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Article by David Booker

Are electric curtain tracks just unsightly and noisy alternatives to normal curtains? We take a look at how fashionable designs are now an integral part of the electric curtain tracks, making them both aesthetically pleasing and highly functional.

Curtains can be a discrete yet vital part of the design of any property, room or office. Either big or small, windows provide space, light and view. They tend to be the speediest and easiest ways by which we transform the areas in which we live; a simple living room area might be from a vibrant and appealing place, giving fantastic views and day light, to a more private and secure atmosphere, close and comfortable in which we may share the evenings together with those we love. Motorised curtain rails help make these types of changes all the easier, giving luxury and comfort at the press of a button.

You’ll be able to reproduce the authentic theatre sense by having your curtain system linked with your home entertainment system. You are able to bring down the lighting on your own cinematic experience without needing to leave the comfort of your settee.

Electric curtain rails are also perfect for the less able bodied, for whom physically drawing curtains generally is a typical challenge. A remote control can give back some freedom to individuals who are significantly less mobile; they will not be reliant on other individuals to let the sun in very first thing each morning, or to hide the glare throughout the day.

Even for the able-bodied, hard to get at windows can be a real safety dilemma. Remote or switch operated electric curtains get rid of the dependence on leaning over obstacles, or to stand on chairs to reach higher windows. How frequently have we all fallen down whilst trying to pull a curtain closed? Or accidentally pulled down a railing as we lean across a settee in order to get yourself a better grip? Electric curtains remove the requirement of these daily gymnastics and keep you – and your curtains! – safer.

Light-sensitive systems lend both functionality and security. Amongst getting the kids prepared for school, making breakfast and all the other daily stresses, light-sensitive curtains can make things that little bit simpler by making certain there are bright areas and open views to greet you.

When coupled with timed lights, light-sensitive systems can be a superb deterrent against thieves as well as other intruders. With the curtains set to open up and shut when the lighting reaches certain levels, your windows can give an impression of habitation even when you or the family are away from home for weeks at a time. Even the most foolhardy of criminals will think twice about breaking into an allegedly inhabited house.

And all this convenience and protection need not mean reducing style and also appearance. The tracks are visually simple and the motors can be concealed behind the curtain ends themselves. Standard curtain hooks work with motorised rails, so demand no special limitations on your personal choice of curtains. Neither is the application limited to straight windows; the tracks and poles are made to measure and can be bent to fit bay windows if required.

Many people are enthusiastic about creating our ideal environment, and motorised curtain rails can offer luxury, atmosphere, functionality, protection and aesthetics. The systems can be purchased from retailers throughout the UK and online.

Article by Er. Swapneel Patel

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical power supply. It now covers a range of subtopics including Power sector, Machines, Electronics, Control systems, Signal processing & Telecommunications, Instrumentation and Automation.

Sub-disciplines

Electrical engineering has many sub-disciplines, the most popular of which are listed below. Although there are electrical engineers who focus exclusively on one of these sub-disciplines, many deal with a combination of them.

Power

Power engineering deals with the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity as well as the design of a range of related devices. These include transformers, electric generators, electric motors, high voltage engineering and power electronics. In many regions of the world, governments maintain an electrical network called a power grid that connects a variety of generators together with users of their energy. Users purchase electrical energy from the grid, avoiding the costly exercise of having to generate their own.

Electrical Machines

An Electrical machine is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy or vice versa, and changes AC voltage from one level to another level.Electrical machines are divided into three parts: Generator, Motor and Transformer.

Control

Control engineering focuses on the modeling of a diverse range of dynamic systems and the design of controllers that will cause these systems to behave in the desired manner. To implement such controllers electrical engineers may use electrical circuits, digital signal processors, microcontrollers and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers). Control engineering has a wide range of applications from the flight and propulsion systems of commercial airliners to the cruise control present in many modern automobiles. It also plays an important role in industrial automation.

Electronics

Electronic engineering involves the design and testing of electronic circuits that use the properties of components such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes and transistors to achieve a particular functionality.

Microelectronics

Microelectronics engineering deals with the design and microfabrication of very small electronic circuit components for use in an integrated circuit or sometimes for use on their own as a general electronic component. The most common microelectronic components are semiconductor transistors, although all main electronic components (resistors, capacitors, inductors) can be created at a microscopic level. Nanoelectronics is the further scaling of devices down to nanometer levels.

Signal processing

Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of signals. Signals can be either analog, in which case the signal varies continuously according to the information, or digital, in which case the signal varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information. For analog signals, signal processing may involve the amplification and filtering of audio signals for audio equipment or the modulation and demodulation of signals for telecommunications. For digital signals, signal processing may involve the compression, error detection and error correction of digitally sampled signals.

Telecommunications

Telecommunications engineering focuses on the transmission of information across a channel such as a coax cable, optical fiber or free space. Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded in a carrier wave in order to shift the information to a carrier frequency suitable for transmission, this is known as modulation. Popular analog modulation techniques include amplitude modulation and frequency modulation. The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of a system and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.

Instrumentation

Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure physical quantities such as pressure, flow and temperature. The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of physics that often extends beyond electromagnetic theory. For example, radar guns use the Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming vehicles. Similarly, thermocouples use the Peltier-Seebeck effect to measure the temperature difference between two points. Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the sensors of larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be used to help ensure a furnace’s temperature remains constant. For this reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart of control engineering.

Automation

Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies reducing the need for human intervention.[1] In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provided human operators with machinery to assist them with the muscular requirements of work, automation greatly reduces the need for human sensory and mental requirements as well. Automation plays an increasingly important role in the world economy and in daily experience.

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You are most welcome here to share your Views, Comments and Remarks on topics like:Present and Future Electrical systems, Electrical machines, Capacitors, Circuit Breakers, Variable Frequency Drives, Power Electronics, Power systems, Electronics, Power factor Improvement, Renewable energy, Future renewable electrical projects like Electric Car, Use of Solar Power, etc. as well as many such topics related to Electrical field.

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Article by FabVin

Kitchens, Kitchens, Kitchens — What you should know about buying your new Kitchen!

I am in kitchen business (funny enough) and I sell my business on honesty, integrity, and through a very good website. I don’t have a large showroom and I conduct all my business through one to one consultations. I am amazed when people say to me but the guys at homeshopper, or homely creations to use pseudonyms can sell me a kitchen for â,¬2,500 and you are charging me â,¬4000.

Well the simple facts are that the guy selling you the kitchen at the local hardware or DIY shop does not have to gather the different components that make up your kitchen, deliver them to your door, fit your kitchen and ask you when all is done are you happy with the end product. As a kitchen manufacturer and supplier I think that people should take more time in their decisions when investing such a large amount in their home. I understand that we all don’t have big budgets to splash out on all the best products that go into a kitchen.

But I do believe with special care and attention to detail that even the cheapest kitchens can look spectacularly more expensive when we have a one to one with the client. Remember the guy at the DIY store only wants to sell you the kitchen, he does not have to worry if all the parts do or don’t turn up at your home, he just wants the cheque and he has done his job.

You see it is his job to sell you the kitchen. He can show you the nice 3D Graphic images of how it will look. But remember he is not the one who has to put it together. So what he has sold you is a pile of flat melamine sheets cut to size and they need to be put together.

Now the salesman passes on your order to the Despatch Manager, who in turn passes it on to the dispatch guy in the warehouse. The guy in the warehouse is only doing his job, but he may be plucking your order from the shelves while at the same time listening to some rapper dude on his headphones. He will also get his cheque come week-end!

The kitchen is promised for delivery in 2 — 3 weeks. You should read this as being 5 — 6 weeks. So now you have a purchased a kitchen — remember you have only purchased units, worktop, cornice and pelmet, handles and joiner and end bars. So now you have the extra costs of the following items:

You don’t have a Sink Tap/Faucet Extractor Fan OvenHobFridgeWashing MachineDishwasherMicrowave

or whatever else that you need.

Plus you now have to employ the following tradespeople:

Kitchenfitter (Make sure he/she comes well recommended)Plumber (Disconnect existing sink/washing machine/dishwasher)ElectricianPlasterer (If you are removing old tiles from the backsplash and need wall repairs)Tiling Contractor (If you are having ceramic tiling done)

Refuse/Waste Collection Service.

Now lets start with

THE KITCHEN — A flatpack kitchen with Vinyl Wrapped doors in oak or similar, about 15 units, worktop, cornice, pelmet, handles, kicker plinth, worktop joiner bars, worktop end bars, door hinges, doors. This should set you back about â,¬4,400. Plus delivery.

THE KITCHENFITTER. If they are any good they will offer to take out the old kitchen (Lets Say â,¬500) refit the new kitchen in 1 — 1.5 days. A kitchen of around 15 units should cost anything between â,¬600 — â,¬800. But remember this is based on the fitters being able to complete the fitting in 1 — 2 days at the most. And a kitchenfitter can only put a kitchen together if all the parts turn up, waiting around for parts or coming back 5-10days later to fit parts that are not there in the first place all costs extra.

PARTS TURNING UP — My experience here in Ireland points to the fact that they don’t turn up on the first go. Now it is costing you the customer more money than anticipated to have your kitchen fitted properly because the fitters have to come back another day. I must also point out that althought price is a factor, you should also consider the quality of the fitting of the kitchen. If it ain’t fitted right then it is never going to look right and you may spend the next 5-10 years looking at this heap of unhappiness in the room where you may have to spend up to 6 hours of your day.

THE PLUMBER — A good plumber will come and disconnect the old appliances and taps. Should cost you around â,¬350. He will come back and re-plumb the new sink and appliances for around â,¬450. This depends on the length of runs for pipes and materials. But budget for this amount.

THE ELECTRICIAN — Again make sure his is qualified and registered. To move a couple of sockets and maybe install one or two new socket and switch points for under counter lights etc. Budget for â,¬500.

THE PLASTERER — A good plasterer is essential especially if you are retiling or you might be going to paint the backsplash for a change, so the wall finish must be top-notch. A good plasterer including materials to bond and skim the backsplash should be somewhere in the region of â,¬300 — â,¬400.

THE TILING CONTRACTOR — A backsplash basic in design and using a ceramic tile should cost no more than â,¬350 this would include the adhesive, grouts and trims. You supply the tiles. Floor tiles (ceramic) should cost about â,¬45 per square yard. This should again include for floor adhesive and grout, you again supply the tiles. Trims would be extra.

WASTE DISPOSAL — A regular skip should cost no more than â,¬350. All you have to do is fill it yourself or get somebody for a day to fill it. Cost â,¬150 for a days pay.

APPLIANCES — Just a quick calculation on what your appliances may cost you, providing you are getting new appliances. But you can pick what you like from these prices, again these would be at the cheaper end of the market, but nonetheless a recognised and good brand:

1. Sink From â,¬145.00 1.5 bowl with drainer2. Taps From â,¬157.00 3. Eye Level Electric Double Oven â,¬675.004. Ceramic Electric Hob â,¬345.005. Extractor (Something Decent) â,¬449.00 (Chrome and Glass)6. 70 : 30 Integrated Fridge Freezer â,¬549.007. Microwave Oven Integrated â,¬349.008. Integrated Washing Machine â,¬654.009. Integrated 60cm Dishwasher â,¬524.0010. Delivery â,¬100.00

END RESULT — The kitchen (assuming that you purchase all new appliances and you kitchen is approximately 15 units in size), that started off at â,¬4.400 in the showroom and looked so lovely in 3D Graphics, is now costing you â,¬12, 547 after all the items and necessary adjustments are carried out so that the kitchen can be fitted.

The â,¬12,547.00 does not include your time, your time taken off work to cater for people calling to carry out their part of the job. It does not allow for the stress that you have to endure and the endless arguments between you and your spouse.

So remember that when you are getting a kitchen or wardrobe and you get the guy at the DIY store selling you. Think again! HOW CAN I REDUCE MY COSTS, MY STRESS LEVEL, AND DO MY JOB AT THE SAME TIME IN THIS OPERATION! Well in Ireland you can call us at Kitchenfitters.ie, where we design, manufacture and install your kitchen to your satisfaction. We also supply other tradespeople on your behalf, and you can carry on working while we get on with getting your kitchen done! And only when you’re happy are we happy! And from July 2008 you will be able to purchase all your appliances and kitchenwares online from Kitchenfitters.ie from the comfort of your own home! HOW’S ABOUT THAT! Thanks for reading and I hope it makes sense!

By FabVin