If things get tougher?

mardatha

We have a big coal-fired stove in the livingroom, which heats radiators in all the rooms. The house is very warm, apart from when its really windy and the draughts then are bad. - we live high on open moorland in Scotland, have no double glazing and cracks round windows & skirtings. If anybody has any ideas on how to save heat then give me them please... we spend £90 a month on coal and £60 a month on elect. I dont mind cos at least we warm but if there's a way to stay warm for less then I'm up for it.

pavlovs_dog

mardatha wrote: »

we live high on open moorland in Scotland, have no double glazing and cracks round windows & skirtings.

why not post on the 'in my home' section of the site? depending on the nature of the cracks, you may be able to fill them in easily and relatively cheaply with some kind of filler or mastic.

draught excluders and thick lined curtains should help further, but without plugging those gaps its going to be a losing battle.

mardatha

ok sorry thanks. I will go and look for in my home right now !

pavlovs_dog

no need to apologise, you weren't being told off hope they can help more than i could (im still learning this DIY stuff!)

[Deleted User]

CM that is a brilliant value steamer

I got a chicken out of the freezer yesterday and was just going to leave it out to de-frost but whoah!!! de-frosting in the fridge will keep the fridge cold and save electricity. Ok it will take longer but so what, says she all chilled out :cool:

poppyoscar_3

kittie wrote: »

I got a chicken out of the freezer yesterday and was just going to leave it out to de-frost but whoah!!! de-frosting in the fridge will keep the fridge cold and save electricity. Ok it will take longer but so what, says she all chilled out :cool:

What a brilliant idea!! I would never have thought of that!!

POxx

sammy_kaye18

Church mouse - thank you for that - that steamer looks fab. might see if i can find one on amazon as have amazon vouchers to use up.

mardatha wrote: »

We have a big coal-fired stove in the livingroom, which heats radiators in all the rooms. The house is very warm, apart from when its really windy and the draughts then are bad. - we live high on open moorland in Scotland, have no double glazing and cracks round windows & skirtings. If anybody has any ideas on how to save heat then give me them please... we spend £90 a month on coal and £60 a month on elect. I dont mind cos at least we warm but if there's a way to stay warm for less then I'm up for it.

Hi Mardatha
I would suggest also fillign the gaps firstly round the windows etc as no matter what you do you will always have a horrid draught there. Poundland sell tubes fo window sealent and the guns you need to press the bottoms in which can be used to fill in gaps and cracks adn works quite effectively. May be a bit messy though but can probably be easily cleaned up etc.

Thick curtains or regular curtains that are lined wiht old blankets etc will help to also keep cold out or a pair of cheap blinds fitted close to the window with a regualr pair of curtains can also help. The cellophane stuff may also make a difference although I am yet to ry this but will be this year. 12m sq pack costs £9.99 in wikinsons but im sure you could get it cheaper on ebay or something.

Draught excluders are also good under doors with large gaps or those brushes that can be attached to the bottom of doors if there is enouh space. Fleece blankets on chairs are also helpful to snuggle in and under whilst watching tv. Do you have carpets ont eh floor?? we have laminated and find this makes us feel twice as cold because its cold ot walk on, so putting down rugs helps

HTH in some way

Sam
x

carriebradshaw

mardatha as everyone has said fill those gaps around the windows and skirtings with a sealant of some kind,they may only look like tiny cracks but the high winds you get in Winter time will whistle through them like an icy twister.You may want to check floorboards in you ground floor rooms for gaps too and either fill them or line the floor with sheets of hardboard then lay your underlay & carpet on top, then add some rugs if you can. At our windows we have venetian blinds and lined curtains but this year we're also adding thick fleeces hung on simple curtain wires,we have got front & back door curtains I've made from old fleece throws we already had too.They make a huge difference in keeping the heat in & drafts out

also meant to say if you've got a small kitchen, bathroom or passageway that doesn't have any carpet consider laying carpet tiles as a cheaper option to make it warmer to walk on,if you use a dark colour with a mottled pattern you really can't see the joins at all if you lay them correctly

knittingnelly

I have GOT to get a new back door :sad: The front one is bad but the back one...put it this way we had an indoor snow drift last year! Must sort it before the Autumn. We never use the front one really so a thick, thick curtain will do there.

The 'old fashioned' type curtain tracks are surely better than the modern poles which tend to stand off the wall a long way? I don't know, but I imagine all the heat rising up the back of the curtains somehow... I guess that's where blinds inside the window are good.

We have a sun room off the lounge and this year we are going to hang heavy lined curtains accross the gap and I'll just have to rejoin the telly watchers for the winter :rolleyes: well it's more like :eek: actually with the state of the telly programmes now :rotfl:

Love the idea of cooling the fridge with a cold thing in it to defrost; must remember the opposite and leave the oven open to warm the house after it's been used for cooking (oh for an AGA;) ) Every little helps...

I have always had a kind of 'beat the system' mentality so in some ways, yes, I'm looking forward to getting sorted for harder times that I'm sure are coming but the news this morning that at least 60,000 jobs will be lost in construction is still scary (DH is an electrician and already local tradesmen are losing work to men from the sites who are doing cheap 'foreigners' for cash...n.b. I know there's a thread for this somewhere but for us it deffo comes under the 'harder times to come' banner ) I love this thread though as I am sure that being prepared is so much better than hiding your head and waiting for someone else to sort it out - here's to us!!:D

Chuzzle

Well having listened to the 10 o'clock news last night and how road tax is going up I really don't know how we will cope when it does get tougher. We have one car DH uses for work (22 mile round trip mon-fri) not a huge journey admittedly but he is now beginning to think about quitting the job that he loves and getting one within walking distance of our home and then just using the car as and when we need at the weekends. I suppose we could downgrade to a smaller car (we currently have a 2004 reg Kia Carens), but I don't consider our car to be huge. If we did downgrade this would mean that DH wouldn't be able to fit the wheel barrow in the car for when he is on the allotment, its a private allotment and does have things pinched from it as it is right by a public footpath! This would probably mean we would have to give up the allotment and that would be hellish!

DH and I were trying to come up with ideas to make the Government sit up and take notice, I pointed out that whatever we could come up with would need the whole of the country to do at once and do so for a month. Hmm can't see it happening really.

Anyway sorry to go on at a slight tangent.