Author: Christian Hoffmann

Put another log onto the fire will you Ethel?

Posted on by Christian Hoffmann

fireood moisture

Alright, dear. But only if you check it with the BM20 first.

This week has certainly been MultiMeasure week! Yesterday we decided to settle the discussion regarding which series is the better of the two – the MultiMeasure Basic Series or the Multimeasure Professional Series – and came to the conclusion that neither is better. Each series is designed for different applications, different users and different budgets with both series offering simply unbeatable value for money and superb quality into the bargain. And the day before that we elaborated on the benefits of having a series for professionals designed by professionals who come from the same fields and who are able to read the needs of their clients like no others and provide them with just the right tools for their own individual applications.

Well, today we would like to draw your attention briefly to a particular device, a device which you would normally think you wouldn’t be needing until much later in the year. The BM20 moisture moisture from Trotec is yet another extremely useful and affordable measuring device straight from the Multimeasure Basic Series. The BM20 mositure meter is designed to measure the amount of moisture in a number of building materials and – here comes the interesting part – a whole selection of different types of woods. Wood used for building, wood used in carpentry and cabinet-making, wood used in furniture construction – and firewood.

Firewood is not just firewood. Firewood normally has to be stacked properly and sheltered from the rain so that it can dry over a longer period before being used as a source of heat, comfort and fuel. Wood that is properly treated is called seasoned firewood and has a moisture content that lies between 20 and 25%. If the wood you have bought, collected or cut is burnt while it is still too moist, then you do not only run a real risk of ruining your chimney, you even risk setting your house on fire. Wet firewood does not only burn badly – the wood is not able to unfold its full heat potential because the excess moisture in the wood turns to steam and mixes with the other gases, thus stopping them from igniting and generating the heat they normally would produce – it can be extremely dangerous too. The soot or creosote that forms on the inside of the chimney is highly combustible. That means it can literally erupt into a fire of volcanic proportions.

The best way to prevent such an event from occurring is to season your firewood properly – and to check that the moisture content is not too high. If you buy wood from a supplier for the first time or from somebody who is selling ready-to-burn firewood at a suspiciously low price, then it is always better to check the moisture content first.

By the way… wood burning is ecologically friendly. The carbon dioxide that is released during the burning process lies dormant in the wood and would – if you wood pardon the pun – also be released into the atmosphere if the wood were to remain in the forest and rot.

Buy a BM20 moisture meter today. You wouldn’t want to risk anything when so much is at stake now wood you?

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Damage caused by water is daunting enough

Posted on by Christian Hoffmann

Trotec building dryers against flood damages

Damage caused by water is daunting enough – get all the help you can with the TTK building dryers from Trotec

It looked as though we were in for a super summer.

Temperatures soared and topped marks on the thermometer which we were only accustomed to being treated to on holiday, in places as magnificent and exotic as the Côte d’Azur, the Italian Riviera, or the Balearic Isles. 35 – 38 – even 40 degrees Celsius – were not uncommon!

The met office confirmed what we already knew: that we were in the grip of a heat wave and that this June was going to be one of the warmest on record.

Ice-cream, air conditioner – and beer – sales exploded. People stayed up late and sat outside pubs and cafes risking turning up at work bleary-eyed the next morning just to savour the Mediterranean feeling and make the most of the unusually beautiful weather.

And then the rain came.

Within weeks the picture was a totally different one. Now it was the rain that was splashed across the front pages and making the headlines. The people who had groaned collectively when they lay awake during the long, hot nights which robbed them of their sleep now had to decide which was worse – too much sun or too much rain.

For those who lived near certain rivers or in certain parts of the country there could only have been one answer. As river levels started to rise and dykes burst and freak flash floods swamped the regions which they lived in, the inhabitants of many German states, especially those which had already been hit by similar catastrophes in previous years, would have given everything to be able to decide.

As many people who have themselves been affected, or who have helped others when these have been hit by floods and high water, the scale of damage that the receding water levels leave behind is crippling, daunting and often heart-breaking. The frustration at perhaps having to start all over again is enough to drive the strongest of men to despair. Luckily for some the damage can be contained – either because the dams or sandbags held and the water was only able to seep into the cellars and lower-lying areas or other precautions were taken and furniture and valuables were moved to higher floors before the floods came.

And because the damage resulting from the masses of water could be significantly reduced and restored by using the right drying equipment.

Building dryers from Trotec are just one of many effective means designed to dry out homes and buildings after water damage. The professional building dryers in the TTK series are extremely robust and reliable units which have proved their worth in tens of thousands of scenarios throughout the country and across the whole of Europe. The range covers a selection of models each designed to deal with damage on a certain scale. The smallest model in the series, the TTK 200, for example, is a high-powered, highly-mobile unit that is excellently suited for drying out rooms up to 250 m³. The brilliant yellow building dryer is equipped with a powerful rotary compressor, an automatic hot gas defrosting system and large, non-marking wheels that allow you to manoeuvre the unit to wherever you want it.

Although the other models like the highly-versatile TTK 400, the TTK 800 powerhouse or the colossal TTK 1500 each have an operating range or an area of application for which they are best suited, they all have a number of things in common: high-quality components, excellent dehumidification values and drying results and a variety of useful functions and valuable features which have earned them the reputation of being the premium choice for small, medium and large-scale drying operations.

Trust in Trotec – the name in building dryers and machines and equipment for water damage restoration.

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Trotec Certified as Trusted Shop

Posted on by Christian Hoffmann

Online buying is big business. The internet has become a global marketplace and the magnitude and diversity of the products which the internet has to offer is quite simply staggering.

Whereas the consumers of yesteryear flocked to the high streets or congregated in droves in shopping malls to hunt for a bargain and compare prices, today’s cybershoppers have a more modern approach to shopping and savour the benefits of being able to order the articles they wish to purchase from a wide range of products from the comfort – and safety – of their homes.

But just how safe are they?

Internet fraud has many guises and the number of websites designed solely with the intention of scamming buyers who think that they are on to a good bargain has rocketed. The number of people who have lost money on purchases made over the internet because they have placed their trust in the wrong company and fallen victim to one of countless different scams has risen steadily over the years and now runs into the millions.

Scams like retail fraud whereby a buyer pays for goods which never arrive or identity theft whereby unwitting buyers who have been baited with mouthwatering bargains supply the devious fraudsters with sensitive information including credit card codes or bank details which can later be used to carry out purchases in their name. This scam is especially harrowing for those who have been scammed because the victims often have trouble convincing the companies and the debt collecting agencies involved that they did not receive the products which were bought in their name and are therefore often blacklisted or treated as criminals themselves.

How then is it possible to protect oneself against such criminal energy?

Both the Ministry of Justice and the consumer watchdog No.1 Stiftung Warentest recommend that you only buy online from product portals that are certified as belonging to Trusted Shops as these portals are checked and monitored in accordance with the rigorous Trusted Shops quality criteria and as such offer a high degree of customer protection. Protection against both retail fraud and credit card fraud. And a money-back guarantee as well as a contact person who will help you with any questions you have should you wish to return the goods you have bought.

So now there is nothing to stop you from visiting our website and buying one of the high-quality dehumidifiers, building dryers, fans or cutting-edge measuring devices designed especially for trade and industry, the construction industry or private and domestic use.

Buy online at the Trotec Shop and rest assured that your order will be processed quickly, reliably and efficiently and that your data will be protected against misuse and treated confidentially at all times.

This is not just a promise. It has been certified by the consumer protection agency “Trusted Shops” which awarded Trotec24. The Trusted Shop’s seal of approval making it one of over 7,000 selected online shops which have been checked according to the most stringent of standards!

Buy now at Trotec and benefit from our excellent service, certified quality and comprehensive safety standards.

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NOISE! Sometimes it seems there is no escape.

Posted on by Christian Hoffmann

In today’s fast-moving, hectic world, noise has become a part of our everyday lives – it accompanies us wherever we are – in the home, where satellite TVs and personal stereos blare through the house and power lawn mowers tear through the evening calm; on the way to work, where ear-splitting pneumatic drills briefly blank out the roar of the traffic that snarls along the heavily-congested roads that snake through our towns, villages and inner-cities, or in the workplace, in schools, in public places where a wall of noise often makes you wish you were a million miles away.

Noise can be dangerous. Overexposure to loud noise can permanently damage your hearing. Excessive noise is a stress factor that can be linked to numerous illnesses: people who are constantly subjected to high levels of noise are at a risk and often suffer from high blood pressure, fits of extreme agitation, sleep disorders, lack of appetite – the list goes on…

But what is excessive noise and what is not…?

Peter K. is tossing and turning in his bed. It’s one o’clock in the morning and he hasn’t slept a wink. Peter K. has an important meeting the following morning and all he wants is a good night’s sleep. The pub across the road is popular among the locals and the noise from the revelers fills the night. The ban on smoking which prohibits the guests from smoking on the premises has only made things worse because they now repeatedly spill out into the streets to share a cigarette. An hour passes… Peter K. jumps out of bed. Enough is enough. Angrily, he picks up his cordless phone and calls the police. But can he? When are you as a member of the public allowed to call the police and when do you have the lawful right to complain about noise?

This is a difficult question to answer. Even more so because the Technical Guidelines For Noise Protection make heavy reading. Basically, it all depends on where you live and the type of noise involved – and strangely enough, some really loud noise sources, like road traffic for example, are even exempted from the catalogue. The catalogue does, however, include pubs and other licensed establishments.

The following noise emission guidelines reveal the permitted levels for noise coming from such establishments:

There are various classifications for different locations. We have selected the three classifications which we think represent the type of residential area in which most people live:

  • Centre zones, village areas and mixed zones (mixed trade, gastronomy and residential areas), applies to most well-populated and frequented parts of cities, especially inner cities:
    06:00am to 10:00pm: 60 dB(A)
    10:00pm to 06:00am: 45 bB(A)
  • General residential areas (mainly residential zones – trade and gastronomy permitted):
    06:00am to 10:00pm: 55 dB(A)
    10:00pm to 06:00am: 40 bB(A)
  • In buildings (regardless of the type of residential area):
    06:00am to 10:00pm: 35 dB(A)
    10:00pm to 06:00am: 25 bB(A)

And how can I find out when these threshold values have been exceeded?

With a noise level meter. The Technical Guidelines state exactly where the measurement must be carried out: from the outside of the building at a distance of 0.5m (1.6 ft) from the middle of the open window of the room which needs to be protected most (e.g. bedroom window). As we pointed out above – the guidelines really do make heavy reading.

The BS15 noise level meter from TROTEC: the low-cost ideal solution …

Please be careful to remember that the results of any measurements carried out by members of the public will not stand up in a court of law. Such measurements must be carried out by the Office For Public Order. This still, however, makes the noise level meters ideal for carrying out preliminary on-the-spot checks.

Are you allowed to call the police if certain noise levels are exceeded?

Yes, you are in Germany. You are even allowed to dial 110, the German equivalent of 999. As a rule your complaint will fall in the domain of the Office For Public Order. Some cities, like Frankfurt on the river Main for example, have even set up a hotline which is open 24 hours a day. The police or the Office for Public Order will then follow up your call.

And do not be afraid to call their number: according to information received from the Environmental Agency in Frankfurt, excessive levels of noise are deemed a health hazard and all reports will be taken extremely seriously.

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Who needs a dehumidifier?

Posted on by Christian Hoffmann

Dehumidifiers are not a luxury.

In fact, more often than not they are a necessity.

Dehumidifiers have a number of important functions – not only do they create a healthy and comfortable room climate, they also ensure that required relative humidity levels are maintained in production and storage facilities. In addition, they provide effective and reliable non-stop protection against moisture and corrosion wherever they are put into operation – in the home, the office, the workplace.

But what does a dehumidifier actually do? Well, a dehumidifier reduces the relative humidity in the surrounding air. What it does basically is extract excess moisture from the air. The moisture is then contained in the dehumidifier and collected in a tank or drained off via a hose which can be attached to an outlet at the bottom of the unit. If left unchecked, this moisture could seriously damage not only your health but also your prized possessions and your property.

Although dehumidifiers come in all shapes and sizes, the principle is nearly always the same: a built-in hygrostat constantly monitors and controls the relative humidity and automatically switches the unit off when the selected thresholds have been reached and on again when the relative humidity either drops below these values or exceeds them.

These preset values are sometimes a matter of individual taste – as with the room temperature, some like it hot and some like it cold. Most people, however, feel most comfortable when the relative humidity is within the climate corridor recommended by most medical experts. This band normally lies between 40 and 60% (depending on the room temperature and the time of year) – the air is neither too dry nor too moist.

The effects of humid air can be extremely disconcerting. Mould and mildew thrive in damp conditions. This can lead to a variety of health problems and allergic reactions which can be especially dangerous to young children, pregnant women, elderly people or people or with weakened immune systems. In addition, many insects, like moths and cockroaches, use damp patches which form in corners or nooks and crannies as a result of excess moisture in the air as a breeding ground for their larvae. And as if this were not enough corrosion normally sets in when the relative humidity is higher than 60%.

Wouldn’t it make sense then to think about a means of preventing such conditions from developing in the first case? Conditions which not only pose a health threat but also put your valuable possessions like archives, private libraries, paintings, furniture and collections at risk.

The answer is as simple as it is straightforward: a dehumidifier. TROTEC has a wide range of versatile, effective and reliable dehumidifiers all designed to allow you to create your own indoor climate and control the relative humidity in your environment while filtering out airborne contaminants like dust, fluff and pet hairs and keeping the air that you breathe clean.

You will be hard-pushed to find a finer selection of large-scale, low-cost stationary models or compact, exquisitely-designed mobile units.

Click here to find out more.

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“Safety first” has always been our motto.

Posted on by Christian Hoffmann

Safety first with safety clothes

Stay safe with safety clothes from TROTEC: Top-quality products at rock-bottom prices

Safety is not just a word.

As an employer you have a legal obligation to ensure that the environment which your employees work in complies with legal requirements and that your employees are adequately protected against health hazards and injury.

As an employee you are obliged to adhere to the rules and regulations governing safety standards in the workplace – and it is in your own interest to do so. Accidents in the workplace are the cause of countless injuries. Accidents which can keep you off work for weeks or months. Accidents which can change your life.

Accidents in the workplace can have a number of causes. According to recent reports, about a third of all accidents which occur in the workplace are a result of slips and trips, which themselves are a result of carelessness and bad housekeeping: spillages or contaminations are not cleaned up immediately, floors are not dried properly, cables, pipes and other obstructions are left lying around.

Another third of all accidents reported to the Health & Safety Executive are a result of manual handling. This means that the persons involved overexerted themselves, consequently injuring their backs, tendons, hands or other parts of their body while lifting, pulling, pushing, carrying or moving an object or objects, or persons, from one place to another.

And the third major cause of accidents in the workplace is the lack of protective clothing:

That’s why TROTEC has designed a special range of protective clothing and accessories for use in laboratories and a sheer unimaginable number of scenarios in trade and industry.

The new product range encompasses protective overalls, respiratory masks and protective gloves – with many more products to come. This means that in future you will not only be able to buy a broad range of machines and measuring equipment in renowned TROTEC quality, but also a selection of safety products all manufactured with the aim of protecting you in the workplace while you carry out the task you wish to perform.

And you will also be pleased to hear that we have also set ourselves a target: our aim is to provide you with a wide range of high-quality, low-cost “safety first” products including robust protective overalls, easy-fitting, sensitive nitrile gloves designed especially to protect you against high risks and respiratory masks which are not only equipped with an exhalation valve and an adjustable nose clip which make them surprisingly comfortable to wear, but which also comply with the highest of safety standards.

The question now is: Are you already adequately protected?

Click here to go to the protective clothing range from TROTEC

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Problems with moisture for home builders in summer?

Posted on by Christian Hoffmann

Problems with moisture for home builders in summer?
You must be joking!

We’re not, actually. And as anybody who has had the misfortune of having to deal with damage caused by dampness and excess moisture after their house had not been given enough time to dry out will tell you – mould is not a laughing matter.

It is still popular belief among many home builders that summertime is the best time of the year to carry out their building projects because it is warmer – and because it is warmer walls and screed will therefore dry more quickly. Wrong. What they fail to realize is that it is not the temperature which is the deciding factor when it comes to drying out new buildings – it is the relative humidity. And in summertime the relative humidity is still surprisingly high.

Measurements carried out by the met office in Friedberg show that the average relative humidity in June alone was 56% (!) compared to an average relative humidity of 68% throughout 2010.

But help is at hand! Building dryers are used throughout the building trade to dry buildings at all times of the year and not just in the winter months which is what most people would expect. Which building dryer you need depends on the size of your building, the prevailing temperature and, of course, the relative humidity. The best and perhaps most reliable way to determine the size of the building is to use a laser distance meter. Laser distance meters from Leica, for example, can measure room sizes accurately down to four hundredths of an inch (1mm). There’s German precision again for you.

The next step is to determine the temperature and the relative humidity. A tthermohygrometer is practically two devices rolled into one. It can measure the temperature in either degrees Centigrade or Fahrenheit and it provides you with accurate information on relative humidity. It’s a bit like killing two birds with one – er – thermohygrometer.

The third and final step is to enter the information you have gathered into our totally-free-of-charge, no-strings-attached calculator which then determines the dehumidification performance you need before telling you which building dryer will transform your building from a wet one into a dry one.

Oh, yes. And by the way… a single building dryer is all you need to dry out any number of rooms in a building if you follow the steps mentioned above. These steps ensure that you pick the right-sized building dryer for your own individual application. One mustn’t forget, however, that this is only possible if the air can be circulated between the rooms sufficiently. A fan is often the most efficient means of making sure that this is guaranteed.

A combination comprising the right building dryer and the right fan can cut drying times in buildings not only in half but by as much as 75%! This means that you can move into your new home on time and save £’s on heating costs, which can soar up to 200% of what you would normally have to pay simply because dry walls keep out the cold better than wet ones.

You can rest assured that you and your family are moving into a dry house with a healthy indoor climate and that you are saving money in the long run, because there is no need to call in the builders to remove the damage caused by mould and moisture. Not a bad deal really when you come to think of it.

Did you know that…? You don’t have to buy our building dryers and fans if you don’t want to. You can also hire them out from our service divison TKL.

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