Preparedness for when

ALIBOBSY

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Hi ALIBOBSY we have several woodburners installed in houses in the village here that have done exactly what Clooties Mum has described. The flue comes through the side of the house into the garden and they seem to work perfectly. It would be worth calling a woodstove installer in to give you some idea of what it would cost to buy the stove and everything you need and for an idea of the installation costs. They usually give you a quote for free and would know if it was or was not possible to do what you want. Be prepared to become a firewoodaholic though, we have so many people who bring chopped down trees from the garden, a derelict garden shed came our way, we have most of the old decking from the local pubs upgrade last year, we even have a lovely builder who pops in with the odd van load of wood, it costs him to take it to the tip, and then there is our friends labrador who insists on bringing a big branch back from every walk and his Dad rings when there is a trailer full which we collect- woodstoves are a lifestyle, I'm so glad we got ours, Cheers Lyn x.

Thanks for that Lyn. We currently have a "fake" electric log burner we got for free which sits in a fireplace (not a real fireplace just one of those wooden frame/mantlepeice things we got for £20 in auction and did up ourselves) where the old gas fire (blocked off now) is. We have a through room living room/dining room so it would go on the middle of the wall (to the side of where the blocked off one is-we assume its safer to move it away from the bocked off gas pipe). Its the outside wall of the house so the flue can go straight out I assume, then up the side of the wall.

We would hope that as the bottom of the stairs is opposite where the fire would be that we could open the stair door and allow the heat to reduce the heating needed upstairs as well.

Just wondering what sort of ballpark we are looking at. Dad's friend is the local chimney sweep and he is also qualified to fit and maintain the stoves, so we would ask him for a price. Just don't want to get him out if its going to be impossible or way out of our price range.
Hmm will ponder some more then. Need to get the garage converted to a 4th bedroom for DS first so DD1 can have her own room and toddler can come out of our room at last.

Ali x

ALIBOBSY

sb44 wrote: »

Argos have a wind up LED lantern in their clearance sale for £14.99, not sure if it is any good or not but there are a lot of decent reviews.

I know you can get some a lot cheaper from Home Bargains etc but this can be charged via the mains, car or usb so that you have it fully charged before needed, maybe easier for those with dexterity probs who find it hard to turn the crank on wind up lanterns.

I have a £15 Argos gift voucher but didn't know what to spend it on, maybe it could be worth investing in one of these.

This Wind Up Lantern would be perfect for camping or sitting outside on a balmy evening. The wind up mechanism is environmentally friendly but it does come with an in-car socket to charge with less effort involved.

• 15 Toyoda Gosei white colour LEDs.
• 2 brightness settings.
• Made from ABS plastic.
• Wind-up mechanism.
• More than 50,000hrs bulb life.
• Collapsible to save space.
• 1 minute winding gives 8mins light.
• Lantern duration from full charge is 3hrs.
• Car socket compatible.
• Eco friendly.
• BS adaptor and 12v car plug supplied.
• Emergency siren.
• Size H22.5, W10.8, D11.5cm.
• Weight 1kg.
• Batteries required: 1 x built-in 4.8v/500mAH Ni-MH (included).

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3401967.htm

It is collapsible too so I assume it looks like the one below.






Edit:

Not sure about the Argos one, but from looking at other models (which look exactly the same) they can also be used to charge up mobile phones).

http://www.multipoweredproducts.com.au/products/Dynamo-15-LED-Collapsible-Wind-up-Crank--Lantern-%252d-DY508.html

Nice spot, OH saw over my shoulder, reserved at our local Argos and nipped up when dropping DD1 off at her friends for a sleepover lol.

Must says it brill, nice and dinky. Smaller than a full size lantern I would say, but pretty bright for the size and the fact its LED. Yes it will charge items via USB any items that use up to a 4.8 v battery.
It has an alarm so just in case you get stuck somewhere and you need to signal :eek: thats an extra point for it. The winder is in the very top and just flicks up and is dead easy to turn, it claims 8-10 mins light for 1 min turning and has a light which comes on so you know when its actually charging.

When folded down its not much bigger than a large mug. So well pleased. Got stocks and warm clothes all ready for the cold blast-got those gripper things for the feet from lidl last year. OH has a fur trapper hat, but I only have one of those skiing/elf hat things-you know wool with long tassels at the side, will that do lol.

BIL is still holding on, seems to be improving. Now sitting up and eating, but he is still slurring his words and is confused. They are testing him daily for alcohol to ensure he isn't sneaking it from anywhere. They reckon at least another 3 wks on the ward and even when discharged he will be an outpatient to get treatment/counsilling. Unclear if he will ever work again, but at least he may have some kind of life if he can just stay off the booze.

Onwards and upwards, batten down those hatches for the snow.

Ali x

ALIBOBSY

GreyQueen wrote: »

To anyone with a combi-style gas central heating boiler, can I issue you with a little heads-up ahead of the expected freeze-up, assuming that you didn't encounter this in Dec 2010?

Your boiler has something called a condensate pipe which exits out of the wall to outside. If it freezes the boiler will shut itself down. This caused a world of hurt in our city back in the last freeze. A gas engineer told me that there were so many with this fault that they didn't have time to thaw them out and had to resort to cutting them off with hacksaws to get the boiler up again.

You may want to cuddle your condensate pipe up with a bit of insulation round about now, just in case.

Yeah we found out about this in that minus 15 weather, luckily OH got the info off the net to fix it ourselves so didn't cost anything, but spoke to a local plumber/heating engineer who reckoned some guys were raking it in seeing to these.
OH insulated the pipe, but on some of the coldest days that still didn't help, he found when he took the bottom off the boiler cover that the pipe on ours was in 2 halfs, one bit came out of the boiler and was connected to a second bit of pipe than runs outside. He found he could unscrew the "inside" bit (it was outside that was freezing) and let any slow drips of water go into a pot inside and kept emptying it as required.

Ali x

mcjordi

WELL its freezing cold up here so heating on low and duvet down. nice takeaway ordered
fixed the kettle instead of chucking it

ALIBOBSY

OH nows tells me he didn't actually need to remove the bottom to unscrew the pipe, and now he knows how it works can do it all from the outside. Better than standing outside freezing your bits off trying to defrost the pipe with a hairdryer.

Ali x

Hardup_Hester

Many years ago I had a friend who's husband worked at Roehampton Hospital, at the time they were swapping wooden, artificial limbs for resin ones, it could be disconcerting to visit them & see feet burning on her open fire.
Hester

sb44

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Nice spot, OH saw over my shoulder, reserved at our local Argos and nipped up when dropping DD1 off at her friends for a sleepover lol.

That's great, I reserved one but wasn't sure whether to go and get it or not.
You have made my mind up for me now, will go and get it in the morning, ta.

pineapple

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Just wondering what sort of ballpark we are looking at. Dad's friend is the local chimney sweep and he is also qualified to fit and maintain the stoves, so we would ask him for a price. Just don't want to get him out if its going to be impossible or way out of our price range.

Check out this company. My coal merchant has recommended them and says they are both cheaper and better made than many of the big names.
http://www.woodburningstoveslimited.com/

frosty

pineapple wrote: »

Check out this company. My coal merchant has recommended them and says they are both cheaper and better made than many of the big names.
http://www.woodburningstoveslimited.com/

We purchased our stove from them,they were very helpful.the postage was high but it's a very heavy item,they were on quidco so we got £25 ish cash back which covered the postage.we have had it for about 5years and wouldn't be without it.

Confuzzled

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

Many years ago I had a friend who's husband worked at Roehampton Hospital, at the time they were swapping wooden, artificial limbs for resin ones, it could be disconcerting to visit them & see feet burning on her open fire.
Hester

as long as it didn't smell like pork you were probably ok, but still, i can understand how that might shake you up a wee bit