H1N1, Not In My House

You have undoubtedly been overwhelmed through the press and media about the novel H1N1 (swine flu) virus to the point of almost pulling your hair out, so I won't go in to details about the ins-and-outs of the virus. Suffice it to say that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has compiled all the necessary information you'd need to learn about the virus, and they're constantly updating and providing you with the latest info.

With the cooler months approaching throughout most of the United States, seasonal influenza in general becomes a heightened concern and it seems we all rush out of our way to get our vaccines, visit our doctor, wash our hands more often and avoid the contagious bugger at all costs. H1N1 is now on the list for 2009 of yucky viruses we don't want, and we'll all be a bit more cautious to stay out of its path.

One important aspect of the virus, yet so often neglected, is the simple fact that the influenza & H1N1 virus can spread so easily through our homes and directly into our body, just by breathing. Think about it. The virus can enter your home through a countless number of ways and all that has to happen for the virus to spread is for your heating or air conditioning to kick on. These systems are designed to draw air from one area, cool or heat the air, then displace the air into the rooms again. What's to stop the system from spreading the virus along with it? There's no "big bad wolf" waiting in your furnace to gobble up the swine flu, so who's going to do the job?

A Second Wind air purifier from ComfortGurus.com can do the job. Second Wind manufactures photo-catalytic, UV germicidal air purifiers that integrate seamlessly into your existing heating & air conditioning system. Second Wind uses a patented process of photo-catalytic oxidation (PCO) and UV germicidal light. This process renders the virus or bacteria unable to reproduce. Second Wind units are specifically designed to give the maximum UV radiation dosage to completely alter the DNA/RNA of viruses of this type. Did you know technology like this even existed... pretty neat huh?

Through various tests by universities and other independent research & development groups, Second Wind can proudly state that, "Second Wind Air Purifier will destroy Type A Influenza including the Swine Flu (H1N1)." Second Wind units have a class II medical device (#k980745) status, registered with the EPA as a pesticidal device (#73112). Second Wind has done extensive independent testing on various similar agents and all testing has shown a dramatic reduction of the levels of the agents. Second Wind UV units produce the highest UV intensity on the market today. Their models 1910, 1930, 2000 Series, 3000 Series, 5000 Series, 9000 Series, 8000PFP and 7500PFP will produce the desired results in residential and commercial HVAC systems.

You would think that these "DNA Altering" pieces of equipment would be astronomical in price, but they're not, not even close. Try a couple hundred dollars. That's pocket change when you think about the doctor bills you could accumulate with a family sick with the flu this season. For further information, we have provided these links below to help you get started towards cleaner, healthier air inside your home, as well as educate you on the facts, testing and reliability of Second Wind products for your home:

:: Second Wind products for sale on ComfortGurus.com
:: Second Wind official press release regarding H1N1 (requires Adobe Reader)
:: Second Wind official homepage (includes all the tests if you want to see them)
:: CDC official H1N1 information page

Additional Images:

Radon, Go Away. Please.

Ok, so what is Radon exactly? Could it be the name of the next Marvel Comics villain? Oh no... certainly not, although maybe I should submit the name to their writers after writing this article. Radon is odorless, tasteless and deadly, that's right, deadly. Without proper testing equipment, Radon is completely undetectable - talk about superhero powers! To boot, Radon could be all around you, right now, as you sit and read this blog. Radon is such a serious subject that I even had to call on the Environmental Protection Agency just to walk me through this.

I'll bet you want to know what Radon is now, right?

I'm going to give you the scoop on Radon, directly from the EPA, but I don't want you to take off running in fear & go hide under your bed - Radon can be conquered, even if it possesses all those superpowers. The EPA defines Radon as the following:

"Radon is a cancer-causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste. Its presence in your home can pose a danger to your family's health. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America and claims about 20,000 lives annually. Learn how you can protect your family. Test Your Home for Radon — it's easy and inexpensive. Fix your home if you have a radon level of 4 pCi/L or more."

Wow, isn't that just crazy? The second leading cause of lung cancer! Radon is a gas, that is more likely than not, in your home, coming from the ground below you, and could kill you. I could spend hours elaborating on the scientific explanations, health risks and properties of Radon, but I'm not posting this blog for that reason. If you want to learn more about Radon in its entirety, Google it, or visit the Environmental Protection Agency's website, you can learn everything about it there.

I'm posting this blog to let you know that ComfortGurus.com carries Radon Mitigation Fans, or in other words, fans that pull the Radon from the ground below your house and exhaust the gas outside. As the EPA & Surgeon General suggests, test your house, then take action. Make sure your contractor uses qualified Radon mitigation fans, such as the ones built by Fantech. Get rid of Radon, it's not your friend. Fall, Winter & Spring are the best time to test, since your windows are closed more often, so now is the time to make your move.

We have posted a video on YouTube, courtesy of the EPA, which explains the dangers of Radon in further detail:

We've Joined LiveJournal!

Goodness gracious, how many social networking websites are out there... cause we're gonna join every single one of 'em! You can now find our posts, website specials & special offerings through the fun & popular, LiveJournal.com:

http://comfortgurus.livejournal.com

Enjoy!

Return the Favor to Your Cooler

Throughout the Summer, your evaporative cooler has been your best friend, cooling your home and providing relief from the scorching temps through the season. Now that the cooler air is quickly approaching, you'll be pulling the plug on your equipment and giving it a rest.

However, rest doesn't come easy to the cooler. The cooler has to deal with water, rust, corrosion, mildew, snow, strong winds and dirt clods thrown by your kids until the next time you fire it up! All this abuse can take quite a toll on the cooler and drastically decrease its life span. One of the best solutions, and nicest things you can do to your swamp, is to use a durable, canvas cooler cover.

ComfortGurus.com now sells canvas covers for your little friend at unbelievable prices. Available in many stock sizes and every imaginable special order size, cruise on over to our site and get your cooler a present it'll never forget.

Go Green, Use Solar Power

The first word I uttered as a little tike wasn't "momma" or "dadda"... it was "free". I learned at a very young age that I could get almost anything I wanted and I didn't have to pay anything! Bottles, food, diaper changes, toys, trips around the house, all my needs & wants were met and they were absolutely free! I lived like a king.

Somewhere along the way though, the word free was stripped from my vocabulary and got lost in the chaos of the world. Now the word "free" shows up, acting all cool, but hiding something within. It seems like there's always a catch hidden in the fine print my ever-aging eyes seem to clumsily overlook. Free isn't the free I remember as a little rascal and I want it back.

Take electricity for example. Oh how wonderful it would be if electricity were free. We use so much electricity and our lives literally revolve around it, but it comes at a price. That electric bill inevitably arrives each month and we pay for all those lights we left on, movies we watched, meals we microwaved and all the AC our air conditioner pumped into our house. Unbeknownst to most of us however, is a great big fire ball over our heads that generates more than 10,000 times the amount of energy the entire world consumes annually. Besides dishing out some nasty burns by staying out in it too long, the sun has something to give us, and it is absolutely free, and that something is energy... lots of it.

Companies like Air Vent have learned how to tap in to this enormous amount of energy and make some serious use of it. They have developed power attic vents that help draw out the hot air in your attic, all done by a 24-volt DC motor that is powered completely by the sun. No wires to run, no increase in your electric bill. They understand, just as I did as a kid, that "free" still exists and we can get our hands on some pretty good deals if we just look.

If you're interested in power attic vents for your home, you like using free energy from the sun and you're searching for a greener life all around, put an Air Vent SolarCool Power Attic Vent on your house and start reaping the benefits.

Thanks Air Vent, free does still exist!

Consider it Your Dryer's Sidekick

What do Don Quixote, the Lone Ranger and Garfield all have in common? Well, besides being good old-fashioned, quality entertainment that I watched with my Dad growing up, there's a recurring, indistinguishable element in the three - they each had a sidekick. You can't read or watch them without Sancho, Tanto or Odie takin' a punch, saving the day or supplying their audience with a bit of dull-witted humor alongside their pal. This lasting friendship and camaraderie instills in our minds that by working together, almost anything is possible.

The last place you would look to find this inseparable bond would be throughout the appliances in your home (stay with me here, I know it's a bit of a stretch). I mean, how in the world could the same principle apply? In our minds, our fridge, toaster, furnace, they don't need anything else. They're designed & engineered to simply do a job around the house, making our lives easier. But, just as our trusty companions have proven to us through the years, everyone (or everything) could use a sidekick to help make the job easier, faster and bit more fun along the way.

Consider your dryer for a moment. It works its tail off all day, spinning around, heating up and exhausting the hot air outside just so we can have dry, clean clothes. Most of us wouldn't even consider that the dryer might be having a tough time exhausting the air to the outside, making the clothes take longer to dry and overworking the dryer's components. It happens more often than you think. Even if your dryer has to push the hot air a short 15 feet to get it outside, your dryer probably isn't operating as efficiently as it could. Not to mention, an overworked dryer means handing over your wallet to costly repairs and Tylenol for the headaches. Just like Garfield, your dryer needs a faithful amigo like Odie so it can shrug off some of the work and go to bed earlier.

Referred to as the "silent partner" to your dryer, Fantech's dryer boosting fans step in to the scene to give your overworked dryer that extra boost - a sidekick if you will. Installed inline with the dryer duct, a dryer booster gives the air, moisture & lint that extra kick to move things along and get the job done. As soon as the booster senses that the dryer has kicked on, it too joins in the fight, turns on and makes the whole process move along smoothly.

So while I go finish watching Man of La Mancha with my Dad, take a moment to browse ComfortGurus.com and learn more about your dryer's sidekick and essential companion, the Fantech dryer booster.

Also, below is a brochure that explains Fantech's dryer boosters in complete detail:

When Allergies & Cats Collide

When your new love is allergic to cats: How to keep them both happy | Click below to read the article. Written by Amanda Forbes at Examiner.com

Read Article - When your new love is allergic to cats: How to keep them both happy

Offers some great insight on how you and your partner can deal with pet dander in the home by investing in better air filtration products, such as HEPA filters & other air filtration methods.

Browse our selection of air filtration products at ComfortGurus.com

(Posted using ShareThis)

A Breath of Fresh Air

That's exactly what I needed last night, a breath of fresh air. I shot this picture last night as the sun was setting in Salt Lake City. You might look at the pic and say, "Ooh, that's a pretty shot", but it was hard for me to even breathe and get a steady shot off. Lightning storms, high winds & hot temps throughout the state of Utah yesterday conjured up the perfect recipe for dust and wildfires. The sky was blanketed in a fog of dust & smoke, creating picturesque photo moments of the sun, but terribly unhealthy air to breathe. Making my way back in to my house offered no help to my poor lungs. Living in a home cooled by an evaporative cooler meant that wonderful aroma from the outside would quickly be sucked in through the cooler and right in to the house. No filtering, no odor-elimination, just straight up samplings of the fire burning miles away.

There was nothing I could do... I was doomed. All those airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases, taking over me and my house, what should I do! Ok, I'm slightly exaggerating. So maybe it wasn't that bad, but I couldn't help but think about the air I was breathing; heck, about the air the whole city was breathing. I got to work today and thought about it some more, only to arrive at the realization that the place I work offers countless solutions that could have helped me last night during my body's desperate yearning for clean air.

My house could have an air filtering system of some sort, whether through pleated filters, UV air cleaners, or just some cheap throw-away filter slapped on the face of the swamp cooler. But, the truth is... I've just been too lazy to get it done and my inert attention to the matter over the years is probably hurting me and my family.

So, here's my advice. Don't be like me. I mean, my name is Mike, but in this case, I don't want you to "be like Mike." Get on the computer, (well that's done cause you're reading this) go to our website and take a look at our indoor air quality solutions. Filters, UV air purifiers, whatever. Just take action and clean up the air inside your home.

Your lungs will thank you for it.

Spiral Pipe Diffusers

If you need a spiral diffuser... we've got it! We're excited to announce that we've just added the RS Series Shoemaker soft white finish diffusers along with some slick-looking, galvanized diffusers - all in the most popular sizes.

These diffusers are built by our good buddies over at Shoemaker Manufacturing, who've been around for over 60 years. So when you buy these diffusers, rest assured that you're buying a long-lasting, quality product. These guys know what they're doing!

Watch the site as we continue to add more products!

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We've made it easier than ever to show off all our new products, killer deals and other information by using our blog! Check out the bottom-left corner of our website to see our blog, which we'll be updating regularly!