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Top 5 Water Saving Devices

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It’s easy to forget that water is a precious commodity, but unfortunately not all of us have such free access to it. In fact it is estimated that two fifths of the world’s population do not have access to proper sanitation, while roughly one tenth of people living today cannot access safe, drinkable water. It is up to us who live better of parts of the the world to make sure the water we use is not squandered, and that we only use what we need.

There are a number of devices that have specifically manufactured to reduce a household’s level of water consumption without affecting the current pressure and strength. Implementing these devices into your home is beneficial to not only to environment, but also to you. Water saving devices greatly reduce water usage and this in turn helps to keep electricity and energy bills down.

Top 5 Water Saving Devices

Water saving devices range in price, but the majority of them are very inexpensive. The main benefit homeowners stand to gain from using a water saving device is the reduction in energy bills, which will save you a lot of money in the long run. Although the lower priced devices such as the shower timer and bucket can be bought at most DIY stores, it’s a good idea to shop for the more intricate devices on specialist sites such as Agua Flux. Doing so will guarantee the device’s efficiency and quality.

1 – Shower Timer

The average shower expels around nine litres of water per minute, and reducing your currently shower session by even one minute can save up to sixty three litres of water a week. That’s three thousand and seventy six litres of water over a year that do not need to be warmed by your tank or boiler. Shower timers are invaluable products, and will also help ensure that you’re never late for work again.

2 – Bucket

BucketBuy a small plastic bucket and keep it in the shower when you use it. The bucket will catch excess water and this can be used to water flowers and plants around the garden.

3 – Low Flow Shower Heads

Low flow shower heads work by adding air bubbles to the water as it passes out through the head. This reduces the amount of water used, while still maintaining strength and cleaning power. Low flow shower heads are available in a variety of designs, offering buyers different spray patterns.

4 – Flow Restrictors and Aerators

Flow restrictors are connected to the shower or kitchen faucet and help stop excess water from dripping. The aerators work in a similar way to the low flow shower heads and can reduce water usage by up to 60%. If looking for restrictors or aerators then make sure to purchase those that have been manufactured from brass and are coated in chrome. This will guarantee corrosion resistance.

5 – Dual Flush

Buying a dual flush toilet is an expensive option, but it is possible to purchase the components that create the alternating flushes and have them installed by a plumber. A dual flush toilet offers the user two settings to choose from; the standard strong 6 litre flush and a softer 4 litre flush.

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Terance Nichols is home improvement specialist with a keen eye for energy saving opportunities. When not busy consulting homeowners and businesses how they can save on energy bills, Terance enjoys long walks with his dog.






Ways To Entertain Your Kids During Summer Holidays

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As parents, we all look for exciting ways to keep our children entertained so that they can experience days of fun during the summer months. Below are some exciting things you can do with your children this summer that will keep them from being bored.

Make Your Yard a Water Park – Kids love being in the water during the summer. By only spending about $15 on a large sheet of plastic, you can make your own slip-and-slide. Find a small downhill incline in the yard to lay the plastic down. Make sure you check the area for rocks, sticks or things that might cut through your plastic and remove them. At the top of your incline, place the hose, releasing just enough water so that it flows at a steady stream. Make sure the plastic is completely wet so the children can slide down it smoothly. If you want to add extra smoothness, mix some dish washing soap and water together. Spread it on the plastic with your hands or a mop. When everything is smooth and slick, stand back and watch the kids have a ball! Why not join in and take a dive yourself?

Local Festivals and Fairs – Kids love exploring, so going to some local events is always fun for them. Many local festivities have learning displays for children. These can captivate your kid’s minds and keep them busy for hours. Search online daily so that you can plan for upcoming events you might find. Most of these have very little cost involved and allow for some great family fun. They are out there just waiting to be found.

Kids Ferrari Track Day – If you want your kids to experience days of excitement, you must try the exciting Ferrari driving experience for kids. What child would not be excited about driving a Ferrari before they turn 17? A popular summer entertainment choice for children is the Our Kids Ferrari Driving Experience. Your children will have a welcome introduction and safety lesson on driving techniques before they begin. Once they start, they enjoy 10 full minutes of driving a Ferrari 360 on a track. When they are done, they will receive an individual driving certificate as well as a DVD featuring some of the amazing driving experiences. You should allow about two hours for the complete driving experience.

Water activities – What kid does not love boating? Getting out on the refreshing water and letting the wind run through their hair or diving into the cold water off the back of a boat is always exciting. Just taking a relaxing swim off the boat is just as fun. There is plenty to do when you take the kids boating. Kids can try skiing, tubing, wave boarding and water boarding. When the get good and worn out, just sit back and let them enjoy the boat ride. Boating is great fun and a good way to spend some quality time with the kids.

Summer does not have to be boring. By doing a bit of research, you can find plenty of exciting ways to entertain the kids all summer long!

Ursula Jones is a specialist writer on the topic of kids activities. Here she looks at entertaining the kids in the summer holidays. see more experience days at http://www.wellwickedstuff.com/

How To Get Into Great Shape For Your Wedding (Men)

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Getting married is a stressful enough event in terms of the logistics of planning and the sheer amount of money you’ll be spending. Although you’ll no doubt enjoy the day and it’s of course a very happy occasion, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a big deal and something you’re going to want to get right first time.

Trading My Pocket Protector for My Pocket Square

To make matters worse though, getting married also necessarily means being put up on a pedestal and gawked at by hundreds of guests like a fish in a fishbowl. You’ll going to be very much on ceremony here, and everyone in attendance is going to be expecting you to look your very best. If you’re feeling and looking a little rough around the edges – perhaps with something of a beer belly going on – then this can be frightening enough in itself.

Fortunately, there are certain things you can do to make sure you look the part on your big day. Here we will look at how you can get into perfect shape for the ceremony so that you fill out your suit like Daniel Craig.

Weight Loss

Lose weight now

If you’re trying to look awesome in a suit, then weight loss is of course one of the first priorities to make sure that you don’t look like a sack of potatoes. Weight loss is particularly important around the belly where it can make you look a tad ridiculous, but note that you can’t ‘target’ fat loss. All you can do is train to burn calories and then hope that it comes off in the right order.

The best way to burn calories fast is with something called ‘interval training’. Essentially, this is training where you will hit it hard for a few minutes, and then go more slowly again for a short period afterwards. In other words, try running as fast as you can on the treadmill for two minutes, then jogging slowly for five afterwards. This will help put your body in an anaerobic fat burning state, and will result in the production of more growth hormone (that causes you to build muscle even when you’re not moving). Use this kind of interval training for half an hour to forty minutes, three to four times a week, and you’ll see impressive changes in a short amount of time.

Muscle Development

Next you want to build some muscle and if you’re trying to look good in a suit then that should mean building very specific muscle that will help you to fill it out. In particular you should be aiming to broaden your shoulders (use lateral raises) and to puff out your chest (use the bench press). This will help you to strike a heroic figure in your suit and make sure it’s tight in all the right places and loose where you want it to be at the same time.

Again, there is a secret to getting fast results which is to keep your training as intense as possible. Hit the gym hard and fast and leave yourself only a short period of time for recovery between repetitions. Once you’re finished, you’ll hardly be able to climb out of your wedding limousine.

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Alice Robins, the author of this post, is an ardent blogger and she enjoys writing on a wide range of topics that interest her. She works for a leading limousine service company by day.

Buying Groceries In Bulk For Convenience And Cost Saving

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How often do you go to the grocery store? How much are you spending per trip? If you’re not planning your grocery bills, you could be wasting hundreds of pounds a month. Do you know off the top of your head how much food your family eats? If not, keeping track of it and starting to buy in bulk might be a great way for you to save on both money and time. With a bit of planning at the start of every week, you could be taking advantage of supermarket promotions.

How?

When you buy in bulk you usually get a bulk discount. This is the most obvious benefit of buying large amounts of food. The downside, of course, is that you’re stuck with more food than you can eat all at once. Before you start buying in bulk, make room. Do you have any empty cupboards or extra room in the pent shed? Anywhere is fine as long as it’s out of sight. Make a list of things your family eats on a fairly regular basis, these are the things you should be looking out for when you buy in bulk. Then, start scouring the internet for coupons and good promotions for multiple items. Remember that you may need to ask for some extra muscle to help you load up the car.

What?

Choose foods that will last indefinitely or almost indefinitely. Canned and dry foods are the best choices. Canned food has been known to last over a decade if kept properly, but are difficult to store and can get rather expensive. Dry foods such as beans, rice, and pasta can last a long time if properly stored and are amongst the cheapest, most nutritious foods. A store of canned and dry foods can be a lifesaver in an emergency as well.

What about perishables?

Fruits and vegetables are the most delicious fresh, so avoid them in bulk unless they are frozen. As an exception, root vegetables like potatoes tend to keep longer and can be stored in a pent shed or other dark places. Buying meat in bulk, though, is a great idea. As long as you have Ziploc bags and a permanent marker, meat is effortlessly stored in your freezer. Divide up a large package of meat from the supermarket into serving size bags and date them. Use them in order, before they spoil, and you’ll have saved however much buying the big pack saves you.

Overall, buying in bulk saves you both time and money. Planning a meal schedule might seem too time-consuming, but spending the extra time driving to and from the grocery store most likely takes up even more time. It’s nice to be able to walk to the pent shed and find enough food to cook an entire meal for your family on a snowy day. Not having to shop for groceries all the time also frees you up to try different recipes and improve your cooking so you don’t have to order in again.

Jamie Finch finds that buying in bulk can help him save a lot of money while also being very convenient. He uses his pent sheds from I like sheds to keep his freezer in which he stores a lot of his food.

Four Awesome Things You Didn’t Know About Leather

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There are always two basic values that come attached to almost all the good things in life- beauty and quality. Not-so-strangely, the same qualities are associated to leather goods too. Leather furniture, gives you so much more than just aesthetic appeal, it becomes very necessary to make sure every penny is well-spent. To ensure you make full use of all the benefits this beautiful material has to offer instead of falling prey to pre-conceived notions, we give you four simple yet surprising things you didn’t know about leather.

1)   Leather is easily adaptable

Contrary to popular belief that leather furniture is only best suited to modern homes, leather does manage to spring up a pleasant surprise with its versatility. Leather furniture comes in an endless variety of designs and patterns, most of which are perfectly timeless. If your home has a very modern feel to it you can simply go for full leather sofas. However, if your home’s ambiance is more towards the old-world vintage, you can easily use solid wooden furniture with matching leather accents. So even if your home is designed to a specific theme, you can fearlessly use leather sofas achieve that luxurious look.

2)   It’s extremely durable

Because of leather’s direct association with being a natural fabric, many prospective buyers worry about its strength and susceptibility to natural elements, and the vexations of daily wear and tear. But not many realize, that just like the human skin, leather is (or was) skin too, which by default, makes it water-resistant. Moreover, high quality leather is probably the only furniture material that is scratch-proof. So the next time your lazy pet or energizer bunny-like kids hop onto the couch, don’t hyperventilate. Your sofa is going to remain as good as new.

3)   Leather is hypo-allergic

People can be allergic to even the most seemingly harmless things, like water or banana or socks! Well, at least you can strike leather off that list. Many people are of the belief that since leather comes from animal skin, there’s a high chance of some sensitive person to have an allergic reaction. But, quite on the contrary, leather furniture is probably the best option for those with a sensitive system. Firstly, because leather is hypo-allergic, and secondly, because, the leather is so tightly stretched and sealed to the frame, there’s absolutely no spot for allergens to settle or spread.

4)   And low-maintenance too

Its cost is the only expensive thing about leather. But once you buy it, it serves like a faithful long time investment, with extremely satisfying returns. Like we mentioned earlier leather is water-resistant. It is also repeals food, so, if you ever have the pleasure of serving some clumsy eaters, rest assured. Your precious sofa is just one swipe of a cotton cloth away from its original natty form. You only have to make sure you wipe the stain before it bleeds into the leather’s natural color. This also helps you save money that you would otherwise spend on regular maintenance, polish, repairs and restoration.

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Sophia Easton, author of this post, is a home improvement and lifestyle blogger. She works with a luxury leather furniture company and maintains their blog.

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