How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

redlady_1

Freda,you are spot on but dont think it is a cheap alternative. The wood is now going up in price, as is the coal. But if you do have one then plan ahead and get lots, and I mean 3 -6 cubic metres of the stuff in the summer providing you can store it. I get through a scary amount of wood but wouldnt be without mine. It cost £2.8k and that included knocking and rendering the fireplace and all the bells and whistles. fingers crossed for the job too.

Weevils - I can't swear but they have no father!!!! I ended up throwing EVERYTHING in the cupboard out, silicone sealing the units, bleaching daily for two weeks and still the gits came back!!!!

mardatha

What's an air source heat pump?

jackieglasgow

Mardatha there is a huge thread about them in the heating board at the top of home and play.


EDIT here it is

shegar

fedupfreda wrote: »

Re woodburners - how much does the average woodburner cost to buy and install - fuel is something that is really occupying my mind at the moment, after the winter we have just had - so the next project is concentrating on saving to have a woodburner put in (we have a chimney, its a 1950's house - but there is a 'coal effect' gas fire, which is ruinously expensive to run so we don't have it on.)

Obviously we will need the chimney lining etc. I have a sort of figure in mind - was just wondering how close my estimate (£3k?) really is.

TIA

I wouldnt think quite as much as 3 grand....but I suppose it depend on what type burner you want, and what kw, big or small, I reckon your looking at £1.500 for the chimney lining and flu , or less, I expect some one will soon be on here and tell you otherwise if theyve recently had one fitted.....

When I had my wood burner we just sat it in the hearth with a 3 foot pipe on stuck it up the chimney and away it went:eek::eek::eek: no liner or nothing :eek: I know people would not do that these days because of health safety , ins etc, etc ........... but when you never had a penny to your name and 2 young babes to feed and clothe I was very grateful to have it and all the free wood we could burn...........plus I managed to boil kettle on top and use one saucepan.....................I think there far too expensive now , and the price of wood and coal if you have to buy it ............................

fedupfreda

RAS wrote: »

FuF

Are you in a smokeless zone, or not? That has major implications for what you can do.

It's a smokeless zone - but I gather there are highly efficient wood or multi-fuel burners that you can get which can be used in a smokeless zone. That's what we would be looking to get.

It would only be used for 'backup' or 'emergency' heating - as we have gas CH - I am not anticipating using it as a main heat source - its really just in case the CH packs up for one reason or another. (I am also looking forward to the possibility of maybe using the top of the woodburner for cooking - even if it is just boiling the odd kettle now and again. It all helps.)

As regards storage, as the house was built for coal heating, there is a very handy coal shed outside, which would be perfect for storing fuel. We also have some wood in the side alley (we gave our flowering cherry a MAJOR 'hair cut' this time last year - all the thin sticks have been stored for use as bean poles etc - but the thicker logs we cut up and stacked in the side alley, ready for use another day. Must have been a scout in a previous life - 'be prepared' being my lifetime motto ) Once that runs out -well, we will wait and see - but a neighbour is a gardener and occasionally does the odd bit of tree surgery - so a bit of sweet talking, and a few free eggs courtesy of the hens, and well, you never know.....

It's still good to see my estimate wasn't that far off then. Now the hard bit - SAVING. (Boo Hiss.....) Keep plugging on!:)

HariboJunkie

ChocClare wrote: »

Just waiting to install the air source heat pump and then hopefully we won't be quite so much at the mercy of oil prices. ...

You won't regret it. They are very energy efficient and green. We installed one 3 years ago and can't recommend it enough. Apart from the open fire downstairs it's our only source of heat. One unit in the kitchen heats the whole house and the rise in our electricity bills has been negligable as we have stopped using occasional heaters like the halogen ones which ATE the electricity. The pump has more than paid for itself.

As it blows out hot air I have hung my kitchen pulley in front of it and it dries the washing in a couple of hours so that's also worth thinking about if possible.

We are installing a new wood burner in the kitchen fireplace this year (we get alot of logs cheaply and some for free) and may relocate the heat pump to the upstairs when we do.

Bitsy_Beans

jackieglasgow wrote: »

You lot are making my skin crawl :rotfl:

Nah that would be your fleas

redlady_1 wrote: »

Weevils - I can't swear but they have no father!!!! I ended up throwing EVERYTHING in the cupboard out, silicone sealing the units, bleaching daily for two weeks and still the gits came back!!!!

I even scorched my cupboard with the hairdryer and the bl00dy things still came back :eek::eek:

All this talk of fires etc reminds me of my first house with H, it had an open fire but we were in a smoke less zone. Ruddy smoke free fuel needed a blow torch to get it going :eek:

D&DD

Evening all haven't caught up yet as only just wrestled the laptop off the kids.

Wanted to share though..I usually ring Sky or Virgin..or both after xmas and try for a reduction for a few months as a lot of MSEr's do but I'm a bit behind this year..

I just phoned Sky because we don't need multiroom anymore and without even asking they've just given me 25% off my monthly bill for the year as well :jresult!!

ChocClare

HariboJunkie wrote: »

You won't regret it. They are very energy efficient and green. We installed one 3 years ago and can't recommend it enough. Apart from the open fire downstairs it's our only source of heat. One unit in the kitchen heats the whole house and the rise in our electricity bills has been negligable as we have stopped using occasional heaters like the halogen ones which ATE the electricity. The pump has more than paid for itself.

As it blows out hot air I have hung my kitchen pulley in front of it and it dries the washing in a couple of hours so that's also worth thinking about if possible.

We are installing a new wood burner in the kitchen fireplace this year (we get alot of logs cheaply and some for free) and may relocate the heat pump to the upstairs when we do.

Thanks for that, Haribo, that's good to know, particularly about the washing. DH has just installed one in the garage which was damp and freezing (and which houses the contents of our former library and office - why yes, we did live in far too big a house before :rotfl:) so needs to be warm. The difference in temperature is ASTOUNDING and DH has put meters on it and tells me it costs £4.60 per week to run in there. As he is a qualified electrician, he installed it himself, so that made it far more affordable for us.

We have decided we probably need to have two in the house as our house is effectively two cottages joined together but we will start with one strategically placed in the conservatory which should hopefully a) heat that and make it useable even in winter, b) waft through into the children's sitting room (the "centre" of the house) and c) waft from there up the stairs which go straight out of that room. The ceilings in the old wing of the house are only about 5'10" high as it was built in the 17th century (our sitting room is like a morgue as the walls are over a metre thick and the floor is flagstones - although not for much longer ) so hopefully once the heat starts rising everything should feel nice and warm.

Delighted to report today that DH has overpaid on his tax and we got a nice refund straight into our bank account from the taxman - so we are going to "go for it" while the going is good and before we do too much decorating which then needs to be undone!

I will let you all know how it turns out!

Meanwhile, wood burning stove - if you ARE allowed to burn wood, FUF, then do chat up your local small tree surgeon (as opposed to the HUGE firm that does all the work for the council I mean). The chap who cut down our tree earlier this year is happy to dump wood on our drive (hence DS cutting it up today) as he has to pay to get rid of it otherwise. In terms of cost, I would say ours came in at less than £3k - the stove was expensive but we bought a top-of-the-range one which is really too powerful for the space it has to heat (thinking about those flagstones and those metre-thick walls). The chimney was already lined, though they did try to flog us a new pumice one at about £1800 - but we live in a thatched cottage, so that is fair enough. You wouldn't need a pumice one in a 1950's house. They are brilliant though - and also great for drying washing!

Sorry, I've gone on a bit - overexcited about heat pumps, I'm afraid...

Jolaaled

fedupfreda wrote: »

Re woodburners - how much does the average woodburner cost to buy and install - fuel is something that is really occupying my mind at the moment, after the winter we have just had - so the next project is concentrating on saving to have a woodburner put in (we have a chimney, its a 1950's house - but there is a 'coal effect' gas fire, which is ruinously expensive to run so we don't have it on.)

Obviously we will need the chimney lining etc. I have a sort of figure in mind - was just wondering how close my estimate (£3k?) really is.

TIA

We had our multi-fuel stove installed in october last year. I love it to bits and would not be without it.
Install, and stove costs, plus chimney liner cost under 2K.
The stove is very efficient and means that the gas CH is only used occasionally. The cost of wood and coal means that running costs are not, sadly, substantially cheaper than gas, but if you can get free wood, it all helps. There is a bit of work with keeping the fire going, sorting out the fuel and cleaning out, but for me, it's well worth it.
The stove is used also for, boiling water for tea/hot water bottles, for drying washing etc, plus a bit of cooking too. I'm still experimenting with what i can cook on it..but have so far made Dahl, porridge, heated soups.