Preparing for winter II

Fruball

Its a washing machine which is in a converted coal shed, not an outdoor loo

Confuzzled

aha! i finally found what i was looking for, this has a very easy to understand explanation of why pipes freeze and burst. if you scroll down towards the bottom there is a section called "Letting the water run' that explains what i was talking about

Letting the Water Run
Letting a faucet drip during extreme cold weather can prevent a pipe from bursting. It's not that a small flow of water prevents freezing; this helps, but water can freeze even with a slow flow.
Rather, opening a faucet will provide relief from the excessive pressure that builds between the faucet and the ice blockage when freezing occurs. If there is no excessive water pressure, there is no burst pipe, even if the water inside the pipe freezes.
A dripping faucet wastes some water, so only pipes vulnerable to freezing (ones that run through an unheated or unprotected space) should be left with the water flowing. The drip can be very slight. Even the slowest drip at normal pressure will provide pressure relief when needed. Where both hot and cold lines serve a spigot, make sure each one contributes to the drip, since both are subjected to freezing. If the dripping stops, leave the faucet(s) open, since a pipe may have frozen and will still need pressure relief.


http://www.weather.com/activities/homeandgarden/home/hometips/severeweather/pipefreeze_prevent.html

Confuzzled

Frugal wrote: »

Its a washing machine which is in a converted coal shed, not an outdoor loo

lol my mistake! and here i was thinking poor you still having to use an outdoor loo! still some of those tips should help and i finally found the clear explanation of why running water helps.. though i'm not sure how you personally could get it to work in your situation but that heating tape sounds promising!

Fruball

Confuzzled wrote: »

lol my mistake! and here i was thinking poor you still having to use an outdoor loo! still some of those tips should help and i finally found the clear explanation of why running water helps.. though i'm not sure how you personally could get it to work in your situation but that heating tape sounds promising!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Thankfully NOT!!!

A thought tho... Some people do still have them :eek:

Primrose

This is a slightly different type of winter problem. Any ideas how I can keep a small area (about two square metres) free of snow with some kind of effective cheap cover so that there's a place where I can keep my bird table snow free and a small ground area around it to put food down for ground eating birds?

I've tried running some gardening fleece through both ends of long poles and running it over the bird tables and down onto the ground on either side to make a type of "umbrella" but the fleece is too light and wind keeps blowing it all over the place

annie123

My hubby built a wire cage around ours with squares cut out to allow small birds in and keep squirrels out:T they have their own feeder.
On top of this is an old estate agents board which bends over and is tied to the cage, keeps everything nice and dry. Would take a pic but it's dark now.

I put a waterproof sheet (£1) over our wooden bench and feed the ground feeders under the bench, stays snow free and I can see them:D

Hope that helps Primrose

coldstreamalways

Freeeeezing here today, we were busy all week sorting things so we could just relax today. My turn for a lie in so I got up to find the stove lit and all toastie in the sitting room. We had fresh egg on toast from the girlies who are still laying one each every day, took the dog for a long walk through our beautiful English countryside and now curled up googling for xmas pressies, dog alseep in front of the fire. Perfect.

I found a massive draft though so need an excluder, just have a rolled up blanket there now but I have cut up and used everything I owned but didn't need for various other jobs so I don't actually have anything to make one from!! Perhaps Santa will bring one.

I also put some of that insulating tape around our front door but now need some for the new draft, can I find it???? I know its in a sensible place but I'm boobled if I can remember where that is!

I spen Friday afternoon making chutneys for our xmas hampers, the jars all look ace on the windowsill in the kitchen (I went for red and green), about 12 jars for £12 of stuff, if I had planned better it could have been a bit cheaper I think but I'm still quite happy.

Just have some apple sauce to defrost and put into jars, some xmas pudding truffles to make and some nice stickers to find.

An icing sugar dusting of snow today so not enough to stop anything but pretty flimmin cold in Bucks.

boddy

Kittie. Hope you dont mind me asking what the style name is of your new boots. Im looking for a comfortable pair myself. Ive looked at some Doc Martens called Mel Delia which look comfortable.

Lots of snow here so Ive dug out my wee lantern and wind up torch etc. The torch charges a phone Im sure but not sure where I put the bits.

sb44

Confuzzled wrote: »

hmmm i might well have a radio on the phone, i def don't have the headphones. my mobile is a glorified alarm clock that i very occasionally get/make calls on... and it's nice to have in the bedroom at night just in case of a burglery or fire but that's pretty much it...

i'll have to play with it and see what i can find out, i replaced my old one i'd had for 5 years with this one about 8 months ago as i'd accidentally knocked my old phone off the arm of the sofa into my tea

i think i even know where the intruction booklet is! thanks for the idea i most def never would have thought of that myself as i just don't use that kind of feature

If it does have a radio you won't be able to play it Confuzzled without connecting the earphones, they act as an arial and it detects that they aren't connected and won't do anything.

sb44

Confuzzled wrote: »

ooh you have my greatest sympathy! the last flat i lived in had this. i couldn't for the life of me figure out why my bill was 55 quid a month during the summer months when i had all the radiators turned down to 0! a plumber came out to check on some problem i had and i asked him about it. he took one look at the boiler, sucked in air sharply and explained that the council used that kind of boiler extensively in the past (this was ex council stock) and that they are very antiquated and expensive.

Well we aren't ex council so I assume someone tried to save some money when they chose to have that type installed, I bet it was cheaper than the others. :mad:

We need a new bay double glazed lounge window and new double front door before the boiler. The glass looks like it will fall out in a year or two as the frames are rotting on the inside and we have mould behind the front door and that is on it's way out too! Plus their is the lack of security too when they are old style wooden ones, I bet you could punch the glass out of them!

Whoever owned the house in the past had most of the windows double glazed except for the two largest and the front door.