In the used car business, professional appearance is all that counts!

Posted on by Elena Kramer

buying a used car

Women and cars: I know what you may think…for some men at least, this may not be the perfect combination. But believe it or not – when I buy a used car, I really want to know what I’m buying. And although I’m no expert, I read through scores  of magazines and internet pages to find out anything I can about different types of engines and other technical details. Bhp, acceleration, cylinders, torque – I know what I want and when I decide to spend several thousands of euros on a car, I expect to get precisely what I want. However, most sellers, whether they are selling their car on a private or commercial basis,  just don’t take me seriously. On the contrary, they often believe that I buy anything they try to sell me.

“Don’t worry – this car is absolutely accident-free,” is one of the statements that I heard on pretty much every stop during my extensive tour through the various car dealerships in the region. Read More

Posted in TROTEC, Life&Style | Tagged with | Leave a comment

Firewood: Too much moisture means too much smoke and too little fire

Posted on by Alfred Austin

There’s nothing that evokes a feeling of cosiness and comfort more on a cold November’s day, when your breath hangs suspended on the bracingly crisp air, than a roaring, raging, crackling fire. Fires are magic. They are breathtakingly beautiful to behold. They can cast a spell on those who gaze, mesmerised, into the dancing, flickering flames as they devour the ashen charcoal logs that lie crumbling in the hearth or lick at the smoky glass window of the cast iron stove door. Man has always been drawn to fire. It satisfies a primeval desire. It fends off wild animals, it is a source of energy that provides both comfort and warmth and it plays a key role in manufacturing processes and in preparing food. And you don’t have to be the proud owner of an Inglenook fireplace to feel and appreciate just how special a fire is.

It is important to know, however, that you won’t get a decent fire going and you won’t get to enjoy your glass of mulled wine while relaxing in front of your open range fireplace or unwinding in front of your stylish wood-burning stove if the wood you have chopped and stacked or bought from a local company is not as dry as you either think it is or is alleged to be!

Wet firewood can not only dampen your spirits, it can also dampen any endeavour you make to keep a good fire going. It doesn’t matter what type of wood it is – good old English oak, sweet-smelling spruce, or pine, beech or birch – if the moisture content of the wood is too high because the wood has not been given enough time to dry, then such moist, green, unseasoned wood will not only produce less heat, it will also produce more sparks and billowy, stinging smoke which can quickly cause a fire to fizzle out. In addition, the gases which your wet firewood sets free are harmful to the environment and therefore, of course, inevitably harmful to us all. Read More

Posted in TROTEC, Home Sweet Home | Tagged with , | Leave a comment

Humidity in the garage? Don’t let your car turn into a rusty old banger

Posted on by Alfred Austin

oldtimer in garage

An Englishman’s home is his castle. And his car his most-loved toy. This would be a rather crude assessment of what is more, much more, than just a fleeting fancy or a child-like fantasy – it is a deep, ingrained passion for fantastically-engineered and beautifully-crafted motorcars which stir emotions and – yes, it must be admitted – pluck at the strings of the heart. The beauty, the power and the elegance which veteran, vintage and classic cars embody can cause grown men – and of course women – to tremble with excitement and pleasure and to bemoan a bygone age of glamour and style as they look back on slowly-fading but fond memories. Which is why these wonderful vehicles need to be protected, not only against carjackers and car thieves, but also against the ravages of time, the elements – and the indoor climate.

The effect that the wrong indoor climate can have on the car in your garage:

As any real car enthusiast knows, the indoor climate plays an extremely important role when it comes to preserving the car of your dreams and to protecting it against moisture and the effects which moisture can have on the bodywork, the chassis and the fittings of your prized possession. High humidity levels provide the ideal breeding ground for rust and corrosion. In fact a relative humidity of only 60%, which, depending on where you live, what time of year it is and what the weather is like, is quickly reached can eat at the metal and the spotlessly shiny chrome and cause damage that not only spoils the aesthetic value of your car, but can also transform what was once a dazzling gem into a rough diamond. That’s why you can’t just park your car in the drive or leave it to rust at the kerb, what you need is a proper garage for your car so that it retains its value and you retain the pleasure you get from it.

But there more hidden dangers lurking in your garage than you might think:

Moisture is not only present in the ambient air, it can also work its way through walls and penetrate seemingly solid or leak-proof brickwork. And not only that: if you’ve been out for a spin and been caught in the rain or if you have been unlucky enough to end up in a snowdrift during the harsher winter months, then there will be more than enough moisture on your wheels, tyres and the car’s undercarriage to cause corrosion and considerable damage to your car when you drive it back into the relative warmth of your garage. In such cases, the moisture contained in the relatively warm air can also settle on the paintwork of your car or seep into tiny cracks between the various body parts where it can quickly become a serious and costly problem. And that’s only on the outside. The material or leather upholstery and the trimmings in the interior of your car do not take kindly to moist air and can in some cases adopt a musty smell which is a sure sign of mould. Cars have always been wonders of technology. They can be packed with motors which power the windows or adjust the seats and seemingly miles of cable. Moisture is not just bad for the electrics in your car, it is Enemy No.1. When the electrics don’t work and your car doesn’t start, then the cause could well be moisture.

How to make sure that you and your car remain together a life-time:

You can ensure that you get the most out of your Morgan Plus, your E-Type Jaguar, your Porsche 911 or quite simply the car you are proud to call your own by following a few simple steps:

Make sure that your car is dry before you close the garage door. This way the excess moisture can escape to the outside rather than condense on your car in the inside.
Install a dehumidifier. This may sound a little drastic or over the top, but a dehumidifier like the ones in the  TTK S Series from Trotec can monitor and control the climate in just about any room – or garage –and regulate the relative humidity so that the problems described above do not occur and you can be sure that the next time you fetch your car out of the garage all you have to do is turn the key for the motor to gun into life and then purr contentedly as you appreciatively let your eyes and fingers glide over the exquisitely designed, sleek interior and soak up the pleasure of owning your very own personal dream car.

Like we said before. A car can last a life-time. And you can decide if it does.

Trotec. The name in dehumidifiers and climate conditioning.

Posted in TROTEC, Life&Style | Tagged with , | Leave a comment

Tips To Survive in the Asphalt Jungle and Improve Your Indoor Climate

Posted on by Alfred Austin

Plants in the office improve the indoor climateWhat lengths would you as an employer go to, to ensure that your employees are as motivated and as productive as possible? You could reward them with a company car, which would probably break the bank and become extremely expensive depending on how big the size of your company is. Or you could encourage them to come into work and give their best by giving them more time off work, which may sound like a paradox and it isn’t. Or you could create a climate – not just figuratively-speaking, but literally – which will enable them to focus willingly and happily on their job and perform their task to the best of their abilities and enable them to achieve maximum results. How? Quite simple really. By welcoming them to the jungle.

Plants do not only look nice, they have a proven positive effect on both the human body and people’s psyche. Without even really trying, a plant can not only significantly improve the air around your desk and in your office by converting carbon dioxide, which in higher concentrations can make you feel fatigued and bursting with lethargy, into fresh oxygen, sugar and other so-called waste products, it can also significantly improve your mood and change your entire outlook. And in the right mood and with the right motivation, well, to quote two legendary Motown greats, “there ain’t no mountain high enough” and “no river wide enough” to stop you from performing at your best. Read More

Posted in TROTEC, Health&Care | Tagged with , | Leave a comment

Welcome to the wonderful world of Trotec! Where 1 + 1 isn’t always 2…

Posted on by Alfred Austin

Dehumidifiers plus thermohygrometer

There are a few fundamental facts of life which you learn at a very early age: eat your greens, they’re good for you (although this is a known fact, it takes some powers of persuasion to convince a four-year-old that you aren’t just trying to trick him into polishing off his Brussels sprouts); don’t cheek your elders (which is obviously meant to teach young children respect although it is another well-known fact that age and wisdom do not always go hand in hand); that burping is bad manners and that you should apologise (whereas back in good ol’ Henry VII’s day it would have been considered a stinging insult if you didn’t belch after a meal) – and that one and one is always two.

Well not in our world it isn’t! Read More

Posted in TROTEC, Up To Date | Tagged with , | Leave a comment

Your Partner for Bespoke Solutions in the Food Industry

Posted on by Alfred Austin

Customised dehumidification solutions for the Food IndustryClimate conditioning plays a key role in the food industry. The relative humidity and the indoor climate are of paramount importance because they are among the decisive factors which determine the standard of hygiene, the degree of safety and the level of cost effectiveness throughout the entire manufacturing process.

But what options do you have if the demands with regard to climate conditioning change because of new quality directives, innovative production techniques or technology or modified production processes? Read More

Posted in TROTEC, Construction Area | Tagged with , | Leave a comment

Google goes green – and so can you!

Posted on by Alfred Austin

google electricity costs

When you consider that Google.co.uk and Google.com had a massive 90.56% share of the UK search market in May of this year and that this figure was only marginally lower in the months leading up to this representative period, then it would be fair to say that on the basis of the search words we enter into our search engine Google knows quite a lot about us.

But how much do we know about Google? Which facts do you find most interesting and which most intriguing? Read More

Posted in TROTEC, EcoLogical | Tagged with | Leave a comment

Are humidifiers a blessing or a bane?

Posted on by Alfred Austin

Humidifier in a desert

There are many people who think that there is only one species to blame for the alarming and mind-boggling weather phenomena, the melting ice caps, the disappearing glaciers and the steadily rising sea levels which we have experienced over the past decades and years. For these people there is only one possible culprit who is responsible for global warming brought on by the build-up of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (from transport, tourism and industry), methane (from factory farming) and CFCs (from spray aerosols) in the earth’s atmosphere, and that is man. Man may have succeeded in landing on the moon and creating genetically engineered life, but at the same time he has also succeeded in polluting the planet and bringing the world as we know it to the brink of an ecological disaster.

And yet there are also those who say that this would all have happened anyway …

The opinions on global warming are divided. There is a broad phalanx of experts and millions above millions of people especially in the so-called civilised western industrialised world who defy the theory that it is mankind who has caused the Earth to heat up by 0.74C degrees over the past century and that despite the almost universal ratification of the Kyoto Protocol (the United States has yet to sign the treaty), which has as its goal the stabilisation of the levels of said greenhouse gases in order to prevent more far-reaching climate changes from occurring, they staunchly say that global warming is all part of a natural geological process and that we should not be attaching so much significance to man’s role on the planet.

And the opinions are equally split on humidifiers. Read More

Posted in TROTEC, Home Sweet Home | Tagged with , | Leave a comment

Time to take your tyre pressure seriously

Posted on by Alfred Austin

The right tyre pressure for your motorcycle - with the tyre pressure gauge from TrotecAccidents happen. And sometimes it seems that there was nothing that anyone could have possibly done to prevent them. In fact, some people firmly believe that our lives are predetermined and that no matter which actions we take or whichever path through life we choose to follow, the outcome will inevitably always be the same.

But for those of us who are not prepared to accept this notion and put their destiny in the hands of fate it would appear to be a good idea to look more closely at the facts and the tide of events that lead up to an accident and to determine whether the accident could have been prevented if certain rules had been adhered to or if there had been a change in certain behavioural patterns.

What can you do to stop road accidents from occurring? Read More

Posted in Measuring Instruments, Health&Care | Tagged with , | Leave a comment

Bookworms Beware!

Posted on by Alfred Austin

the right humidity level for books

A good book is more than just a good read (If you find that the book you’re reading is a bad book, then put it down – no, better still toss it aside, because that’s the treatment it deserves. Like a telenovela or a corked wine which do not get any better the longer you watch it or the more you drink of it a bad book does not improve with reading).

A good book is a door to another world. A world sometimes so magical, so enthralling and so different to our own that we cannot wait to pick it up again and eagerly read on, plunging deeper and deeper, losing ourselves in its pages or picking our way meticulously through the weaving narrative or plot. A book can mesmerise and charm you, or it can captivate and revolt you. It can change your life forever or become a warm memory and an old friend. Books can be beautifully written, beautifully bound and beautifully illustrated. They can be inspiring or disheartening; they can be so funny and so sad that they make you cry. Books are mirrors of society and mirrors of souls. And they are proof of the power of the written word.

Which raises the question: “Where’s the best place to keep your books?” Read More

Posted in TROTEC, Home Sweet Home | Tagged with , , | Leave a comment