Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

HappyShopper3

Yes I think doing it by region is fairer. I live in the South West so I know it gets a lot colder up north. I think this challenge is going to be fun.

foreverskint

Does it count if you light the fire?:p

I might have to light the fire if it gets too cold, but I have got lots of scavenged wood for that already.

jessicamb

HappyShopper3 wrote:

I think we should start a thread to see who lasts the longest without any heating on! Now that would be a challenge.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I've been switching mine on for ten minutes in the morning already.

I cant imagine going until November without heating.

Good luck to you all

HappyShopper3

Well I just realised something. Although I don't put on the main heaters in the house I do put on the bathroom heater for 5 minutes to heat the bathroom. Would that be cheating?

foreverskint

I have made a decision, that it's just the storage heaters that are not going on.... I usually switch these on by the end of this month, as it's chilly in this house........but not this year.

It is a bit annoying though is it not, that this is the sort of conversation that someone on a pension might be having.......not people on a reasonable salary? I just feel for anyone on a pension, and it is a timely reminder to look out for elderly neighbours this winter. Maybe a nice fleece blanket as a neighbourly gift?

Spirited_2

Agreed, I think we have to be careful. If you are elderly or at increased risk of ill health then please don't compete yourself to hypothermia. If you need to heat up then please put the heating on, debt is preferible to death. You can use other tips for keeping the heating bills lower (like layers and foil behind radiators).

Question - sorry if it puts people off. Can I use dog hair as a stuffing for a draft excluder - ours is shedding in handfuls at the moment, and I'd like todo something with it to offset the extra cleaning I'm having to do?

kittiwoz

Mirry wrote:

what about those hats that roll over the mouth and nose ?

Balaclavas went out of fashion because they make you look like the IRA. Now there's a ceasefire and with fuel prices going up so much maybe they'll come back in.

Our house is OK at the moment but it gets really cold in winter. It is a five bedroom, semi-detached, edwardian house so high ceilings and a solid wall. It is rented and everything has been done to the absolute minimum. We have one small radiator in each room and no thermostatic control though we do have a programmable timer. We have no carpet underlay, except on the stairs, which is a particular problem as we have a basement. The loft is insulated because when it snows it does settle on the roof but I suspect it probably could use topping up (just based on that the landlord hasn't spent on anything else so I don't see why he would have spent on that). The curtains that were in the house were very thin. In my room they were backed with open-weave hessien attached with little pieces of double-sided sticky tape. We had the heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening last winter but we still had to bundle up with hats and fingerless gloves etc. It got cold enough to see your breath in every room but the kitchen and sitting room. I really wish tenants were entitled to a better standard of living.

So far what I have done is I have replaced a couple of the curtains with thicker ones but some of the thin ones are still in place. I fitted a brush type draught excluder to the front door which had a gap of over an inch underneath it. I am going to fit one to the back door too although it is a bit awkward because the draught excluder is supposed to be fitted on the inside but the construction of the door means it will have to be fitted on the outside because that is the only side with a continuous flat surface. I am going to get a roll of that sticky foam insulation for putting around door frames. I think that might make quite a bit of difference since the doors are badly fitting. There are also cracks in the panels of some of the internal doors so I may try and fill them. Will probably just use PVA since the doors, although of the type that are supposed to be painted, aren't. I am thinking of cling filming the windows but will have to get a hairdryer to do it because none of us own one. I don't think it will stick to the frames on its own since they are painted wood so I might need to get some double sided sticky tape. Do you think it would take the paint off? I don't want to loose my deposit. I saw some bubble wrap in Pound Empire the other day so I may buy some to put under my under sheet. I have a hot water bottle with a fluffy cover that I got for Christmas last year and which I dearly love. I also might look at getting a pressure cooker and/or slow cooker if I can find secondhand. We can't put foil behind the radiators because there is old peeled wallpaper that sticks out and is in the way. We have just switched energy suppliers but I am pretty worried. Our last bills were enormous. £322 gas, though the previous bill was an estimate so presumably an under-estimate which we paid for in the last bill, and £189 electricity which was acurate.

There's a nice guide to making a draught excluder with pieces of pipe lagging that go either side of the door like someone mentioned earlier here. It has step-by-step photos.

chardonnay_2

for those of you with single glazing try and replace them for double glazing. we got a company in our old house that did it for 300 pounds a window. really good quality. do some at a time to spread the cost and sell off your old junk on ebay car boots to raise money for them. definitely makes you more motivated to sell stuff if you have a goal in mind.

chardonnay_2

for those who can't afford to replace their draughty windows (even by selling clutter) then get down to your local diy shop. they will sell draft excluder on a roll which is sticky and you can stick around windows & doors. this will make a big difference in the meantime

chardonnay_2

tootles - try seeing if any of your hubbies bowling buddies know a plumber / central heating engineer and see if they will fit them for you / perhaps you could swap a skill or favour to pay for it