the ice man cometh! (merged with keeping warm)

lilac_lady

A calor gas heater warms a room in no time and you don't run up bills after buying the gas. Not recommended if you've got young children though.

Sharra

We had our cavity walls insulated last Tuesday and I can honestly say we are noticing the difference. It cost us £199 to do, we aren't on benefits but it seems that everyone gets some sort of grant towards it, I think they said that if we had been on benefits it would have been free. If you do have to pay for it, it is a lot of money but maybe something worth saving up for as its your own house.

kittykat500

Fed up with feeling cold all the time, I was lucky enough to get an all in one ski suit off Freecycle. I now wear it whilst doing the housework etc. It works for me. Also I use hot water bottles at night or in the evenings for the children.

[Deleted User]

Without a doubt cavity insulation is a money saver .I had a new boiler fitted last year ,via 'warm front' grant plus an extra radiator in my sitting room which hadn't had one .My old back boiler and gas fire were removed at the same time .I obtained a grant without too much trouble, and although I had to pay £750.00 its been money well spent .My house is rarely cold, and my combined gas and electric monthly bill is £28.00.At the moment I am £95.00 in credit with my Gas bill and £40.00 in credit with my electric. I had extra insulation put in at the same time in the roof and my walls were cavity filled. My son-in-law is a surveyor and he did a home heating survey on my property for me and apart from changing a few of my light bulbs to low-energy ones he said that my house was as energy saving and efficient as could possibly be.I have a small electric fire in my sitting room but I have only used it twice in the last 18 months it's more of an ornament than of use .I believe that one must try if possible to make your home as cosy as you can ,even if you do a bit at a time. It's taken me almost two years to get my home this cosy and everyone says when they come in how warm it is and yet my heating only gets swithched on as and when ,maybe two hours a day. I am retired, and live alone and have mobility problems so I like a reasonable tempreture to live in. I do put a cardi on if I'm a bit chilly ,but I would never sit and shiver in the cold as my joints would seize up.
I have a warm blanket that goes over my knees when I am watching t.v.(I knitted it myself)and when I go to be I always have a flask of hot drink by my bed in case I wake and want a warm drink during the night. Tracing round the house to find where the draghts come in and fixing them is the first step.At the front of my house is a porch and the wind used to fairl whistle through the letter box so I fixed a square of felt larger than the letterbox over it and hey presto draught virtually eliminated and the post can still get through. Sometimes it's the silliest things that can make all the difference .I have a little 'sausage dog'type thing that I bought in Wilkinsons for a pound two years ago that stops and breezes coming through the sitting room door from the hall.

maypole

In the Guardian newspaper "money" section today. If you are over 70 OR receiving certain benefits, you can get free cavity wall insulation and loft insulation worth £600 from British Gas and you don't even have to be a BG customer. You can even get it in rented property with the landlords permission of course. You can read this on the Guardian website if you don't get the paper.

csarina

We actually live in sheltered accomodation and have heating from a central boiler, but we have only one rad on in the lounge, none in the bedroom or hall. Our thermostat is set at 3 which keeps the whole apartment warm, we do not close any of the doors as this allows the heat to circulate.

When we lived in my stepsons house, we got the wall cavities and also the attic topped up via warm front..............our heating was never more than £90 a quarter in the winter and dropped right down in the summer to around £20. If you can get it done its well worth the investment.

When I was a child we lived in a house with a coal fire in the living room and no other heating. If we could not dry clothes outside they were out on the airer before we went to bed and left in the sitting room to dry in the residual heat from the fire. My moher used to take them off first thing and then hang my school clothes over the airer so they were warm when I ran downstairs.

A hot water bottle was put in the bed about an hour before we went to bed and jamas wrapped round it, then when I got into bed, I shoved it down to warm the bottom of the bed, I always wore hand knitted bedsocks in bed and also an old woollen cardigan over my jamas if it was really cold. Draw the curtains as soon as it gets dark, keeps the heat in, thick curtains help as do draught excluders.............I still wear a bed jacket if I sit reading in bed, and I still wear socks too.

When OH and I first got together we lived in a mews flat in Edinburgh, the roof was glass!!!! we got some bubble plastic and used parcel tape and made a big blanket which we slung over the rafters and then used the tape to fix the sides to the walls boy did that make a difference, we also bought an electric heater for the bedroom with both a timer and a thermostat on, it came on for an hour before we went to bed and then again about half an hour before we got up. We kept the bedroom door closed.........I still have the heater, its in the loft against the heating here breaking down.............

The sleeping in one room is also a very good idea, keeps all the heat in one room in the worst weather.

I really think that good insulation is the key to keeping warm and keeping fuel bills in check........ring your local council and see if you can get it done free.............if not see if you can work out a way tosave up and get it put in.

Bogof_Babe

If you iron most of your washing (stuff you would iron anyway) straight from the washing machine, after using the fastest spin option, then hang it up, it will dry a lot quicker.

Not advisable for sheets as they would drag on the floor while being ironed, or towels (no-one irons towels, do they?) but great for shirts, jeans etc.

zarazara

and you can wash on cold as the ironing will kill germs, so further energy saving there.

cady

wow ive just read this thread and at the moment im sat with fleece socks dressing gown ontop of my normal clothes i love winter but this year is sooo cold already i havnt caved and put my heating on as we cant really afford it at the moment but i think its very chilly already and winter 2008 - 2009 is here !!!!

Nessa56

What a brilliant thread,

Some great ideas which I for one will definitely be taking up.

Thanks

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