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

bertiebots

Although my gas ch is very cheap to run (£25 pm) at the mo.., I wish I had a chimney. I have been wanting a wood burner for years and could have one with a twin insulated external flue. The flue alone would cost approx. £1500 plus fitting and then there would be the cost of building a fireplace and of course the wood burner itself so its on my wish list for the future but in a different house as I wont be where I am now forever.
I agree though that with the popularity of wood burning stoves the price of wood is going up....I need to find a Friend who is a tree surgeon;)

D&DD

Catznine they are lovely! Great tip from Clare too I hate doing fiddly things like that you must have the patience of a saint!

Freda so glad to hear the news about OH's job.

CC do you buy audiobooks? I used to for my boy who spends a lot of time flat on his back but found he enjoys them just as much on my kindle now and its FAR cheaper..if you can get past the weird robotic voices :rotfl:

I'm fascinated by how inventive some of you are re heat pumps and such I so don't have a clue..

HariboJunkie

No harm in getting excited Clare.

We aren't in a smokeless zone here and already burn wood on our open fire. OH's mother has a several acres of woodland and we have a great supply from her but had to pay a cheap local supplier for some hard wood this winter as Mil's wood wasn't quite seasoned.
The fireplace in the kitchen (1920's house) would once have housed a range so is perfect for a stove and the chimney is lined and ready to go. Just hunting out the best value stove atm.

modern_millie_2

Freda, we had our multifuel stove installed about 4 years ago, chimney was ready for it so cost about £1600 in total. They do take a little while to heat up from cold but are great when they get going. We hope to move in the next couple of years, but if we were'nt I would seriously consider having another for the other side of the house, would probably then need no other heating. Alternatively, air source heating as someone mentioned. Most waste wood can be used if you can find a cheap/free source.

Mrs VP, glad you enjoyed your lunch, you deserve a break.

Kidkat, good luck with your house search - onward and upward!

Kitty, I am really impressed with your electricity usage need to get to grips with this (after the petrol). But, Spring is on the way, things should be a little easier, sitting out in the sun is free!

frosty

fedupfreda wrote: »

Re woodburners - how much does the average woodburner cost to buy and install -

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

HI,we purchased our multi fuel stove off ebay,it cost about £250 plus p&p,if you go through quidco you can claim some of the listing fee which nearly covered the cost of the p&p.We got it from country kiln stove shop.
Our neighbours purchased one from a shop and paid £1200.00 and it looked the same as ours,the shop said it would cost £1100.00 for them to fit it but they managed to find a local fitter who charged them £350.00.We love our stove,we go to the woods and collect kindling and logs to burn and we gather pine cones to use as firelighters.

mardatha

I worked out our bills today. We are using £2.50 a week calor gas for the cooker, this includes constant kettle boiling for tea And we are using £5 a week for electric, which we think is a wee bit high. Then we use £30 a week coal, which is heating and hot water. (Big stove on 24/7). I'd like to use less elect, that's just lights and tv and the pump for the radiators and I think it should be lower.

ifonlyitwaseasier

welshcamper wrote: »

my nan was blind and cooked everything from scratch, never weighed anything but her food was mmmmmm, tried to make her apple dumplings years ago, was total disaster, she used to use whole apples, wrap in pastry, wrap in cloth, boil, cut open with brown sugar and butter, does anyone have any ideas how i could do these without making a total mess of them again?:(

ohhh i hope we figure out how to make those dumplings, omnomnomnomnom

with regards to flour i freeze for at least 24 hrs in a plastic bag thern decant into a L&L, tho sometime we get thro them too fast lol

ChocClare

D&DD wrote: »

Catznine they are lovely! Great tip from Clare too I hate doing fiddly things like that you must have the patience of a saint!

Freda so glad to hear the news about OH's job.

CC do you buy audiobooks? I used to for my boy who spends a lot of time flat on his back but found he enjoys them just as much on my kindle now and its FAR cheaper..if you can get past the weird robotic voices :rotfl:

I'm fascinated by how inventive some of you are re heat pumps and such I so don't have a clue..

I don't buy audiobooks but I do borrow them from the library. Harry Potter is classed as a children's book and is therefore free - yippee! I got a lot of Amazon vouchers for Christmas so was tempted to get some audiobooks but they are generally pretty expensive I think. DH has got a kindle but he just laughed when I said what you'd said about the robot voices - he knew exactly what you meant!

I also logged on to librivox and have listened to a lot of the stuff on there - the problem with that is, the standard of reading varies hugely, as it's all read by volunteers. My DD says I should stop moaning and record some of the books myself, as I used to read to the kids when they were young and did all the voices, but I'm not sure I'm technically advanced enough for that!

maryb

Re Woodstoves, I am in a smokeless zone but we are OK to burn wood with our Clearview as it is on the HETAS approved list. That would not be the case if we had a back boiler fitted as that reduces the efficiency significantly. Clearview is actually a multifuel stove so we could burn coal but that would have to be smokeless fuel.

I love, love, love my Clearview.

If you ever find yourself anywhere near Ludlow go and have a look at their big showroom there - it's a big old Georgian house with stoves in every room and they also sell lts of rugs and country furniture. It's a lovely place to look round

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

Freda , your in East Anglia yea? roughly what village you at? cos you could go along to Suffolk Stoves and take a look.....There about 4 mile from me............got huge showroom.....