Preparing for winter IV

tori.k

bluebag wrote: »

It's still a far cry from the days of my childhood when we had only one coal fire in the whole house.... I really, really hope we don't ever go back to that.

Thats where we are now :eek: rummer we are in the same boat i can't seem to get the electric under 28units a day at the moment thats without running nightstore heating, this house just eats electric and despite me getting up at 4am and doing the washing/ironing, the house is just too big to keep warm, thanks for all the great tip's everyone.

Confuzzled

tori.k wrote: »

Thats where we are now :eek: rummer we are in the same boat i can't seem to get the electric under 28units a day at the moment thats without running nightstore heating, this house just eats electric and despite me getting up at 4am and doing the washing/ironing, the house is just too big to keep warm, thanks for all the great tip's everyone.

is it possible for you to get or borrow an electric usage monitor? it might be really eye opening for you to go around and make note of how much juice everything is using on it's own, perhaps then you could find the culprit (they say it's often things you'd never expect) and be able to either cut back specifically or replace with a more energy efficient model if it's a necessity.

Confuzzled

ooh it's snowing again! i woke up about and hour before i was planning to get up (so much for my lie in!) so i was using that time to do some chores and it was made more pleasant by watching the snow falling

it'd stopped for awhile but it's back now and the skies are that ambiguous grey background you often see with snow so i'm hoping for more :T

Uniscots97

tori.k wrote: »

Thats where we are now :eek: rummer we are in the same boat i can't seem to get the electric under 28units a day at the moment thats without running nightstore heating, this house just eats electric and despite me getting up at 4am and doing the washing/ironing, the house is just too big to keep warm, thanks for all the great tip's everyone.

Tori, do you have the bathroom/hall light left on at night? I got those battery operated push light till I could get one of those solar jars. Meant it gave off enough light so you could see your way to the bathroom without waking you up or using electricity.

bossymoo

Black ice here. Love snow but hope it doesn't today, and sit atop all that ice. I've just been out with some salt for the drive and path. We're not going out till this aft but with all the fog it's not looking like it will melt any time soon.
The kiddies have a party to go to later, think we will be getting our thermals on...

Uniscots97

Had a thought. When I volunteered in the CS, we used to be inundated (sp?) with silk scarves. Mostly gaudy patterns and except ones that matched with things the rest were stored in a basket in the store room. Most CS's sell these for pennies (especially if they're patterned. Silk is a really good insulator. Now you don't need good sewing skills for this but you could fashion a silk body warmer/waistcoat out of 2 silk scarves. Not sure of cost anywhere else but I know the CS where I was and most other local ones were 50p-£1 for the square ones which would be perfect for this.

Take one of the scarves and divide it in half. Overlock the edges so they don't fray. Place the two halves on top of the other scarf and sew lengthway (parallel to cut edge) from one end to 2/3 the length of the scarf and repeat the other side. On the open side (the side where you didn't sew to the end) sew from the sides in about half the width of the cut scarf side and repeat the other side. You now have a very quick and cheap silk thermal layer. Ok you might not like the pattern but if you're wearing it as a layer and you're warm, who cares!

tori.k

Thanks mostly it's down to the kids, i will have to start beating them everytime they leave the bathroom lights on ( starts the extractor fan off) they are older teenagers so know better, but we have things like halogen spot lights not very energy friendly and i use mostly lamps in the evening, this is an unusual house and very poorly insulated with issues of being a listed building everything takes an age to get approval from the council.

Uniscots97

tori.k wrote: »

Thanks mostly it's down to the kids, i will have to start beating them everytime they leave the bathroom lights on ( starts the extractor fan off) they are older teenagers so know better, but we have things like halogen spot lights not very energy friendly and i use mostly lamps in the evening, this is an unusual house and very poorly insulated with issues of being a listed building everything takes an age to get approval from the council.

I have Halogen spot lights in my kitchen and at the moment only 2 work. I've not replaced the others. I am tempted to go get the LED halogen bulbs as they are a 10th of the cost to run but the cheapest I have seen them is Home Bargains (when they have them) for £5. I have seen them on ebay coming in from China for 1p but £4.99 shipping. So if anyone knows where to get these at a decent price please let us know.

As for your walls, what about wall hangings? Ok, sounds quite 70s I know but it would be a good way of insulating the house.

greenbee

unixgirluk wrote: »

I have Halogen spot lights in my kitchen and at the moment only 2 work. I've not replaced the others. I am tempted to go get the LED halogen bulbs as they are a 10th of the cost to run but the cheapest I have seen them is Home Bargains (when they have them) for £5. I have seen them on ebay coming in from China for 1p but £4.99 shipping. So if anyone knows where to get these at a decent price please let us know.

As for your walls, what about wall hangings? Ok, sounds quite 70s I know but it would be a good way of insulating the house.

I'm the same with halogens. I don't replace them until I find it's too dark :cool:

As for insulation, I find that bookshelves full of books make a great insulating layer!

mineallmine

Definitely recommend an energy monitor. They highlighted a very thirsty kitchen light which we hated anyway. Changed it to a fluorescent light and that made a lot of difference.

Does the bathroom extractor fan have an external switch, outside of the room, as well as the light pull switch? So you could turn it on when required.