Stop Your Curtains Getting Damp and Mouldy
It’s time to bid farewell to summer for another year and start facing the reality that soon it’s going to be cold and damp for a while. As we enter those colder months and condensation appears on the windows, we thought it was a good time to share some tips on preventing mould and mildew growing on your curtains.
What makes mould and mildew grow?
Interestingly, it’s not directly the condensation on your windows that causes mould and mildew because most curtains don’t come into contact with it. Mould and mildew grow when there’s moisture and warmth in the home, which condensation does contribute to.
Just like everything absorbent in your home, as temperatures go up the moisture in the air evaporates and is absorbed into the fabric. As they cool, the moisture changes back from its gaseous state to being closer to its liquid form. In absorbing this moisture, they also take in any bacteria it holds. Repeated over time, this is what causes the nasty growths.
The difference between mould and mildew
Mould is a broad term that encompasses multiple identical nuclei and can grow beneath and penetrate the surface of affected material. Mildew is a type of mould that grows on the surface and can therefore be much more easily treated/removed. When its live, moulds are orangey or reddish in colour. The black patches we see are actually the hibernating mould spores waiting for the sun to warm them up and bring them back to life.
Where does all this moisture come from?
We live in a pretty humid climate in New Zealand at the best of times; in some areas it’s even greater. But it’s not all weather related. Cooking, showering, drying clothes, unflued gas heaters and simply breathing and existing all produce moisture content within our homes.
Preventing moisture build up and/or drying out your home
- Install a home ventilation system of some kind.
- Crack the windows a little during the day to allow a bit of cool air to flow through your home. North facing windows are best....
Keep reading: www.curtainclean.co.nz...
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SLASH BESIDE THE TRACK UP TO TRIG
I question the wisdom and the morality of an industry which creates so much waste, waste which is also a cause of widespread and devastating damage. So, I searched the internet for potential uses of slash. It was easy to find.
I recommend a visit to nzbioforestry.co.nz. I quote from the website:
OUR SOLUTION:
NZ Bio Forestry proposes to develop a sustainable renewable forestry model that increases the economic value of the NZ- Aotearoa forestry sector, simply by integrating bio-technologies augmenting the forestry, wood manufacturing, and petrochemistry industries into one model.
Specifically, our strategy is to utilise the whole tree and convert the tree’s sugars into bioenergy, biomaterials, and biochemicals. This means using slash, off cuts, pruning, and wood waste to produce biofuel via bio pellets and biochemicals. It means optimising logs through the whole process….logging, manufacturing freighting, and refining process to serve the many Asia-Pacific markets with high-value products….not just exporting raw logs to one or two large dominant markets! (End of quote)
NZ Bio Forestry then contrasts the financial return from the present exports of raw logs with the potential return from utilising the WHOLE TREE.
In US dollars, the return from exporting logs is between $50 - $140 per log.
Using the whole tree including the slash and other waste for wood processing would return $200 - $800 per tree, and,
Using the bio-refinery process to convert the wood waste into fossil-free biochemicals would return $2,500 - $11,200 per tree.
I can’t help but conclude that our current focus on exporting logs is a pitiful failure of industry and government policy compared with the potential benefits of processing THE WHOLE TREE. And to complete the argument, this not just theory. In Scandinavia, SCA, which owns Europe’s largest private forest with 2.7 million hectares, has built a well-invested value chain that maximises the value of each individual tree and all of the forestry’s resources.
A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS:
Wood Pellets and Chips: Slash can be collected, dried, and processed into hog fuel or wood pellets for use in industrial boilers, as a replacement for coal, to generate heat and electricity.
Biofuel Production: Research is underway to convert forest residues into marine biofuel to help decarbonize the shipping sector.
Gasification: Advanced, small-scale, on-site processing plants can turn slash into renewable energy products like bio-oil, ethanol, and hydrogen.
Biochemicals: Specialized refineries can convert woody waste into sustainable alternatives to plastics, chemicals, and industrial products.
WAKE UP Aotearoa, New Zealand!!!
🧩😏 Riddle me this, Neighbours…
I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
Do you think you know the answer?
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