Preparing for winter II

HariboJunkie

Gigervamp wrote: »

We still haven't sorted out our fireplace. It's a bit of a bone of contention between hubby and I. Actually, it's a big bone in my eyes!

:rotfl:We have one of those bones in our house too.
OH exposed an original inglenook fireplace in the kitchen last year which we intended to put a woodburner in (it's currently a log store for the living room fire). However after a summer of lots of hard work he is talking about an October holiday with the wood burner money. :cool: I fully expect the woodburner will be installed long before then. :whistle:;):D
We currently have the living room fire which is lit every afternoon in the winter (we get free wood) and and Air Source heat pump which heats the rest of the house if we keep all internal doors open. It's very economical to run but the woodburner could heat the water which would save us on the immersion costs as I do find that it bumps up our electricity bill.

Winged_one

We're putting off changing the open fire to a closed stove until next summer - we don't have enough funds (we do, but we want to keep a cushion). The open fire is not the worst, and we have a chimney balloon for when it's not in use. But I am getting on with the other preparations. I have done well on clearing out the older things from the cupboards, and plan a trip to restock in the next few weeks.

And I am in the middle of making a new set of curtains for our bedroom which are blackout and insulation lined, so that should help too. I should be finished by the weekend on those.

mummytoo

We had consensation on our window this morning, to me thats a sign autumn is really on its way now! Has anyone noticed the unusal amount of wasps today.

pineapple

tugrin wrote: »

Hi
Any really thrifty ideas for having something warm on floor(pref washable too due to incontinent old dog)

Well - my thrifty neighbour swears by cardboard as an underlay. And you may be able to pick up some washable rugs on freecycle or cheapish in a mill shop. That's all I have in my bedroom.

pollys

No condensation, but lots of wasps around. It has been a lovely day and we had all the doors and windows open for most of it and a few wasps found their way in.

Pollys

abwsco

Thanks toottifrootti and ChocClare off to have a look:)

Uniscots97

mummytoo wrote: »

We had consensation on our window this morning, to me thats a sign autumn is really on its way now! Has anyone noticed the unusal amount of wasps today.

loads of wasps and they keep following you, I hate it when they get like that as you know they're desperate to sting you!

Fruball

GreyQueen wrote: »

Morning all you lovely preppers.

I've just bought a rather elegant wind-up 4-LED lantern, "Rolson" brand, for £5.99. It's purchase was motivated by a camping trip but I'm contemplating trying it around the home in the winter evenings, but not for reading as I don't want to risk my eyesight. I thought about the £land ones and decided they looked a touch flimsy to be lumped around in rucksacks, although I think they would be fine for home-based emergencies. Safer than candles.

On winter nights, if I'm nattering on the phone, I have been known to turn the light off anyway as don't need to see to talk and it's all a saving on the bills, isn't it?

I "wombled" a large quantity of big bubble bubble-wrap a couple of years ago and will use some of it as insulation in my lottie shed. My flat is tiny and very well-insulated but I've spent most of my life in terribly draughty places; in my last flat I had to have a bolt on the inside of the living room door to stop the draughts sucking it open.

Can I recommend those brush-type draught excluders which fit along the bottom of doors? They are very cheap and easy to fit and really help (but they do gather fluff so you need to vac them from time to time).

Come September, I will be in my annual cleaning mode, where all the curtains come down and are washed and appliances dragged out an cleaned under, and a few other thingies which need to be done from time to time but not too frequently. This is my spring-cleaning substitute and I do it in Sept because this was the month I moved into my current home.

Hmmm, will have to start winter-prepping my allotment; treating the shed, rounding up stray items, organising shed, putting away stray items, harvesting and tidying up.

It's a good idea to check roofing felt (or other roofing materials) on sheds and outbuildings now, as well as frequently during the winter esp after bad storms, to check all is well and to make timely repairs. I've known people who've had to replace part of a shed roof because they didn't patch the felt when it needed it and the board rotted. A stitch in time, etc.

Right, must inventory the tinned foods in storage.......and the loo rolls, of course.;)

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

richardc1983

mardatha wrote: »

This is going to sound dead peculiar but since I'm among friends and yur all dead peculiar too, I will mention it
We have a fancy spotlight in the loo with 4 bulbs in and I'm trying to cut down the elect... so I dug out out of the shed a lovely paraffin lamp, tall one. I'm going to light it in the toilet every night instead of using the spots, and see if it makes a difference to the number of units used. (we started checking the meter daily when we started to cut down and it's become a habit now.) The window vents are open in there for the steam so it shouldn't smell.
And in the kitchen I've stopped using the fancy spots in there and just use the boring old fluorescent strip light. I wish I'd known how much elect these spots burn before I got the bloody things. But we are looking at LED bulbs next.
It's got very cold the last few days and I've given up on summer 2011. Been & gone & hardly noticed !

We replaced our spots in the bathroom with 20watt ones they are still bright enough to see what your doing. Also I have left some fittings with out a bulb in on purpose to cut down further.

No point wasting money on LED as they are expensive. Also work out how long you actually have your bathroom lights on for... not very long I would have thought so savings are minimal.

richardc1983

unixgirluk wrote: »

Do you know where I can get these (is it GU10?), I have these in kitchen and bathroom. Are they expensive?

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/browse.jsp;jsessionid=OAIF1QNCKJNESCQLCIQZNFQ?N=411&Ntk=gensearch&Ntt=gu10+20watt&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&suggestions=false&ref=globalsearch&_requestid=48446

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-lite/gu10-35-clr/gu10-240v-35w-prolite-clear-al/dp/LP02179

These are the normal halogen bulbs but you will find they last longer as they dont get as hot and your saving money by getting the lower wattage ones. 20watt ones you are find with.