Call it irony. Shortly after writing an elaborate post on home maintenance, I realized that I was a victim of negligence too.

Last night, the Air-conditioner at my grandparent’s house stopped working. They reported a flash near the plug point.

When I went there, I saw the plug and socket were black in color and the heat had done considerable damage to the wiring.

I was amazed to see such an incident as the air-conditioner was connected through a voltage stabilizer. Also there was a proper junction box for the whole system including a trip switch!

Anyway, I replaced the plug with a new one. While removing the old burnt plug from the system (picture of the same is shown above), I saw that the wire inside was charred and brittle and lots of strands of copper were flying around. (not crimped properly by the person who installed it).

I tried to assess the possibilities of this mishap and concluded that over-current caused the wires to heat up and melted the insulation. This lead to the neutral and live wires inside the plug to touch each other and there was a sudden inrush of current causing the plug to heat up and melt.

My two cents from this incident, which I would like to infer and also share with all here:

• Use good quality plugs and wires for your home. Use fire retardant or suppressing material. This is highly recommended.
• Make sure that your electrician is known and reputed. If he is trained and has a diploma it is even better.
• Use appropriately rated appliances especially with regard to current rating.

cheers

authors

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Lets understand one thing here. Just like cars, mobile phones, and humans, homes also are in need of periodic maintenance. You have to admit, today homes don’t come cheap these days. And the age of saying “stitch in time, saves nine” still holds good. 

In this article we want to touch upon certain aspects of maintenance.

Image Courtesy: istockphotos.com

We can classify the maintenance into two categories

- Fix the issue

- Replace problematic parts

First, being the home owner, you need to agree upon a frequency of check and execute this to perfection. It is just like having 2 to 3 services a year for your car.

The frequency can be less initially , say 2 times a year.

This has to/will increase for older homes. We think of 4 to 6 times a year.

But there is no formula as such. You are the best judge here.

Common areas which needs to be checked and maintained are:

• Bathroom fittings

These include but are not limited to faucets, flush mechanism, taps, WC, shower, drainage.  Regular issues which tend to occur are leakage, breaking, clogging, corrosion and more.

If one of the above issues is seen, it is best to change the device to avoid the problem getting more serious later on.

• Electrical appliances

These include but are not limited to electrical bulbs, tube-lights, washing machines, air conditioners, refrigerators etc.

Longevity related issues, sudden stop in functionality, clogs/leaks and all can be observed in the electrical appliances. These are not to taken lightly as serious electrical shock hazards have resulted in cases due to negligence of faulty appliances. Not to mention tons of clothes to be washed or a summer day without your air-conditioner working

click here to read more

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Regularly seen in offices, hotels and more, first aid boxes in our opinion should become mandatory in every home.

Image Courtesy: wheredidyoubuythat.com

It may seem trivial, but the medicines and aids inside this box and minimize the seriousness of the situation before the doctor can be present.

We recommend that you have this box in an easily accessible location in your home and also mark the medicines and aids inside clearly.

Some of the most common problems that can be treated with the first aid box contents are:

• Burns
• Cuts
• Fever
• Allergic reactions
• Nausea
• Diarrhoea
• Fever
• Sprain or related muscle injuries
• Insect bites

 Our recommended contents of the box (this is not an exhaustive list)

• Sterile dressings
• Bandages
• Adhesive bandages
• Tweezers
• Torch light with a set of spare batteries
• Cotton wool
• Antiseptic alcohol based liquid
• Thermometer
• Sprays for common sprays and aches (not to be used on open wound)
• Calamine lotion
• Pain killer tablets
• Aspirin/Paracetamol tablets
• Cough syrup
• Burn ointment

You may read more of this article after this link

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We want to give you the flexibility of adding your favorite posts on your preferred social bookmarking site. This post is sort of a test for checking if our attempt at bringing the icons at the bottom of every post would actually work.

Currently we are planning to support:

• del.icio.us
• digg
• ma.gnolia
• reddit
• stumbleupon &
• technorati

We feel that these are the most popular ones. This post will have the icons appearing below and will be used for testing purposes. If we find this OK, you may find all future posts with this feature.

Go ahead and try to use them and see if it works well !

have a great start to the week — Monday

[update - From November , we have introduced “Share This” button on all posts]

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Hello readers. A hot and sultry Sunday evening in Chennai prompts to me to write about “Ceiling Fans”.

Digging up some information from Wikipedia I am made to believe that ceiling fan is an American invention. I am not sure about this yet.

Image Courtesy: global-b2b-network.com

Fans (as known widely) are electrical appliances which are used to circulate air within a room. If the temperatures are not too high and if the humidity is in check, fans do their job well of cooling the room.

These appliances are available in both 3 and 4 blade variants. In my personal experience I have only seen the 3 blade version to be widely used in India. The reason is again a mystery to me.

The accompanying device for a Fan is the speed regulator. This device regulates the speed of the fan having some pre-defined settings.

Image Courtesy: cglonline.com

The speed settings are ranging from 0(off) to 5(high speed). Settings 1,2,3 and 4 offer increasing levels of RPM (revolutions per minute).

Essentially regulators like the one shown above reduce/increase the voltage that goes to the fan.

 In the last few years, these ‘resistor” based bulky box regulators are being replaced by electronic, solid state regulators. These are nothing but light dimming switches.

Image Courtesy: Amazon

I have heard that just using dimmer switches to control the speed of the fan is not a good idea and that one should use dedicated electronic fan regulators for this job. The former, I believe delivers too less a voltage for the fan to function properly and can result in damage to the motor of the fan.

The most failing item in a fan which is used excessively is the Capacitor. The first signs of its failure are reduced speed of operation or completely dead fan.

A ball bearing is also used in fan to reduce the friction. Wear and tear in this can produce unwanted noise. So make sure you check these out.

Cleaning fans is probably one the most difficult task at home because it is hard to reach!

We try to cover more details on this in the coming days.

enjoy your Sunday !!

authors

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