Donna Paige, Author at Saving Lives & Property

Author: Donna Paige

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog! You'll find that I'm very serious about fire safety in the workplace and talk about it a great deal. In my opinion, there is nothing scarier than having one's life at risk unnecessarily at work every day. After all, we spend a good portion of our lives at work - we should be able to feel secure knowing that comprehensive plans and provisions have been made in the event of an unexpected fire emergency. It goes without saying that 9/11 is the prime example of the horrors of what can happen with we're not prepared adequately for a workplace fire. Obviously, the root cause of this was terrorism, but many who died that day would still be alive had a better fire safety plan been in place. I'm committed to doing my part, however insignificant, to prevent such tragedies in the future. On the personal front, I'm a single mom of two wonderful children and a huge hockey fan!

Media Room Installation: Common Errors to Avoid

When done right, a media room installation is the ultimate dream upgrade for any home. On top of that, with the rising prices of movie tickets and snacks and the inconvenience of going to the movies, you may be better off in your comfortable home theater.

A media room installation, while impressive, requires sufficient knowledge and investment of time and money – especially when you’re going to the do-it-yourself-route.

Even if you’re hiring a professional media room installer, it’s hugely beneficial to arm yourself with the know-how of a media room installation, so you know how to tailor it precisely to your needs and preferences.

In today’s post, let’s take a look at the common mistakes to avoid in a media room installation.

Choosing the Wrong Room

Your pick of the room will dictate if the media room installation is going to be a success or not. You’ll need to select a room in your house that offers ideal sound, lighting, and wiring. A rectangular or square room with not too much natural light coming in is best.

When it comes to the location of the room in your house, it must be somewhere that any sound or noise coming from the outside can be cut off.

The size of the room must also be sufficient enough to maintain the right viewing distance and angle from the screen, as well as a comfortable seating layout.

Buying the Wrong Speaker System

You can spend money on high-end home theater speakers. However, if they’re not suitable for your space, then your media room installation can go awry. A common misconception when designing a home theater is that the surround sound is an inflexible feature of a home theater design.

A surround sound can improve your home theater experience.

While speakers can drastically improve your home theater experience, people opt to do away with it, especially when they don’t have enough space.

Speaker systems come in many different shapes and sizes. You can definitely find one that suits the size and type of your room. For instance, don’t get massive floor-standing speakers if you have a smaller media room. Aside from taking up too much space, you won’t be getting the best audio quality.

Consider the size and layout of your room before you purchase a sound system. This part may require a bit of research on your end. However, it will all be worth it when you finally complete your media room installation.

As an alternative, you can always get expert guidance from a professional home theater installer. They’ll be able to give you good recommendations on a sound system that best suits your space.

Incorrect Wiring

Wiring your home theater is a vital part of the installation. This can make or break your home theater experience. If you (no pun intended) cut corners on wiring, then it can completely ruin your home theater systems.

Don't cut corners on your home theater wiring.

You may think that the cables and wires that come with home theater components are enough. However, if you want more extended protection for your connection cables and wires, you’ll need a more heavy-duty approach.

With that being said, you don’t have to spend a ton of money on wiring. Don’t be misled by expensive HDMI cables.

Get ones that can keep up with the speed requirements. As for the speaker unit, get up to 18 gauge thickness wires.

The only item you shouldn’t cheap out on is a surge protector. If you buy a low-quality one, you risk damaging your prized home theater equipment. Spend money on electronics safety equipment.

You must also make sure that no live wire is left under the seats or anywhere else in the room.

Buying the Wrong Screen Size

Whether it’s a flat-screen TV or a display screen, you most likely will want a big display for your media room installation for fantastic home viewing.

Again, the size and layout of your media room are an essential consideration when buying a screen. This will tell you the viewing distance you need for optimum watching. Generally, the viewing distance must be 1.6 times the size of the screen. For a 55” television, 88” is the best viewing distance.

A Dream Upgrade

When a media room installation is done right, you can have the best home cinematic experience. We hope the information you learn today will help your home theater design journey.

Advantages of Surround Sound Systems

Surround Sound is the term normally used to explain a system in which the sound output appears to surround the listener — that is, the technology gives the feeling that sounds are coming from all probable directions.

Surround Sound Systems Create a Realistic and Engaging Experience

Surround sound is a way to present a more realistic and appealing experience. Sitting in front of your television or playing a computer game with basic $10 stereo speakers plugged in will give you sound. You perceive sound, voices and other sounds coming to you from a straight line. Using a surround sound system, though, you’ll hear variances in the sound and it will be accessible to you from different directions. For instance, the car driving off-screen will sound like it is coming from the left. While playing a 3D shooter game, the rocket gun blasts sound as if they are being shot from in the clouds or grenades sound like they are setting off at ground level.

The Challenges of Cloud Integration

Nowadays, customers require immersive amusement and surround sound systems play a big part in delivering an appealing entertainment experience. To this end, there’s no be short of options when it comes to surround sound equipment and systems.

How Surround Sound Systems Work

All technological aspects aside, surround sound works because numerous audio channels are received through speakers that are located at a variety of locations in the room. This is programmed into the source and the sounds are decoded when the source is played. While this may seem unsophisticated, it is important to remember that sound systems started out with monophonic sound, a single outlet system. In monophonic (mono) sound systems, the signal sent to the sound system is programmed as one single stream of sound — and the sound is usually arriving through a single speaker.

Advancements led to stereophonic sound (stereo) where the sound was come apart two channels, left and right. Stereo sound enabled listeners to hear some ambience of the creation — for example, a soundtrack of a live concert in stereo where you begin to hear playback from unrelated noises at the concert. Surround sound systems take it a step more by producing a live-quality result. If you’re at a real concert, you hear sound from behind you, and listening to a soundtrack in surround can create the effect of this noise — impending from behind you, or to the right, or even from above and moving down.

Surround sound adds practicality and a new field of depth to your listening experience. This is accomplished not only because you have additional speakers for output, but because the sound soundtrack itself contains more auditory channels.

The A/V (audio/video) Receiver

At the center of every home theater is an audio/video receiver (A/V). Using a DVD movie as an example, the audio is programmed when the DVD is produced by packing numerous audio channels into a compacted format for storage. When you play the DVD movie, the DVD player or A/V receiver (usually called a home theater receiver) decodes the encoding method (i.e. Dolby Pro Logic II for example). Decoding capabilities of an A/V receiver are built in.

Most A/V receivers today can decipher Dolby Digital and Digital Theater Sound (DTS), while higher-end receivers may also consist of DTS-ES or THX Surround. Today’s A/V receivers let you to control the video source and other video options, but for the sound you’ll need it to transmit the sound from different sources (TV, DVD, VHS), organize bass, treble, and volume. You can intensify signals to the speakers, and modern A/V receivers also handle the all-important surround sound decoding.

5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 Channel Surround Sound Systems

Both Dolby Digital and DTS are 5.1 channel formats. 5.1 surround sound is a multichannel sound technology that makes five channels of sound in the left, right, center, left-surround and right-surround positions. These five channels are the lowest amount necessary to produce 5.1 surround sound. The .1 represents the channel for LFE (low frequency effects), which is typically sent to a subwoofer.

Whereas 5.1 surround sound has been the benchmark for some time now, newer A/V receivers are able of delivering 6.1 surround sound. 6.1 multichannel sound equipment uses the same set-up as a 5.1 system, but it has a sixth speaker that takes the rear-center surround point (or back surround position) to offer a more 3-D sound. 6.1 surround sound uses comprehensive surround sound formats, such as THX Surround EX and DTS-ES.

Moving forward, we now also have 7.1 Surround Sound, which splits the single rear-centre speaker into separate left- and right-rear surround. These systems are not a true distinct 7.1 channel system as 7.1 formats don’t currently exist. In a true discrete 6.1 surround system, the back centre surrounds location separate from the surround left and surround right positions. A 7.1 channel system uses matrixed extended surround where the left-back and right-back (rear-center surround) multichannel are blended simultaneously and stored.

10.2 Surround Sound

Created by THX, the name itself, 10.2 is an understandable marketing play on 5.1 (10.2 is twice as good as 5.1). In a 10.2 surround sound 14 channels are used. This includes five front speakers, five surround channels, Two LFE and two heights, plus adding up of a second sub-woofer. 10.2 Surround Sound was a study conducted by Tomlinson Holman in December 2007. You can read the experiment details here.

Hickory Wood Floors: What’s the Hype?

If you’re picky about choosing a home grown hardwood floor, while looking for something with a unique character, then hickory wood floors might be the best option for you.

Whilst geting popular, hickory flooring still accounts for less than 5% of the domestic hardwood flooring market in the USA, making it less common than the classic oak, therefore, giving you the potential for something a little different.

Take a look at all other qualities of a Hickory flooring and see if it will be a better choice for your home.

Hickory Flooring Look, Colors and Finishes
Untreated hickory has quite stronger color contrast, going from a beautifully deep brown heartwood to a creamy white sapwood.

But hickory is also quite good at retaining stain, you will find that most manufacturers offer hickory flooring that is pre-stained, thus offering a large range of colors and looks, and toning down the contrasting colors of untreated hickory.

In terms of style, because of how it is made, the photographic element of a laminated finish gives great artistic potential; you can find many hickory laminates that is characterful painted, weathered and distressed looking.

Most solid and engineered hickory flooring goes towards either classic or rustic texture finishes with different depths of color added to them, ranging from light caramel tones, through popular gray/ greige tones, to deeper coffee and chocolate tones.

All the best quality hickory flooring will also be finished with a clear final sealant – often a polyurethane – to protect from everyday incidents such as spills and dirt.

The main aspect to note about the complete look of hickory wood floors is that hickory has a unique, fairly dense grain that is more obvious than maple flooring but not as strong as oak.

The dense grain gives hickory its incomparable character, but it can usually look overly busy if you opt for narrow planks. Planks width of 5” and above tend to give a more unified overall look.

Hickory Wood Floors Hardness & Durability

Aside from its fine looks, one of the main qualities of hickory hardwood flooring is that it is the hardest domestic wood sold on the market, with a Jenka ranking of 1820 – that is a lot harder than red oak which has a ranking of 1290.

This makes hickory unbelievably durable and much less prone to dents than the softer hardwoods such as maple and walnut flooring. If you have a houseful of children and some pets, then hickory is the obvious choice!

Hickory Wood Floors Pros & Cons

All hardwoods have different pros and cons, so it’s important to consider all aspects of hickory hardwood in accordance to your household and local environment.

Hickory Flooring Advantages:

Color variety and style – Hickory is best at retaining stain which means that there are lots of color options available already stained by the manufacturer, or you can use a pro staining expert to mix a custom color of your own choice for your home.

Styles-wise, hickory is quite versatile and usually used just as well with most informal, rustic, farmhouse décor as with more formal, structured interior designs. The large variety of hickory flooring styles, finishes and colors is a great advantage.

Options – Hickory flooring is produced in solid, engineered and laminate in a variety of plank widths and finishes.

Durability and wear – As mentioned above, Hickory’s best selling point is that it is extremely durable and Ideal for busy households.

Easy maintenance and low costs – As with most hardwood floorings, once properly sealed, keeping hickory flooring clean very easy – regular sweeping or vacuuming and occasional mopping should do the job . Here’s our list of the top mops for hardwood floors.

As with all hardwood floors, to keep it at its very best you should consider on refinishing your solid hickory floor every 5 years or so. For engineered hickory flooring, look for one that has the thickest wear layer and which therefore can be refinished at least once in its lifetime.

Cost – Since hickory is not as common as oak, it is a bit expensive, but still quite affordable averaging at around $4 – $5 per square foot for a decent quality product, with much lower prices for laminates. Click here for refinishing costs.

Hickory Wood Floors Disadvantages:

Aesthetic concerns – In its natural state or with just a light stain or clear finish, hickory wood tones are very varied with strong contrast between the heartwood and the sapwood; this can give a lovely rustic feel, but is not for everybody’s liking.

Stained hickory wood floors generally removes this potential disadvantage by coordinating with the contrasting tones. Also, the dense grain in hickory can make a floor look too busy if you choose thinner planks – reduce this by using wider planks of 5” plus.

Emergency Plumber: When Do You Need One?

Almost every homeowner or tenant has a few essential plumbing tools on hand to not need an emergency plumber each time a minor repair needs to be done. Oftentimes, a slow drain or clogged toilet may only need a little elbow work and a plunger to work as it should. If you are handy around the house, you can basically deal with a small repair, like replacing a drain cover or changing out a worn washer. Then again, bigger plumbing repair jobs need a more approach. Trying to fix some common issues such as leaking toilets or slow drains could lead to bigger problems in the long run.

Emergency plumber with Plumbing tools on the kitchen. Renovation.

Dripping Faucets

When Do You Call an Emergency Plumber?

If you have ever tried to fall asleep with a dripping faucet in the adjacent room or wrestled with a kitchen sink that didn’t know when to stop, you’re familiar with how annoying this common problem can be. A dripping faucet likewise drives your water bill higher. A single leaking faucet can send hundreds of gallons of water per year down your drain a drop at a time. What a waste of money and valuable natural resources.

Water entering your home is under pressure to move it through the pipes. When you turn the tap off , rubber or silicone-based washers form a water-tight seal that blocks more water from pushing its way through the pipes and out of the faucet. Over time, washers can become torn, dislodged, or stiff, allowing a tiny trickle of water through and making that annoying drip. While you can replace washers yourself, the repair can be tougher than you might expect without the needed tools. If the leak has gone on long enough, the valve seat may have become worn, necessitating a call for an emergency plumber.

Running Toilet

If you’re fed up of jiggling the flush handle to make your toilet behave after flushing, it might be high time to replace its inner gear. Toilets basically run when the flapper valve that lets water pass from the tank to the bowl doesn’t fit properly, the fill tube comes loose, or the float is imbalanced.

Sometimes, though, toilets run for more complicated reasons. If you have changed the flapper, fill tube, and float apparatus, you may have sediment that is affecting proper flushing and filling. High water bills could also point to a silent leak. This also warrants a call to the emergency plumber, lest you want a running toilet emergency in the most inconvenient of times.

Leaky Pipes

Leaks can be an expensive nuisance. Leaks normally happen at joints, which is why industrial joint fillers and fitting compounds occupy a lot of shelf space in your local hardware store. These products, however, are a temporary fix, though; a more lasting plumbing repair may mean replacing a fraction of a pipe or its fittings.

Although changing a leaky U-joint under your sink isn’t really a complex repair, it is a rather messy one. You may want to have an emergency plumber handle it for you to save the clean-up time. Until the emergency plumber can get to your leak, use a leak tape. This temporary fix keeps water from spraying but are easily removed when it is time for a permanent solution.

Clogged Drains

When the water that goes into your sink, toilet, or tub won’t go out, you probably have a partial or complete clog. Oftentimes, your trusty plunger can repair the problem. Clog removers and commercial drain cleaners are safe for most drains for occasional use, but these corrosive materials can damage some pipe materials if used too often. If you are dealing with clogs regularly, it’s time to call an emergency plumber.

Even if you only have a partial clog, debris in pipes can slow drainage to a trickle. Shine a flashlight into the drain and check if you can spot the problem. Pliers or tweezers might be able to reach a big clump of hair or fallen bottle cap that is obstructing your pipes. Installing drain screens can also prevent detritus from finding its way into drains.

Keep an emergency plumber’s number handy. You may not always need the number, but if you accidentally snap off a valve and have a fountain in your kitchen, you will be glad you kept it near your phone.

Different Types of Fire Alarms

Oh heck yeah! Here we go! Nothing gets an American’s red blood pumping more than the strategy of defense. Yeah buddy. Defense of home. Defense self. And that patriotic defense of old Glory herself. Do you love it? I know I do. Eight years as a Marine taught me that your plans for success are a big barrel of nothing without a good system of defense. “Security in depth” is what they called it. Keeping the good people cool, calm and collective under the most dire of strains. That takes skill. Takes practice. Takes know how from the people who have been there before, time and time again.

Like our firefighters: the always forgotten heroes who walk amongst us daily. If they or any firefighter or emergency response personnel where to be asked who is the most forgotten stepchild of any well thought out security system? You guessed it! The whole lot of them would tell you fire alarms. Smoke detectors. Every patriot knows that matching a security system to a good fire alarm system and plan is just about as essential as harvesting beets, carrots, onions and potatoes before the ground freezes at the turn of the year. Without doing so is a waste of your time. But, there is no need to be alarmed. I have solutions. So, let’s ponder the different types of fire alarms there are for the American business owner.

Kitchens require fire alarms to be as safe as possible. — Kitchens are one of the most important places to have fire alarms and a protection system.

Choose a Local Service

At this point, I don’t find the naming of any specific brand of fire alarm necessary. A brand is not particularly important as compared to all the functional bells and whistles it may possess, However, I will tell you my personal opinion on the subject of brands: when it comes to classifying security elements such as alarm systems, know that the best system is whatever system that is locally tech supported. That’s right! It’s arguable however, I believe that your best choice of fire alarms will be the one that you can get regular support for if you, yourself or someone you hire is not going to be the guru of fire alarms. In today’s times, its best to have all your bases covered when it comes to the safety of your hard working, very appreciated workforce; and coming in as almost forgotten, staggered and distant runner-ups: financed machinery, commercial real estate and non-recoupable equipment.

When it comes to the different types of fire alarms, the best systems on the market are offering the whole shebang. Automation is key as top companies and system designers are integrating both physical security elements such as motion detectors and invasion notification tech with hazard prevention and preservation systems such as audible alarms and heat sensing sprinklers. Neither a physical prevention or a hazard detection system is never complete without smoke detectors.

Smoke Detectors and Sprinklers

Smoke detectors and sprinkler systems have come a long way baby! Depending on environmental conditions and the type of systems that you may already have, fire sprinklers and smoke alarms serve different purposes so their functionality differ as well. Smoke alarms are going to be the audible part of your alert system play. If there is a fire, the smoke detectors will scream and scream and scream some more just for the safety of your business as well as your neighbor’s business although miles apart. They are that freakin loud, bless the manufacturers everywhere!

Contrary to myth, sprinkler systems have and always will be heat activated and not at all activated by smoke detectors. Sprinkler systems work independently from fire alarms and are typically activated when the approximate area of each sensor reach the temperature of 160 degrees. However, it’s like the old saying goes: where there’s smoke, there’s a smoke detector ringing in your ear as water pour down upon you due to the sprinklers drenching out the fire! Something like that. The fancy fun fact about today’s top notch smoke detectors is that they come digitally integrated with one another. That’s right fire safety fans! With smoke detectors calling the shots, not only are they first to detect smoke well before there’s fire, smoke detectors can signal all other integrated components like the fire alert notification system according to the affected areas.

Different Types of Fire Alarms for Different Businesses

So, now that we can see that there are many factors to consider when deciding between the different types of fire alarms, you can see how local knowledge and expertise might be the best way of figuring out the best system for you and your business. Either way, any movement towards safety is a good move and the right step towards defending America.

Step into Spring with the Help of Smart Home Tech

While we don’t have hover boards, flying cars, and a visit to Mars is not feasible just yet, today’s technology has paved the way for some extraordinarily fascinating and useful innovations to add comfort and safety to our lives. Smart home systems, specifically, transform your house into a hub where multiple technologies that simplify modern life.

As we step into springtime, spring cleaning is upon us once again. To switch up this old routine, why not include transforming your place into a smart home. We’ve listed some items below to help your home with this transformation. We’ll also share some tips on how to buy these smart home products.

Whether it’s controlling your home theater, remotely locking the doors or turning the lights on and off, here are some smart home systems products for a smart home.

Doorbells and smart door locks – Opening your doors for house guests or family members while you’re not home yet would be convenient – not just to you, but for your visitors as well. With smart door locks instead of regular entry locks, you can utilize Wi-Fi to control your locks remotely. Smart door locks can also be integrated with security cameras so you can have a clear, unobstructed view of who is at the door before you let them in.

Security cameras – Like we mentioned above, security cameras let you see who is trying to gain entry into your home. You can have the cameras placed strategically throughout your property. A lot of these devices have an accompanying mobile app that lets you check them through the app installed in your mobile device. It’s an especially useful feature that enables you to check in on your home while you’re out.

Smart lights – Smart lights come in an array of colors that make any space visually appealing. Aside from aesthetics, these devices are highly energy efficient. You can remotely set them to turn on and off at specific times. Additionally, they can be turned on when you people to know you’re home even when you’re not yet; this feature can prevent potential break-ins. Many smart lights even have features to deter the blue light effect, also known to interrupt sleep.

Refrigerators – Another smart home device is smart refrigerators. As we all know, the kitchen is the heart of the home, and there are smart home systems available to help with the daily tasks in the kitchen.

Smart refrigerator is an innovative kitchen appliance

With smart refrigerators, you can see what’s inside the fridge without physically looking at it; interior cameras allow this feature to take place. This feature is especially useful when you’re, say at the grocery store, and you need to find out what you have in stock in your fridge. Smart refrigerators also have touch panel screens that can be interconnected to other smart home devices.

Tips for Buying Smart Home Products

By automating your home security system, your lights, speakers, and other devices, you can have precise control over your home, letting you live safely and comfortably. Before you shop for these devices, here are some helpful, smart home products buying tips.

Know What Your Needs Are

Before picking smart home products, know what your specific needs are, as well as your expectations. If you’re building a new house, then you may have considered integrating full automation throughout your property. If you want to upgrade your current lighting, audio, and visual components, then specific wiring changes and reconfigurations may need to take place. Either way, speak with professional home automation to know precisely what things are advisable to do for your home. Professionals can help design a home automation systems that work for your new or current residence.

Prepare for the Future

When you have a smart home, it feels like you’re living in the future. While that’s true, remember that technology is always changing. There’s always going to be innovations and advancements, especially in smart home systems. While you have the latest TV or smart home refrigerator model, there will come a time when a newer model with more advanced features will show up. Make sure that whatever smart home devices you get are open to upgrades.

Stick to Your Budget

Smart shoppers make and stick to their budget. While a smart home upgrade is an investment, you still want the costs – from installation to integration – to be reasonable. Home automation professionals can help you devise smart home systems that fit your budget and still meet your needs.

Avoid These Mistakes When Building Your Home Theater

Having movie nights is the quintessential pastime. Whether it’s a family bonding experience or a date night, everyone loves sitting back and watching a good movie. However, with the rising prices of movie tickets and snacks, many are opting to skip the movie theater and just staying in. Fortunately, a good movie night is still possible in the comfort of your own media room – especially if you have lush and comfortable home theater furniture.

A Worthy Investment

More and more people are investing in home entertainment systems. However, there are still some who associate the words “home theater” to “lavish” and “extremely expensive.” They think that only mansions can have a dedicated movie room right in their private property – that could not be further from the truth, especially these days when you can build home theaters no matter what budget you have; it doesn’t have to break the bank.

Also, having your own home theater is a worthy investment that may pay you back in spades. It’s the ultimate space for your family and friends to relax. And if you ever decide to put your house in the market, the value of your property can exponentially go higher with the addition of a media room, especially when it’s furnished with quality home theater furniture.

Naturally, you may feel apprehensive about the money, space, and time you are dedicating in order to build a home theater. In today’s post, we’ll talk about the pitfalls of building a home theater and how best to avoid them. We hope the information you’ll find here will make your home theater project more manageable to navigate.

Don’t Over or Under-Budget

When you build a home theater, of course, you want it to last for years to come. Those who are committed to creating the best, custom home theaters may feel compelled to put in more money and get the most expensive products on the market. However, a high cost doesn’t always mean it’s the best out there.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of going over what your intended budget is when it comes to building a home theater – especially when you are constantly exposed to varying and contradicting information out there surrounding home entertainment systems, home theater furniture, and other components of a home theater. However, spending on specific features of a home entertainment system may or may not make a significant difference in the performance of your system, specifically the audio and video quality and the comfortability of the furniture and other equipment.

Until you have a better understanding of the features that you are willing to pay for, it’s better to hold off on purchasing more expensive home theater furniture and products. When you do proper research, you will always find more affordable versions of home theater components such as receivers, cables, and other more expensive ones.

We’ve talked about the pitfalls of over-budgeting; however, the flip side of it is to not under-budget. We understand the importance of managing your expenses and not splurging. However, going for the cheapest options is not always the best decision – especially when the quality and performance of your home theater suffers.

A home theater is supposed to be an investment; while it will inevitably cost you time, money, and effort, it will all be worth it in the end if you have a finished product that you are proud of. If your home theater components start failing soon after you finish installing it, the money, time, and effort you have dedicated into the project could be for nothing. We recommend that you find a good balance between finding the best deals and spending on top-of-the-line products. Also, one more thing to remember is you may eventually want to upgrade your home theater systems; and it’s best to save up for an upgrade rather than shelling out money.

Don’t Buy Without Doing Research

It’s always tempting to walk into the nearest store and make a one-time purchase of all the components you need – especially when a store representative is convincing you. However, it’s always important to do your own research before even getting any home theater furniture or equipment.

Store clerks may not always have the most in-depth knowledge and experience with home theater systems. Also, some of them are just in it to make a sale. Plus, the performance of surround systems and televisions may be different from when you actually take them home.

Read reviews and customer testimonials, follow online articles and blogs from home theater experts, get recommendations from friends or family who are experienced with home theater systems. Whatever type of research you want to conduct, it’s always better to research first, buy later.

Reduce Your Business Energy Costs

For property managers and commercial building owners, saving money is synonymous to doing best commercial HVAC practices. Energy waste can cost your business high utility bills; and when you are trying to have a successful business operation, every dollar counts.

Taking steps to lower energy costs can also help in the longevity of the equipment you use. Gaining a reputation for being energy conscious and environmentally friendly can serve beneficial for your company as it can attract potential customers who value those things as well.

Don’t allow energy waste to keep your business from prospering. To maximize the money and time you invested in reducing your energy costs, here are some tips and strategies you can apply to your commercial property.

Conduct an energy audit

Before you can even take steps to lower your energy consumption, you need to know when, where, and how energy is being used throughout your commercial property. Building owners should gather and assess their property’s energy bills for the last two to four years. Try to determine some patterns. Is there a spike in energy consumption that is not related to the changing of seasons? Are there tendencies for your commercial HVAC system to run less effectively? The more you know about your building’s energy usage, the easier it is to determine what the issues are and address them.

Do routine preventative maintenance

One of the most effective ways to control your commercial energy costs is by ensuring that your commercial HVAC systems are running at the peak efficiency. To achieve this, create and follow a preventative maintenance schedule. When you put off the cleaning, replacing dysfunctional parts, and other maintenance tasks, you will most likely experience everything from minor consumption loss to expensive major unit failures.

Don’t delay repairs

It can be incredibly tempting to schedule an HVAC repair for next week, next month, next quarter, or even next year – especially when you think that you will have more money to budget for repairs as you wait longer. However, that is not a good strategy, especially when you factor in the consistently growing expense of an incompetent HVAC operation to the repair cost.

Take advantage of smart technology and programmable thermostats

Energy used when there is no one in your commercial building is energy wasted. When your heating and cooling systems are still running at the preferred temperatures of the building occupants – even after they are gone for the day or the weekend, then you are contributing to your energy waste. Install a programmable thermostat that will allow you to have energy-efficient settings. As the name suggests, you can program the thermostat to the preferred temperature of your building tenants while they are inside the premises, and then have the thermostat turn off when the tenants leave. On the other hand, thermostats equipped with smart technology can detect the absence or presence of people in the property and adjust the temperatures accordingly.

Opt for variable refrigerant flow systems

Variable refrigerant flow systems provide advanced solutions that instantly move refrigerant from one area to another. This process allows the efficient transfer of heat to where it’s needed within the building. These variable refrigerant flow systems can give you substantial energy savings.

Make structural changes

The design of a building, especially of older ones, causes heating and cooling inefficiencies. In many cases, it’s worth the investment in time, money, and effort to reconstruct and redesign the problem area to correct the issue. For example, if your commercial property has a shipping area that is continuously exposed to outside temperatures, then it should be separated from the rest of the structure with thick doors that seal correctly and insulated walls to save energy.

Perform a consistent check for energy-wasting acts

Building managers and property owners tend to focus on more systemic issues. Thus, energy consumption within the property is often overlooked. For example, when occupants run space heaters because it gets uncomfortably hot or cold, or when they are continually opening doors or windows even when the commercial HVAC is running, wastes a tremendous amount of energy. Assign someone to check the building on a regular basis so the administration can detect these bad practices so that they can be corrected right away.

Educate the building tenants and employees on energy-saving habits

Many of us would gladly use energy wisely if we are made well aware of what the best energy-saving practices are. If you’re a property manager or building owner, educate your tenants on the actions that will have positive effects on energy costs.