Entries from January 2008 ↓

As the air inside homes and offices grow polluting at an alarming rate, more and more people are seeking recourse in air purifiers to breathe fresh, clean air. An air purifier works by filtering the air from impurities like dust, animal dander, cigarette smoke and pollen.

Getting an air purifier would mean a significant investment. However, if you don’t take proper care of the gadget, it wouldn’t be working at its optimum level and hence your investment wouldn’t be providing you the results you expected.

Maintaining air purifiers isn’t that much of a hassle also and would take little time. And for your effort you will be ensured fresh air to breathe in.

The dust around the air purifier should be vacuumed regularly. Special attention should be paid to the exterior grills and panels. Change the filters when the indicator lights indicate you to. If your gadget doesn’t come with indicator lights, then follow the instructions that are there on the manual.

We cannot definitively say when exactly would you need to change the filter. Much of it depends on what kind of room the air purifier is. If the room has too much traffic and also a lot of activities then the filters would be saturated earlier than normal. The opposite is also true when the filter has it easy in a less frequented room.

Normally HEPA filters require to be replaced every 12 months and the carbon filters used for absorbing gases need to be changed in 3-6 months. The best option would be to buy an air purifier with the filter replacement indicator lights as it is not only convenient but also scientific. Judging the state of your purifier by the particulates present in air or the odor of the air isn’t much of a solution. You might be replacing them too late when they are clogged or you may be replacing them much too soon, hence spending unnecessarily.

Some purifiers come with washable pre-filters. To wash them use warm soapy water. Do not insert them before they are thoroughly dried.

Always keep an extra filter with you so that when required you can change it immediately. Also HEPA filters are relatively expensive. So you wouldn’t want to be rushed into buying it. It would help if you budget separately for it.

Also keep you purifier in a place where the is enough clearance on all its sides. Yes, you wouldn’t want to spoil the look of your room, but you still need to allot some space for it to function properly.

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As a society, we’ve rapidly moved from wired to wireless. Whether it’s a laptop, cell phone, BlackBerry, or digital camera, most people are carrying one-or all of these things at any given time. All of those wonderful gadgets require battery powered fuel. There are few things more frustrating than when one of these practically essential gadgets loses power unexpectedly. In this article, we’ll focus on 3 ways to increase the battery lifespan on some of today’s most popular battery powered devices.

Laptop batteries:
Laptop batteries can be frustrating, to say the least. They almost seem to know when you’re right in the middle of something important and choose that time to lose power. If your laptop battery has less than an hour’s worth of life, it’s probably time for a new one.

However, through a process called conditioning, you can “train” your new laptop battery to last longer. This is done by charging a new battery to full capacity, and then allowing it to drain completely of power before recharging again. By doing this, you condition you laptop battery to “remember” the amount of electrical charge it can hold.

Cell phones and BlackBerrys:
When you first get your new cell phone or BlackBerry, you’ll want to fully charge the battery and then completely discharge the battery for about 3 cycles. However, you won’t want to get into the habit of completely depleting the battery. The rechargeable lithium ion batteries in cell phones and BlackBerrys can be damaged by excessive deep discharges.

Instead, get into a routine of plugging in your phone overnight and letting it continue charging even after the icon reads that the battery is full. Cell phones and BlackBerrys should last an entire day without losing charge. If you can’t make it through the day without recharging, it’s probably time for another cell phone battery or BlackBerry battery.

Digital Camera:
The digital camera has become a must-have gadget. Digital cameras have made taking pictures so much more fun and economical than ever before-except in the way of batteries. These little cameras can really soak up the battery power. Many digital cameras operate with AA or AAA batteries and feeding your camera a steady diet of alkaline batteries can add up quickly.

If you haven’t already, invest in a rechargeable battery kit. Every other techno-gadget uses rechargeable lithium ion batteries and your camera can too. The cost of 4 AA batteries is usually between $17 and $24, but well worth the cost as they can be recharged hundreds of times. This way, you can keep enough recharged batteries in your camera case to drop in if your batteries do run out, then recharge the old and use them as spares.

All lithium batteries perform best when they are topped off regularly. Don’t feel like you need to wait until the juice is running low like with the car gas tank. Instead, plug them in for a charge whenever you have the opportunity. Batteries may not seem glamorous, but they’re the powerhouse that allows us to enjoy all of the electronic devices we now wonder what we ever did without.

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Air purifiers are the latest gadget that most Americans are picking off the shelves from the electronic stores. As the levels of air pollution indoors rising to alarming levels, this seems a prudent choice. More and more Americans are bringing one for their home. But though the sales have increased, very few users are yet not too clear about the technology of the gadget and how it works.

One of the key components of any air purifier is the filter inside it. This is where everything gets trapped and the real cleansing takes place. So the filter has to be in the best possible condition all the time. However, this is not always feasible as you cannot change the filter every day. So what we can at most expect is to have the filter deliver optimal results over a period of time.

Now how would you know that your filter have had enough and it is time for replacing the same. In previous models it was guesswork. And guessing this is not always easy as an average citizen would not have the knowledge necessary to make the call. You can do it after a fixed period of time, but that wouldn’t be too sensible. The amount of work the filter had done varies from one house to another. If there is more traffic in a room, there are pets in the house, the filter will be used more. However if the room is relatively less occupied then the filter will be having an easy time and should last longer.

With older models it was actually expected that you will be able to trace with your naked eye the number of particulates increasing as the filter wears out. But that is neither very scientific nor very authentic. Or you were expected to smell the odor to judge if it is time for replacing the filter. With an indicator light, all these hassles are thrown out of the window.

An advanced HEPA air purifier will have at least four filters - a pre-filter, a gas filter, the actual HEPA filter and the final post filter. The latest models are now coming with indicator lights for each of these filters. So now you know exactly which filter to replace and which you can keep for a few more months. This will save you from having filters which are all clogged up and performing no function or from changing your filters too soon which become unnecessary expenses for you.

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