Preparing for winter II

starsandmoon

Talking about gas and CO, electric heating can be dangerous too. I rented a flat that all electric wet system. The boiler was huge and used to heat the water of a night on E7. It was in a cupbaord in my daughters room. One night it went on fire. Luckily I woke up and it had a safety switch thing that meant it didnt burn the block down. Apparently this system was known for this fault and the LL had been sent a recall letter to say to get a certain part checked/replaced and didnt! Needless to say I no longer live there.

NualaBuala

purpleheather2810 wrote: »

The boiler is in the kitchen - we have got the BG homecare insurance and I'm not sure if it gets a free check every year?? No open fire or fireplace here. It's a 70s ex-council house.

Well I'm no engineer but I'd play it safe since it's in a living area and not out in garage or something. I don't know what the insurance covers but it would be well worth paying for a service (I read on another thread that you can get good prices if you shop around) and maybe get a CO alarm as back up.

seafarers_wife

Its so cold today im tempted to put the heating on again. i keep thinking im prepared but then i think of other things and know im not as prepared as i could be.

I managed to get 20 kilos of road salt yesterday for £4.99 a bag, so i bought 3 bags. I also bought a plastic snow shovel and an ice shovel so that i dont ruin the good garden spade by trying to crack ice if needed. my driveway is stone so it got very very slipply last year. the ice shovel will be kept in the boot of the car as i had to dig myself out at work a couple of times last year with a borrowed spade.

Ive moved my walking boots from the wardrobe to the under stairs cupboard so they are handy. my winter coat is already on the backseat of the car ready for when it gets cold. ive also got fingerless gloves for driving that are in the car as i hate having cold hands.

I bought a teapot and a tea cosy today so that i can make a pot of tea if needed. im lucky enough to have a gas hob so if the power does go off i can still make a hot drink or cook.

Ive already put my dd for gas and electric up from £40 a month to £60 a month and am wondering if i should up it myself to £70 or £80 a month so that im not worried about having the heating on as im really cold at the moment even with having a quilt over me.

each week when i do my shopping im going to buy another couple of tins of soup and i think im going to do the same with uht milk as i dont mind it on cereal or in tea.

the only thing i think that i still need to do is dig out the flannel bedding for the next couple of weeks.

JenniO

Minxy_Bella wrote: »

You could get some cans of petrol to put in the boot too, maybe? Belt and braces?

Just wanted to add to this just in case anyone is still planning on doing this, I think they don't want you storing a petrol can in the back of your car coz if you are hit hard in the back of your car by a lorry or something, the petrol could explode and would go up like a car bomb. :eek: I'm not positive though...........



Someone also mentioned storing tap water in old plastic bottles and just wanted to add this should not be for DRINKING water. It will contain bacteria, especially over time just sitting there, and you really could only use it for 'flushing' down a toilet if your water supply stopped. I suppose you could boil the heck out of it if you had to drink it, but like someone else said, for 17 pence you could buy a new tesco 2litre bottle of water which would be safe. HTH.

csarina

We had a similar experience some years ago. We moved into a rented basment flat which had a gas fire in the sitting room. I got up to go to work, oh's office was not open. I left the fire on low. He phoned me to say he had woken up feeling sick and dizzy which rang alarm bells in my head. I told him to switch the fire off and get out, instead stupid idiot stayed in the flat and rang the gas board. The girl on the switchboard realised something was very wrong and kept him talking whist they phoned the police and an ambulance, he passed out whilst on the ohone and they had to break down the door to get in to him. Frightened me to death when a policeman rang me at work and said they were taking him to hospital, the gas board condemed the fire which left us right up the kyber, they turned the gas off, so I could not use the cooker and the agents were closed, it was New Years Eve in Scotland........

Eventually I managed to get the gas people to come back and switch on the gas so I could use the cooker.......OH in hospital, they tipped him out at 9pm because it was Hogmany and they were expecting an influx of drunks!!!! The only place we could keep warm was in bed.......I had to go out and buy 2 electric heaters from Comet to warm the place up. Eventually the land lords paid up for the heaters and the fire was checked, it was an old Cannon gas miser and when it was on the miser setting it emitted fumes into the room......needless to say we did not use the gas fire again. It was a short term let whilst we were waiting for tenants to move out of our house.

Incidentaly we never so an apology from with the agent or the landlord......my OH could have died I might have come home to find him dead in the sitting room.

fedupandskint

seafarers_wife wrote: »

I managed to get 20 kilos of road salt yesterday for £4.99 a bag, so i bought 3 bags. I also bought a plastic snow shovel and an ice shovel so that i dont ruin the good garden spade by trying to crack ice if needed. my driveway is stone so it got very very slipply last year

Hi, you're sounding very prepared Can I ask where did you get your ice shovel from? I would like one of these too

I have some road salt ready and a snow shovel and it was really icy round here last winter and it would be great to get one of these.

I'm nearly ready now for winter - just going to put the flannel bedding back on today as I was cold last night and as I'm full of cold I want to have a flannel cuddle instead of cool cotton

Justamum

JenniO wrote: »

if you are hit hard in the back of your car by a lorry or something, the petrol could explode and would go up like a car bomb. :eek: I'm not positive though...........

No, that's definitely not positive . In fact it's positively negative :rotfl:

I think you're right though - you also wouldn't want to risk a leak into your boot either.

fedupandskint

Also must remind myself to buy some bottle water each weekly shop and 2 tins of beans etc per time as extras to go in the winter storage box and if they're not used for any winter stays I'll use them up no problem next year

shegar

northwest1965 wrote: »

I too cant seem to find one. Who sells them? I did look at the Dunelm Mill site but the search returned nothing

What I have done in the past because it is very near on impossible to get a real heavy door curtain, but buy a cheap pair of curtains , 72 drop or 90 inch , velour or similar and sew the pair together, that way its dark and heavy and very thick, job done !!!!

lutzi1

seafarers_wife wrote: »

I also bought a plastic snow shovel and an ice shovel so that i dont ruin the good garden spade by trying to crack ice if needed.

Ive moved my walking boots from the wardrobe to the under stairs cupboard so they are handy. my winter coat is already on the backseat of the car ready for when it gets cold.

.

I found hitting the ice on my drive with a hammer quite effective last year!

Good reminder re putting things where they are accessible - the times I've found it snowing in the morning then remembered I've left my wellies in the car port!

I've also just had a thought - we'd better check our pets have warm beds and aren't lying in a draft as the nights get colder.