Preparing for Winter V

Jellytotts

boultdj said:

@Jellytotts, check your council website, you might be able to get a council tax discount because your DH is disabled.

Thank you, yes we had done that at our old house, they took the banding down a level and then did the same here...saved a whole £16 a year! It's better than nothing I suppose.

daz378

Just been  in tessco  Salford to replace some tins of curry ...only a few left on shelf...first time I've noticed gaps

Si_Clist

Primrose said:

...  I,ve not seen any specific advice on what is deemed good practice without freezing ourselves  to death or massively increasing heating bills   Is  a good "blow through" for five minutes twice a day sufficient? ..

Apparently the optimum way to change the air completely in an average two-storey three-bedroom house without losing all the heat is to open all the windows in quick succession then start closing them in the same order as you opened them after no more than three minutes.  I read that somewhere only last week but I'm blowed if I can remember where.  The source was something to do with building research.

ETA - my dear wife, being half German, has always been big on "lüften".  Angela Merkel's big on it too ... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/germans-embrace-fresh-air-to-ward-off-coronavirus

-taff

Primrose said:

havent yet figured out if there,s a way of reducing lost heating  if we're going to follow medical advice and have more windows  open for increased ventilation in winter though..  I,ve not seen any specific advice on what is deemed good practice without freezing ourselves  to death or massively increasing heating bills   Is  a good "blow through" for five minutes twice a day sufficient?

Well, to be honest, unless you're having people in your house I wouldn't bother doing any more than you usually do...

Laura_Elsewhere

Fiona236 said:

Im so chuffed with myself for making the stray cat winter box from wombling the wood and using an old paddling pool to waterproof it and saving polystyrene. The cat was so warm inside im sure he will be snug even if it snows.  
https://ibb.co/VDhdRFQ

https://ibb.co/CskSsVY that cat bed with the newspaper print is waterproof so ideal for stray cats

The hedgehog lives in the tub below it.

Nice work! 
I have one of those tiny greenhouses that is a set of metal wire-mesh shelves with a plastic 'overcoat that slides over and has a zip-front, positioned against a fence tucked just inside some woodland... during September every year I make sure the bottom shelf is cleared, with several layers of thick cardboard put down and leave it for the winter with the door rolled-up for six inches, enough space for a cat to get in but keeping most of the weather out... 

Laura_Elsewhere

Si_Clist said:

Primrose said:

...  I,ve not seen any specific advice on what is deemed good practice without freezing ourselves  to death or massively increasing heating bills   Is  a good "blow through" for five minutes twice a day sufficient? ..

Apparently the optimum way to change the air completely in an average two-storey three-bedroom house without losing all the heat is to open all the windows in quick succession then start closing them in the same order as you opened them after no more than three minutes.  I read that somewhere only last week but I'm blowed if I can remember where.  The source was something to do with building research.

ETA - my dear wife, being half German, has always been big on "lüften".  Angela Merkel's big on it too ... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/germans-embrace-fresh-air-to-ward-off-coronavirus

I'm no German but I did spend most of my life in a huge old barn of a house with single glazing and wonky shoogly wooden-framed sash-windows, the original 1882 glazing, and draughts such that I used to have to light cigarettes under my bedclothes because my lighter could be blown out in my bedroom even with windows closed and locked and heavy, lined, velvet curtains drawn...! 
Now I no longer smoke and I live in a cosy little 1990s flat in absolute bliss with the double-glazing... but I do have the bedroom window open most of the year, even if only a crack, despite the shivering Intended beside me turning blue with cold, and all year round I open windows front and back of the flat and let the wind blow right through for three minutes even in the bitterest weather... it's astonishing how quickly the temps recover once you close them! And we've never yet used our heating... even when the flat below us was unoccupied for a couple of months one autumn... very fortunate. 

Primrose

Good idea Laura.  Have you ever found any evidence of "stray" or wild creatures making us of it?  .  We have one too, which is permanently strapped to our house wall after an unexpected gale blew it over one spring day when it was full of my veggie seedlings.  I lost most of them but since it's permanently strapped in it,s withstood some oretty fierce gales. 

Primrose

That fresh air renewal method is interesting. 

 We keep small windows open at front and back of the house open  a crack in most weathers to create a continual small draught and change of air.   For all the Covid Scientists now banging on about adequate ventilation I don't think I've ever seen one of them come up with specific suggestions as to what would suffice. . 

 I'm assuming that the tiny ventilation shutters we have built into the top of our double glazed windows don't  let enough fresh air in to qualify for a Covid ventilation system ?

Fiona236

Edf messaged to say energy prices had risen over 50% in the last few months and to expect to pay more. Great.

I've been pimping up the stray cats home and added in the charity shop foam back bath mat to his bed today.
Winter jobs for pooshka ( thats his name, its a Russian gun cos he used to run off like a shot).
*get longer plastic to cover front for bad wind and rain.
*use  the bunches of sticks to pad the side bit to the street to cut off wind and rain that side
*get a big umbrella for feeding him under unless can make him another box as a feeding station

Fiona236

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Fiona236 said:

Im so chuffed with myself for making the stray cat winter box from wombling the wood and using an old paddling pool to waterproof it and saving polystyrene. The cat was so warm inside im sure he will be snug even if it snows.  
https://ibb.co/VDhdRFQ

https://ibb.co/CskSsVY that cat bed with the newspaper print is waterproof so ideal for stray cats

The hedgehog lives in the tub below it.

Nice work! 
I have one of those tiny greenhouses that is a set of metal wire-mesh shelves with a plastic 'overcoat that slides over and has a zip-front, positioned against a fence tucked just inside some woodland... during September every year I make sure the bottom shelf is cleared, with several layers of thick cardboard put down and leave it for the winter with the door rolled-up for six inches, enough space for a cat to get in but keeping most of the weather out... 

Thats smashing. The more people that did something the better off these animals will be.