Preparing for winter II

EC12345

Hello, what a good thread.

I am going to invest this year in a draft excludor for our kitchen.

Also at the beginning of the thread someone suggested stocking up on cold medicine - what a fab idea!

EC

BitterAndTwisted

Confuzzled wrote: »

:rotfl:

when we lived in student family housing we always had the fortune (or misfortune considering our heat was paid for us!) of always having people below us from warm countries australia, iran, india etc

now i live in a purpose built block of 4 flats, i'm upstairs and have older neighbours in the other 3 sets of flats. i'm also facing south easterly so i probably have the best position in the entire place... and i do believe my downstairs neighbour has had her heat on already because there have been quite a few chilly days when in the late evening, around midnight i suddenly feel too warm

I think it's possible to parasite a lot more heat than you'd expect. I live on the top floor of a block and my flat has three external walls and no double-glazing. During last winter, with no heating on in here at all, the temp never dropped below about 10 degrees centigrade. As it was well below zero degrees outside for weeks and weeks on end heat must have been coming from somewhere. Like from my downstairs and next-door neighbours, bless 'em.

NualaBuala

Jack_D wrote: »

Was looking at ways that i could light my fire with out using the "proper expensive firelights"

Thanks you so much, I would never of thought of that !!!

Oh you're welcome but be warned that I haven't actually tried it properly yet. Last winter I did use scrunched up bills (or other papers with sensitive info I don't want to identity thieves to have) below the kindling and I sprinkled on scraps of wax which gave a good blaze. Have heard other folks here mention pine cones dipped in wax and also toilet rolls so that gave me the idea. Hope it works!

Pooky

The fluff from a tumble drier (if you have one that is) is supposed to be a good fire lighter when shoved into loo rolls.

Charis

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

Am really worrying about my bedroom. the radiator stil doesnt seem to be working no matter how much Ive bled it but then other days it does. I cant afford to not have the heating on in the winter in there or my new baby girl will freeze! :eek:

I don't know which area of Wales you are in Sammy Kaye but this is from a letting agents advice to landlords, in Gwent:

General Condition
Electrical, gas plumbing, waste, central heating and hot water systems must be safe, sound and in good working order. Repairs and maintenance are at the Landlords expense unless misuse can be established.

this is from the (UK)
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 Section 11

1. Disclosure of landlord's identity

(1) In a lease to which this section applies (as to which, see sections 13 and 14) there is implied a covenant by the lessor -

(a) to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house (including drains, gutters and external pipes),

(b) to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwellinghouse for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation (including basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences, but not other fixtures, fittings and appliances for making use of the supply of water, gas or electricity).

(c) to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwellinghouse for space heating and heating water.

The landlord's act is in legal-speak and there are a couple of clauses that are difficult to understand, as to whether section 11 applies to a particular property, but your local authority (Council) should have a department who will know the rules off by heart.

HTH

gtx

hi everyone

I love some of the ideas on this thread and the old one - I lurked there last year and made 'doubled-sided' sausages for my porch, living/dining room and kitchen doors.

This year I've put foam insulating tape round those doors too - need to get dh to look at loft hatch as our living room is open plan and the stairway can be considerably colder than the rest of the living room - I've put curtains up at these doors too, using curtain poles I made all by myself from dowelling and round wooden door handles ( all 3 ended up costing me less than £10:T).

And thanks to this thread I have a new car! put my old one in for a service (which at the time I thought was a great tip) and the guy at the garage rang to say I'd be better off putting the money towards a new car!!:eek: I have never had any real problems with it but it needed allsorts putting right so I've bought my sisters old car as she just got a new one last weekend. (hers was just because she fancied one, not from necessity - oh to have the money to do that!)

Still need to sort a box out for the car - will need to do one for dh's too as both he and the kids roll their eyes at these sort of things:cool:

A tip I haven't seen on here yet is to put individual thermostats on radiators - we did it ourselves ( and believe me if we can do it anyone with a couple of brain cells can do it)- and it made a huge difference to our heating bills as we were able to turn the heat in the occupied bedrooms right down as the heat from downstairs rises anyway.

Well thats enough waffle from me for my first post:rotfl:

Going to consider what to stockpile - asda and nettos are only a couple of mins away so not sure if its worth doing?

take care

gtx

Charis

pixie1 wrote: »

I love this thread and the timing is perfect for me. I know that its spring here in Oz, going into summer but that means i can remember with the prompts from this thread that i can stoke up on the things i will need for next year in the sales.

Welcome to this friendly forum thread, Pixie. My brother lives in Oz and is a heating and ventilation engineer! He was born in London but settled out there a long time ago. He tells me they often use sheet tin for roofs out there, which must be really cold in winter.

Do stick around the Old Style section of MSE and in addition have you visited the Down to Earth blog by one of your Aussie wise women? It's really worth a visit to check out Rhonda Jean's OS way of living and all the hints and recipes she shares with us.

carriebradshaw

gtx wrote: »

Going to consider what to stockpile - asda and nettos are only a couple of mins away so not sure if its worth doing?

it would still be a good idea, if the weather gets as bad as last Winter then people that haven't stockpiled will suddenly panic buy and the shelves will soon empty and then if containers can't get through because of icy roads you'll be stuck. It's nice to have a little stock pile of stuff to rely on in hard times as well,including toiletries and washing powder etc :cool:

Kitchenbunny

Not much more in the way of additional Winter prep done here (excepting stocking up on loo roll and making ready meals in the freezer for something hot, quick and filling on cold nights!) but I am still working through my list. I do need to get organised again as I've dropped off the OSwagon a bit. But as we're getting towards my favourite end of the year I don't think that'll be too difficult. Thanks, Pink, for starting a new thread.

KB xx

Rummer

I am very anxious about this winter as I have already been told by my elec supplier that they are going to double my monthly payments so I need to start looking to switch before that happens.

Usually I start to get my bits and pieces in early but my OH was made redundant in June and we are finding things tough day to day let alone planning ahead.

Sorry moan over here is what I need to organise:

• Curtains up in the living room
• New PJs and slippers for all
• Dressing gown and wellies for DD
• Couch fleeces
• Hall door curtain
• Blind on hall stairs
• Foil behind radiators
• Lots of warm clothes for us all

There is also a lot to do for the animals:

• Insulate the shed
• Get coverings for the outdoor hutches
• Get their food in
• Think of ways to keep them snuggly!

One thing I am so glad of is that we got cavity wall insulation at the start of the year so I am hoping that will have an impact on our bills.

I am sure there are many more things that I need to do but they have not sprung to mind yet, going to have a good read through the thread and maybe edit my list.