the daydream fund challenge thread

Poosmate

Thanks both but as I work full time I don't qualify for any benefits or grants. I've had leaflets through the door stating that the cost is £99, maybe I should just do it. I do have solid floors. I even laid some carpet down in the garage and in the kitchen too. I have a sheet pinned up on the garage side of the door into the kitchen and put another one on the kitchen side when it gets real cold (I seal that door up completely). I have a thick curtain up in front of the front door. I have an archway from the lounge to the kitchen and have a curtain up there too.

I sit in an alcove off the lounge under the stairs at my computer, the gas fire is behind me (in the lounge true) and the other side of the wall next to me is the garage. The wall gets really cold even with the garage there so I dread to think what it would be like if there was no garage! I've put some bubble wrap up on that wall and must admit it has made a difference. I also cut strips of underlay and stuck it onto the edges of the garage door to stop the draft coming in (it's an up-and-over metal door). Even the door and the window in the garage are double glazed! I really don't know what else to do (apart from the cw insulation) to try to make my house a little warmer. I'm afraid to have my gas fire serviced in case it's condemed! lol I have wondered if it's that that's not working as well as it could.

Otherwise, I thought I could get some bubble wrap from Ebay and pin it up onto the rafters in the loft and maybe do the garage too. I wonder if that would make any/much difference. Or, I have some old quilts that I thought I could nail up on the rafters in the loft.

Well, I just let the cat out and it feels warmer outside than in my house! lol

I'm not looking forward to winter at all!!!

Poo

choille

Hi Poo - Nothing worse than being cold if you're sitting. Solid floors are really freezing - our last rented cottage had concrete floors dowstairs. You get very thin floor insulation, www.progressiveproducts.co.uk - but it is very expensive.
There will be no cavity in the wall btw the garage & kitchen, that will be a solid wall because of fire regulations.
If you have a gas fire that should be vented.
Thick soled slippers & sit with a thick rug under your feet & pile on the layers.
A hat indoors is not something to be dismissed.
Here it has gone so mild outside it's weird. We had snow last week & now the temp is racing up.
All the best.

lostinrates

choille wrote: »

Hi Poo - Nothing worse than being cold if you're sitting. Solid floors are really freezing - our last rented cottage had concrete floors dowstairs. You get very thin floor insulation, www.progressiveproducts.co.uk - but it is very expensive.
There will be no cavity in the wall btw the garage & kitchen, that will be a solid wall because of fire regulations.
If you have a gas fire that should be vented.
Thick soled slippers & sit with a thick rug under your feet & pile on the layers.
A hat indoors is not something to be dismissed.
Here it has gone so mild outside it's weird. We had snow last week & now the temp is racing up.
All the best.

re the hat: I've taken to sleeping with a pillow on the top of my head, not over my face....like a duvet for the head:o . I always leave blankets/throws over every chair/sofa in the sitting room, its when you sit still you really feel it. And at night time, if yu are going to layer don't over layer....when the layers get heavy they feel colder...something to do with warm air not circulating under them. I'm ok under two duvets (and two cats) but sleeping on a duvet and under one with one blanket on top is warmer still.

rhiwfield

Poosmate wrote: »

Thanks both but as I work full time I don't qualify for any benefits or grants. I've had leaflets through the door stating that the cost is £99, maybe I should just do it. I do have solid floors. I even laid some carpet down in the garage and in the kitchen too. I have a sheet pinned up on the garage side of the door into the kitchen and put another one on the kitchen side when it gets real cold (I seal that door up completely). I have a thick curtain up in front of the front door. I have an archway from the lounge to the kitchen and have a curtain up there too.

I sit in an alcove off the lounge under the stairs at my computer, the gas fire is behind me (in the lounge true) and the other side of the wall next to me is the garage. The wall gets really cold even with the garage there so I dread to think what it would be like if there was no garage! I've put some bubble wrap up on that wall and must admit it has made a difference. I also cut strips of underlay and stuck it onto the edges of the garage door to stop the draft coming in (it's an up-and-over metal door). Even the door and the window in the garage are double glazed! I really don't know what else to do (apart from the cw insulation) to try to make my house a little warmer. I'm afraid to have my gas fire serviced in case it's condemed! lol I have wondered if it's that that's not working as well as it could.

Otherwise, I thought I could get some bubble wrap from Ebay and pin it up onto the rafters in the loft and maybe do the garage too. I wonder if that would make any/much difference. Or, I have some old quilts that I thought I could nail up on the rafters in the loft.

Well, I just let the cat out and it feels warmer outside than in my house! lol

I'm not looking forward to winter at all!!!

Poo

Poo, I believe that cavity wall and loft insulation already benefit from Govt subsidy but in any case they are one of the most mse things you can do with your money. For cavity wall a reputable installer (via your energy supplier maybe) will survey house to make sure its suitable. Then in a day you can have cavity wall and loft insulation fitted.

FWIW I'd expect 1-2 year payback and a snug house

rhiwfield

Edit, Its probably cheaper to buy proper loft insulation than use bubble wrap from ebay. Few weeks back I bought space blanket at £3 a roll from homebase to top up my loft after the solar pv installers had flattened some

troglodyte

Poo, I can sympathise re the cold house, this house is 1930s so no cavity walls, only part of the loft left due to a conversion although what there is is well insulated, not sure what else we can do other than cover all the outside of the house with thick insulation (a friend referred to this as a 'tea-cosy!) which is expensive. Monday I was outside all morning in a T-shirt as it was lovely and sunny, then came in around 1-ish and had to put a fleece on it was so cold in the house! We have a wood-burner in the living room but when I'm doing writing-based stuff in the evenings at the computer (which is upstairs) I actually wear my dressing gown and bedsocks over all my layers of clothes! Just glad that no-one can see me - I was never a fan of the video-phone idea!

Davesnave

Living in an architectural disaster, otherwise known as a seventies bungalow, has distinct advantages at this time of year. The previous owners made a real hash of the huge conservatory and the utility area, so both leak, but they make fantastic buffer zones against the cold. They did put in quality loft insulation, and cavity insulation too, so with the almost brand-new windows, we're fairly snug.

Once the Aga goes on, our heat will be doubled, (and the bills trebled!) but until then, we are managing with a fairly large woodburner in the centre of the house. As there's just two of us most of the time, we can shut off the two spare bedrooms and their corridor, which means the heat is contained in a smaller area. There's about 7 rads attached to that wood burner, and we get them a bit warm, but pushing the fire into overdrive isn't worth it, unless it's like last January.

I'm still a bit undecided about old cottages. On the one hand I'm disappointed that I didn't get one, but on the other, I remember living in them as a child and freezing in the winter. Mind you, everywhere was cold in the winter then, with little insulation, and central heating was a thing mainly for the rich.

In a year or two, we shall have to make final decisions on the shape this place will take, but already I want less rather than more, and a separate building, like a static caravan, or cabin, for accommodating visitors. Whatever we save by being less ambitious, we can put into energy generation.

Incidentally, I contacted Mole Valley Farmers abiout the energy generation cooperative and they put us on their 'list,' but there are no more details atm.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Incidentally, I contacted Mole Valley Farmers abiout the energy generation cooperative and they put us on their 'list,' but there are no more details atm.

I haven't even heard about this! Tell me more please

Incidentally at the weekend I bought a 200 metre length of electric tape, mole valley was £50 ish, the geographically nearest competitor on our side was £79 pounds. I'm about to start comparing feed prices too. I've found a difference of £10 on one feed balancer I use. :eek:

alfie_1

Poosmate wrote: »

Thanks both but as I work full time I don't qualify for any benefits or grants. I've had leaflets through the door stating that the cost is £99, maybe I should just do it. I do have solid floors. I even laid some carpet down in the garage and in the kitchen too. I have a sheet pinned up on the garage side of the door into the kitchen and put another one on the kitchen side when it gets real cold (I seal that door up completely). I have a thick curtain up in front of the front door. I have an archway from the lounge to the kitchen and have a curtain up there too.

I sit in an alcove off the lounge under the stairs at my computer, the gas fire is behind me (in the lounge true) and the other side of the wall next to me is the garage. The wall gets really cold even with the garage there so I dread to think what it would be like if there was no garage! I've put some bubble wrap up on that wall and must admit it has made a difference. I also cut strips of underlay and stuck it onto the edges of the garage door to stop the draft coming in (it's an up-and-over metal door). Even the door and the window in the garage are double glazed! I really don't know what else to do (apart from the cw insulation) to try to make my house a little warmer. I'm afraid to have my gas fire serviced in case it's condemed! lol I have wondered if it's that that's not working as well as it could.

Otherwise, I thought I could get some bubble wrap from Ebay and pin it up onto the rafters in the loft and maybe do the garage too. I wonder if that would make any/much difference. Or, I have some old quilts that I thought I could nail up on the rafters in the loft.

Well, I just let the cat out and it feels warmer outside than in my house! lol

I'm not looking forward to winter at all!!!

Poo

PLEASE PLEASE DONT PUT BUBBLE WRAP EVERYWHERE my son is a fire officer and he has related horror stories of how plastics melt,drip and cause havoc.... official lagging is certified so is safer by far. any rubber or plastic can give off poisonous gases in the event of a house fire.[god forbid]
i dont even have a chip fryer now.....
one case was a hairdryer plugged in ,on at the wall, left on stairs. dog ? knocked it over , it switched on the dryer, set fire to the carpet [nylon] and burnt 1/2 the house down !!!
sorry to be a party pooper but you cant take chances...

choille

All the lambs off today & sheep moved back off the hill & it's poured like it was going out of fashion.

A mini water spout appeared next door in the veg garden which has been awash with water - I think it was a mouse hole that was filling with water & spouting out of - weird to see.

Parts of our road have collapsed with the water washing down. Last night was unbelievably noisy & the wind got up to scary levels. I don't like the wind.

Yesterday a neighbour from a mile away came round with a list - all his livestock for sale. His wife has up & left & it's all to be got rid of. He came up here a few years back & a lot of his sheep are very elderly & would be best putting away - but he won't hear of it. I don't think he's going to get many takers. I have said I'll take some of his poultry, but I have had to put away some of my old ewes so I'm hardly likely to take on their's.
It's all a bit of a tangled mess as they have so many animals. He wants them to go where they will get loads of cuddles, but realistically that aint gonna happen............

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

I haven't even heard about this! Tell me more please

Incidentally at the weekend I bought a 200 metre length of electric tape, mole valley was £50 ish, the geographically nearest competitor on our side was £79 pounds. I'm about to start comparing feed prices too. I've found a difference of £10 on one feed balancer I use. :eek:

Back about 6 pages ago I said this:

Davesnave wrote: »

On the subject of solar energy, I notice in the latest Mole Valley Farmers Newsletter that members are being invited to join a new cooperative called Mole Valley Renewables, which will use its purchasing power to get the best deals on quality equipment, and in selling the electricity subsequently generated. This is so new that there is nothing on the net about it, so I guess I will have to phone and express an interest to find out more. I will let you all know how I get on....;)

MVF are pretty good for most basics, and if you are a member, there's discount too. I'm probably biased, they began in my home town and I use that town's branch now, though the modern site was a field when I was young.

I went for a quick walk near there last week, when I was supposed to be shopping for nails, staples and hinges. I wanted to have a look at the places where I fished as a youngster, but it had all been altered by the building of the North Devon Link Road. There was a huge underpass for the river and the footpath, all covered in grafitti.:(

However, just down from that part was the pool where I first caught a couple of trout..... becoming 'hooked' myself. That was still the same. Over 50 years, eh? Where did that go? :eek: