Preparing for winter II

fedupandskint

I've written out my new winter prep list and its coming down with just a few more cheap things to stock up on over the next month

Just read back a few pages and will add on a cheap camping stove to pop in the winter box

My radiator foils arrived today from eon so will have a look and see if I can fit them - they look easy to do and hang on the brackets so should be ok.

Nearly ready to go now, tis cold here tonight though. Trying to hang on and not put the heating on until the end of the month, see if I can make the next 2 weeks

csarina

Sorry Mardatha, the first time I read your name I mis read it too as mardy arthur!!

CCP

I'm struggling a bit to get into a wintery mood at the moment - the air conditioning at work's broken and, with a south-facing office and lots of sunshine (sorry, people in non-sunshiny areas ), the temperature has been over 25 degrees for the past couple of days. It definitely feels more like summer than winter at work at the moment.

I have had to get my SAD lightbox out, though, so that should put me in a wintery mood. :cool:

I'm off work next week so I'm hoping to get most of the tinned food and other heavy items off my winter list delivered, paid for using a stack of Tesco vouchers I've got sitting around. :money: I won't be able to get anything for the freezer as there's no room in there at the moment. Back to the storecupboard challenge thread for me, I think.

Chillout5892

Mamzie wrote: »

Good Morning everyone

I've heard that this year is going to be worse as well!!!


This is a video made of our town last winter, but in the first week while things were still kinda under control, the snow actually got much worse than this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9WMZFVttYo

:T:T:T:T:T

Brilliant, excellent video. Boy are you good.

A very timely reminder of what a harsh winter can be like. Those icicles hanging off the eves!!!

Yesterday I added a bag of Sain's basic salt to my shopping and chided myself for being so pessimistic as I did so.

After watching you vid... I think better prepare for the worst. I just hope it wasn't a premonition.

Fruball

I've got 2 big tubs of DW salt which I will mix with playsand for paths Had nothing last year and it was treacherous on my doorstep :eek:

Also going to keep looking out for snowshovels locally.

Chillout5892

sb44 wrote: »

Sorry Mardatha but does anyone else read your user name as Mad Martha?

I always do and I know what it should be but can't help myself.

Know what you mean. It comes across as 'Mort D'arthur' to me.

I'm sure you're a lovely woman and not the lady of the lake.

jayneylane

We have our first winter in our flat and I was hoping for some tips! We are lucky we are in a firts floor flat over a shop so we probably benefit a little from their heating, but we are still very cold and could do with some help!

My mum has made us a draft excluder (we live in a very old building, and has uneven floors, so one end of our front door has a 1-inch gap at one end which caused quite a draft!)

At our windows we just have Venecian blinds - not as cosy as curtains I know! As we rent, we can't drill into the wall, so I have bought a rail that extends so it fits into the space and my mum has given us a voil that she no longer needs. Hoping this will help a little bit, trying it in the spare room first and then if sucessful, I will go and buy another two for the main bedroom. Luckily our windows are double glazed but are very big, I think this is one source of loss of heat.

We don't have central heating, just storage heaters. Any tips on how to use these to the best/most economical way? So far today is the first time they have been on and we have had it on for an hour in one room with the door shut, we haven't noticed much difference yet...

Other things we have done so far include hot water bottle in bed, nice thick dressing gown, slippers, fleecy throws and leaving the oven door open after cooking to let the heat out into the kitchen and then hopefully into the rest of the flat.

Any cheap renting-friendly tips welcome, thanks

NualaBuala

Somehow I missed your link to the video Mamzie ... that's what I get for skim-reading. it looks so beautiful ... but must have been really tough!

mynameisnotmardatha

Hiii ! I am a new poster! I have never posted in here before and nobody knows me ! :A I do not live in Scotland and my name is em. em. Fred. Nice to meet you all !

Confuzzled

jayneylane wrote: »

We don't have central heating, just storage heaters. Any tips on how to use these to the best/most economical way? So far today is the first time they have been on and we have had it on for an hour in one room with the door shut, we haven't noticed much difference yet...

you won't notice any difference til tomorrow ifyou just turned it on today. storage heaters store up heat during the cheaper economy 7 time frame (varies from as early as 10pm with some providers to as late as midnite with others) and release the heat through the day.

there was quite a long discussion of the best tactics for using them which i need to brush up on again. it's near the end of the first thread for this discussion.

i will say from experience that if you have a room that is mould free but you don't use it much you don't need to heat it every day. my daughters room is always cold even with the heater on so she slept with me last winter and we kept her bedroom curtains closed and only turned her heater on when the thermometre i put in her room got to 13C or less. during the coldest days i did have it on but just a few hours a day (i flip mine on manually to save money, so i don't accidentally leave them on charging for 7 hours if it's not cold enough to need to store up that much heat).

just keep an eye out for signs of mould, if you don't have it you can get away with only heating the places you use most of the time. i don't heat my bedroom either but the hall heater is right by my bedroom door so i open the door about an hour before bed to take the edge off. i do have a heater in my room but it would make me boil if i used it!

some of your heaters will likely perform better than others so have a play around with them and you'll get to know which ones you need to turn up higher, which ones where it won't make a difference how high you turn them up (like in my daughters room) and which ones affect your comfort the most, for us that's the hall heater as that flows through to where i work from home, heats my bedroom to some degree and keeps the bathroom from becoming an icicle (no heater in there!). best of luck!