Preparing for winter III

Eliza_2

When this happened to me, I just got a letter from npower offering the money, didn't have to claim and it was the same for all of us in the area. Anyway if your freezer is really full and you don't open the door too often (and it's in a kitchen as cold as mine!!) it won't all be spoilt. Just eat the more expensive and perishable things first. Veg and fruit I just allowed to refreeze once the power was back on. Wouldn't do that with meat or fish tho.

Or put them in a neighbours freezer, people will be happy to help.

Anyway all of this preparing for the worst is depressing - it hasn't dropped below freezing point yet outside, (0.5 above right now) and snow has been melting meaning I could get to work and earn some much needed money. And I am warm and for the next hour everything is good. I will worry about what might happen later in an hour or two - and it will be all fine then too.

rising_from_the_ashes

Confuzzled different suppliers have different criteria for compensation ... have a hunt through your agreement and it should be mentioned in the T&Cs somewhere.

shegar

Ive been reading up on how you are all coping with the recent bad weather that you have had at Scotland, you lot are a hardy bunch of happy people, you just get on with it, and always find a way out of a problem.........Im down South and we dont get half of what you poor s@ds get......But you are all well prepared.......

Ive got a freezer full, and tinned foods in the cupboards, so if we do get bad weather we will not starve..:eek:

I did pay extra on the DD on the gas and electric all year so im well in credit....I know a lot of people say they dont want energy companies to have hold of their dosh but at least its one sure way to know that you can afford to put the heating on when needed..........

I know this is of topic, but had to tell some one of my good news......

Well as madarther knows ive got real bad plantar fasciitis in my feet, I had a most painful steroid injection ever about 12 days ago and yea for a couple of days it did give me a bit of relief, but it soon went back to being a pain.....So I came up with the idea of having acupuncture, (long story short) and yes my feet are feeling so much better:Thad it 2 days ago, well worth the money, they say you cant buy your health , well I just have, its so good to be able to walk without so much pain, I hope it lasts , its 80 per cent better than it was........:T...

gardenia101

What would you use for taping up draughty doublr glazed windows? I have tried masking tape, but it isn't sticky enough, yet I'm scared to use parcel tape etc. in case it sticks too well & never comes off, or discolours the white uPVC frame. My DS's window is amazingly draughty & needs replacing, but I can't afford to get it done. It is where the window closes (or should!) & it can't be repaired.

Any bright ideas? Thanks.

Rainy-Days

It was cold here this morning with a frosty start. I just wanted to tell you all that I had put my boys heavyweight rugs on them recently and this morning I went down to their stables and put my hands inside them and felt the warm as toasty feeling coming back from their bodies. I felt so happy that all that running around getting their coats cleaned, reproofed and repaired was so worthwhile, because it has paid dividends for the last two days. I am sure they feel happy and snug in their coats too.

I can see all that hard work throughout the summer being so worthwhile. DH checked around the house and garden Thursday and yesterday making sure that everything was okay and that no roof tiles or ridges had come lose - thankfully not.

Fruball

gardenia101 wrote: »

What would you use for taping up draughty doublr glazed windows? I have tried masking tape, but it isn't sticky enough, yet I'm scared to use parcel tape etc. in case it sticks too well & never comes off, or discolours the white uPVC frame. My DS's window is amazingly draughty & needs replacing, but I can't afford to get it done. It is where the window closes (or should!) & it can't be repaired.

Any bright ideas? Thanks.

Parcel tape should be ok... Fold it back on itself when you start and then just use a hairdryer on it when you peel it off - that should melt the glue and make it come off more easily.

Or you could get the window film?

lizzyb1812

gardenia101 wrote: »

What would you use for taping up draughty doublr glazed windows? I have tried masking tape, but it isn't sticky enough, yet I'm scared to use parcel tape etc. in case it sticks too well & never comes off, or discolours the white uPVC frame. My DS's window is amazingly draughty & needs replacing, but I can't afford to get it done. It is where the window closes (or should!) & it can't be repaired.

Any bright ideas? Thanks.

In an identical situation I used duck/duct tape - the silver stuff. It sticks well and comes off well also. Any adhesive that stays on can be removed with sticky stuff remover or by soaking in oil for a while then rubbing off but I didn't need to do either of these.

I had one window where the failed closure mechanism left a big gap so I used bubble wrap to bridge the gap and taped round the bubble wrap.

Confuzzled

poohbear59 wrote: »

One thing I am not sure how to prepare for is our mains water freezing. Last year we had 19 very long days with no running water. A friend has suggested that we always keep the tap nearest to the stopcock running but that is such a massive waste of water.Any ideas?

last year i did some research online about pipes freezing etc as i was to be away at christmas and it was sooo cold. many sites hosted by professional plumbers suggested leaving the taps open but that they didn't have to actually be running.

my pipes DID freeze, however, they did not burst and we were able to allow them to thaw out slowly by jacking the heating up for a day.

the reason it's supposed to work is something along the lines of allowing the air that's in the pipes a way out when everthing else inside the pipes freeze (i'm not explaining this well!) at any rate it worked for me

what i did was turned on every tap in the flat then turned them down to a mere trickle, as most of you will know, eventually trickles like that stop and that was open enough to avoid pipes bursting. it's important that if they do freeze you MUST leave the taps open whilst they thaw.

this year i will be leaving my taps open like this every night even though we'll be in the flat this year, i actually had left the heat on normal heat whilst we were away last year because i knew it was to get very cold and they still froze so i'm taking no chances this year!

Confuzzled

kittie wrote: »

mardatha, lol that was plan B, ie cold food and a warm room and I also saw that couple with the gas hob and coal fire. Doh, I even said to dh about the people without either of those. Bbc gets up my nose at times

I can`t think of any way to get electricity to a freezer except by a generator, which would have to be outside the house. Mine is bulging too and I`ve just checked house insurance and it is covered. It would only last a day without electric, I suppose. Fingers crossed, the energy companies did a good job last year in most areas so it would take a lot of adverse stuff to knock the power off. Sil works in RR and they are told to cut energy consumption if there is a risk to the overall supply, I think industry has to reduce first and then us

the thought occured to me that some things in the fridge could be hung out the window in plastic bags as a 'student fridge' and if worse came to worse, i have some plastic tubs that i could go outside, fill with snow and pack in my most valuable frozen goodies, i would then put that inside some cardboard boxes i have wrapped in bubblewrap etc and kept in our freezing stairwell (i'm in a maisonette) i think that would for for an emergency.

today i forced myself to overcome my fear of the proper camp stove (based on using dodgy wiggly style camp stoves, the ones with the round squat canister with a burner of sorts on top, not at all stable :eek:) i managed to only let off a little gas as i was removing the cartridge and figured out quickly how not to do that next time, i left the base and the metal burner in place and the butane canister is ready to go, but seperate, storing it ready to go seemed a poor choice!

i also made a point to get the emergency number i need to call if my electric goes out. calling your provider will not get you to the number you really need, i had to go in search of my supplier number on the bill to find the phone number. i wrote down all my electric account details, the number i needed etc. tomorrow i will call npower again to make sure that i am indeed on the priority list they said i'd be on since i have a child. also, though i doubt they consider it a priority, with storage heating i personally see that as priority. i realise most people with gas have an electric switch however for them when the power goes back on they get instant heat, with me, if it goes back on really early in the morning i still have to wait 20 or so hours for the heaters to kick on!

we're going to be moving in april, most likely to a new area and most of the places seem to have fireplaces so i'm hoping we'll get lucky enough to find one with a working fp if not a stove, then regardless our heating type we'll be good for heat at least.

the though occurred to me that if i saved up all the white paper junk mail and paper towel rolls, and cardboard boxes i normally recycle i could use one of those soak and press log makers to make loads of free fuel over the course of a year hmmmmm

i'm going to spend the next 4 days seriously heating up the flat, it will probably be far warmer than we like for this time period and i plan to heat the entire flat rather than just the main rooms like i normally do. i want the entire flat to be a reasonable temp, to both hopefully avoid freezing pipes and so that it doesn't cool down as quickly if we do lose the electricity

on the same note, on the 13th or 14th i will turn up both my freezer and fridge temps to get them as cold as possible before the bad weahter hits. i realise that i will be using extra electricity for a few days but an extra £5 in electric (doubt it will be that much) is an investment in protecting so much more than that, plus peace of mind, or at the very least knowledge i did what i could to prevent damage... at any rate it's a small price to pay to not be as worried

SpikyHedgehog

DS2 has a rotten cold, so we've not been anywhere today & I don't think he'll be going to his friend's party tomorrow (20 minutes walk to get there, 20 minutes to walk back, plus sharing germs before Christmas? No.), but DS1 & I got up the battens for the curtains in the hallway. My lovely thick proper door curtain is over the doorway in to the sitting room, cat does not believe in closed doors, so it has to stay open. Amazing how much warmer it now feels in the sitting room with the curtain closed, even without the heating on! I've got to sew new heading tape on the thin cotton curtains to go over the front door, & I've nothing to line them with yet, so don't think they'll make much difference, but it all helps.

I went to the GP on Wednesday & said 'Very sorry, know I should have used to repeat prescription service but please give me more inhalers', & dropped off the boys' repeat prescription requests. GPs now have a surgery on site, & I had the prescriptions go to there & they should have been ready on Friday but I didn't have a chance to go & get them. So will have to do that on Monday. They are open tomorrow, but I don't fancy the mile walk down when I work near there so can wait till then. I would send DS1 but but forgot to ask if he's allowed to get his own stuff now he's 16, and I don't know if he's allowed to get DS2's still... (I did get my inhalers while I was there.)

DS1's been wearing his base layers under his clothes today & said he would like more. Great, but really he'll have to wait till next year now I think as I can't afford to get any more at the moment. DS2 wore his when he went tobogganing (on a dry ski slope) with Cubs & came home cosy & warm. Not tried mine now as I'm trying to keep them till its really cold. So I guess they'll be out next week.

I'm pretty worried about how I'll keep us warm if the power goes out. We don't often have long power cuts, but often have short ones, to the extent that I unplug the router when we're all out to keep that safe (plus it does save energy). The heating is gas central heating, but the boiler needs electricity to power it. Cooker is electric. New house (4 years old) so no fireplace or solid fuel stove. No gas fire. We've a bathroom upstairs & a toilet downstairs, so I guess we camp on the sitting room floor, dragging DS1's double mattress down & all sleep on that with the sitting room door closed no matter how much madam scratches at the carpet.

I've got 1 1/2 bags of tealights, and various wind up torches. So we'll have light and warm baked beans over tealights. I'll get the grillpan out to put tealights in & put the grill rack sideways over so it's high enough to burn the candles underneath (just pulled it out to try it with a candle). & we'll listen to the wind up radio.

Worst case scenario of power being off for longer time, cat basket comes out of the cupboard under the stairs & madam gets shoved in there with her blanket, use the bungee cords to fasten onto the sled & we wrap up including waterproof trousers & decamp for mummy & daddy's as they have an open fire & lots of wood, & woods round them to gather more wood from. Backpacks full of supplies. Google maps says it will take 1 hour 38 minutes, but weather could change that...