">HomeOwnerNut

When I lived in Sacramento, my apartment was on the third floor and I could smell the cigarette smoke wafting up from the residents below. My pal Mark hooked me up with an air hustler. An air hustler sells high-end purifiers and calls you day and night until you agree to buy one. Then he tries to sell you an upgrade model.

But the purifier did the job nicely, and it was worth trading the cigarette nuisance for the hustler nuisance. If your home smells, you may not know it. We all get used to our environment. Last year I lived on a horse ranch and after a fashion, the brown plops on my property began to smell like nature.

You can spend your inheritance on air cleaners, or just a few dollars. Today I use a machine that produces negative ions, said to boost your sense of well-being.  I love a sense of well-being, don’t you?

The Grill Meister Cure

The peeps at Apartment Therapy suggest setting out barbecue briquettes to remove unpleasant smells from a musty apartment. They absorb moisture, too. But don’t buy the quick-light ones or mesquite charcoal or your house will smell like a rib joint in Kansas City.

Send in the Troops

Catch colds easily? Try this Lennox germicidal lamp, said by the manufacturer to overwhelm nasty bacteria and mold spores, cutting biocontaminants by half in as little as 45 minutes.

The Liberace Treatment

A favorite among dormitory herbivores and millions of home-makers, the scented candle can quickly confuse visitors’ olfactory cells into convincing the brain that they’re on a wind-swept trail in the Himalayas. I once found a candle in a designer shop that smelled like freshly baked bread.

Ionic Column

Did you know that negative ions increase the flow of oxygen to the brain? So says WebMD ion authority Pierce J. Howard, PhD.  If you sit long in front of a positive ion generator (TV or computer monitor), you may want to play for a draw by putting a negative ion generator in the room. Oxygen, good!

The Old Favorite

Kills germs, repels blood-sucking vermin, and makes for an outstanding shrimp stir-fry.

Like them or not, the Light Emitting Diode (LED) may eventually become the common currency in home lighting.  In an LED unit, a semiconductor converts electricity into 20 lumens per watt (LPW) of light. By contrast, incandescent bulbs fire up 15 LPW.

The newer EnergyStar compact fluorescent bulbs you find in the supermarket kick out up to 60 LPW.  While the new LED lights do a better job of focusing the beam of light where you want it than the other models of lighting, they’re still too pricey for many consumers.

But, you can certainly be creative with them!

Man, It’s Bright

The spacewalker lamp certainly lit up the bloggers at Tree Hugger, who claim that LEDs are “mainstream and commodified” now.

Swimmingly Cool

When you coat LEDs with phosphor, you can make them glow in any number of colors. By adjusting the wavelengths, you alter the colors.

The Age of Aquariums

According to the folks at Cool Gadgets, you can adjust the lighting schedule of the LEDs in this BiOrb Life Aquarium to mimic the cycles of the sun. Get it on sale while it lasts, at $295.00.

Diner Chic

The varieties of fixtures you can power with LEDs is near endless.  This retro set looks straight out of American Graffiti.  Satisfy your growing interest in LEDs at Toolbox. Solid-state LED lighting can convert 80 percent of the electricity used to power it, while conventional bulbs merely convert 10 percent. Waste not, want not.

Forked Lighting

If this Roy Perdana LED creation doesn’t give you a charge, you’re not paying attention.  The reclaimed coffee-wood tree plays host to a string of crystal-shaped LEDs.

You know you gotta have one.