Heat mats were the greatest improvement I made in my seed germination system, last year. I had three 20" x 48" mats, all running off the same thermostat. They kept the germination trays at 72 deg. F. I use the rubber encapsulated 107 watt units sold by Farmtek (and others) for about $75 each. I also use a remote temperature sensor with a probe on the end of a cable. I plug that probe and the probe from the heat mat thermostat into the same cell in one of the covered trays. Here is a picture of my setup. I am adding another mat this year. This setup has a large production capacity, with 4 mats you can have 16 trays going at once. Of course, each tray only spends about a week on the mats, until germination occurs, then the tray gets uncovered and moved to another light bench. I use a sheet of 1" foil covered urethane foam insulation under the mats. This improves the efficiency and reduces power consumption. Here is a link that might be useful: Farmtek Germination Heat Mats

Forgot to add that he saved us money by incorporating all of our needs and many wants without going over in sq footage. He also came up with architectural details that would give the house character very inexpensively. He loaded us up on storage and made the most use out of stadard windows. Also incorporated brick and stone with hardi in a way that kept the expense down but provided a huge visual impact. It is also unique from the other houses in the neighborhood and area, but still blends nicely so that if we ever resale we will standout among the homogenous designs most builders put up in our area. So that will payoff later. I have had someone on my hoa with a house significantly bigger than mine rave over the design and wish she could move in. Also he could have...but we chose not to do this... make it so the first floor was the only floor finished so that we could finish the second and basement later without anyone being the wiser. However we lost our minds and now are finishing the whole basement.

A few things to clear up here. Turning off the power to a computer through a surge strip is not a problem. You should of course be shutting down the computer first and I'm guessing that was the assumption being argued. Venting a dryer inside should not be done with gas dryers at any time because of the gas fumes being vented. Electric dryers are fine to vent inside in many cases. Of course it depends on where you live. I can't envision someone in Houston or in the swamps of Florida wanting to vent their dryer inside. However, I live in Minnesota and the humidity is a welcome addition during the cold/dry winter months. In my state many people buy humidifiers to add humidity to the air since dry air can be detrimental to humans, animals, furniture and the structures themselves. A lot of furniture is damaged from dry air; people get nosebleeds from dry air, animals suffer from static issues, and far more. Now I should add that I did not vent inside during the summer. During those months I chose to remove the humidity. Where are you that you had such mold problems? If you're in a warm climate, it's very likely to happen. People seem to forget however, that the cold basement walls in the winter in a northern climate is not very conducive to mold growth. Likely the mold was a summer issue. Leaky basement in the hot summer and never open windows? Prime breeding grounds. And actually, by venting, you'll circulate the air a bit more than without. Especially if you supplement with a fan you can actually decrease your chance of mold in some circumstances. I vented my dryer inside my house for 25 years. I am very sensitive to mold. I sometimes used a fan to circulate the air to even things out a bit in the house. I have had no mold problems from the dryer. There was some mold on some things because of excess rain making it's way into the basement and soaking things in the summertime. Truly folks, this paranoia over mold needs to end. Additionally, venting inside may well shorten your drying time since you should get by with a shorter vent which gives less restriction therefore less lint build up. It's also likely to avoid a couple of pipe bends so the restrictions are lessened even more. I had a sock type filter on the end of one vent and a screen on the other. Simple to clean and the dryer vent stayed much cleaner than when vented outside. People can choose to use a humidifier or they can vent a dryer inside occasionally to regularly depending on the use. Now I suppose I should also clarify that I am not suggesting that the people who feel a need to run a washer and dryer nearly 24/7 should vent it inside all the time. Something that just occurred to me, I was looking at buying some laundromats some years ago and I did a lot of research on the issues of ownership. With dozens of machines in there and the nature of the operation, you would think that mold would be an issue, but I found absolutely nothing mentinoed on this topic. Looking back, I find that very interesting especially considering the number of topload washers used and other issues. Also, I don't use fabric softeners. I don't like them. Therefore I didn't have the issues Grainlady fears. Although I don't claim them to be totally safe since I have no idea, I do see some awfully inflated claims by some of these websites. I don't criticize someone for playing it safe if they so desire, but I still remember what killers eggs, bacon and hamburgers were said to be 20 years ago. Now proven to be pure hysteria. I have far more personal concerns over things like the irradiation of meats. I don't like the idea of it since we haven't seen enough testing to be conclusive. But to each their own.

Hi again folks, When I worked as a personal financial advisor, I talked to clients about "financial freedom" adding to one's peace of mind (in addition to providing the worthwhile liquidity that some envy in others but lack it themselves). The person who is deep in debt, owes on credit cards, and worries when the phone rings as to which creditor is calling, this time ... does not know the peace of mind that comes with financial freedom. The homeless person doesn't, either. When a person has come beyond the age of retirement and lacks enough money to pay for all of needed medications, food, housing and the fuel to keep it comfortable in winter ... which is getting more difficult as some of the basics of life have recent substantial increases in price ... that person lacks the luxury of financial freedom, also. But I also said that I wanted people to boss their money, not having their money bossing them. The people who have adequate resources but squeeze the buffalo on a nickel till it bellers ... aren't making best use of their financial freedom, either. To my mind the rich old guy in the restaurant who made a fuss about refusing to pay because one item on the buffet was lacking was, to my mind, just being boorish. Though I lived on pretty thin income for a number of years during my career, now that I'm near age 80 and don't have to worry about paying for some (of the rather few) things that I want, or about leaving my executors so strapped with regard to my estate that they have to go fishing for extra money to pay for my burial ... that level of financial freedom pleases me. Plus I have some to help pay for my extra care before death, if necessary. If I'm at a party where it's to go on for several hours and they're using styrofoam cups ... for juice now, possibly for water later (and I eschew bottled water, at home) and perhaps for coffee, eventually ... ... I've been known to use my own pen, or hunt up one of theirs, to put my name on my cup in order to use it throughout the period. Not so much for frugal/tight reasons, as for reusing things - reducing our wasteful use of scarce resources, plus making less garbage (and that was true long before I lived within a couple of miles of what used to be a local garbage dump [pardon me - "landfill"] but recently had their licence heavily expanded - then were sold to a major city over a hundred miles away). A city that now trucks their garbage something like 250 miles ... and over an international border. It took millions of years to make the petroleum ... and we've been using it, often wastefully, for the past hundred years - did you hear that: "hundred years" - like it's going out of style. It's not going out of style, in fact, the demand is increasing. Unfortunately - it's availability is decreasing. In addition ... have you heard U.S. folks recently whining about the increase in cost of gas (Canadians, too, but we've been paying some more for some time)? In those threads, we had some Europeans telling how they've been paying $5.00 or so for gas for some time. Have you ever heard the saying that, "Necessity is the mother of invention"? Guess who have been studying, working on, building, evaluating and revamping, various means of production of electricity from renewable resources in recent years. It was the Europeans ... not us North Americans, continuing to walk (no, "drive") along our paths of cheap energy availability. Much less, until recently, concerned to find alternative sources of energy. Additionally - cheap food, which has been our policy for years, is finished. Not only was our food cheaper than in many areas, the fact that our incomes were larger meant also that it consumed a much lower percentage of our total incomes. By the way ... some time ago, on a similar thread, I reported another frugal situation, which someone said that she'd never thought of, but was impressed by. I took some hamburger and peas out of the freezer a while ago ... to let them warm up in the expensively heated air put out by the furnace. I'm cooking a pot of rice ... so took the lid off of the rice cooker and put an aluminum pie plate on there, then put the peas on it, then another aluminum plate with the hamburg on that, with another plate or the pot lid set down on top. Two/three birds - one stone. Good wishes for making good use of a lovely spring weekend - it's snowing, here ... again! ole joyful