preparing for winter/ways to keep warm

[JackiePaper]

thought i'd start a thread on this as i remember a really useful one last year that has loads of money saving tips for keeping warm during the colder months.

we're moving to a new house that runs on oil fired heating so i will be looking for ways to keep the useage down as it is so expensive.

so far my plans are

no heating on til we move -24th october
line all curtains with fleece
make some draft excluders

we also have 2 open staircases at the new place and i can already visualise all the heat dissapearing up them, so am trying to work out some way of rigging up a fleece curtain or something to try and keep the heat in.

last year the thread was really great, full of lots of tips on how to save money and keep warm in the winter so looking forward to reading everyones tips for this year too.

[janeite]

Thank you

[Booooooooooyhoo]

last year i had a load of large cardboard boxes (i had bought self assembly furniture).
so i opened them out and sellotaped the foil to one side ( the side that faces the radiator) although this year i dont have any boxes so im still contemplating that one.

does anyone know if putting foil on the other side of the cardboard would reflact the cold back out of the house or is that just me being hopeful?

[janeite]

Do you just whack the tinfoil behind the radiators? Or do you put it on card first? How do you attach it please?

[Booooooooooyhoo]

make sure you bleed all the radioators when you move in to ensure your getting the full benefit of the heating when it is on.

im in a semi and i find that the heat from my neighbours fire is usually quite sufficient to heat our living room and ds' room so we rarely need to put heating on unless it very cold.

i out tin foil down behind the radiators so that it reflects the heat back out into the room rather than going out through the wall.

you can get a flexible curtain rail from argos. i have one at my front door as there is no space either side of my door to pull the curtain back to. my front door is very draughty so i also bought some strips of velcro off ebay and attach to the door frame and the edge of the curtain to stop it blowing away from the door in the wind. i find this the most effective way of keeping the heat in my house.

[jackieOpaperLANTERN]

Eddas, phew that sounds a LOT more reasonable. I had budgeted £60 per month to save for filling the tank, so maybe we will be ok on this. THe heating won't go on until 31st Oct and will go off on 1st April, at the most. it will have to be on for a good chunk of the day on tuesdays and wednesdays as me and dd are at home all day, but every other day should be an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening.

Lots of fleece blankets, warm dressing gowns and hot water bottles i think! As soon as DH has been round to measure the windows in the new place i will be linging them all with £2 ikea fleeces.

still not sure how to deal with the open staircase in the lounge, any ideas very welcome!

oh i also put the summer duvets on top of the mattress last night, put the sheet over the top of them, and then the winter duvets on top of us and we were toasty warm

[GothMummy]

Thanks for the idea of lining curtains with fleece. I bought two white fleece blankets for £2.00 each in Tesco yesterday and sewed them to my bedroom curtains! Hurrah.

Sadly the blankets are too small for the large long sash windows downstairs but they work well on the smaller upstairs ones. I could join them together, but think the seams would look too obvious from outside?

[Eddas]

jackiepaper, we have oil fired heating and we set it to come on if it's below a certain temp so yes it can be done.

We only fill up 1or2 times a year with 600-700 litres, sometimes they'll tell you it's X amount per litre up to 600 but if you get 700 its X(lower) so it's worth getting more IYSWIM. The costs changed a lot and we've only had the system for 2-3 years so I couldn't really say how much it is! I do save £40 a month for it though.

I'm definately going to employ my Dad's old philosophy of putting on a jumper (or 2) before the heating goes on. Mind you I remember going downstairs to tell Dad I was cold, being told to put a jumper on and telling him I already had 3 on and then him saying he'd go and 'turn the heating up to low' But his tightarse frugle ways have meant that I don't turn our heating on unless I really have too.

[slushy06]

Also when I have finished cooking I put the safety gate by the door and leave the cooker door open so while it is cooling all the heat warms my house up.

[slushy06]

I only put the downstairs radiators on only in the height of winter (as they seem to give ds chest infections) put them on for a hour or two during the day and then by the time I go to bed the heat has risen.

Probably not many who will do this but I spend more time upstairs as it is about 3 degrees warmer up there in my house without heating. So it means while downstairs needs the heating upstairs is fine.

[wheredidiputit]

I keep fleece blankets about £6 to £10 each. and fleecy thick socks and cardigans/fleeces to use rather then putting the heating on.

Tend to put the heating on so it warm in the morning or it warm when we get up and then again at about 2.30pm so it warm when we get from school.

[fairybubbles]

I like the idea of keeping spare jumpers in sitting room, it always seems easier to flick the central heating on than put another layer on.
We had loft fully insulated earlier this yr, heat seems to stay longer,can have heating on an hr and it stays warm for a good few hrs after. I currently have heating on for 2 hrs a day, 5-6am then 4-5pm. This is fine at the moment and I am trying not to use it outwith these times where possible.

[Mousey84]

I stand corrected - I just looked at invoices and they were £500ish for 900 litres - I was thinking of last fill up of 500 litres which was around 300.

I put aside money every month for it, then shop around, and pay with a reward credit card.

A family member in england clubs together with her neighbours and they negotiated a small discount when they all ordered oil at the same time, since it was saving the company money on fuel to drive there to deliver it.

[JackiePaper]

ok. gosh that is quite a lot of money isn't it?

[Mousey84]

900 litres - £300ish. But if I wasnt looking after other peoples children, I wouldnt have heating on as much!

[JackiePaper]

you fill the tank every 4-5 weeks it's £600 to have the tank filled at our new place...

please tell me you have a smaller tank...

[Mousey84]

Jackie (again) theres def not a thermostat on mine, but its old.

Im a CM and home all day, but 900 liters lasts us 4-5 weeks in dead of winter. We usually fill tank 3 or 4 times each winter.

Candles arent great for reading as will strain eyes too much, and not sure about safety with cat running around - unless what you are thinking of is the little glass / metal boxes that completely enclose the candle. AFAIK, hurricane lamps are like big vases??

[tvaerialmagpiebin]

Charity shops for old curtains to hang inside your own ones, for extra insulation? If your poles/rails are up to the extra weight.

[Mousey84]

Jackie - if there is no room at each side of the door, you can get special curtain poles that will hold the curtain back when you open the door. Like this but Ive seen a lot cheaper in local stores

[madwomanintheattic]

door curtains...
ta!

[tvaerialmagpiebin]

Luckily ds is a nice warm child. I do spend a lot of time out of the house in the library or anyone else's house in the winter. My parents and brother always have their heating on full blast and it makes me feel quite odd if I turn up in "my house" clothes, 4 layers at least, where they are swanning around in just T-shirts.

[JackiePaper]

mousey - is it possible to set oil heating to come on wehn it drops below a certain temperature (like you can with the gas)? or is it just on or off? i am completely clueless as never had oil-fired heating before. (oh and how long do you think £300 worth of oil will last for 2 adults and 2dc's in a 4 bed house?)

i am also thinking of getting some more candles and not putting the lights on so much in the evening, although i will have to get some glass container thingys (are they called hurricanes?) for them as we have a mad kitten who runs around the house at 100miles an hour!!

[YouLukaAmazing]

Message withdrawn

[JackiePaper]

only weather guess forecast i've heard is that we are goingt o have a cold snap in oct/nov and then quite a wet mild winter

[Mousey84]

I keep blankets handy in living room and wheat / cherry stone bags you heat in microwave as alternative to hot water bottles.

ATM, my hands are very cold but no heating has been on today at all, though I hadnt noticed chill til now.

I wear camisoles under tshirts and have big woolly socks, as well as fleece pjs for me and dd (£4 in primark)

I also tend to spend more time in local library in winter ;)

RE oil fired heating, I only have mine set to go on in the mornings and the rest of the day I only put it on when I really need to. I only put the radiators onto low heat in rooms I need , and turn up if need be (then turn down before bed). It means making a conscious choice (as opposed to having it come on automatically and on full blast)

Also keep the sofa away from the front of the radiator - even by a few feet (where possible) so that more heat gets into the room, rather than absorb into sofa.

[JackiePaper]

fix them to the wall