Shopping Guide for Best Desk Lamps

Whether you’re studying for school, working from home, making crafts, or just sitting down to pay the bills, having a well-designed workspace is key to being productive. Often, that means having a comfortable desk and chair, but proper task lighting is just as important as quality furniture. If you don’t have a good desk lamp (like AUKEY TABLE LAMP ), it’s hard to see what you’re doing, and you could end up with a bad case of eye strain if you’re not careful.

Buying a new desk lamp may sound simple, but the sheer number of options can make it a little trickier than you’d expect. You have to choose the right type, size, style, and extra features to ensure the lamp fits your needs and your workspace.

At BestReviews, our thorough research enabled us to get a close look at the market’s top desk lamps. We’re now ready to pass along the info you need to make an informed shopping decision for your home office or workspace. If you’re ready to buy a desk lamp, take a look at the matrix above for our top five recommendations. For general information on choosing a desk lamp, continue reading our shopping guide.

Smart Lighting

If you've ever wished you could control your home's lights from afar (it would certainly come in handy when you realize you've left the porch light on in the middle of the work day), take note of these new connected-home gadgets.

Pros:

App-controlled lights (which are pretty easy to install) are cool for a few reasons: First, if you're going out of town for a few days, you can make your home look inhabited by programming or controlling your bulbs from wherever you are. And of course, they're a sanity saver when you've forgotten to turn a light on or off before leaving home.

Color-changing lights are a fun way to create ambiance (and you can set them to change colors on a pre-determined schedule). Or, use the IFFTT app (it stands for "if this, than that") to make lights link to notify you when an important email arrives or when the weather changes.

Cons:

These bulbs are pretty expensive compared to an unconnected light.

Are they worth it?

Sure, if you travel often or want to use lighting to set a mood.

Top-Tested Bulbs

Philips Hue White and Color 9W E26 Starter Kit

You can make these high-efficiency LEDs (like SUNJACK CAMPLIGHT )any hue via a smartphone app. You can set them on timers, and can upload a photo to match its color), so these bulbs are both fun and functional. The newest version of the Philips Hue hub works with HomeKit, Amazon Echo, and Nest, giving users several options for controlling their lights. The Philips Hue bulbs performed well in our power consumption testing, using the least amount of energy (5.4 watts) of all of the lights in our test. The lights output up to 800 lumens, which is the equivalent of a traditional 60 watt incandescent bulb. The Hue starter kit comes with three color-changing bulbs and a hub.

LIFX Color 1000

The LIFX 1000 is an great lighting solution for starting a smart home. LIFX bulbs don't require a hub to work on your Wi-Fi network, so it saves you an additional wired device to have around your router. LIFX bulbs' color and brightness options impressed us in our tests. The LIFX 1000 model can be set to a wide variety of colors from red to violet, and anything in between. The bulbs can put out a bright, 1055 lumens (60 watt incandescent bulbs put out about 800 lumens), though colors do fade somewhat at the brightest setting. LIFX bulbs can be set up to work with Amazon Echo and Works with Nest.

Garage door repair time

What if we say that you need a repair in house? You will definitely see and think that no you actually do not need that. But let me tell you that I am not talking about the inner portion of your house but am actually talking about some outer repair which when I am going to tell you, you will also feel that yes it the most noticeable part of your house, but you who live in it have only not noticed it. Just think that which part am I talking about, the outer walls, or the garden or actually your garage door? Yes I am talking about the garage door over her. Have you ever noticed that how much does it affect your house? How much bad does it looks when the passerby people go around?

No actually we never thought over this thing, but if you have realised that how much important is it then we are having some tips for you with which you can very easily overcome this problem and again think of making your house look better than before. Before starting I would even like to tell you that this something important for your safety sake too, because if the garage door of yours is not right, then it may even cause a problem for you.

Now here are some of the tips which are going to tell you that how can you start off the repair work in few steps:

Step – 1

Go and note that which part of the garage door is to get repaired, it may be even possible that your whole garage door is to get replaced. But if you want to save some money then for now you can just get it repaired by getting the ‘things to done’ noted on your pad. Check the edges and every corner, that irritating noise which it makes is also to be repaired by some lubricator. And painting it from inside out is also every important for the better look, so note it down also.

Step – 2

You need to get some professional for this work, because doing it yourself won’t help. In the case of trying it yourself you can hurt yourself and even the people working along with you, so call upon some professional who does this work every time, so that everything can go on smoothly, otherwise if you even tried it without any experience and anything went wrong the you will have to pay double than that. So keep calm and go for some good experienced help.

Step – 3

We all know that we even keep the other things in the garage other than our car, so you can even go and reset the stuff you have kept in the garage. While you are repairing the garage door, you have a good chance to reset the garage things. You can separate the things which are of your use and throw the extra things, while this will help you in adjusting some more things in the garage door, and even will help you in keeping it better and neat than before.

Step – 5

We all know that how much important do we think the looks of our house are for us, so what do we do to keep the house better than others? We paint the walls? But over here, when we are going to repair it, we also have to keep in mind to paint it as well. Try to paint it with the colours which suit you house colour too. By doing this you will be able to make the house look more trendy than the other people, because many people mismatch the colours of the garage door and the house, the most common and simple colour people use is white, you can also go for it only.

If the steps above are being followed by anyone, they can get a good and a trendy look for their house. The safety purpose of the garage door will also get solved because what happens sometimes is that children play near the garage door and hurt themselves, this is not only for children because the nuts and bolts of the garage door if get weakened then can harm anyone in the house.

Now here are some of the reasons because of which the garage door gets affected, you can try avoiding these things:
How old is your garage door:

This is a big matter of fact that things do get weakened up if they are in use from a long time. So try to get it repaired after a particular time period, so that it can remain well maintained. Do not let it break or get damaged from anywhere.
The harsh use of the garage door:

This is so obvious that you will have to only open the garage door, but his does not mean that you have to open it in a harsh manner try to be polite and good, because the life of the things extends if they are used in a proper manner. So open in nicely and even close it in a polite manner to avoid the wear and tear of the door.
The weather conditions:

Yes, this is also a reason for the garage door to get bad. Try to out the weather shield paints on the garage door, because the garage door has to face the conditions where there is extreme hot and even when there is extreme watery conditions of the weather. The rusty looks which even blocks the opening and closing of the door is because of the rainy season or the snow, and the hot climate fades the colour of the garage door. So use the paints which can protect your garage door form the extreme weather conditions.

The above mentioned things are important to be followed if you actually want to maintain the garage door in a well manner. So now do not think of anything and just go for the repair, if you are thinking about money or having any such kind of problem then you can plan this repair in this month and save some money and get it repaired in the following month.

Also if you need gate opener system i can introduce MIGHTY MULE 500

The Best Solar Panels

How We Found the Best Solar Panels

We focused just on residential solar arrays (also called solar photovoltaic or PV systems), and went big and broad to start, compiling a long list of panel models from major vendors and industry reviews. From there, we weeded out any solar panel not currently in production: While discontinued panels may seem like a steal, engineer and professor Dr. Tom Lombardo confirms that “the first thing not to focus on is the price. Buying the least expensive panels may result in lower quality, and if the company goes out of business, the warranty is useless.” With that in mind, we also eliminated solar panels from companies that were defunct, seeking bankruptcy protection, up for sale, or otherwise financially unstable, leaving us with 188 panels.

We cut companies that haven’t been around for at least 10 years.

According to Green Tech Media, the solar panel (for example: GOAL ZERO NOMAD 7 ) industry is volatile, with a whopping 88 companies bankrupting between 2009 and 2015. The rate is beginning to slow, but a glut in the marketplace around 2011 so drastically lowered the prices of panels that manufacturers were (and some still are) having a hard time making a profit. The MIT Technology Review says these failing companies are better for the solar industry overall — a more competitive market with bigger profits is key in investing in new equipment and driving technology forward — but bad news for your warranty.

There are two standard warranties for solar panels: a 25-year performance warranty guaranteeing certain levels of electricity production, and a 10-year workmanship warranty covering the panel hardware, like the diodes and glass. And Lombardo notes that panels can often last well beyond 25 years. If the company that made your panels goes belly up, your warranties are void — and there goes your $40,000 investment. For our top picks, we chose companies with staying power. Newcomers: It’s up to you to prove us wrong.

We required at least 230 watts of power.

Watts measure the “electricity production top speed” of a solar panel, or put simply, how much power each one can generate. Wattage helps determine how many panels to install: Take the full wattage that it takes to power your home and divide that by each panel’s wattage. If the average US home usage is 5,500w and you’re looking at, say, 300w panels, you’ll end up needing 19.

But remember! You also have to take into account the total surface area of your roof that is good for solar: the part that has the right angle to the sun, southern or western exposure, and little to no shade. If you have a 1,200-square-foot home and assume around 40 percent is good for solar, that’s only 480 square feet. Panels are, on average, 18.3 square feet and if you need 19 to power your home, you will use nearly 350 square feet of that space.

Take a lower-wattage panel though, say 175w, and you’ll need almost twice as many panels to create the same amount of electricity — and therefore twice as much roof space. You can solve the space problem by getting more smaller lower-watt panels, but then you’re increasing your installation costs.

The long and the short of it: You want fewer, higher-wattage panels. Because wattage is directly related to a panel’s dimensions, 230w is by no means a hard-and-fast cutoff. Most solar panels average right around 200w (and the average on our list was 265w) so we skewed our picks to be the best. That said, if you have your heart set on a daintier solar panel that only outputs 200w, it could still be a great choice.

The manufacturer’s customer service had to be top-notch.

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t ever really talk to your solar panel manufacturer. Purchasing, setting up, and repairing your solar array are funneled through your installer — similarly, you wouldn’t contact whoever made your shingles if your roof started leaking. All solar manufacturers have preferred installers; likewise, all installers use panels from their manufacturing partners. (You get to choose which path to go down: starting with the panel and then getting set up with their installer in your area, or picking an installer and then choosing from its preferred panels.)

In the event your installer goes out of business, though, contacting the panel manufacturer is the only way you’ll be able to leverage your warranty if and when you need to. We want to recommend solar panels from companies with amazing customer service that can answer your questions and (if necessary) assist you in a jam.

We evaluated our remaining contenders on the quality of their websites — was it easy to locate basic information like warranty and company history? — as well as their telephone and email service. (Panasonic didn’t return our phone calls or emails for over a week.) Five companies stood out as the best, and their panels made it into our top picks.

7 Easy Ways to Get Your Small Business Up and Running

If you’ve always dreamed of starting your own business and being your own boss, you may be daunted by the amount of red tape and hassle it takes to begin your own venture. You may not want to deal with filling out the paperwork, renting out a business space, hiring employees, and other expensive steps that are necessary for some new companies. If you’re not sure your business idea is going to be a hit, it’s tricky to take that risk. It can also be expensive. Instead, try one of these easy, inexpensive small business ideas to start creating income.

1. Start Blogging

One easy way to go into business for yourself is by starting a blog. While not every blogger is making money, there are ways to generate revenue from blogging. Creating a blog is simple and most of the time, free. You simply need to find a unique topic and begin to post information about it. Using services like Google AdWords can help you make money.

4 Etiquette to Keep in Mind When Attending an Online Business Meeting

Years of practice and experience will likely have already taught you the correct etiquette and customs to use during meetings to make them successful. Online conferences through video software are a relatively new phenomenon, but one that has been proven to be so useful and productive that it has already dominated the workplace in just a few short years. While many of the same basic principles apply to these online meetings, there are still some pieces of etiquette to keep in mind that work differently when talking online. It is a good idea to pick up these habits early so that they become second nature and don’t negatively affect you in the future. Here are just a few things to keep in mind during your next meeting:

Be Prepared

You are expected to be well prepared for an in-person talk, so an online meeting shouldn’t be any different. Not only should you prepare your agenda and any important points you want to make, but your presentation if you need one. A great advantage of using cloud based conferencing is that you can include video clips in your presentation to make it more interesting and memorable. When it comes time for the meeting, ensure you are dressed appropriately (don’t be tempted to wear your pyjamas and bunny slippers just because you are in your own home), your room is prepared (nothing embarrassing visible in the background) and give yourself a few minutes to check your internet connection and technical specifications. Inc.Com recommends that if you are the event host, be sure to send out the invites and access codes (which are needed to access the meeting, particularly if the participant isn’t using the same piece of software) at least a day in advance. There is nothing worse than a scheduled talk being held up because one person can’t gain access or hasn’t set their camera and microphone properly. If you take all of these steps, your meetings will start on time and run smoothly.

3 Marketing Myths Small Businesses Must Avoid

Regardless of what point in your business journey you are at, marketing is one of the most important elements that should be at the top of your agenda. It’s the key to recruiting new customers, and can play an integral role in maintaining the loyalty of existing ones too.

However, many entrepreneurs have picked up ideas about the subject that aren’t necessarily true. Unfortunately, following those rules could be damaging your hopes of maximized profits. So drop everything you think you know; this is how you’ll gain greater success.

Offline Marketing Is Dead

The most common mistake that modern entrepreneurs tend to fall for is the idea that offline marketing doesn’t work. But even if your business is a purely online venture, they still have plenty to offer.

Targeting localized areas can be a great way to establish an epicenter for the business. As the word spreads in all directions, you’ll soon reach the targets that you’ve set. Meanwhile, promotional gifts are a great way to increase the positivity from individuals and groups.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of offline marketing is that it gives you an opportunity for human interaction. This is still the easiest way to gain trust while it also allows you to use your biggest USP: you. If you’ve been neglecting those offline ventures, now is the time to start giving them the attention they deserve.