Preparing for Winter V

littlemoney

LadOnTheHill said:

Also we have an electric

heated throw for the sofa, it's less than 1p per hour to run on the lowest setting and is great for snuggling under.

I have one they are of these they are excellent.  I used an electric fan heater under my desk when I worked in a cold office. You can also get an electric foot warmer which would keep his feet snug and warm.

Toonie

Thanks, great suggestions. Will see how he does in the first few days and then we can make a decision after that if it would be a good idea to get a small heater (money is a bit tight at present as I lost my job). I already have a couple of electric heat pads and a microwave wheat pack, so think that will be useful.

Jellytotts

Worth taping the loft hatch up if its draughty. A thick bin bag and some frog tape will do the job and shouldn't cause too much paint damage.

Popping feet on some cardboard layers when sitting at a desk helps lots too.  Fingerless gloves are a must to keep wrists and hands warm.

Floss

Jellytotts said:

Worth taping the loft hatch up if its draughty. A thick bin bag and some frog tape will do the job and shouldn't cause too much paint damage.

Popping feet on some cardboard layers when sitting at a desk helps lots too.  Fingerless gloves are a must to keep wrists and hands warm.

I was about to suggest this, maybe also find him a scarf to stop him losing body heat from his neck.

Laura_Elsewhere

Several thin layers are often warmer than one big thick chunky jumper, especially if they are natural fibres. If you can find one of those very thin lambswool men's jumpers, you know the standard M&S variety,  in a charity shop in a large size, then you can deliberately wash it at 40-degrees a couple of times to get it to shrink, cut the sleeves and neckline off and then it makes a seriously warm bodywarming layer to wear over a t-shirt and under a shirt or normal jumper or fleece. The cut-off sleeves make useful wristwarmers - and shrunk knitting doesn't unravel so you don't even need to hem the cut edges, just leave them  

And definitely cover over the loft-hatch, yes. It will make a surprising difference, ime. 

wort

A cheaper version of the electric foot warmer would be to raise feet off the floor , small box or pouffe , then the heated wheat pad or hot water bottle. Blanket over legs, fingerless gloves, and don’t forget the head with a hat. 

Renoir64

Jellytotts said:

Worth taping the loft hatch up if its draughty. A thick bin bag and some frog tape will do the job and shouldn't cause too much paint damage.

Popping feet on some cardboard layers when sitting at a desk helps lots too.  Fingerless gloves are a must to keep wrists and hands warm.

I put sheets of polystyrene that id had from packing, inside the loft hatch. really helped.

Toonie

Thanks for all the suggestions. We're planning on using the weekend to make the room a bit more work friendly, so after we've got down the Christmas decorations we'll look into loft hatch. It has a ladder attached to it, so we'd probably have to look at outside rather than inside. The loft space itself is quite large and fully boarded.

Laura_Elsewhere

Toonie said:

Thanks for all the suggestions. We're planning on using the weekend to make the room a bit more work friendly, so after we've got down the Christmas decorations we'll look into loft hatch. It has a ladder attached to it, so we'd probably have to look at outside rather than inside. The loft space itself is quite large and fully boarded.

There are also things you can do in terms of how you use the room, not just items you add to it - if it's the spare room then it presumably hasn't been used daily so chances are everything in there will be cold: walls, carpet, curtains, furniture, everything. 
If you're in and out over the weekend that will help but if it were me, I'd be putting a hot-water bottle on the chair-seat and re-filling it every so often and moving it around the room, to the stuff in there stops being refrigerated. An unused room can be surprisingly cold even with central heating switched on, and that's because of the furnishings being cold - and it's why you can quite confidently open windows and internal doors wide every morning for three minutes to "change the air" and reduce damp and mould *without* making the room feel cold all day - within about 15-30 minutes after closing the windows and doors, most rooms will be back to their pre-airing temps without using any additional heat; because the 3-minute airing isn't long enough for the furnishings to lose heir warmth. 

Closing curtains as soon as the sun starts setting will keep warmth in; so many people wait til it's dark by which time your room's warmth will have been leaching out through even most double-glazed windows for a couple of hours... 

If he finds it a bit cold to begin with, try and persuade him to keep persevering, because the more he uses the room, the less cold it will be. You don't think about a carpet being cold, but they can be and then it's like having a great big chiller-pack in the room  

Renoir64

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58913875.amp

Article about saving energy from the BBC

I think this may be a bit obvious for most of us on here but some interesting thermal photos of doors etc, showing heat loss.