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Found 89 results for the keyword ‘Alternative’

  • Heating a bathroom without ductwork.

    Peter in Toronto has forced air heating but no ducts in his bathroom and finished ceilings below. He is wondering just how he can get heat to this room without ductwork.Well, Peter, the only heat available without any ductwork is electric. Actually using electricity to heat one bathroom in an a...
  • A comeback for hand powered lawn mowers?

    Scotts lawnmowers has found that there is such a new demand for hand powered lawnmowers, that they have gone back to the drawing boards to make them even better. Many people do not have large lawns and are environmentally conscious about using gas, even electricity to mow lawns. Good gardeners ...
  • Aids for one person measuring.

    Measuring by yourself can be a drag. Here are three gadgets to help you out.If you are working with metal studs, you can now find a tape measurer that has magnetic on the hook. That won't slip and you can even just put it on the surface of the stud and measure from there.To get the hook on your...
  • Small ducting air conditioning systems.

    Air conditioning is often difficult to install into an existing house that uses radiant heating simply because it requires a lot of large air ducting.Space Pak from Mestek Canada in Toronto is a system that uses ducts small enough to slide into existing 2x4 hollow walls. There is a basic air con...
  • Keeping water fresh in a humidifier.

    Olive Taylor from Calgary, Alberta opened her home to our cameras and then amazed us with her self engineered improvements to her furnace humidifier.She didn't like the idea of stale water just sitting in the bottom of that drum type humidifier so first she scrapped the cheap float valve for a be...
  • Can I save money by turning my hot water tank off at night?

    Thomas from London, Ontario writes: "We have an electric water heater. To conserve electricity, I turn the heater OFF at its circuit breaker at night before retiring and then ON when I return from work. This usually gives plenty of hot water while at home. Does this cause any premature "wear ...
  • TIP - cleaning soap scum from a shower door.

    Car polish and powerMary from Sauble Beach, Ontario sent in the tip of cleaning off a heavy build-up of soap scum from her glass shower door with automobile polish and a power buffer. So we tried it.It didn't seem to get down to perfectly clean, but it certainly did remove a lot. Mary just has ...
  • A slate roof -- made out of high tech polymers.

    Slate roofs are one of the most durable, beautiful and expensive of roofs. Even the maintenance of the roof is expensive.It is very risky to walk on a slate roof, you may crack some slates, and repairing one in the middle of the field is a real job -- I know I grew up in a house with real slate ...
  • An alternative septic installation at a cottage.

    One viewer bought a cottage to discover that the septic system consisted of a tank in the basement that had to be pumped out all the time. They were on rocky terrain so a traditional septic tank and large leaching field would not work. Pumping out that tank, like with a house trailer, was a real ...
  • Septic systems for problem lands.

    In a previous show we saw the actual installation of a Waterloo Biofilter Septic System at a cottage where there simply was not enough room, nor enough soil (because of bedrock) for a traditional leaching field. In this segment we visited with the geological engineer Craig Jowett who left Waterl...