Often people go into a store or online and purchase a showerhead only to realize it is not exactly the best fit for them. Here we have compiled for you a list of customer reviews to assist you in your search for the best showerhead for your home. These customers have given detailed explanations as to how one of the following was the best showerhead for them, and hopefully this will help you decide which is the best showerhead for you.
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The world we live in today is much different than the world our grandparents, and to some extent even our parents, lived in. According to the HCF (Hinkle Charitable Foundation), in 2007 51% of electricity produced in the United States came from coal, which creates large quantities of CO2 and other harmful pollutants. In addition to the energy crisis we face, lack of water conservation poses another danger to the earth. While the earth is 75% water, 97% of that is undrinkable and unusable and 2% is trapped in ice, leaving us with approximately 1% of the earth’s water for our use. How do we begin to fix this energy crisis and make the best of the water we have? Energy conservation kits and water conservation kits are a great place to start.  Energy Conservation Kits Energy conservation kits are filled with inexpensive products, such as CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights, foam gaskets, and an energy monitor to get you on the right track to reducing your utility bills and energy usage. For example, by switching 20 incandescent bulbs with energy efficient CFLs) you can help do away with over 12 tons of CO2. In addition, placing foam gaskets from the energy conservation kits in front of electrical outlets and wall switches you can stop unwanted air from coming and leaving the home, decreasing the heating and cooling bills. Using an energy monitor to keep track of the amount of energy you use is also a great way to decrease usage.  Water Conservation Kit Are you aware that 95% of all water than enters the home ends ups down a drain? According to the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN), about two thirds of the earth could be faced with water shortages within 20 years. By using faucet aerators, toilet water savers, and the showerhead found in water conservation kits you can make the best use of the water we have. For example, a 1.75gpm showerhead uses only 9 gallons per 5-minute shower as opposed to an 8gpm showerhead which uses almost 40 gallons of water for the same amount of time. The technology of aerators and low-flow showerhead is such that more water seems to be used than really is. While facing these water and energy challenges of our time can be frustrating, we can take small steps and start conserving our precious resources with water and energy conservation kits.  Black and Decker Thermal Leak Detector Fresh air is good for any home. However, having air come in and go out at the wrong time in the wrong place can waste energy and money. Weatherizing your home can be made simple if you have the proper tools. Before sealing the house up, it’s important to know where these air leaks are coming from. We have a few options to explore: you can spend thousands of dollars on a professional thermal imaging camera, hire an expert to come in and find the leaks, or find them yourself using a Black and Decker Thermal Leak Detector. The Black & Decker Thermal Leak Detector uses infrared light to find drafts coming from windows, doors, around electrical outlets, along floor molding, and recessed lights. The infrared light should be pointed to a wall to create the reference temperature. Moving the light across surfaces, the temperature given on the Black and Decker Thermal Leak Detector will change by 10, 5, 0r 1 degree Fahrenheit from the reference  Electrical Outlet Insulation temperature. The infrared light will then indicate a cold or hot spot with a blue or red light respectively. For instance, we pointed the Black & Decker Leak Detector on our electrical outlets and noticed that it was a major source of cold air. We removed the outlet plates and inserted electrical outlet insulation. We reran the leak detection test and viola, noticed that leak detector was no longer showing a blue light. This winter make it a priority to save money, energy, and your home by first finding those air leaks When applying spray foam insulation it will tell you how much board feet it covers. e.g. two part foam kit for 200 board foot. What does that mean exactly? Board Feet has it’s origins in the lumber industry- it is a calculation of lumber volume. So 1 board foot So 200 board foot spray foam insulation kit would cover 200 squares that are 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 inch.  spray foam insulation So you would need four 200 board feet spray foam insulation kits- here’s the calculation: two 200 board feet kits will cover 400 sq feet 1 inch thick. For 2 inch thick you double the quantity. That is the minimum you would need and to be on the safe side- maybe add another kit because spray foam kits give the board feet coverage under optimum circumstances such as 1)applicator is a pro and knows how to apply it perfectly 2)the temperature is warm Give that won’t always be the case, it’s better to get a little bit extra to cover the entire area properly. In the first installment of this blog we discussed weatherizing your home, starting with checking for air leaks. Now that you’ve found the leaks, you need to cover them up. It would be great if you could do this without paying outrageous prices, right? Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s talk about weatherizing your home for less. How to insulate your home for a good price  Interior Storm Windows A cheap way to insulate your home is to use Interior storm windows, also called storms. Storms have a channel system and plastic spline which produce a seal in the front of a window, allowing for proper insulation. They are installed by connecting the lengths of adhesive channels around the window frame. By spreading the clear vinyl across the window face and holding it together with a plastic strip (spline) that locks into the plastic channel, installation is complete. The vinyl of the interior storm windows can be used again year after year if properly handled. Storms can be found at a fairly cheap price, costing you as little as $7.00 apiece. How to insulate your home for an even better price  Plastic Window Film An even cheaper insulator is the plastic window film. Using double-sided tape you seal around the glass door, window grouping, or window with the clear film made of plastic. The double-sided tape closes off crevices and cracks. In addition, it shrinks tightly to provide a wrinkle-free, clear fit. Plastic window film can be found in varying sizes for the perfect fit for your window, and are easy to install. How to insulate your home for FREE  Bubble Wrap Can you recall being a kid and getting more excited over the bubble wrap in the box than the toy that was in this same box? With bubble wrap, an exacto knife, and a spray bottle you can insulate one window for less than one minute. Spray water onto the window, place the bubble side against the window, and use the knife to get rid of the excess. All winter the wrap will hold to the window (without staining) with water as the only adhesive. This free insulation will reduce your home’s energy usage and brings the R value of each window to 2 – not great but wonderful for being FREE. Silly as it may seem, bubble wrap is a great way to keep the warm air in and the cold air out. Allowing air to leak into the home through crevices and cracks may not seem like such a big deal, right? Wrong. Having air leak into your home can add as much as 20% to your heating and cooling bill and bring moisture-filled air inside, increasing the chances of finding mold, condensation, and rot in certain places. While letting fresh air into the home does keep it healthy, controlling the timing as well as the entrance and exit of this air is extremely important to keeping your home free of such issues. Weatherization is your best bet on protecting your home, and in this 5 part blog series you’ll learn just how to do this. Let’s start with identifying the air leaks.  Smoke Puffer One of the tools you can use to discover where the leaks are in your home is the smoke puffer, also known as the air current tester. Among the most efficient of these is the Retrotec Air Current Tester, which produces approximately 1,000 puffs of neutral buoyancy smoke. This smoke simplifies the task of finding invisible air leaks in thermal envelopes and duct work. This smoke puffer is packed in a storage tube that is airtight, and can be charged by simply taking the tube and folding it, eliminating the task of pouring chemicals. It can test for room pressure imbalances, air-flow direction, and pressure neutralization among many types of leaks.  Thermal Leak Detector Another great tool is the thermal leak detector is one of the tools you can use to discover where the leaks are in your home. Using infrared light, it finds “soft spots” along floor molding, around electrical outlets, and recessed light. The detector has to determine a reference temperature, which can be found buy directing the light to a wall. The infrared light will change to blue or red to point out a cold or hot spot. The thermal leak detector weighs less than 1 pound and can cost as little as $50. This winter make sure your home is protected from unwanted air leaks, and what better way to start than to find them?  Lamp Timer When you go on a vacation, leaving a light on in the home can be a good way to keep unwanted visitors out. Making sure a light is left on before leaving your house oftentimes gives a sense of comfort when returning. Having lamp timers can provide you with this comfort as well as help you save energy. Instead of keeping a light on when you are leaving the house, you can set the timer to turn a light on or off at a specific time of the day. Among the most efficient of these tools is the Intermatic Plug-In Lamp Timer. These plug in timers from Intermatic fit right in to 2-prong outlets, which are common in most areas of the home, and they provide up to 24 on/off options per day. It can be used for turning lights as well as appliances on and off. Upon pulling out a tripper, the targeted appliance or lamp will be turned on for a 30-minute time frame, shutting off when the tripper is pushed in. This device has an amperage capacity of 15amps, wattage capacity of 1,750 watts, and power specifications of 125 Volts AC and 60 Hz. This lamp timer is easy to use and will help you light up your home the way you want. When 2 Part Foam is sprayed onto your walls, floors and ceilings, the shell of your home becomes protected. It’s this protection that blocks heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter, thus preventing dramatic temperatures changes in the home. Correctly installed, insulation delivers comfort and lower energy bills during the hottest and coldest times of the year. But working with it in the winter time is a little tricky since the core temperature should be above 70 F. 2 Part Foam Insulation comes in two tanks- A and B. The key to getting good yield and foam that actually sets up properly is an even stream between the “A” and “B” tanks.  2 part foam insulation The way you get that is getting the foam up to temperature. The “A” chemical has the consistency of milk, the “B” chemical has the consistency of molasses. Warming up the “B” chemical thins it out considerably, so it can flow at the same rate as the “A” chemical. Once it gets up to temperature, it will take quite a while for it to cool. But it’s critically important to get the foam up to temperature before you begin use. Keeping it in the warmest room in the house and using an electric blanket is usually your best bet. One tip is to build a little “hot box” with rigid insulation, and drop a 40 watt incandescent light bulb between the tanks, and leave it overnight. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) come in a variety of colors. The color of the light emitted, as discussed in a previous blog, depends on the temperature as is measured in units of Kelvins. The higher the temperature of the light, the bluer the light appears. CFLs range from temperatures below 3,000K to above 5,000K. The brightest compact fluorescent lights are at least 5000K. The manufacturers name these bulbs as they see fit based on the light a CFL emits. While some refer to these bulbs as “full spectrum”, they are more commonly called daylight bulbs.  Daylight Light Bulbs The light that comes from daylight light bulbs has been compared to the light coming from the sun around noon. This bulb is used mainly for tasks, such as painting, reading, and photography, where a bright-colored bulb is needed. The blue-white light radiating from the daylight bulb only makes it appear brighter than the cool white and soft white CFLs, with the brightness of a bulb being measured in lumens. Like all color CFLs, daylight bulbs are energy-efficient, and can replace an incandescent bulb. Every year we see an increase in the interest people have in energy efficient products. Among such products is the CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp), which is produced to replace, and uses less energy than, the standard incandescent light bulb. Some might worry that as a result of the CFL not consuming as much energy as the incandescent bulb, the options in brightness as well as color would be fewer. Once an understanding of the CFL color spectrum is gained, you will realize this is far from the truth.  Orange CFL Unlike an incandescent bulb, the quality of light emitted from CFLs depends on how they are built, with the majority of CFLs having the color temperature marked on it in measurements of kelvins. For example, a 5000k fluorescent bulbs would give off a cool white daylight color as opposed to one with a temperature of 2700K, which would emit a warm glow. This means the higher the measure in kelvins, the bluer in shade the light coming from the CFL. Different manufacturers have varying names for bulbs of the same temperature, so it is important to base the color you chose on the temperature as opposed to a title of “cool” or “daylight.” In addition to the temperature in Kelvins, some companies also include a 3-digit code specifying the color rendering index (CFL CRI). The first number stands for the CRI calculated in percents of ten, with the following two digits are taken from the temperature in kelvins. For instance, if a CFL has a CRI of 83 and color temperature measuring 2700K, the 3-digit code would be 827. Bulbs with a color rendering index of about 80 are of good quality for the average consumer, appearing “white” in color. Fluorescent Colored Bulbs come in all kinds of colors: from red, orange and yellow to pink, blue and green. Choosing the right lamp for your fixture should be no problem now that you know where to start, as well as where to finish. |
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