Prepping: the new world...

MrsCD

A few years ago our daughter rang us one morning to see if we could change the battery in her CO alarm as it was beeping, she didn't have a spare, and she needed to get to work. We went up with a new battery, put it in but it still kept beeping, loudly! We decided to buy a new alarm, in case it was broken, so we went off to the DIY shop, bought a pack of 2, put one in her house, and it went off too! By this time, it was nearly time for her to come back from work, so I did some digging on the internet and found a phone number to ring if you think there is CO in the house. I rang up and was told to immediately open all doors and get outside. Within a couple of hours someone came to check everything, but her house was all ok. The problem was her neighbour, whose flue was blocked and the Carbon Monoxide was coming through the walls. He said if it had been the next day, her neighbour would not have woken up. This is why I try to persuade everyone with a fireplace or gas in the house to get an alarm. It may not be your house that has a problem, but it could still save lives.
EMERGENCY NUMBER....GAS OR CO.....
0800 111 999
Save it in your phone...you never know when you might need it!

Floss

I was once woken at 3am by my CO alarm going off. Called the number, opened all the ground floor windows & a chap from Cadent came out and checked the boiler, hob & meter.
Luckily everything appeared to be OK, and he advised wrapping the alarm in a teatowel & hiding it in a ddrawerto muffle the noise as it could not be turned off! 

Cherryfudge

Ours went off overnight during a fierce winter storm! Bless him, the chap who came out was pleasant and professional despite the hour and the wind and rain. He searched the house including the loft but by that time I had had the lounge window wide open for some time and the storm had got rid of any gas. We had to have the log burner sealed off and cleaned - my fault I suspect for burning paper in it, which meant the chimney needed to be swept. 

So I'm all for having detectors and taking them seriously.

And while I think of it, who's getting their chimney swept over summer, before the rush? And ordering fuel on summer prices?

maryb

Already booked sweep for mid August and even remembered to order a new gasket for the collar on the stove pipe that gives access to the chimney.  About half the logs we need are already stacked but we will order more in September when the tree surgeon is coming to deal with our thug of a Robinia.  A neatly stacked log shed is a thing of beauty, but we are getting on a bit and find it too exhausting to deal with an entire winter's logs in one delivery. 

We did think of giving up the woodburner and switching to bioethanol which looks pretty but doesn't give out much heat (we do have central heating) but with the Middle East so volatile and it looking more and more likely that there will be rota power cuts if the smallest thing goes wrong with the Grid, we thought we'd keep it going one more year

And I'm collecting pine cones to eke out the firelighters.  Nancy Birtwhistle also suggests packing egg boxes with shredded paper and drizzling melted candle wax into each section then cutting them apart when cold.  Bought firelighters are not cheap so I might give this a go.  I've got a shredder full of paper from a moment of madness that had me organising my old files and getting rid of old bills

Van_Girl

I try to keep an eye on flood warnings, as my mum lives on a boat in an area prone to flooding. She's generally pretty well prepped, but I know she's not at the moment. It's something we need to work on again. I know she's worried, as the extremely dry weather makes any heavy rainfall a risk, but nothing on the horizon for her as yet 

boultdj

I'm another on saying please get a CO2 detector, I was friends with the Cheetham family that died of CO2 poisoning 26 years ago.  It does not seem that long ago.

DigForVictory

When Middleson moved out, he took with him a duvet I had ready (his mate there to help lug was otherwise insufficiently supplied with bedding), hot water bottles (he trusted the boiler was working, I didn't),  a smoke detector & a CO detectors still in their packaging. All my lads are robust on finding food & drink, but I try to ensure they sleep warm & wake up....
Meanwhile a sister who eats vegetarian can't find tinned mixed bean salad in Tesco or Sainsburys (!) & I wondered if there was a national shortage of which I was unaware?! Whist suggesting she look in Lidl.

Floss

DigForVictory said:

Meanwhile a sister who eats vegetarian can't find tinned mixed bean salad in Tesco or Sainsburys (!) & I wondered if there was a national shortage of which I was unaware?! Whist suggesting she look in Lidl.

Asda allegedly sell their own & Napolina.

elsien

Horrible smell of gas at work the one time. Turned everything off, opened the windows,  the smell didn’t dissipate. Waited for Transco, who were equally as baffled.
Turned out to be the parsnips a staff member had prepared and left out the night before. 

elsien

Aldi sell tins of mixed beans.