How to Automate a Haunted House Using Sensors

You've built a creepy haunted house and it's the scariest one around. How do you take it to the next level? Automate it using non-contact infrared photoelectric sensors to control electronic scare devices.

Haunted houses are designed to be very creepy and with enough volunteers, they may be loaded with frights around every corner. What if there are not enough volunteers available to haunt the house? Infrared photoelectric sensors are the perfect device to detect guests and to trigger electronic gadgets, such as noise makers or motorized animatronic characters, giving visitors a scare they won't soon forget.

Sensors are used every day in various industries ranging from food processing to automotive assembly lines. Some of the top commercial haunted houses in the country are now using the very same sensors to automate their haunted attractions, providing a far creepier presentation. Industrial sensors are available to the general public for less money than you might expect, giving the average Joe an opportunity to built a haunted house that rivals even the ones presented by major theme parks.

The easiest type of photoelectric sensor to use in a haunted house attraction is one that uses a mechanical relay switch. This type of sensor is as easy to wire and operate as a light switch. Also be sure that the photoelectric sensors use infrared light and do not display a visible light which would draw attention to them. Arrange the photoelectric sensors across from each other in a hallway or door jamb, or anywhere that a guest will pass between them. The guest will break the infrared beam of light, causing the mechanical relay switch in the photoelectric controller to close, which will provide power to a noise maker or animatronic device. Each time a guest passes the sensors, the same action will occur repeatedly without operator intervention. This allows volunteers in the haunted house to spend time mingling with the guests and not hiding behind walls, just making noise.

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Telecommuting: Bringing the Work Back Home

The Industrial Revolution brought people out of cottage industries and into the public workplace. Years of long commutes back and forth to work and the stresses of dealing with heavy traffic and with strange office politics have left much of the workforce in search of a well-deserved break. Many people have discovered a path back to their cottages. They are the telecommuters.

In recent history, technology has opened a door of opportunity to employees that allows them to work from home. These employees are evolving into telecommuters. Modern communications technology and a drastic improvement in computer capabilities now allow workers to perform their jobs from home instead of requiring them to commute to and from the workplace.  In years past, if someone wasn't working from home, it meant that they didn't have a home and they were typically labeled a nomad. As time went by and people began congregating in centralized locations to perform their work duties, the idea of working from home became synonymous with being a nomad. It was even rumored that a person working from their home would likely wander from job to job. In present times, it seems that history is repeating itself and workers are making their way back home. (Whitford, 44)

A telecommuter, or "distance worker", as they are often called, is an employee who opens a channel between their place of work and their home to conduct business away from the office. (Wiscombe, 18) This channel may be a telephone line with a modem, a cable line with a broadband modem, or even a T1 line. Using this channel, an employee gains access to files on their computer and other company resources including, but not limited to, internal company servers and mainframes. Some businesses even offer a connection to their servers through a secure website on the Internet. There are many other contributors to the increase in telecommuting. Rick Howell, the vice president of human resources for The Heathman Group, a Portland Oregon based chain of hotels and restaurants, says, "The Internet has certainly helped speed things along, but there are many other forces driving the trend toward telecommuting. Email is a big factor and cell phones, laptops, fax machines, and wide area networks play a big part, too." (Whitford, 44)

How to Secure Your Home While Away on Summer Vacation

Summer is the perfect time to go away for a relaxing vacation. An unguarded home, however, is a perfect target for thieves. Take a few precautions before you leave for vacation to provide you peace of mind and true relaxation.

Secure your important information. Purchase a removable or external hard disk drive for your computer. Save all important files and financial records on this hard disk drive only and not on your primary hard drive. This portable drive should be removed from your home when you are away for extended periods and may be stored in a safe deposit box. All important hard copies of deeds, licenses, birth certificates, social security cards, unused credit cards, etc. should be kept secure in an off-site safe deposit box as well.

Secure the perimeter of your home. If you have a sliding glass door, place a broom handle or stick in the track of the door to prevent it from being opened. The latch on a sliding glass door is very easy to bypass. Drill holes in the upper right or left corner of all lower panes of your wooden windows and insert a long nail, which will make opening the window difficult from outside the home.

Ask a friend or trusted neighbor to collect your mail each day while you are away. Ask them to also walk around your home and look for anything strange. If possible, leave at least one car parked in your driveway and leave a few lights on inside the home. Purchase several timers and set them to turn on at dusk and turn off around the time you would normally go to bed. If a thief is watching your house, this may fool them into believing that someone is home.

Perform a walkthrough of your entire home and film everything using a video camera. Store the tape along with all other important items in your safe deposit box. This evidence will be useful to provide to the police and your insurance company if someone does manage to break in and steal or damage items in your home.

Inspect both the inside and outside of your home one last time before you leave. Unplug any dangerous or energy inefficient appliances and raise the temperature slightly on the thermostat. Check that your oven is turned off. Close all blinds or curtains, making it difficult to see into the home from outside. Make sure all exterior doors are locked and place padlocks on all gates, storage buildings, and crawlspace doors.


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How to Prepare Your Home for Overnight Visitors

Your home is your comfort zone; a place where you can unwind at the end of a long day, but is your home ready to accept overnight visitors? Follow these easy steps and be prepared for them.

Perform a thorough cleaning of the entire house. Vacuum every inch of carpet and rugs and sweep and mop all the other floor coverings. Use disinfectant to clean all counter tops and bathrooms. Change the air filter in the hallway return. Make sure each room of the house is as clean as it can possibly be. Adjust the thermostat temperature to the most comfortable setting for the current season. If you have pets, find out whether your guest has any pet allergies so that you'll know whether or not to keep them separated.

Wash and fold your best towels and leave enough stacked in the bathroom for each day that your visitor will be there. Prepare a basket with soap, shampoo, mouthwash, toothpaste, and shaving supplies, in case they forget a few things. Buy plenty of snacks and drinks and have them chilled well in advance. Rent a few movies as back-up entertainment and leave them near the television. If your visitor has given you any special gifts in the past, find them, dust them off, and leave them out on display to show how much you appreciate the gift.

Create a guest account on your computer and be sure to leave the computer logged into that account so that your visitor may check their email and use the Internet without having access to your personal files and information. It is a good idea to create a restore point on computers running Windows operating system and back up any important files to external storage devices. Lock all filing cabinets and search the house for documents like bank statements or personal mail and put all of it away. Now is a good time to shred any old documents that you no longer need.

When your guest arrives, give them a short tour of the house and show them to their room. Keep the house quiet and give them plenty of time to unpack and relax. Offer them refreshments and tell them where to find you when they are ready. If you will be eating out, prepare a list of restaurants in advance and allow your guest to choose their favorite type of food. Enjoy your time together without worrying about the condition of your home and without the stress of making last-minute decisions.


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How to Protect Your Family from Home Invaders

The security of your family is very important. Not everyone can afford home security systems or guns. This article describes several easy and inexpensive ways to prepare a home to protect your family.

Always know that if someone wants to break into your home badly enough, they will find a way. That doesn't mean that you should make it easy for them to do so. It is surprising to me how many people have told me that they lock the doors to their home only while away. This is very dangerous! Purchase a deadbolt lock for any doors that are easily accessible to the public and keep these doors locked at all times. Start a habit of locking all doors at all times. If you leave to go to the store, lock the door behind you. When you get home... lock the door behind you. Teach children to lock doors behind them and to always see who is knocking at the door or ringing the doorbell before opening the door.

If the home is equipped with wooden window panes, use a power drill to drill a hole in one corner of each window where the upper and lower panes meet. Make the hole large enough to insert a heavy gauge nail. The nail should be easy to remove in case of emergency. It's not a bad idea to tie a piece of string to the head of the nail to make it easy to pull out. The point of the nail is to make the window difficult to open from the outside.

To secure a sliding glass door, cut a broom handle or stick to fit the space in the track behind the door where it slides when it is opened. It is very easy to bypass the latch on a sliding glass door, so be sure to leave the stick in position while the door is not in use. If you have a fenced-in yard, be sure to lock the gate when not-in-use. Also lock storage sheds with a lock large enough that it may be seen from outside the fence.

Leave a light on during the night, both inside the house and outside. This may just deter someone from breaking in if they think someone may be awake inside the house. Also, it's easier for crooks to operate in the dark. If you own a dog, give them full run of the house during the night. They have amazing hearing and will let you know if someone is snooping around outside.

Cover all windows with shades or blinds at night so that it is difficult to see into the home. If it is easy for someone to see from the outside that you own the latest game system, a huge expensive TV, or maybe some expensive artwork, then it may prove tempting for a would-be thief to put your home at the top of their list. Actually, if you can afford all of these high-dollar items, then a home security system is probably a wise investment too. The bottom line is that your family's safety comes before all material things. If you find yourself in the situation where someone has entered your home, let them take your money or some of your belongings if it means that they leave without harming anyone. Then call the police and file a report.


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How to Reduce the Amount of Dust in Your Home

A dusty home is an unhealthy place to live and very uncomfortable for those with dust allergies. Follow these easy tips to remove much of this dust from your home.

The first step in reducing the amount of dust in your home is to understand what causes this problem. Dust forms due to a number of things, including pet dander, dirt particles entering from outside the home, the decomposition of upholstered furniture and clothing, insects and their waste, dead human skin cells that have been shed, and many others. Through routine cleaning practices and some preventative measures, all of these problems may be controlled to an extent.

Let's begin with the central air conditioning system if your home is equipped with one. It makes no sense to clean and dust while there is a large machine recirculating dust and spewing it all over the house. Make an appointment to have the ducts cleaned and in the meantime replace the air filter with a high quality filter that is rated for maximum filtration of dust and allergens. Regardless of the directions specified on the filter, replace it every month. Leaving an air filter in place for several months at a time in a home with a high level of dust will cause unnecessary stress on the central air system and result in costly repairs.

Now do a thorough cleaning of your entire home using furniture polish and clean cloths where applicable. Don't forget to dust ceiling fans, blinds, drawers, and cabinets. Clean every surface in the home where dust could settle. Be sure to wash all bedding materials and if possible wash your curtains. Mop all hardwood and laminate floors and vacuum all carpeted areas using a vacuum with a Hepa filter. Clean your shower and bathtubs. At least once a month, move furniture, including dressers, beds, refrigerator, clothes washer, and clothes dryer and clean behind and underneath them. As this is a time consuming and often strenuous process, it may be necessary to alternate one area of furniture a month and then another the next month. Cleaning behind these pieces of furniture just a few times a year is better than never cleaning behind them at all.

Verify that each entrance of your home is equipped with a mat for guests to wipe their feet on. If you own a pet, be sure to bathe and brush them frequently. Check for cracks and crevices in your home where air may be flowing from the outside and repair them. If your home is equipped with attic stairs, verify that the door is sealing properly when closed. Products are available now that may be installed on an attic entrance that seals the door when shut.


If the dust problem persists, invest in an air purifying machine. The ionic air purifying machines do not require replacement filters and help capture a large amount of dust from the air. Consider removing large area rugs and upholstered furniture from your home. Switching carpeted areas to hardwood or laminate flooring will also greatly reduce the level of dust in a home. Be sure to keep closets and drawers which contain clothes shut at all times when not in use.  Following these simple tips will reduce much of the dust in a home and will simplify the cleaning process in the future.

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In one week or less, a home can transform from a perfectly clean living space to a completely horrific nightmare of clutter. It's difficult to explain what causes this phenomenon, but I do have several solutions for how to recover from it.

In most homes, it is natural for clutter to accumulate in a short period of time. This does not mean that the inhabitants are filthy people or that they do not care to keep a clean home. Clutter is evidence that people; busy people at that, are living in the home. The following steps should assist in maintaining a clean home within a budgeted amount of time.

Share the responsibility! If two or more people live in the same home, then EACH ONE should be responsible for cleaning it unless one of them is under the age of three. Each person should take responsibility for their own belongings and also for their messes. This is simple. If only one person in the home wears a size 13 shoe and there are two of them lying in the living room floor, it is that person's responsibility to relocate the shoes to a closet or appropriate storage space. If food that is packaged in a wrapper is opened and consumed, the wrapper should be deposited in the garbage can and not on the coffee table or on the floor.

Use the "Back and Forth" method of spot cleaning. This really works! Start at one end of the home and identify all of the things that do not belong. Pick up a few; not too many, and walk to the other end of the home. Upon passing the spot where each item belongs, deposit it neatly and continue on to the other side. Repeat this process, starting from the opposite end. With a radio positioned at a halfway point, music may be heard throughout the journey. Several things are accomplished using this method. The home slowly becomes organized. The person cleaning gets some valuable exercise and entertainment by singing and possibly dancing as they go. The entire house does not have to be cleaned each time this method is performed, but it is a useful means of managing clutter in high-traffic areas.

Once clutter has been cleared, it is a good idea to perform deeper cleaning. Scrub or mop floors, dust furniture, and vacuum carpets and rugs. As with the "Back and Forth" method of cleaning, deep cleaning does not have to be done all at once. Pick one day to clean the kitchen. Clean the bathrooms another day. Only do as much as time or energy allows.  By using these steps to keep a home in a manageable state, there will be less stress involved when a surprise visitor drops in unannounced.

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