When people think of smart thermostats, the Nest Learning Thermostatis what typically comes to mind. But shoppers at the hardware store now have choices as a lineup of lesser-known competitors have hit the shelf recently. When the time comes for you to buy a smart thermostat, dont overlook the Ecobee4. With an interesting array of features including a built-in speaker and mic to embed the Amazon Alexavoice assistant into your HVAC controller as well as great temperature control capabilities, this product is literally bringing the heat. Learn what it was like to live with in our Ecobee4 review.

Ecobees latest smart thermostat costs $249 and comes with one remote sensor, though there are more expensive bundles that come with more wireless satellites. You also can buy them separately. These sensors, which can measure temperature, humidity, occupancy, and proximity, may be the smartest thing about the Ecobee, and we highly recommend using more than one. Their ability to gather information in multiple rooms greatly adds to the accuracy and efficiency of this smart thermostat.

For us, installation of the Ecobee4 was relatively painless; thats partly because of our familiarity with the Ecobee3, which has a slightly different footprint on the wall but a similar wiring layout. Whether youre familiar with Ecobee products or not, this model is easy for most people to install.

There are two installation issues worth noting. First, when we originally got the Ecobee3, we opted to have a professional install it because our testing home is heated via an electric heat pump and a gas furnace. The heat pump has a reversing valve, which can complicate thermostat installs. In this instance, however, because the Ecobee3s wiring is similar to the Ecobee4s, we did the installation ourselves. Also, some peoples HVAC wiring may require them to install a Power Extender Kit, and the Ecobee4 comes with one included.

Installing the Ecobee4 included tripping the breaker for the heat pump and the furnace (which also cut the power to the thermostat), removing the old thermostat, and following the colored wire schematics to reinstall the Ecobee4s backplate. The smart thermostat also comes with a trim plate that can conceal any unsightly holes left behind by your previous thermostat. Once the backplate is wired, you simply snap the thermostat onto it, and the device begins to boot up. Software setup is quick and easy, and an app connection to Wi-Fi gets the new thermostat online.

The Ecobee4 is an Android and iOS-compatible thermostat with an integrated color LCD touch display. It has a refined, modern look, but it wouldnt be out of place in more traditional homes. The apps and the thermostats slick touchscreen interface work identically, which is nice, and theres a web dashboard for taking deeper dives on settings and system monitoring.

It has a refined, modern look, but it wouldnt be out of place in more traditional homes.

The big, new feature packed into the device is a microphone and speaker so the thermostat can access Amazons Alexa voice assistant. In repeat and prolonged testing (within earshot of an Amazon Echo speaker, no less), it did its job very well. Despite being situated in a hallway between the kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom, it heard every request sent its way and relayed the response with crisp, clear sound.

The Ecobee4 is a thermostat with a speaker stamped into its backside, but temper your expectations on cranking out high-quality-sounding music. For listening to podcasts, news updates, controlling smart home gear, or asking random questions, however, it works great with two exceptions. First, you cant change its wake word from Alexa (a bummer if youve got a family member with that name). The second is that the voice assistant, oddly, doesnt control the thermostat very well. This isnt necessarily Ecobees fault. These are early days for voice-controlled hardware in general, and asking Alexa to control the lights or other smart home devices is spotty and requires the user to know the exact string of words to ask and even then, theres no guarantees it will do the job. For instance, we can ask Alexa what the temperature is in the bedroom, and the Ecobee4 will link up with the remote sensor and relay the information without a hitch. But if we ask the same question about the kids room, the reply is Kids room doesnt support that.

The Ecobee4 is also Apple HomeKitcompatible, a feature that, in theory, we love. But the reality is that we only had our Ecobee3 connected to it for a matter of weeks before it somehow lost its connection to the home network. We honestly didnt bother connecting the Ecobee4 to it, because if it works as well as it used to (which is about how well the Alexa integration works) theres little point. However, its worth noting that Apple is making changes to HomeKit all the time, and maybe the Ecobee4s iOS compatibility will be a worthwhile feature down the line. We do like this thermostat for the ways that it is future-proofed, even if they dont work particularly well together now.

But the biggest flaw in voice controlling the thermostat is that when the system is off, weve never been able to turn on the cool air (or heat) with our voices. We dont understand why Ecobee or Apple or Amazon havent enabled this, but some of us live in a house with windows, and if the window is open, we dont want the AC on so off is the default position. Maybe someday, connected home sensors will be smart enough to block the cool air from coming on if a window is open, but we are not there yet.

Otherwise, since the Ecobee3 and Ecobee4s interface and systems are identical, we can say in the years that weve used an Ecobee, weve had few complaints. It would be great if the Ecobee4 gave us the ability look at our HVACs performance via the app a minor complaint. Also, theres limited schedule-building capabilities in the app compared to the website. This might seem a minor point, but for those who would like comfort settings tailored to their tastes its a drag to have to go to the website to set that up.

Whether youre using the Ecobee4s schedules or geofencing to regulate your homes heating and cooling, the smart thermostat does a good job of turning systems on or off without an issue, saving energy (and money) if you configure and use it properly. Likewise, as an Alexa-connected device, it hears and responds well, rarely missing a request despite that its microphone and speakers are neatly tucked between the thermostat and the wall.

But the smartest tech baked into this system is the Ecobee4s remote sensors. These battery-operated satellites let you measure the temperature in rooms around your home. From there, you can perform a variety of heating and cooling-related fixes. For example, an obvious use is averaging the temperatures of rooms throughout your home, a function that helps ensure that one area isnt draftier than another. Also, through a follow me feature, the Ecobee4 can adjust your homes temperature based on where you go (so no need to measure the spare bedroom, if youre not spending time there). These two tricks alone make the Ecobee4 a great thermostat for older homes that may not have multi-zoned heating and cooling. With a nod to the voice assistant shortcomings and an eye towards its future maturation, we recommend Ecobee4, even if its big selling point is a bit of a bust. Due largely to its ability to connect with remote sensors, the smart thermostat performs extremely well, offering users an array of features and configurations that can make homes feel warmer and perform better.

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Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat hands-on review - Digital Trends

Q: How do I stop my wood-burning fireplace from smelling like smoke in humid weather? A faint smoke smell would be OK, but this is obnoxious. It seems worse when the air conditioner or even the washer and dryer are running. The smell wafts in from the chimney. We have a glass door installed, but it doesnt help.

A: Chimney smells stink up indoor air when the air pressure is lower indoors than out. Especially in a house built to be fairly airtight, this can happen when a dryer or other exhaust fan runs or if there are leaks in heating and air-conditioning ducts. To equalize the pressure, air moves down the chimney, into your house. Summer conditions add to the problem because the outdoor air is hot and humid, therefore heavier than drier, cooler indoor air.

In theory, closing the damper on your fireplace should stop the airflow where the air picks up the smell. But fireplace dampers often dont seal well. For a better seal, you could have a chimney sweep install a spring-loaded stainless-steel damper at the top of the flue. We called a company that estimated the job at $630.

Or, for $42.99 to $86.99, depending on the chimney width, you could install an inflatable device known as a Chimney Balloon, available at Amazon.com. It has mixed reviews, however, with some buyers reporting it punctures as easily as a water balloon. Filling a hefty plastic bag with insulation and stuffing that into the chimney opening at the base of the fireplace might work just as well and would cost less. Just be sure to remove it before you use the fireplace.

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If closing off the chimney doesnt stop the smell, call a heating and air-conditioning company to assess air balance in your home. It might help to pipe fresh air to combustion appliances, including the dryer if it is gas. Or you might benefit from a heat-recovery ventilator, which could introduce more fresh air in a way that its preheated or precooled so you dont waste energy. Sealing leaks in heating and air-conditioning ducts or balancing the system by adding more openings might also be part of the solution.

Q: Our KitchenAid Superba garbage disposal was installed in January 2011. For the past few months, it has failed to grind up and flush vegetable matter that it previously had no problem with. The blades rotate, chopping up the waste, but the waste does not exit the unit. I called the manufacturer for guidance. I was told to fill the disposal with ice to help with grinding. That helped some, but much of the waste remained in the disposal. Any ideas about why?

A: This is a three-fourths-horsepower model thats still sold. It has a five-year limited warranty that would cover a repair visit to your home if it were still in effect. But the warranty expired about 1 1/2 years ago, a sign that its probably time to replace the unit. The current cost is $279 at Lowes and perhaps even less from other retailers.

If youre reasonably handy, you could probably install a new unit yourself. KitchenAid provides installation instructions that appear straightforward. Lowes could install it for about $120, a spokesman said.

First, you might try repeating the ice trick a couple of times. Disposals sometimes work poorly because of a buildup of grease and other debris. Ice particles whip around in the mechanism and pick up the gunk, helping to clean it.

Also try another cleaning method that the manufacturer suggests in its care manual: With the unit off, place a stopper over the opening and fill the sink halfway with warm water. Mix one-fourth cup baking soda with water and dump it in. Turn on the disposal as you remove the stopper. If youre lucky, the force of the water, plus the bubbling action and grease-cutting properties of baking soda, will help restore the units performance, and eliminate any foul odors. After the sink drains, remove the sink baffle and clean it by hand or in the dishwasher. Replace it before you operate the disposal again.

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Stop the fireplace smell from invading your home - The Oakland Press

Depot employees earn DoD award

An innovative engineering solution developed at the Tobyhanna Army Depot was named one of the best value engineering proposals in the Defense Department for fiscal 2016.

Team Tobyhanna personnel accepted the Value Engineering Achievement Award for the team engineering category during a recent ceremony at the Pentagon. The proposal will save the depot more than $12 million over the next three years.

Dr. Clinton Holder came up with the idea for an in-house testing capability for the detector/cooler bench assembly, a major component of the Long Range Advance Scout Surveillance System. Holder joined forces with electronics engineer Christopher Antall, Dallas, electronics technician Jeffrey Borosky, Wyoming, logistics management specialist Bret Hunt, Moscow, and electronics engineer James Waters, Clifford Twp., to develop a capability allowing the replacement of certain components rather than the entire DCB. Holder, an electronics engineer who worked in the Production Engineering Directorate, retired in July.

Dress for Success

Dress for Success Lackawanna is announcing enrollment for Retail Jobs Trajectory, a job-training program funded by the Walmart Foundation. This specially designed program helps entry-level employed women gain professional skills by providing them with the tools and resources needed to successfully advance in their careers.

Dress for Success Lackawanna was chosen as only one of 20 Dress for Success affiliates to pilot this new program for the worldwide organization.

Goodwill donation

FNCB Bank, locally based for more than 100 years, recently presented representatives from Goodwill Industries with a $1,000 donation for the Choose Your Future Program. Choose Your Future is a career development program designed to help low-income high school students gain exposure to and transition into the world of work.

Lawn volunteers

Grasshopper Lawns, a member of the National Association of Landscape Professionals, participated in Renewal & Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery on July 17. This marks the 21st year that industry professionals have worked to help care for this national burial ground that serves as the final resting spot for more than 400,000 military service men and women and their spouses. It is the 21st consecutive year for Grasshopper Lawns participation.

Every July, hundreds of landscape and lawn care professionals come from across the nation to the cemetery to participate in the event organized by the National Association of Landscape Professionals. They volunteer their time mulching, upgrading sprinklers, cabling and installing lightning protection for the trees, pruning, planting, liming and aerating the soil.

EEC applications

Lackawanna Colleges Environmental Education Center is accepting applications for its Conservation and Natural Resource Officer certificate program. The program is set to begin Sept. 6 and ends Dec. 15.

During this 15-week accelerated program, students will complete five undergraduate-level field biology courses at the LCEEC, located on 211 acres of diverse habitat in Covington Twp.

The curriculum focuses on the conservation and interpretation of the natural environment. The program includes instruction in subjects such as environmental interpretation, wildlife management, freshwater ecosystems, dendrology, ornithology, and recreational use of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Students will experience both classroom and hands-on field training throughout the program.

Habitat award

Habitat for Humanity presented the 2017 Golden Hammer Award to Christine Chissler Fazzi, Tracy Chissler Perry and Patty Chissler Phillips Pavlock at a recent home dedication in Wilkes-Barre. The Golden Hammer Award honors those who have shown exceptional commitment to help further the organizations mission.

The four-generation Chissler family home on Espy Street remained vacant for years after the passing of their father. Since the siblings had settled elsewhere, the sisters donated the home to Wyoming Valley Habitat for Humanity. The Chissler sisters were also very active as volunteers and often donated lunch at the job site during their family homes restoration.

SUBMIT BUSINESS BUZZ items to business@timesshamrock.com or The Times-Tribune, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503.

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The entrance to the house is now a central atrium-style lobby with a staircase, fronted by a handsome wooden front door that swings on casters into the hallway. This is littered, like many family homes, with car keys, cats and family photographs mostly of the three Brand children, Lucian, 11, Mary, 10, and Hannah, eight.

At the far end of the lobby, double doors lead to the courtyard, once the centre of life at Glynde, but now home to the peaceful pond, transposed from the main garden at the suggestion of landscape designer Kim Wilkie. Its not always so tranquil, Brand laughs. The children swim in it!

The hallway leads around the sides of the courtyard into the rest of the house, with comfortable sitting rooms, a family kitchen and a succession of solid wooden staircases, many of which have been tidied up and restored. As well as redoing the roof and gutters, the Brands knocked down walls that had been built in the middle of large rooms, returning them to their original size. Along the way, they discovered hidden doorways and replaced 174 window panes. Pretty much every part of the back of the house was restored, Brand says.

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Revealed: the best restoration this year, according to the Historic Houses Association - Telegraph.co.uk

A wooden anchor fixed to a wall in a local safe home for children is more than just a decoration.

It is a symbol of what The Anchor House aims to provide: a protective harbor for boys who are survivors of domestic minor sex trafficking. But the anchor is also symbolic of Restore One's efforts to hold to its mission: to open a residential recovery program for boys that is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

Restore One, which in its five-year history has faced financial challenges, local opposition and a hurricane, stands ready to open the doors of The Anchor House this fall, more than a year later than co-founders Chris and Anna Smith had hoped. The faith-based nonprofit organization is working to finish furnishing the home, hiring staff and acquiring a license from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

You're naive if you think you're going to take on something like this and it's going to happen overnight, Chris Smith, Restore One's director of engagement, said.

The husband-and-wife team and Pitt County natives were 23 years old when they first envisioned a home where boys who had been sexually exploited could live while they worked to regain stability.

We do get the question sometimes, 'What's taking you so long?' Chris said. That's OK. They just see a mission. They just see a vision, but what they didn't see is a hurricane or building a program model pretty much from scratch.

Our hope is just to create something that's going to outlive us and to create lasting life change, he said.

Built on 10 acres near the Greene County-Pitt County line, The Anchor House is designed to give male sex trafficking survivors, ages 12-18, a place to live, attend school and receive counseling. The home, which eventually hopes to serve as many as 12 boys, will open with one cottage built to house four boys.

Weathering the storms

The Anchor House's two structures, which took nearly a year to build, were flooded following Hurricane Matthew. Both the 4,430-square-foot, two-story main building and the 1,639-square-foot cottage sustained damage.

It was not the first storm Restore One had weathered. The ministry had spent years trying to find a suitable location for The Anchor House. Property donated in 2013 was too small to accommodate the facility. A few months after Restore One broke ground on its current property in 2015, some local residents appealed to the Greene County Board of Commissioners to stop the home from being built in their community.

When Hurricane Matthew hit in October, Restore One had completed construction but was in the midst of a campaign to raise funds for operating expenses for The Anchor House. The damage was not covered by flood insurance, which the ministry had acquired weeks before the hurricane hit.

After the waters receded, the Smiths learned that most of the flooring would have to be replaced, along with baseboards, lower cabinets and lower sections of sheet rock in both buildings.

Steve Grant, a member of Restore One's board of directors, remembers seeing the water that overtook within hours what had taken months to build.

They (the Smiths) were pretty devastated, as you can imagine, Grant said. But I knew even then that we were coming back.

It's kind of like a family, he said of Restore One supporters. It's the same thing we would do if my home flooded. My friends would come help me; my family would come help me. It was kind of that kind of environment. We all just got together and got it done.

Volunteers from half a dozen churches spent Saturdays ripping out carpet and insulation, hauling away pieces of dry wall and scrubbing sections of floors that could be salvaged.

Leah Little of Crosspointe Church in Winterville was one of them.

You see the heart that they have for God and the heart that they have for these children, and you just want so badly to see them succeed and to see this come to fruition, she said. Every God-ordained ministry or venture has its oppositions and has its setbacks. Satan's going to do everything he can to see this not come to pass, but God's faithful, and he's been with them on this entire journey.

The response from supporters following the latest setback was encouraging to the Smiths, who were amazed to receive a $10,000 check from a church in Colorado to help repair the damage. In addition, several builders and installers who had been hired during the initial construction came forward to repair or replace damaged areas, volunteering their time and some of the materials to do so.

We've seen people coming out to work at The Anchor House, and they said, 'I was really disappointed when this flooded, and I wanted to see it back up because this is a really great thing that you all are doing,' Anna Smith, Restore One president, said. A lot of people are tenacious about wanting to see restoration of boys happen.

What about the boys?

Boys often are considered overlooked victims of sex trafficking. According to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority's National Survey of Residential Programs for Victims of Sex Trafficking, of nearly 700 beds available at residential programs across the nation, only about 25 werefor male victims.

We know that about 50 percent of commercially sexually exploited children are boys; about 50 percent of pornography (involves) boys, Anna Smith said. We still have no safe homes for boys and very little programs that will work with boys. I think it's a cultural thing. ... We often view boys and men as invincible. They can't be victims. The poster child of a sex-trafficked person is a female.

That is what Mike Eggleston discovered when he began to research domestic minor sex trafficking programs about two years ago. A corporate attorney in Leawood, Kan., Eggleston was watching a public television documentary about sex trafficking in America when he began to wonder why the program seemed to focus exclusively on efforts to help women and girls.

The overwhelming thought that came up in me was, 'What about the boys?' he said. Who's doing anything to do this same kind of outreach for boys who are being sexually exploited, who have been sexually abused?

His search for answers led Eggleston to Restore One. He started corresponding with Chris in the spring of 2015, getting ideas for how he might help start a similar ministry in his community. He became a financial supporter of The Anchor House and earlier this month flew from Kansas to North Carolina to see the finished product.

We could avoid so much hurt and brokeness as a society if we would just quit ignoring that this problem exists, Eggleston said. We need it for every single state in the country to stop thinking that sexual exploitation is only about foreign female victims because it's not.

I feel so passionate about this particular topic and about us as a society creating more on-ramps for boys to get healing and to be transformed, he said. (They are) forgotten, underrepresented, no one to speak out for them, no one to really care and show them that this is a problem that is bigger than just them.

Eggleston understands what it is to feel alone. Growing up in small towns in the Midwest, he was sexually abused by people he should have been able to trust, among them a choirmaster and a teacher.

It did a number on me and on my self-worth and my identity and who I am, whether I am good enough, he said. I somehow blamed myself for these things that happened when I was 4 and a half years old, when I was 14, when I was 16, as if I was the adult in the situation, and I wasn't.

Though Eggleston reported the assault by his teacher, school officials were hesitant to believe him. After the teacher admitted the abuse, no one ever followed up with me ever again, he said.

I never got any help. I never had anybody to talk to. It was just buried, and it was shameful, and I had embarrassed the family, he said. ... Somehow it was my fault, and I felt it profoundly.

A changing tide

Chris Smith, who began conducting interviews in 2014 for the yet-to-be-released documentary film BOYS, said he has heard similar stories from other men who were sexually exploited as children.

The survivors that now are adults say there was nothing available for them to get help, he said. They knew deep down if they did come out, there would be no help for them.

In recent years, the Smiths have seen that perception begin to change as abolition groups such as Shared Hope have begun to devote attention during national conferences to the issue of male survivors of sex trafficking.

When we first stepped out on the scene and I don't think this is a sole tribute to Restore One by any means there were no breakouts on men and boys, no men who were survivor representatives at these conferences, Anna Smith said.

We are seeing changes, small change, but we are seeing change, she said. I would go so far as to say I believe we're making history by opening this home and by the work that we do. I believe that. We're changing history.

Chris Smith said he has heard similar statements in the abolition community about Restore One's unprecedented work, but the ministry is keeping its focus on its mission.

At the end of the day we're just about changing lives and helping boys, he said, helping males find peace and restoration.

Restore One has established a registry at Wal-Mart, Target and on Amazon to provided needed furnishings and supplies for The Anchor House. For more information, visit restoreonelife.org or email The Anchor House Director Linda Royster at linda@restoreonelife.org.

Contact Kim Grizzard at kgrizzard@reflector.comor 329-9578.

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Anchored in hope: Boys' home pushes forward - Greenville Daily Reflector

LStars motto is to do the right thingand do it with passion. What better expression of our motto than repurposing existing resources and pave the way for continued growth and expansion."

Pooler, GA (PRWEB) August 13, 2017

The cottages that formerly housed the Savannah Quarters Sales Center, Golf Pro Shop, and Club Dining are being moved to their new location on three homesites in Westbrook at Savannah Quarters. These cottages reflect the popular and charming architectural elements of the Lowcountry and will be restored for three families to call home.

This relocation and restoration project is the brainchild of Harron Lee of Country Heritage Homes, LLC that was born after a casual conversation with Janice Hoffman, Broker-in-Charge for Savannah Quarters Realty, in February, 2017. Were excited to take on this restoration project, said Harron. These homes will offer modern interior design features with generous living spaces that flow easily.

LStars motto is to do the right thing and do it with passion. What better expression of our motto than repurposing existing resources and pave the way for continued growth and expansion, said Gerrit Albert, Division President Coastal South for LStar Ventures.

Conveniently located within walking distance to The Club at Savannah Quarters amenities, these restored homes will each be approximately 3,200 square-feet with four bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths, heart pine wood floors, a semi-attached garage with room for two cars, a golf cart, and storage and more. These cottage homes will provide a sense of luxury and comfort that comes from attention to detail.

For more information on these cottage homes, contact Savannah Quarters Realty at 912-450-2300.

About Savannah QuartersSavannah Quarters is a premier new home community in the southeast located 10 miles west of the Savannah city center in Pooler. The 2,600-acre masterplan community offers charm, relaxation, beauty and recreation. The fun and relaxed Club at Savannah Quarters features resort-style amenities such as fitness, tennis, swimming, and a stunning clubhouse with year-round dining and gracious Southern service. Residents can also enjoy the 18-hole Greg Norman Signature Golf Course woven throughout the community. Future plans include a new Village Center, new residences and new adventures for every generation. To schedule a tour and find your dream home, please call 912.450.2300 or visit http://www.SavannahQuarters.com.

About LStar Ventures Since our inception in 2007, LStar Ventures has built more than 65 beautiful, financially successful, and environmentally sensitive communities in 15 states. We are a privately held real estate development firm that owns many of the finest master-planned communities in the country. We take pride in our financial strength, as we maintain little to no debt on any of our real estate assets. This unique approach ensures we can confidently and successfully execute our development strategies over very long periods of time and through varying economic cycles. For more information, please visit http://www.LVNT.com.

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Savannah Quarters Cottage Restoration Project is Underway - PR Web (press release)

Outdoor Lighting

If youre planning to entertain during spring or summer on your patio or deck, you may have a party or two that extends late into the evening. Whether youre all gathered for a night under the stars or are having an evening backyard barbecue, some decorative but useful lighting can help guide the way and set the scene for you, your family and your guests. For all of the summer nights you plan to enjoy outdoors by yourself, with a significant other or with friends, you might also want some lighting that casts a beautiful glow while youre relaxing, chatting and maybe enjoying a dip in the pool. And, even when summer turns to autumn, the gentle illumination from your outdoor lighting can set a welcoming scene for the cozy seasons ahead. When it comes to outdoor lighting and string lights, Pottery Barn features a wealth of different styles and fixtures that make it a breeze to dress up your outdoor space with the same elegance thats featured in the inside of your home.

You may want lighting that youll get to enjoy all the time, not just during get-togethers . For example, having purposeful but decorative lighting by your front door helps you gain entry at night, and it also allows guests and visitors to see the front of your home. Much more aesthetically pleasing than a standard floodlight, consider hanging pendants that are easily installed into the roof of your front porch or stoop. Theyre an exceptional way to light the night, and you can choose from different shapes and styles, such as stars, classic outdoor lanterns-lights/outdoor lanterns/">candle outdoor lanternss and glass boxes. These hanging light fixturess not only do your front door justice, but they also complement your backyard. Hang a set of multiple pendant lights from the overhang of your patio or deck or from your back porch to brighten the space.

Another simple way to light up pathways, your deck or your pool area at night is to install outdoor sconces. Carefully constructed to endure all weather situations, these sconces hold up well to the elements while looking great. Install them by your front or back door or on a garage or shed to give yourself helpful lighting when its pitch black outside.

For a bold statement, opt for an indoor/outdoor chandelier. These pieces work incredibly well when hanging from an outdoor porch or overhang, and they can be an exceptional accompaniment to an outdoor dinner party, adding a touch of classic elegance to every meal. Specially made to be used indoors or out to withstand the elements, choose from classic-style chandeliers, ring chandeliers or chandeliers made from recycled glass for a luxurious and environmentally friendly look. Similar to chandeliers, large hanging pendants also have the ability to enliven your outdoor space. Hang them from roofs or overhangs to add spectacular light to your get-togethers or barbecues. Choose from large globe pendants, hanging outdoor lanterns-lights/outdoor lanterns/">candle outdoor lanterns pendant lights or pendants with nautical themes to match your outdoor decor. Larger outdoor lanterns-lights/outdoor lanterns/">candle outdoor lanterns sconces also pair well with hanging outdoor lanterns-lights/outdoor lanterns/">candle outdoor lanternss, and these are easily installed on the side of your home, garage or shed area.

Beyond hanging outdoor lanterns-lights/outdoor lanterns/">candle outdoor lanternss and pendants, sometimes you need an extra bit of twinkling light, especially when youre entertaining. Choose delicate yet joyful string lights to add just the right ambience to your nighttime get-together or barbecue. Look for bulb-shaped lights, fairy lights and LED string lights to light up the night sky. Useful and versatile, these indoor/outdoor lights look great during any season and can even become part of your holiday decorations when winter comes around. Alternatively, you can place string lights in your enclosed porch or mudroom and turn them on when the mood strikes, especially when youre holding indoor parties or indoor/outdoor dinners. String lights in your enclosed space help add a beach-like, nautical feel and are a great lighting solution to use all year long.

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Outdoor Lights & Patio Lights | Pottery Barn

When lighting up the outdoors, first consider your purpose. Outdoor dining areas have different lighting needs than areas for lounging and conversation. The right outdoor lighting helps you better enjoy and use your outdoor space, whatever its purpose.

Outdoor dining

Having an outdoor kitchen in summertime is optimal. Even a simple gas grill can go a long way in conserving the coolness of your home. No matter the scale of your outdoor cooking area, it needs task lighting. Recessed fixtures can be hidden in the beams of an overhead patio cover or pergola, or outdoor sconces can be mounted above the cooking surface for added safety and accuracy with food preparation.

Dining surfaces require less task lighting than cooking surfaces. Therefore, this light can be functional as well as decorative. For example, twinkling starlight pendants not only provide enough light to eat, but the glittery light they spray out of tiny holes adds a romantic feel to the dining experience. Or, hang string lights over your outdoor table like the roof of a tent this will not only provide enough light to eat by, but also adds ambiance.

Theres never been a better chance that your get-together, and the food you present, will end up photographed and posted on the web. If you want those pictures to look great, lighting can help. Warmer colored light, that is light high in oranges, yellows and reds, makes food and people look natural. Cooler light, or blue-colored light, although great over outdoor kitchens for task lighting, can make people and food appear washed out.

Outdoor R and R

Like indoor lighting, exterior decks and patios are best lit in layers. For most of your exterior lighting, hiding the light source is best as it reduces glare and helps create a relaxed mood. Placing fixtures in landscaping, or overhead in trees or soffits will help conceal fixtures, cords, and wires. Post lights are concealed and decorative, and can even be made to cast patterns on the surface of your deck or patio turning light to art.

A range of assorted products are available to meet all your outdoor needs. Rope lighting can be placed under railings, or along the edge of a wooden walkway or concrete path. Super flat rope lighting is so thin its practically invisible. Undercap lighting, a type of strip light, can be placed under the edge of a sitting wall or bench, or as stairway lighting when applied under the cap of each step.

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Installing hidden fixtures high over your outdoor area, or moonlighting," will mimic soft, romantic moonlight even when the moon is nowhere in sight. Be sure to use LED lighting with anything high it will reduce the number of times you need to climb a ladder, or hire someone with a lift, to replace bulbs.

Outdoor ceiling fans help maximize your R and R when the evening is a warm one. Before purchasing your outdoor fan, pay attention to its rating by Underwriters Laboratories. An outdoor fan thats UL rated damp means the fan is well suited for moist locations where it wont be directly exposed to water. A UL rating of wet means the fan will withstand direct exposure to water snow, rain, ice, or even water squirted from a hose to clean it.

For those without clear purpose

The answer to all of those without clear purpose is dimmers. Dimmers allow you to multipurpose, and offer forgiveness for changing your purpose. Dimmers can not only change the intensity of a light, but now they can change the color as well. When youre cooking over the grill, use a dimmer to intensify the light and cool its color, but when its time to dine and relax, use the dimmer to lower the lights and warm the color.

No matter how you do it, you want to create a space that people linger in, that they are drawn to, and lighting can help. Lighting can and should be a weaving together of colors, wattage and fixtures to create an outdoor space thats magical.

The rest is here:
Outdoor Lighting: Finding your purpose - Billings Gazette

Georgie Silvarole , wltx 4:55 PM. EDT August 13, 2017

Glenn Brill hadn't even thought about the lights.

"My friend mentioned it to me, and he said, 'What are you going to do when the lights pop on?' and I hadnt even thought about it," Brill said. "As I understand it, they're all on photo cells so the street lights will pop on all over Anderson County when we have totality."

Brill, Anderson County's director of parks, recreation and tourism, has spent the last several months preparing the county for the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21. But it wasn't until a friend mentioned street lamps with automatic sensors that Brill even considered streetlights could put a damper on visitors' view of the eclipse.

Brill put in a request with Duke Energy several months ago to have the power cut at Green Pond Landing and Event Center on Aug. 21 for the duration of the eclipse.

The Black-Out at Green Pond is one of two events Anderson County has developed for people to view the eclipse. After the Green Pond event generated so much popularity, the county announced a second viewing location, the Civic Center of Anderson, in mid-July.

"Back in February, I made the request to cut the power to Green Pond, and that request is being honored," Brill said. "At the Civic Center ... I made that request in July and they had too many requests by then."

Randy Wheeless, a spokesman for Duke Energy, said the company is unable to meet the high number of requests they've received for the eclipse.

"We've received quite a few there's probably been dozens," Wheeless said. "As a rule, we're not really accepting those."

Though a few exceptions may have been made, Wheeless said meeting every request just isn't feasible.

"To cut off streetlights in any particular neighborhood is a manual process," Wheeless said. "It's very impractical for us to go and manually turn off those streetlights and then go back later and manually turn those lights back on."

Duke Energy simply doesn't have the time or manpower to meet each request to have streetlights manually turned off (and then back on again) all on the same day, Wheeless said.

"We understand the request, but from labor-intensive standpoint there's thousands of street lamps," Wheeless said. "You're talking about a pretty labor-intensive endeavor."

At the Civic Center, guests will be directed to the William A. Floyd Amphitheater, which will position them so the parking lot (and it's bright lights) will be at their backs, Brill said.

"We can turn off all of our outside lights, except for the ones in the main parking lot, and the amphitheater backs to the parking lot," Brill said.

More than 60,000 people are expected to visit the county on the 21st and thats the low estimate.

It could be as many as 245,000 in Anderson County, and as many as 2 million for the state, Brill said. Because of that influx, locals are encouraged to view from home if they can and if they choose to, they should try to cut the power to any security lights or outdoor lighting that might be activated by low light, he added.

"The reality is, if you're looking at the sun at this 63-degree angle, the lights shouldn't have too much of an impact," Brill said. "But for most people, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

The Greenville News

Original post:
Duke Energy receives dozens of requests to turn off streetlights for eclipse - WLTX.com

EAST BAY, CA If you're a small or medium sized business owner, a free energy audit could help you slice you monthly power bill.

The East Bay Energy Watch Program (EBEW), a local government partnership between PG&E, Alameda County, and Contra Costa County, helps small and medium business owners achieve long term energy and money savings.

The program offers rebates between 25% - 75% of the total project cost for a wide range of energy upgrades including indoor and outdoor lighting, commercial refrigeration equipment, anti-sweat heater (ASH) controls, and electronically commuted motors.

The program begins with a free comprehensive energy audit.

If you choose to implement changes, EBEW provides a carefully selected network of contractors.

To get started, call EBEW directly at 510-285-4111.

-Image via Morguefile

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Originally published August 14, 2017.

See original here:
Energy Efficiency Program For East Bay Small, Medium Businesses - Patch.com