The Latest How to Guide

How to Thaw Frozen Pipes

December 28th, 2009 · Home & DIY, Household Tips

How to Thaw a Frozen Pipe

Most houses have some pipes outside, and vulnerable to freezing in cold weather. Fortunately it is fairly easy to thaw a frozen pipe.

When you are looking at how to thaw a frozen pipe, there are several options you can consider. one of these techniques should help you thaw a frozen pipe though!

1) The hairdryer technique. If you can get a hairdryer close enough, slowly moving the hair dryer up and down the exposed area can help to rapidly thaw a frozen pipe.

If you use this method to thaw a frozen pipe try not to overheat the pipe, or heat it to such an extent that pressure builds up inside the pipe. As the pipe begins to thaw, begin to run hot water through the pipe if possible.

2) The warm cloth method is most common for those who cannot get an electrical outlet close by for the hairdryer method. for the warm cloth method take a bundle of cloths and a big bucket of HOT water. Dip the cloths in to the hot water and place over the frozen areas, only for a second or two to begin with, but as the pipe warms, you can hold them over for longer.

Keep placing the cloths with warm ware over the pipe until it defrosts, if possible as the pipe starts to thaw, run ho water through it. Do not pour boiling water over the pipe, it may damage it!

3) Running the water, it may seem obvious but just try pouring some hot water down there, preferably with some salt in it. If there is enough space for water to seep through, keep this up until the blockage is cleared!

I hope one of these methods worked, and that the information on how to thaw frozen pipes was useful to you!

In future try insulating the pipes, or regularly running a small amount of hot salted water through the pipe to prevent a re-occurrence of frozen pipes!

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How to Connect a Light Dimmer Switch

October 10th, 2009 · Electrical, Home & DIY

How to Install a Light Dimmer Switch

A dimmer switch can often be seen as a luxury, or even wastefulness. Though the truth of the matter is a dimmer switch can actually save you money, as well as help set the mood, and always give you the perfect lighting level.

While dimmer switches generally cost a little more than normal light switches, you should soon recoup the cost in energy savings. You may also need to watch out for low cost dimmer switches, which can often be fragile and brittle!

This guide will show you how to install a dimmer switch in your home. Installing a dimmer switch is simple, quick, and easy. Remember to ensure that the electricity is turned off at the circuit breakers before you connect a dimmer switch, as otherwise you will be working with a live current!

So here we go on how to install a light dimmer switch!

1) Shut off the power! This is very important, remember to do this!

2) You will need to remove the current light switch faceplate. All you have to do is unscrew the screws which you can see on the exterior. Save these screws, especially if you did not get any with your new dimmer switch.

3) Remove the light fixtures, you need to do this by removing the two mounting screws holding the light fixture in to the metal wall box.

4) Gently pull away the light switch assembly from the wall, and look for the two electrical wires which are connected to the switch.

5) Remember which of the wires is connected to which terminal, in most cases the wires inside will be black and white.

6) Disconnect the wires from the old light switch and remove it from the wiring post.

7) Attach the wires to the posts on your light dimmer switch, in the same way they were connected to the old light switch. Make sure that the wires are screwed tightly to the connecting posts of the dimmer switch.

Insert the light dimmer switch in to the wall mount, you can use the two mounting screws which you originally took from the old light switch.

9) Remove the dimmer knob from its face plate by pulling straight back, you will need to set this aside for later.

10) Take the faceplate and place it over the metal post for the dimmer knob, secure it with the two screws.

11) Take the dimmer knob and push it firmly on to the metal post, generally there will be a slot or grooved pattern to align the control knob on to.

12) Switch on your circuit breakers and test the dimmer switch, check that it all works correctly, and you are done!

And there you have it, your very own dimmer switch, giving you the perfect mood lighting, cheaper electricity bills, and a certain style tat you will grow to love!

I hope this guide on how to connect a light dimmer switch helped, and with a few more additions you could have dimmer switches throughout your entire house!

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How to Make Vegan Biscuits

October 10th, 2009 · Baking, Cooking & Recipes, Recipes, Vegan

This recipe for vegan biscuits comes from a great selection of Vegan Recipes on the vegan website My Vegan Planet. Nowadays more and more people turning vegan for health, or morale reasons. Either way if you are hosting a party with vegan guests, or are vegan yourself and just want a tasty snack, check out this great guide on how to make vegan biscuits!

This recipe for tasty vegan biscuits will make about a dozen vegan biscuits. If you want more just adjust the amounts to suit your needs! Vegan baking can often be difficult, fortunately this vegan biscuit recipe makes things simple!

First off you will need to preheat your oven to 475 degrees, get a large mixing bowl ready, and grease a tray, or used greased baking paper, so you are ready to go!

To make vegan biscuits you will need:

1 tsp of salt

1/4 cup of vegan margarine or butter

3 tsp of baking powder

2c all purpose flour

3/4 c rice milk

How to Make Vegan Biscuits

1) Cut the vegan margarine or butter in to small pieces.

2) Pour the flour, baking powder, and salt in to your mixing bowl, stir well with a fork to mix it all in.

3) Mix the vegan margarine or vegan butter in to the dry mix, stir it in well!

4) Add the rice milk slowly, keep adding this great vegan alternative until a thick dough forms.

5) Sprinkle some flour on to a surface and roll the dough out untill it is around 3/4 of an inch deep.

6) Cut out your dough in to circles, you can do this with a biscuit cutter, a glass, or even a knife, if you have a steady hand!

7) Put your cut biscuits on to the greased baking tray, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, check regularly and wait for the edges to form a golden brown glaze!

Enjoy your freshly baked vegan biscuits!

If you enjoyed this recipe you can find plenty more vegan recipes on My Vegan Planet!

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How to Treat Swine Flu

August 16th, 2009 · Disease, Health & Medicine

How to Treat Swine Flu

The swine flu epedemic may have been grossly exagerated by the media around the flu, but it is still a dangerous disease. For this reason it is important that you know how to treat swine flu, and recover from this Mexican pandemic.

When you are looking at how to recover from swine flu, you will find that it is very similar to the recovery of normal flu. It is treated by similar methods, and you need to do similar things to prevent swine flu from spreading.

The governmnts in most countries are now offering free, or subsidised Tamiflu prescriptions. Tamiflu is the recomended treatment for swine flu. You should, if possible, send a friend or family member to pick up the medication for swine flu, to prevent the spread of the disease!

While Tamiflu is an effective cure, there are plenty of other things you can do to help you recover from swine flu.

One of the most important things you must learn to know how to recover from swine flu, is to keep a high liquid intake up. Drink lots of water, and soup, to maintain a health balance of liquids in your body.
Stay in bed, this not only helps to keep yopu isolated from other people, but bed rest will help you on the road to recovery!
You may suffer from aches and pains with swine flu, mix Parecetamol with Ibuprofen keep the fever down and pains at bay!
The fever can be a large problem, keep warm, but not too warm. If you start sweating take off any covers or blankets, even if you find it uncomfortable or painful.
If you are suffering from coughs and a sore throat, take throat losenges, and not alcohol based throat medicines. Alcohol may negate the effects of the other medicines you take.

You need to know how to treat swine flu with both these methods, and by using Tamiflu. Remember that recovering from swine flu may take up to a week, and if you do not us Tamiflu, you may still be infectious for up to 5 days after you lost the swine flu symptoms.

Remember that while we can tell you how to treat swine flu, you should always consult a medical professional in any medical matter!

I hope this guide on how to recover from swine flu was helpful!

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How to Play Snooker (UK)

August 10th, 2009 · Snooker & Pool, Sports and Games

Snooker is a game that dates back centuries, the version as we know it though originated back in 1874. The aim of snooker is to gain the most points, the points are earned by potting the balls in a certain order. Lets not get ahead of ourselves though, if you want to know how to play snooker, first you will need to know what you need to play snooker!

First off, a snooker table is a cue sport similair to billiards or pool. Snooker is played on a 12 ft by 6 ft table which is 3.6m by 1.8m. Snooker is played with a cue, a (white) cue ball, 15 red balls and the colored (Coloured since it’s a UK game) snooker balls. While red balls are worth one point per ball, each of the colored balls has a different value assigned to it. The points scores go as follows;

How to Play Snooker - How to Position Snooker Balls

Red – 1 Point
Yellow – 2 Points
Green – 3 Points
Brown – 4 Points
Blue – 5 Points
Pink – 6 Points
Black – 7 Points

These balls must be positioned on to the table as shown in the image on teh right.

So how exactly do you play snooker?

Snooker is more than spots and stripes, the basic rules are however very simple.

You may keep going until you do not pot a ball,each play of this kind is called a ‘break’
You must pot a red before you can pot a color, if you pot a color after a red, you must pot another red before you can pot another color.
You can pot the colors in any order, you should aim for the highest points.
After each color is potted it is replaced on the table, until all the reds have been potted.
Once all the reds have been potted, then you have to pot teh colors in order, from lowest first!
If you commit a foul you will lose points.

The points you lose on fouls in snooker can be caused under several circumstances. The minimum you can lose is 4 points, however you can lose more if you pot a ball of a higher value (You will lose the value of the ball). To summarise

White Ball Pot = 4 Point Penalty
60 second timelimit exceeded = 4 Point Penalty
If the white hits the wrong ball = Value of the ball
If the wrong ball is potted first, then the value of this ball.

Unlike snooker, after a foul has been committed, the opposing player can play the ball where it is, or pass the shot and let the offending player take the shot again. This is to prevent ‘tap shots’ whena player is snookered

And there you have it, the basics on how to play snooker!

I feel as if I should warn you however, learning how to play snooker is not as easy as learning the rules. Snooker is an incrediblely difficult sport to become good at, and while many people spend years playing, they fail how to learn snooker!

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Tips on How To Get Out of Debt

August 6th, 2009 · Get Out of Debt, Money & Finance

Tips on How to Get Out of Debt

It’s never good when you get stuck in debt, fortunately there are plenty of things we can show you on how to get out of debt. Being in debt can be an oppressing feeling, knowing you cannot afford the things you want is never a good feeling. With high interest rates you may see your debts spiralling out of control with alarming regularity.

Despite the current economic climate, there are plenty of ways to bring yourself out of debt. You can control this in many ways, whether you try to gain further income, or reduce you control of the money you have.

The first way to solve issues with money problems, is to increase your income. You can do this by taking up a part time job, or writing about things you know on websites such as Hubpages. Sites such as Hubpages are a great way to earn a little bit of extra cash by putting in a few hours work a week.

Increasing your income is the best possible way of reducing your debts, more money = less debt. Increasing your income is however useless, unless you learn to control your outgoings.

To control your outgoings you need to consider several steps, each of these will help you reduce outgoings, save money and show you how to get out of debt!

Step One) Write down what you spend, you would be surprised how the little things add up, creating lists will show you how you are spending your hard earned cash!

Step Two) If you have heavy debts consider taking out a low interest loan to cover them all. This can greatly reduce your interest payments, helping you get out of debt quickly.

Step Three) Coupons, coupons, coupons. They may seem tacky, and you would not want to take them out on a date, but coupons can save you a large amount of cash when you add them up,

Step Four) Comparison shop – spend the time getting the best deals, online comparison engines can help you find the best dealers on cell phones, electricity, and gas bills.

Step Five) Pay off the highest interest debts first. When you have paid off this debt, remember to take the money you save on interest to pay off your remaining debts more quickly.

Step 6) Search for interest free deals, credit cards still occasionally do these despite the economic struggle, and these can help you make zero interest purchases while you use cash to pay off the interest

Follow these steps, and you may be able to erase your debt with this how to become debt free guide showing you how to get out of debt!

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How to Recover From Jet Lag

August 6th, 2009 · Health & Medicine, Holiday & Travel, Travel Advice

When you are finding out how to treat jet lag you have to consider several factors. The most important part of how to recover from jet lag is to adjust to your new time zone.

When you are recovering from jet lag you have to look at several factors to recover as quickly as possible. Since jet lag can severely affect a trip or holiday, leaving you sleepy and disorientated for up to a month, helping your body recover from jet lag is hugely important for any trip you decide to make.

So here are some steps to show you how to recover from jet lag!

1) When treating jet lag, the first thing to do is to reset your watch to local time. This may seem obvious, but resetting your watch will let you adjust to local time, and help you recover from jet lag much more quickly.

2) Eat a protein filled breakfast, and plenty of nuts or seeds for energy. These will help to keep you awake until the local time for sleep.

3) Spend your time in natural sunlight, let your body know what the time is by exposing it to sunlight.

4) Get some exercise, even if it is just walking outside for a while every few hours.

5) If you really need sleep take a nap for an hour, no more, and do not nap after 2pm.

6) Go to bed at a reasonable time, around 9pm is usually the best.

7) If you have trouble sleeping melatonin, lavender oil and chamomile tea can help.

Do not oversleep, wake up no later than 8am, and do something active as soon as you get up.

Follow all these tips on how to recover from jet lag, and you should be back to normal in no time, wherever in the world you travel to.

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How to Keep Your Laptop Cool

August 5th, 2009 · Computers, Laptops, Maintenance

How to Cool Overheating Laptop

Thousands of people go out and buy the latest high tech laptops only to find that after six months they begin to suffer speed degradation, errors, and even a broken laptop. It does not take much to notice that laptops with high speed components become incredibly hot within minutes of start up. This heat can cause huge problems with your laptop, and this is why it is important for you to know how to keep your laptop cool.

When you need to prevent your laptop from overheating there are two simple things you should consider. Both of these will cool your laptop to some extent, but one is far more effective than the other. Of course if your laptop is suffering from extreme overheating, take it to a laptop repair shop, or the dealer if still under warranty.

How To Cool a Laptop

Step One

An easy way to gain a temporarily cooler laptop is to use a can of compressed air to clean out the insides of your laptop. Doing this will dislodge dirt which can clog up fans and heat sinks inside your laptop.

While this is only a temporary solution, it can be highly effective, as laptop overheating is often caused by clogged heat sinks, which can no longer radiate heat in to your laptop airflow as efficiently as expected.

Step Two

Purchasing a laptop cooler can be a great way to keep your laptop cool. By using a laptop cooler you will massively reduce the amount of heat your laptop produces, preventing component damage and loss of data. There is a fantastic list of the Top Ten Laptop Coolers Here, all of which can help you keep your laptop cool for less than $60.

Laptop coolers generally range in price according to their effectiveness. You can get a simple laptop cooler for $10. However if you are suffering from major laptop heat problems you may have to invest between $40 and $70 to get a significant drop in laptop temperature. Laptop coolers are generally lightweight and portable, they will work on USB power, so there are no problems when you are on the move, and since they are solid metal, they are sturdy.

The problem with using your laptop cooler on the move is that since they are USB powered, you may notice a faster drop in your laptops battery. Compare this to the inconvenience of losing all your data however, and you should have a clear winner.

How to Keep Your Laptop Cool Conclusion

All in all I hope you found this article on how to keep your laptop cool useful. Laptop coolers are generally the best way to prevent heat damage to your laptop, though they do reduce the portability. Using air cleaners can be a good temporary measure, but remember that it will only be temporary, and will not do much good if an internal fan has failed!

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How to Grow Tomato Plants in a Container

August 5th, 2009 · Fruit, Gardening, Grow Your Own, Indoor Gardening

How to Grow Tomato Plants in a Container

Tomatoes are by far the worlds most versatile, and tasty, fruit. When you are looking in to how to grow tomatoes in a container it may seem difficult. But remember you will be able to eat your fresh fruit off the vine every day!

Growing Tomatoes in a container comes with some problems that you would not encounter when you plant a tomato plant in a grow bag. These include re-planting, more regular watering, and nutritional problems.

For this reason it is incredibly important to know how to plant tomato plants in a container, and which varieties of tomato seeds to use.

The choice of tomato variety is integral when planting tomatoes, since some do not grow well in containers. You can also choose different kinds of tomatoes depending on what you want them for. You can get large beefsteak tomatoes, smaller salad tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes, which are great for a snack!

There are thousands of varieties of each type of tomato, my favorite is the sun gold cherry tomato, which is sweet as candy! Cherry Tomatoes are also the most suitable type of tomato plant to grow in a container.

How to Grow Tomato Plants in a Container

1) Buy your tomato seeds, Cherry tomatoes are best for growing in a container, and are well suited for indoors as well as in a greenhouse, or outdoors in summer.

2) Fill your tomato plant container with soil and mix in some fertilizer thoroughly.

3) Plant the seeds according to the packet instructions, some require deeper planting than others. For the most part they will need to be planted around 1cm to 2cm below the soil surface.

4) Water the plants, you may also want to look in to nutrient supplements to keep up the levels of minerals in the soil, this will give you the perfect tomato plants. Be very careful not to over-water tomato plants, while they do require a lot of water, too much can cause fungus or root rot, which will kill off your plants.

5) Pay close attention to your plant, wilted leaves need more moisture, but the drainage tray below you tomato plant container should never have water in it, if you do find water in this tray empty it out and replace, repeat this until dry.

5) Wait for your plants to germinate and grow, then pick off your perfect ripe tomato fruits!

And there you have it, the guide to growing tomato plants in a container! Follow these simple steps and you will soon be reaping your first harvest of tomatoes from your plant pot container tomato plant!

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How to Boil an Egg

August 5th, 2009 · Cooking, Food & Drink

How to Boil an Egg

Boiling an egg may seem like a simple thing, but many people have never actually done it!

Fortunately we are here to tell you how to boil an egg!

First off, you must fill the pan with water till it is around 1 inch higher than an egg.

Put your eggs then bring to the boil. Once the water is boiling, lower the heat to allow the eggs to simmer.

If you like your eggs soft boiled, leave the eggs in for 2 to 3 minutes.

If you like hard boiled eggs then you need to leave the eggs to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. This will give the egg a firm inside for those of you who don’t like the soft yolk!

Remove the egg and allow to cool for a minute or two before serving!

And there you have it, you have learnt how to boil an egg with our how to boil an egg guide!

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How to Thaw Frozen Pipes

December 28th, 2009 · Home & DIY, Household Tips

How to Connect a Light Dimmer Switch

October 10th, 2009 · Electrical, Home & DIY

How to Make Vegan Biscuits

October 10th, 2009 · Baking, Cooking & Recipes, Recipes, Vegan

How to Treat Swine Flu

August 16th, 2009 · Disease, Health & Medicine

How to Play Snooker (UK)

August 10th, 2009 · Snooker & Pool, Sports and Games

Tips on How To Get Out of Debt

August 6th, 2009 · Get Out of Debt, Money & Finance

How to Recover From Jet Lag

August 6th, 2009 · Health & Medicine, Holiday & Travel, Travel Advice

How to Keep Your Laptop Cool

August 5th, 2009 · Computers, Laptops, Maintenance

How to Grow Tomato Plants in a Container

August 5th, 2009 · Fruit, Gardening, Grow Your Own, Indoor Gardening

How to Boil an Egg

August 5th, 2009 · Cooking, Food & Drink

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