Preparing for winter II

sunnyone

angelaloveschocolate wrote: »

We're just so thrilled because it has a working back boiler. We put on a small fire and the radiators started to heat up. We can use it on its own as a central heating system in its own right.

This house was my family home since I was 4 years old and after my mother died 8 years ago we had let it out. My DH and I moved back 2 years ago and have started a major refit. The parkray had scrap written all over it, LOL. How happy are we that we were so slow at getting rid of it, what a mistake that would've been.

When Mum was alive the house was tropical using this heating:rotfl:
The alternative oil heating is now just so expensive to run so this is bound to save us some cash. Very MSE.

Ohhhhh, I'm so delighted.:)

So they are two diffrent heating systems, pipeworks wise?


Are they high pressure and what gauge pipes are they?

We live in a 200 year old ex pub and we might have a similar set up, thanks for answering my last post, I thought we were unique (and we might still be )

angelaloveschocolate

Pipe guages? Now, dont be getting all technical on me. Thats a question that I cant answer but i do know that both systems works completly independantly of each other. The solid fuel parkray was installed first but was no longer used after the oil system was installed at the other side of the house. The plumber installing the oil told me at the time the parkray could still be used. So I did have a dual system although never used. This set up of dual systems would have been, and still is, quite common here in Ex local authority housing.

My sisters had the same set up but removed thier fires, they're both sorry now. LOL:rotfl:

redlady_1

More logs en route. And this time blokey will stack them for me so I am happy.

It is definitely beginning to turn.

Red_Doe

The storm missed us, the Central Belt getting it mainly, but today we have gales.
Have to say, the weather is totally unreliable these days. A couple of nights ago, it was balmy and warm in the wind, for the north of Scotland that's just plain weird!
Last night was pretty cold though, so guess it's back to normal.
There's a small stand of trees in front of the house, once I'm back on my feet I'm in among them to find as much deadwood as I can to bring out and saw up for the winter.

tugrin

Hi angela
You mae me feel like a killjoy now. I have been moaning and moaning about my open fire with back boiler for months now and finally decided to stuff up the chimney to stop the ghastly raught, put a trunk in front of the fireplace and only use my elctric radiators this winter - now theres you all happy and dancing at the prospect of this wonderful new system. I feel like someone who has taken a sweetie away from a child (sad face)
Mind you, have you still got the Parkray or just an open fireplace - I think I would feel a lot more positive if I had a Parkray (they are hundreds of pounds now!!), but my radiators only ever get a bit hot-ish and thats with me stoking like a train driver so maybe my system is just rubbish - I kow the ols LA properties were much more efficiently fitted in the first place and this is only about 25 ish years old in a victorian cottage.
Ho Hum, why is life SO complicated...

lala1974

Hi all,

What a lovely, useful thread
Just reading through some of the posts and really pleased to hear of Yaktrax. DH is a postie and has falls regularly over the winter due to snow and ice despite having standard issue boots for the job. Will be purchasing him some Yaktrax I think.

I'm off to continue reading now.

Take care folks!

Ziggy8083

The weatherman on tv said to expect a 'light' frost tonight. Crikey! Was only 11deg this morn in car too with more wind and rain expected by end of week.

I think this weekend I shall hunt for deicer as I remember the price going through the roof when the snow hit last year.

Hope everyone has a great day:A

FairyPrincessk

Glad people liked the recipe. OH seemed to enjoy it, I think the interview was very stressful and a little disheartening and he hadn't eaten much all day so comfort food was definitely in order!

Today is my last day off. Have a few puttery things to do, mostly getting the things OH moved in with him last week put away, cleaning the kitchen and maybe doing a really thorough vac. in all the corners. Never got a chance to sit down and sew yesterday so will be making that a priority. Nice cuppa, second half of a film on the iplayer and relax a bit before the madness hits.

Went looking in one of those shops with the plastic stuff outside for car reflectors for the rads, but didnt find any. Contemplating making my own, have a bit of bubble wrap, plenty of cardboard and foil. I only have on rad on an outside wall, so will just do that one as the rest back onto other rooms. May eventually do the one in my bedroom which backs onto the kitchen which is always fairly warm but only have enough materials for one atm and don't want to buy more until I've tried it out.

OH even agreed to sit down with me this weekend and plan our meals for next week:T. I think he is finally really excited about this, as I've struggle a bit to explain to him why it matters what he wants for dinner four days from now, but since we did a big shop and have lots of food in and any little shops will come out of our individual budgets I think he feels more motivated:j.

Tomorrow is quite a stressful day, have a big assessment of some work and I'm very worried about it, so going to try to focus on other things in the meantime.:o

angelaloveschocolate

Hi Turgin, awwwh so sorry about your fireplace situation, and I've been following your posts about it so I know that its a real issue of yours.

No mines is not an open fire, its a closed glass front parkray which was installed in the house nearly 30years ago, this type of central heating was very common here at the time. However around 15years ago oil central heating became popular as it was so cheap and much more convenient. Almost everyone hereabouts had oil installed, but as a secondary system, and later got rid of the parkrays and chimney breasts when redecorating. This was the case with most of my neighbours and also my sisters. The reason I've been so lucky, apparently, is beacause I never closed over the chimney as so many people did to stop draughts. The air flow kept the system fresh as a daisy and in good condition.

Its kind of funny if you hold on long enough, everything comes back into fashion. All my neighbours are having woodburners fitted now. I guess I'm just lucky, or lazy that I never got around to removing it before!

Sorry Turgin, did'nt mean to dishearten you. I was inspired by this thread, I hope something or someone from here can do the same for you. xx

tugrin

Ziggy thank goodness you said that - Just realised that deicer and anti freeze have fallen out of my head for one reason and another!!!
First I need a really kind person to actually hlp me understand where to put these things (my son is unavailable for all hard work at the moment lol) I put the deicer in the screen washy thing yes? And anti-freeze goes in the water tank thingy that is always a bit brown and says DO NOT FILL ABOVE THIS LINE #???? Plus spray de icer is for when you have forgotten to put your emergency bit of cardboard over the windshield and nees to be down to - 5 (do they al have to be heavy duty ie down to -silly dgrees after what happened last year???? OH HELP