April 2013 - DIY Double Glazing

Double Glaze Matters
APR 2013
Alan Cuthbertson
alan@diydoubleglaze.com.au
Drying Clothes
You will be glad to hear that the
wombat I mentioned last month has
moved on.
This is a repeat of an article I wrote
sometime ago, but I think it is usefu;.
We all know that clothes lines are good
and electric dryers are bad, but many do
not realize that hanging your clothes over
a gas heater vent also consumes a lot of
energy, although it is probably 1/2 that of
an electric dryer.
I weighed a towel at 650 gm. When wet it
weighed 900 gm. Most people don’t realize
that drying a towel over a gas heater requires exactly the same heat as boiling the
250 gm of water. Heating 250 water to
100 degrees takes 20 Kjoule. Boiling it
takes another 550 Kjoule. This
equals .16 KWH.
A standard electric dryer will cost 4
cents to dry the towel, while a gas
heater 1 cent. This doesn’t sound
much, but drying two loads of washing
on the heater (3 Kg of water) corresponds to around 5% of the average
daily gas used to heat the house.
So, use the clothes line to get most of
the moisture out and finish it off inside.
In summer the reverse holds. Drying a
wet towel inside acts like an evaporative
cooler, extracting .16 KWH of heat from
the house. So summer time is when you
should dry your clothes inside, not winter time!
Montmorency Food Swap
Sun 5th May,
10:30—11:30
Montmorency Primary
School
Bring your home grown
produce to swap
Franciscus Henri’s methane solution
DOUBLE GLAZE
MATTERS
The Best Tool I have ever bought
Sometimes you buy a tool and it
works brilliantly. So it is with my
Trojan Super Jaws.
For 15 years I had a Black & Decker
work bench until it eventually collapsed from one too many saw cuts.
I bought a $20 replacement from
Bunnings which was a total disaster.
After seeing a Triton Super Jaws at a
clients house I bought one for $160
and it is truly magical.
Firstly it packs away easily for transport.
want to work on. The Black and Decker
took quite a while to adjust from holding
a 20 mm piece of wood to 90 mm wood.
Because it was slow, you tended not to
use it.
The Super Jaws take seconds so you always use it.
Every time I hold a piece of wood in one
hand then cut it with the circular saw in
the other I am reminded of a friend who
did the same thing. The saw jammed,
then jumped out and he lost his thumb.
I got my Super Jaws from Carbonite for
$160.
SuperJaws in transport mode
Secondly it is solid with 3 widely
spaced legs so it never rocks.
Thirdly, its jaws are solid rubber so
it holds the wood strongly without
bruising it.
But the real beauty is the ease of
locking. You don’t have to screw
handles to grip. Just slide the jaws
approximately in place then press
the foot lever.
Flick the onlock switch and press
again and it opens.
Because it is so easy to adjust you
always use it to hold the wood you
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SuperJaws in Action