Is It Still Cold Where You Are? Get An Envi Heater Panel

We live in a 100 year old house and the landlord isn't exactly into upkeep and insulating; as a result, we have to do a lot of draft protection installations and work with small space heaters running while we are awake. To make matters worse, the room hubby and I sleep in is in the basement. Technically, it's what you'd call a "finished basement", but the heating ducts apparently do not know that and, in all honesty, we suffer with a bedroom temperature of less than 40 degrees during these 40-below Fargo, North Dakota, winters. (I have recorded a temp of 34 in that room!)

Sure, we use a heated mattress pad, have several blankets under an uber-thick comforter, and keep the door closed to trap our body heat inside the room. And those things do make the bed warm, eventually. But those tricks do nothing for the actual temperature in the room itself. At night, you walk on that cold (though carpeted) floor to turn the heated mattress pad on, then get undressed in that cold room and put on a frigid sleep shirt before diving between the still-not-warm sheets. You wake up in the morning, strip yourself of the warm bedding, and shudder in the cold air. You walk on that cold floor to get cold clothing out of the drawer and, at my age, try not to pee while doing so.

Obviously, I was excited when the folks at eheat.com contacted me about reviewing one of their electric panel heaters. But hubby was skeptical... Understandably, he didn't want to put out another fire in his underpants. But the Envi High-Efficiency Whole Room Plug-In Electric Panel Heater is not your typical space heater.

These 100% pure convection electric heating units are slim, safe, soundless, efficient, economical, easy to install -- and they are made in America.

What does that all mean?

First of all, the set up. The Envi heater is easy to instal. Hubby loved how the box was a hanging guide -- as in the box itself was a template of where the screws would go on the wall! Amazingly easy!

It's slim design, means it is not only unobtrusive in terms of decor, but safely out of the way from family and pets. And should someone touch it, the Envi remains cool to the touch.

Since there's no fan, there's no added noise to your house. No more turning the TV up louder and louder to accommodate all the household noise. Light sleepers will appreciate the no-noise factor (and small light that dims as well). Since it's that fan that really adds to the wattage in heaters, no fan means less wattage and lower bills.In fact, it takes less wattage to run the Envi than it does our mattress pad heater!

The low wattage used makes these heaters is economical, yes; but more than that, they are safe to use as they are not likely to overload outlets. Envi heaters also have an enhanced thermal cut-off, which means if the unit's air vents are blocked, the heater quickly shuts down. Because we can leave the Envi on 24-7, with no worries of fires, we sleep tight -- and warm -- now. (Not to mention just entering the room has greatly improved!)

It is rather remarkable that with such a low wattage that they are so effective. Our bedroom temperature increased by 15 degrees (or more on nights not so severely cold!) and that is huge in terms of living quality.

Whether you want to go green, or just want to save some money, I highly recommend the Envi heaters for warming up your house -- or other space. (Once the weather becomes more Spring like here, we plan on taking our Envi heater to the house we are restoring so that we can create a warm-up spot and start working earlier!)

Disclaimer: You should know by now that receiving review products doesn't mean anything other than the fact that I will give an honest review. I have given negative reviews of items I have received because they were, in my opinion, bad or even horrible. My recommendation of this heater is based on nothing but the use of it and not the fact that it was given to me for review.

A Superhero In Underpants

A number years ago, while I was up late writing, I smelled smoke. I anxiously left the computer and began walking around the house, using my nose to lead me to the source. Before I could get all the way to the kitchen, the smoke detector went off upstairs. I ran to the stairs and looked up to the top to see my husband, sleepy-face and in his underpants, tossing water from a small bathroom Dixie cup onto a smoking wall by our bedroom.

When I got to the top of the stairs, hubby explained that the space heater we used to heat the upstairs had overloaded the outlet and started a fire. He held the now unplugged and melted plug up as evidence. The white wall was charred, but there was no more smoke. The wall no longer felt warm, but we were concerned that there might be fire inside the wall that we could not detect, so we called the fire department to be on the safe side.

All the noise woke Destiny (then all of 8 or so). She opened her bedroom door and zombie-walked out to see her dad in his boxers, the small cup still in his hand. We briefly explained the situation and that the firemen were on their way, just to be sure the fire was out. Her large blue eyes got even wider, but she didn't say a word and just went back to bed. Apparently, seeing dad on the job was all the reassurance she needed.

To this day, we discuss hubby's superhero costume as consisting of his underpants and a Dixie cup.

My superhero costume is very different; but that's another story for another day.

Getting Organized & Recharging In The New Year

The New Year means resolutions (and spending that holiday gift cash). If you're like me, one of your resolutions is to get more organized and make your home more enjoyable to live in. After all, for the next few weeks (if not months!), we'll all be nestled inside the house, and while we have lots more to do inside now than we once did, all the electronics and entertainment stuff can make your home full of annoying distractions too. Like all those loops of cable wires and cords that every device needs.

The kind folks at CableOrganizer.com sent me a couple of products to review that address some of these issues. While they have a lot of stuff for organizing your home office and entertainment systems (especially, of course, those cables!), they do have some neat little things that help too.

The BlueLounge® Milo™ Smartphone Holder is a simple, yet elegant, way to hold your smartphone, MP3 player, etc. I don't know about you, but we save our old phones and use them as MP3 players. That way, we are recycling and keeping plenty of storage space free on our current smartphones and their storage cards. This way, we also avoid getting bored with the same-old songs and playlists all the time. Milo will now remain in my home office, on top of the recycled vintage refrigerator drawers, ready for use.

There's a micro-suction "sticky" back which holds the phone in place on the stand, and more of it on the bottom to hold the stand on a flat surface. I can vouch that the stuff is reusable; we have pets (and, I'll confess, dust lol). If the micro-suction pads seem to lose their stickiness, just use some adhesive tape to clean the debris off the pads will be like new again. Honest.

Because the micro-suction pads are reusable, I can move the stand and place it anywhere. And I can rotate which cell phone I now use as an MP3-player -- or remove for charging, as needed. ...Though with the Juicebar® Multi-Device Pocket Solar Charger, I could get months of use out of the same setup!

The Juicebar® Multi-Device Pocket Solar Charger is a neat little charger -- mainly because it is also a solar charger. Sometimes the problem with portable pocket chargers is that you forget to charge them. But the Juicebar holds a charge for months -- so long as you leave the solar part face up. (That's aimed at you, youngest male child!)

The Juicebar comes with a USB cable for standard charging. Simply reverse the connections to send the charge to a device. The device can hold a charge for months, but the built-in LED indicator lets you know when the charge is fading. It also has a flashlight feature, which my kids found pretty neat. (They must prowl around at night more than I thought -- because they sure aren't cleaning under their beds lol)

The only bad thing I can say about the Juicebar is that the shiny stainless steel finish shows fingerprints and smudges. Because of that, and the whole kids-forget-to-charge-the-charger thing, I'm giving the Juicebar mobile charger to my 13 year old son. He definitely does not mind smudges. *wink*

Both the Milo micro-suction stand and the Juicebar mobile solar charger are little things which can go a long way to organizing your home and making it more livable. Now, if we can just get the husbands to do something with all those loops of cords and cables... (Hint, hint; nudge, nudge.)

Work, Work, Work (And Some Play)

Been blogging more about our family travels and restoration of the old house at It's The Journey, Not The Destination. But will be back with some parenting stuff soon!

Getting A New House; Making A New Home

We just got a new old house -- a real fixer-upper, priced low enough for us to pay in cash. (Almost as mind blowing as the restoration work we have to do!)

One of the joys of a new house, is day dreaming about how we'll live there, make it our home. Given that it will take us so long to restore the house, those days are years away... Meanwhile, I've been reveling in the chance to organize where we are living now. Making sure to reuse and recycle not only what's in the old farm house but what's in the house we rent now, we are getting rid of the rest. (Sooo many trips to the thrift shops to donate; so many vintage and antique items in our personal collections going up for sale!) It's not only changing the way we will live, but the way we live now.

Whether you've been thinking about restoring an old farm house, taking advantage of the deals to be found in the current housing market, or just need a different house to accommodate your needs, mortgage rates are very low right now.