Yes, you’re right. It has been warm lately. A ducted heat pump/air con unit in New Zealand homes has been put into cooling mode more often than ever before, thanks to an unprecedented stretch of warmer months. 47 months to be exact.

According to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), the last colder-than-average month in New Zealand was way back in January 2017. (That was the month that Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president, and the All Blacks were still Rugby World Cup champions) In the almost four years since then, temperature stations around New Zealand have registered 24 months of above-average temperatures and 23 months of average temperatures – but there has not been one “cold month” which NIWA defines as being at least 0.5 degrees Celsius below the 1981 to 2010 average.

All the hot months in that 47-month stretch were at least 0.5C above average, with NIWA saying that 2020 was the seventh-warmest year on record in New Zealand. Somewhat alarmingly though, five of the seven hottest years recorded have occurred since 2013. 2020 was also a dry month in most Kiwi locations with Auckland and Hamilton each recording their driest years since records began. The nationwide droughts and water shortages only highlight how warm and dry things have been lately.

The highest temperature in 2020 was 38.2C in Gisborne on January 31. The month of February saw Whangarei, Whitianga and Whakatane experience their hottest days since records began in those areas in the 1960s and 1970s. Auckland had its longest-ever drought, coming in at 47 days, while Blenheim went through an even longer dry spell of 64 days. Meanwhile, New Zealand also recorded its warmest winter which led to extremely low snow levels on Mt Cook.

New Zealand’s average temperature in 2020 was 0.63C above the 1981–2010 average. That’s in comparison to 2016, officially recognised as the country’s hottest year when the nationwide average temperature was 0.84C above the 1981–2010 average. Climate scientist James Renwick says it’s all part of a trend happening around the world:

“Over the past 23 years, only four have been cooler than the 1981-2010 normal. In the first 23 years of the record, since 1909, only four years were warmer than the 1981-2010 normal,” he said.

2020 was certainly a hot one all over the world. It ranks with 2016 as the world’s hottest year, according to records kept by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. They state temperatures have risen 1.25 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times which highlights the fact that all this warmth is something to be concerned about.

Because of global warming, more environmentally-friendly heating and cooling methods are in vogue. This Auckland heat pump installer says more consumers are making their purchasing decisions based on eco-factors and not just cost ones. As heat pumps/air con units are known for their efficiency and low greenhouse gas emissions, that consumer trend is a positive sign in an increasingly warm and worrying climate.

It is a widespread fact that we generally focus on only the interior painting and designs of the house and completely forget about the exterior painting. This will eventually create a dis-balance in your home’s methods and make it look uneven. Therefore, we have mentioned the best tips on choosing the best color combinations for your exterior designs in this post. As the exterior of the house or any building is the one that creates the first impression in anyone’s head.

While choosing the color combinations for exterior paints, you also need to focus on climate situations according to your location. That might affect the intensity and texture of your paint in the long run.

Best Tips To Choose The Best Exterior Paint Colors

·       Combinations:

When picking the best color combination for your exterior painting, make sure you do not choose more than two colors as picking more different colors will clutter your house pattern. If you do not want a monotonous approach, you can use different shades of the same color.

Choice of color one of the best exterior paint color tips is to avoid all the dark and deeper shades. As these colors will absorb more dust particles and sunlight, the interior of the house is super hot and challenging to survive in. Hence, it is always better to choose a pale shade of the dark color and mix them with another light color.

·       Durability

Ensure that the type of exterior paint you chose should be durable enough as you will use this type of paint to paint the exterior of your house. This should be rough and tough and should manage all the weather conditions and different temperatures. Also, high gloss paints are not the right type of choice for exterior paint.

Conclusion:

So, these are the three most important and useful tips that can be used while selecting the right color combinations for your exterior painting. The best choice for the exterior paint should be the color shades of the satin, eggshell, and matte finish as these are long-lasting and can be managed with all types of weather conditions easily. These types of finishes also tend to enhance the exterior appearance of your house. Try to consider all the interesting tips to get the best exterior finish of your house with these tips.

If you’re a first-time buyer or you’re living in that area for a long and face issues with the water or sewage system out there, it is high time that you seek professional help and get done with the drain survey once. It gets generally resolved via the CCTV method, but there are other ways to do it. Moving to a new apartment comes up with a lot of work and time required to check for any damages and renovation needed. Hence they find it is essential to have a CCTV drain survey to know if any repair is required for the drainage system.

Defining Drain Survey:

A professional plumber or drainage system investigator uses tools to assess the drainage system for any repairs or problems that can occur later. You can call over the professional anytime, like if you’re moving to a new apartment. And the drainage comes under your property. So you will be responsible for any damage in the future. And to make sure that there are no issues to look after now. The drain survey will confirm the conditions down there and also help the investigator determine the exact location at which the damage is.

CCTV Drainage Survey Definition And Usage:

It exactly means what its name suggests that it surveys the drainage with the help of a CCTV attached to it. The licensed professionals and plumbers can only do these surveys as they have the appropriate tools required for the reviews and repairs for the damages and leakage issues. The camera allows them to analyze the pipes intensely and carefully, and this device is far more effective than any other tool. And the main advantage of it is that it will not require any digging or anything, and you will get the complete report.

If at any point you experience any drainage issue, then rather than trying home-made DIY. You should call up the professional because you may pose a bigger problem. Tell every detail to the engineer well in advance he can have an idea of specific things that he can look at. The camera is attached to a rod allowing the camera to move inside the drains and get the live recording. The screen displays everything that an engineer will look for to see what’s going on inside.

Once the survey is complete, the engineer will report the complete condition of the drains. And will let you know if any repairs are required.

A quick and economical solution to change your doors’ aesthetics is to install a new knob or handle. When acquiring a model, the first thing you should be clear about is the excellent variety of alternatives available to select the one that best suits your home’s needs. Your choice is not a trivial matter, since the handles dress the door and give it the final touch you want.

The doors need a suitable handle for their use and, above all, for the style of the room where it is to be placed, such as the nautical themed cabinet knobs. The most differentiating feature to choose one handle or another is the finish that best suits the door in which it will be placed.

Easy installation: changing knobs or handles is a clean and straightforward DIY task that does not require a professional.

Different solutions for every need

When choosing the complement to open and close your house’s doors, you have to look for the balance between functionality and aesthetics. The first thing you have to choose is the handlebar solution that best suits your door.

There are several possibilities. The handlebar is the lever that serves to operate the mechanism of opening and closing a door. It can be one of several types:

• Handle with a plate (usually called a handle): the lever is composed of an elongated plate.
• Handle without plate (called a rosette): the lever that serves to operate the mechanism of opening and closing the door has a small base, either round or square.
• Knob: the lever that serves to operate the lock of a door (mostly cylindrical) allows opening a door by turning it from one side to the other.

Among the existing variety, we can highlight the following types of knobs:

• Interior door knobs: suitable for living rooms and kitchens. They do not need an internal mechanism and can be various designs such as nautical themed cabinet knobs, keeping it elegant and simple.
• Door knobs with latch or conviction: indicated for bathrooms and bedrooms or any room that requires more privacy.

For entrance doors, several solutions and types are depending on your needs and tastes:

• Entrance door knobs with key: indicated to place in main doors with an access key.
• Entrance door knobs: there are also entrance door knobs that only serve as a handle to pull the door closed or opened. Aesthetically they look the same as those on the main doors, but they do not turn; they are fixed.
• Knockers: they are pieces of iron, bronze, etc., that are placed on the doors to knock with them.
• Handles: they are easy to handle. Their most common use is in entrance doors and sliding doors. For glass doors, there are unique handles to take care of the material.

Accessories

Each type of door in the house needs a kind of handle for privacy and security.

Thus, once you have chosen the handle or knob that you like and that suits you best, you have to decide whether you need it to have a latch or a lock. You can choose between them:

• Latch or lock: it is the security opening and closing system without the need for keys. They are used for the interior doors of access to rooms where privacy is safeguarded (such as the bedroom or the bathroom).
• Within this group are the handles that condemn the door handle: they prevent the handle from moving but have no internal mechanism or latch to close.
• Lock: this is the opening and closing system that needs a key to operate. They are the type required for entrance doors.

To install either of these two options (latch or lock), it is necessary to make the die in the handle, making the hole to be able to install that locking system.