Sunday, April 20, 2008

Belkin SurgeMaster

I use this Belkin SurgeMaster as power extension to connect my PC and its peripherals. It cost higher than ordinary power extension, because it comes with superior surge and lightning protection function.



In addition to the MS188 Power Saver which can provide minimal protection against power surges for up to 400 volts only, this Belkin SurgeMaster is able to provide surge protection of up to 6,000 volts and maximum spike of 19,500 Amperes. It comes with a lifetime Product Warranty, and also a £50,000 connected equipment insurance.

Beside providing surge and lightning protection to the equipments connected to its 4 power sockets, it also safeguard my ADSL modem with its surge protected telephone jacks. It has a green LED to indicate whether its surge protection is functioning properly, and another yellow LED to indicate if the electrical circuit is earthed properly.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The 3 burner hob

This is the 3 burner hob in my kitchen. If you believe in Feng Shui, you will know that 1 or 3 burners is better than 2 or 4.



This hob makes use of a 9V battery underneath for ignition, which is pretty handy. If you plan to install built-in hob like this, you should plan for air ventilation underneath it, to provide better burner combustion and to dissipate the heat underneath the hob. In fact, the traditional type of hob with stand that can directly put on top of the stove, is better than built-in type in terms of providing air ventilation during cooking.

You should connect the hob with the gas tank using good quality pipe and regulator with safety feature that can prevent gas leakage. The hob burners should also have safety feature to shut off the gas supply in case the fire on it was accidentally put off.

Cooker hood on top of the hob

This is the Pacific Magic AutoClean AC-9800 cooker hood in my kitchen, with autoclean feature and air suction power of up to 1440 metre cube per hour.



It is advisible for Asian family to use Asian made cooker hood, which normally designed to have higher air suction power than the European or American made. This is because Asian way of cooking can produce much more smokes than Western style. You have the option to choose among the brands of Taiwan, China or Japan made, such as Pacific, Fotile, Rinnai, etc. The chosen hood should have exhaust airflow of 950 metre cube per hour and above.

Hood with automatic self-cleaning system is handy and good for lazy people like us. Noise level during operation is also an important consideration.

When you renovate your kitchen before moving in, you should plan for the exact location of your hood and hob. The cooker hood requires one power point to operate, and exhaust pipe connected to the top of the hood to suck away the cooking smokes.

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