Preparing for Winter V

Si_Clist

It's just occurred to me that if our local water supplier (South East Water) is anything to go by and you're eligible for something like Pension Credit, it's worth checking if your supplier offers a "social tariff".  Upon proof of entitlement, we've got our water bill capped and 25% off the sewerage charge.  Every little helps, as they say ...

Wednesday2000

It has been very rainy and sometimes thundery where I am by the coast the past few days, including today. I have done a lot of walking the past week so I decided to stay at home today and batch cook some butternut squash and coconut milk soup and read. I am now listening to music with a (chazzer buy) candle burning.

I did get an email saying that Eon owe us some cash back from our old house which will come in handy. 

London_1

Si_Clist said:

It's just occurred to me that if our local water supplier (South East Water) is anything to go by and you're eligible for something like Pension Credit, it's worth checking if your supplier offers a "social tariff".  Upon proof of entitlement, we've got our water bill capped and 25% off the sewerage charge.  Every little helps, as they say ...

Southern Water do an essential tariff with a 20% discount ,well worth checking out 
JackieO xx

Scrimps

Ive spent today putting up curtain poles and hanging the 'winter curtains'...which has felt absurd because it is so warm today but Im glad its done.  We live in a small semi detached house which has solid external wall insulation so it doesnt take much to heat really but the one external wall in the living room is full of patio door. It has a suspended timber floor and is the coldest room in the house.

Weve had the curtains for a while but have now put them on poles rather than rails as they didnt move well before and were a real pain to draw and open.  I bought a nice metal pole set and think now we can keep them up all year, previously I took them down in spring but with it being a south facing window - I wish I had them up during that last heatwave.  I also purchased a set of door curtains from ebay, one has been fitted to the front door and another in the hallway window.  It does immediately feel more cosy but also feels a bit more 'closed in' and cluttered, which is easy to do in this small space, so I think they will only be up for winter months and stored during the warmer months.

We've also bitten the bullet and taken a loan to replace the roof (1936 house with its original slate roof) and we're getting solar installed. We have ummed and ahhed over it for a long time and it feels good to have finally decided to go through with it, even with the recent energy price intervention announced.  

We're on mains gas but have also bought an air fryer and hope to be able to cook for free in future rather than using our gas oven which to be honest needs to be replaced due to a broken door seal and thermostat - its either blazing on full or off - it doesnt regulate its temp at all.

With the rain recently, Ive noticed that the feeling of damp had returned to the house. I have heard that most homes in cornwall are damp, we also live at the bottom of a river valley where the cold wet air sinks into. As much as I hate to burn electricity, the dehumidifiers will be retrieved from the shed shortly.  The lovely thermal lined John Lewis curtains in my sons room are covered in black mould, we air the house every day and his room is heated but this still happened during last winter.  I am to spray the lining with bleach tomorrow to kill whats already there and hope to limit it this coming winter - any tips appreciated.

MrsCD

Scrimps, please be careful spraying bleach. It's not good to breathe it in, especially in a child's room. Are the curtains dry clean only or can you wash them? Soda crystals or vinegar may be less harsh on the fabric if you could put them in the washer, or even in the bath. Mould usually grows where there is damp combined with still air. If you remove one of these you shouldn't have a problem. 

Laura_Elsewhere

@Scrimps, I'm seconding @MrsCD - spraying bleach is a bad idea for the health of whoever lives in the room, but it's also really bad for fabrics so you could end up with holes in the linings. 
Chlorine bleach is *always* intended to be really thoroughly rinsed off fabrics and never left on. It literally can eat holes in stuff... 

I would take the curtains down while it's still mild, and if you can detach the linings and give them an overnight soak in BioTex enzyme followed by a very long wash using biological detergent and then a cold-water rinse, it should kill off the mould that's there - if you can't detach the linings or they are non-washable, then I would hang them outside, as spread-out as possible - laying them flat on the ground even better - where they get direct sunlight. Undo the gathering and really flatten them out so the sunlight can get at every bit of the fabric. 
Lemon juice or white vinegar are good at killing mould BUT same as with bleach, they need rinsing very thoroughly or the acid will eat through the fabric in time. 

Anything you do will only kill the mould that's there and as we've learnt in the corner of our sitting-room, it's persistent stuff! 

It suggests there may be a condensation problem on your son's room's windowsill - you can buy reusable dehumidifying crystals in a kind of sack, that will help a lot if you put them on the windowsill in the evenings. 
to dry them back out again, you can microwave them (which then turns the dampness into damp steam in your kitchen - we do ours with the extractor fan on 'full' and hold it by the fan). They hold over a kilo of water, form memory, well, a litre, and so you probably only need dry it out every few weeks. 

I think a reusable dehumidifying bag on the windowsill, or a couple of small ones, may make a big difference - it's really really crippled the little patch of black mould we inherited, and we'd tried an awful lot of things first! 

Scrimps

Thanks both. The intention was always to take them outside to spray but its very drizzly here so no chance. 

I will take on board what you're saying, I recall trying to wash mould out of fabric before and its never worked so thought I would try spraying these with mould remover...which smells like strong bleach spray to me. Ill try the methods you've suggested. Its the lining of the curtain specifically that is mould covered. Theyre non detachable at present but eventually it may get to me picking off the lining and sewing on new lining....or asking my mother in law who is both good at and enjoys sewing - to do it for me.

I'll have a look at that moisture capture too. We do run a dehumidifier upstairs but sons bedroom has a rubbish window. All the windows in the house are very large for the size of the rooms but in this room, the previous owner installed a tilt and turn window with no trickle vents. The window is either hardly opens at all or fully open - like a large door and well within reach of being toddler being able to climb out.  According to our glazer, it is against code to replace windows with smaller openings than is already there so we can't change it for something more suitable!

Floss

Scrimps said:

...  According to our glazer, it is against code to replace windows with smaller openings than is already there so we can't change it for something more suitable!

But you could change it for something with a lockable vent setting and / or trickle vents which would be healthier for your son.

Scrimps

Floss said:

Scrimps said:

...  According to our glazer, it is against code to replace windows with smaller openings than is already there so we can't change it for something more suitable!

But you could change it for something with a lockable vent setting and / or trickle vents which would be healthier for your son.

It does have the 'hardly open at all' mode which is used each morning. It's a few inches along the top,  tilting to a full close at the bottom,  I imagine this is supposed to be the vent function you describe but unfortunately it's not really cutting the mustard

Grabs39

Scrimps said:

Floss said:

Scrimps said:

...  According to our glazer, it is against code to replace windows with smaller openings than is already there so we can't change it for something more suitable!

But you could change it for something with a lockable vent setting and / or trickle vents which would be healthier for your son.

It does have the 'hardly open at all' mode which is used each morning. It's a few inches along the top,  tilting to a full close at the bottom,  I imagine this is supposed to be the vent function you describe but unfortunately it's not really cutting the mustard

Would you be able to replace it with two window openings.  For example our landing used to have one big opening window which of course I couldn’t leave open at night as it’s a burglars dream due to the low roof under it.

it’s now got a small window I can leave open and a big window which is shut but I can still fit out of if there’s a fire.