If things get tougher?

Primrose

katieowl - are these Victorian Stone hot water bottles any good for drying thick items of washing? I was thinking that if you just wrapped wrap a towel or a pair of jeans around one maybe the heat would help dry them ? Possibly good for keeping a heated one in damp cupboards too, to help prevent condensation?

sammy_kaye18

a 'fug' ??????? whats that mean?

We do tend to only heat two rooms of our house. The living room and the bathroom but neither of these are above 18 degrees and rarely on. There is no point heating our room as the radiator doesnt work, our little boys room gets the sun all day and is always warm and the hallway is warmed by the fact our bathroom is tiny and we leave the door open so the heat circulates.

The living room is long and thin though and so takes a bit to heat but my kitchen comes off the room and is tiny so if i leave the door open alot of heat from the kitchen helps ot heat it up. Same applies to our bathroom - it is very small and the radiator works well so we put the clothes airer stood up in the empty batha dn have the heating on and they dry easily and it heats the hallway at the same time.

Plus if it does get chilly in the night our dog will sneak into the bathroom and sleep curled in there - hence we've had to put an old dressing gown (unwearable) down behind the door as he was curling up on tiled cold floor for a bit but nwo he stays snug in there. We dont tend to have the heating on alot though in the night (lol rest assured he does have a nice comfy bed to use too is).

Hoping once we get the double glazing sheeting up it will be that much warmer in teh living room and am still on the lookout for some way to attacha curtain over my front door (we have metal beams so drilling into the wall above it is a no no)

lilac_lady

Reading about the stone hot water bottle took me back a bit. It certainly did keep the bed warm all night but the warm feeling ended when you had to get out of bed on a winter's morning. No central heating or fitted carpets then. I remember we had a parrafin (sp?) stove in the kitchen . Wonder what Health and Safety bods would think of that now (plus the risk of burning flesh from the stone hot water bottle if it got unwrapped!) How did we survive unscathed? I think Calor gas heaters will make a comeback. Pay in advance so no worries about a bill arriving. I use mine in the winter when it's really cold. It heats up a room in minutes.

sammy_kaye18

Lilac ady - i use to have one of those gas heaters when me and boyfriend got our first home and i would keep it in the kitchen - then our boiler blew up and we had it in the living room - boy oh boy was it cold.

The only thing is that when we had to move back in with mother in law - my boyfriend left it in the garden and it went rusty and manking - how i miss my gas heater - wonder if i could find another one somewhere cheapily. Would save me a small fortune on heating, plus i would barely need to use my heating then if it did get cold jsut whack my gas heater on!

katieowl_2

lilac_lady wrote: »

Reading about the stone hot water bottle took me back a bit. It certainly did keep the bed warm all night but the warm feeling ended when you had to get out of bed on a winter's morning. No central heating or fitted carpets then. I remember we had a parrafin (sp?) stove in the kitchen . Wonder what Health and Safety bods would think of that now (plus the risk of burning flesh from the stone hot water bottle if it got unwrapped!) How did we survive unscathed? I think Calor gas heaters will make a comeback. Pay in advance so no worries about a bill arriving. I use mine in the winter when it's really cold. It heats up a room in minutes.

Oh yes I remember paraffin too - we had a heater in the hall and you could smell it the minute you walked in. There was a guy that used to come round delivering it!

We all DID survive didn't we!!! So I guess if things get worse and we have to go back to the old ways the Health and Safety gang will have to take a running jump....they can't very well ban the only way people can keep warm can they?

I've been cooking on calor gas for the last few weeks, like you say, paying for it up front is a big advantage...it's a pain cooking in the garden when the weather is bad, but I just keep thinking of the £60 a month I am saving on the gas Aga!

Regards

Kate

exlibris

We had a paraffin heater in the bedroom when I was growing up. Whenever I smell it I remember my Mum's little lecture on the birds & bees (at least the use of STs) I used to warm these on it before use!

mary43

We had two paraffin heaters when I first got married in the early 60's and they were a godsend as we had one of the coldest winters ever ! We had one in the kitchen (used to prove my bread on top of that one!) and the other we had as extra heating in the lounge -coal fire just didn't seem enough. As a real treat we'd put it in the bedroom and have a warm room to go to bed in...................lol
Can't remember how much we paid for the paraffin but I remember having a little can and popping to the corner shop to have it re-filled...............oh such memories...............lol

teedy23

We used to have a built in gas fire in one of the bedrooms, this was in the 50,s it was standard. The great thing though was using a ginger (pop) bottle full of almost boiling water in the bed. You couldnt do that now the lids are so flimsy that the water would leak out. These were glass bottles and many a time we put the water in too hot and it just cracked, hence they were always filled in the sink. A lot of problems stem from the power companies, now houses are all electric or gas, so the humble coal fire is almost non existant. My mother could cook a meal on the fire if times were so hard that she didnt have money for the meter, it heated the water and dried the clothes and got rid of the rubbish, I loved it.

katieowl_2

teedy23 wrote: »

We used to have a built in gas fire in one of the bedrooms, this was in the 50,s it was standard. The great thing though was using a ginger (pop) bottle full of almost boiling water in the bed. You couldnt do that now the lids are so flimsy that the water would leak out. These were glass bottles and many a time we put the water in too hot and it just cracked, hence they were always filled in the sink. A lot of problems stem from the power companies, now houses are all electric or gas, so the humble coal fire is almost non existant. My mother could cook a meal on the fire if times were so hard that she didnt have money for the meter, it heated the water and dried the clothes and got rid of the rubbish, I loved it.

We were all gas fires, in our Victorian House, by the time I was a kid. They had all been blocked off - ripping the fireplaces out entirely became very fashionable!

I've never lived anywhere before moving here that had the original fireplaces in working order, but I'd not be without the fire...

Secure Shredding? BURN all the bank statements/bills ...free firestarters, and totally secure!

Roasting Chestnuts

Keeping a pan of mulled wine warm

We burn hardwood offcuts from OH's workshop, and yesterday we picked up four huge bags of coal from a Freecycler who had dismantled a coal bunker in the garden of their new house (I presumed the fire places have gone )

OH and I think you could probably salavge a lot of wood from skips, which would in effect be - FREE HEAT (although you need to be careful about burning pine types of wood, as the tar can cause chimney fires)

I don't honestly think you can beat a real fire, but in this house you have to fight the dogs for the best seat :rolleyes:

Of course I bet the power companies LOVED central heating becoming fashionable...that's what you do isn't it? Sell somebody a "good idea" nice and cheap, then bung the price up till their pips squeak and you :rotfl: all the way to the bank. This winter every time I stick a bit of wood on the fire I shall think "That's one in the eye for E-on!" LOL!

Regards

Kate

tramps

Grew up late 60s/early 70s no heating in bedrooms my dad was a welder he made a metal 'cage' about 2'3' and fitted a light bulb to the inside of it this was connected via an electric cable - put the cage into bed turn on the light leave nice warm bed in half an hour !