Preparing for winter IV

noodles86

tori.k wrote: »

Anybody know anything about Night storage heater's? any recommendations? We've never really used electric heating we have an upside-down layout to this house wood heats the up-stairs living area lovely but downstairs needs some background heat we have E7 meter fitted as there is no backboiler on the woodstove so water is heated overnight (house was made to be a holiday let originally so insulation is not great) but we have the added complications of it being a listed property.

I had storage heaters when I had my flat. They were so expensive & in my opinion not very good! Luckily we had a electric fire in the living room. I bought two electric radiators for mine & dd's bedroom. These weren't much more expensive than the storage heaters to run & we could use them when we needed them. The bathroom & kitchen were freezing though!

In Textiles Direct today (not sure if a chain but there is one in Nuneaton & coventry they had two single flanalette sheets for £9 (sorry I cant spell :rotfl:)

Pooky

I don't know enough about storage heaters but know they're only really worthwhile if you're on a Economy7 meter. My friend has them and found them pretty useless, once she'd started replacing them with newer models she found them quite cost effective.

We got an oil filled electric radiator last year for our kitchen (no heating in there at all at that point), it has a thermostat, several different heat settings, a boost button and a timer, was lovely to set it to come on to heat up before we came down in the mornings. It was very economical to run. We've since had a new boiler installed and a radiator put in the kitchen (and filled all the gaps around the windows) so it should be toasty out there.

It's been raining steadily here all day so the temperature has dropped, still comy with a t-shirt and thin cardi, no need for heating/winter jumpers yet.

MaddyWaddy

My hubby keeps putting the heating on also (he works nights so is constantly freezing when he gets home) He did say it is time for his fleece jacket though and come the more colder months I am going to make him wear thermals as well as supplying him with a flask of hot soup.

List to do / Things to get
Winter Clothes including hats / Scarves etc
Car Box
Snow Shovel
Emergency power cut box

I have black out blinds but I need to take the curtains up otherwise all the heat goes to heating the windows up I also need to sort the thermostats out so upstairs isn't like a sauna like it was last year.

Jobs to do - make a in door washing line - thought I could make my own rather than buy the indoor ones ... My old tumble dryer tripled my electric bill Make door snakes and start closing the doors so heat doesn't escape out of the back door!

Tiglath

Hi all - I realised I've been fretting about autumn/winter ever since wild geese woke me up a couple of weeks ago, so I've decided to be organised and join you. I usually sail through winter (Graves' disease so was always hot) but my thyroid's now had radio-iodine so I need to be prepared for the cold. My stepdaughter has also moved in with us so that will mean revisiting quantities of things, sorting out her cold bedroom etc.

I've got the week off this week, so my prep list so far:

1. Sort out bedlinen. Buy new kingsize duvets.
2. Sort out bedwear + slippers + dressing-gowns.
3. Clear out + organize freezers.
4. Steamclean carpets.
5. Monitor when we need to turn on the bathroom heated towel rail (this stays on until Spring because it doesn't heat up much).
6. Clear out kitchen - the happy-go-lucky throw-a-salad together days are gone - time to move onto stews etc.
7. Put summer clothes like shorts away. Sort out jumpers + cardigans + winter tights, thermals.
8. Wash raincoat + sort out scarves and gloves. Get thick winter coat drycleaned.
9. Check supplies of lightbulbs + batteries.
10. Sort through meds cupboard for Lemsip etc.
11. Unplug + store away summer fans.
12. Get outdoor mat for the porch.
13. Find hot water bottles.
14. Consider electric blanket for our bed.
15. Check health of umbrellas and waterproof shoes/boots.
16. Consider throws for leather sofa as it's cold to sit on; could sit on old duvet when it's replaced.
17. Clean out washingmachine + tumble-drier.
18. De-cobweb the house.
19. Check car supplies - ice-scraper, emergency blanket etc.
20. Check thermos flasks.
21. Put cash on Oyster card for when the trains don't run.
22. Check batteries for smoke alarm.
23. Figure out if we can bleed rads.
24. Check + sort pantry; get tins of soup etc.
25. Send through meter readings when the energy supplier swap is done.
26. Sort out depressing horrible light in dining room.
27. Stock up on cat litter (9 cats, most of whom are still outside a lot of the time). Food is bought monthly in Costco (6 tins a day) but it wouldn't hurt to have an extra week's supply in case we can't get to the store.

That'll do for starters

PRINCESSX87

Tiglath 9 cats! wow.

Lucy5781

I only did a proper sort out and put away my big winter stuff a couple of months ago.... lol

But that helps in it's own way!

Flat just struggles to hold heat, yet clings to damp... Never ending battle despite my little de-humidifier.

Tiglath

PRINCESSX87 wrote: »

Tiglath 9 cats! wow.

You'd think we could use them for extra warmth in bed, but no chance with the fighting/hissing/growling/screaming, space-hogging, under-duvet tunnelling, pillow-sleeping, claw-padding, farting, snoring, scratching, hair-chewing, eyelid-licking, ear-dribbling ... my best tortie girl likes to jump high into a wardrobe and then turf all the jumpers out to make a nest, but I put a stop to that when she missed her step on the way up and brought 100 paperbacks down on my head. Too much hassle!

tori.k

Thank's everyone we have a portable gas heater that we used last year, but suffered horrible condensation which is why we thought a nightstorage ticking over would be a better option with having cheap night electric, we don't have gas mains unfortunately didn't even cross my mind about oil filled radiators, i had a small panel heater once in a previous house but it soon packed in with being left on overnight.

flubberyzing

My mid-floor flat is currently registering the temp as 22.5deg, which is okay for me. I'm warm enough at the mo, but still in my work uniform of thick t-shirt and fleece!

Did get the fleecy blankets out last night and put them on the back of the sofa, as I was a bit cold in the evening. Although as soon as I put my dressing gown on, I was quite toasty.

Until I lived here though, I rented a ghastly end of terrace house that hadn't been touched since the day it was build in the 70s. It never got warm, even in the height of summer, and I was always cold. I had the original storage heaters, one upstairs, one downstairs, and they were as good as useless. Boiling hot at 3am, cold as ice at all over times. I wouldn't recommend them.

hollieinbloom

I've not long moved to this house and its double the size of our old place....but.....there are LESS radiators and they are much smaller! oh dear. Think i will be wearing a snow suit this winter!

Haven't done any prep today, just making lists to do it...as usual! hehe.

Must go to town tomorrow and pick up some milk for the cupboards so we don't have that £1.59 milk from the corner shop if we cant make it to the shops. Off to make a coffee and put some candles on. Need heat! x