an energy efficient data center

At first glance an energy efficient data center looks similar to a regular data center: rows and rows of servers. However, if you take a closer look, you will see the difference. Instead of running all the time, these efficient servers switch to a low power stand-by mode when they are not in use. In stand-by mode, efficient servers use only a fraction of electricity of standard servers. They are a lot cooler too. Moreover, new software tools help optimize energy use. In an energy efficient data center, instead of using air conditioning, there are actually two different treatment systems: one system sucks hot air out of the data center. In cold months, the heat is redistributed through the building’s duct work to help keep the rest of the building warm. A second system pulls in fresh air from the vent. The air circulates underground where the constant temperature is about 54 degrees. From there, the chilled air circulates through a completely separate system and cools the data center. Fans circulate the cool air back through the servers. Thanks to a climate ripe for these efficiency methods, such a data center rarely uses air conditioning: only 33 hours throughout the entire year! Keep in mind, the data center is always working: 24/7.

There is another huge advantage: for every watt your computer equipment uses, regular data centers require more then 2 watts of power. However, in an energy efficient center only 1/10 of a watt is needed, compared to a traditional data center of a similar size and overall utilize 81% less energy. Regardless of climate, it is possible to realize big savings through a smart data center design, and that is beneficial to both the environment, and a company’s bottom line.