Ways to keep warm this winter

[harman]

Message withdrawn

We're thinking of installing a solid fuel stove with a boiler and running radiators off it. Then just supplementing with electric space and water heating. Does anyone think that would work better? We don't mind so much borrowing money to do works like that, since we both love having a real fire.

its ok twinkle. Electricity can be a nightmare to work out what in your house is using how much electricity. Although the unit cost is alot lower, storage heaters and electric boliers can use alot. Have you tried recording your usage, then turning things off to see what affects the usage the most?

solid fuel is dependant upon you putting the fuel in it, so if you want heat in the morning then someone will have to get up. The heat given off (radiators) isn't much but it does help to keep the chill off.

Lol, I think we're running about one post behind in this conversation. Yes we monitored our usage every day for about a month. Without the storage heaters it's fine. Add on a storage heater, just on low, and it goes from 6 units overnight to 17! Just with one storage heater.

I guess someone getting up is better than just having no heat at all. We figure as well, that the radiators wouldn't be costing any more since we'd want to use the stove in any case.

The wines kicking in now!
What happens when you use a convection heater?

That's quite a lot too, especially at 12p a unit. But then it's a fairly old one, but only 1KW. I was quite scared by the usage when we measured it so we turned it off. I think it used about 5 units in the space of an hour - I'm not sure how that can be right but that's what seemed to happen.

Scottish Hydro promised to send us a usage monitor about 2 months ago and we're still waiting

Ahh. The new ones run on about 2p an hour!
Have you got them to come out and check your meter's working properly? Long shot but you never know.

I've got to go to bed now, but what type would you recommend? And what rate is that 2p an hour based on, do you know?

I'll have a look for you and get back.

Night

dimplex-heaters.com/dimplex-duo300i-duoheat-radiator.htm

Something like this. I'll look for a cheaper one though as this one's expensive. It doesn't have to be this brand.

They used to tell you how much they cost to run per hour, they don't any more. I'll put my thinking cap on in the morning.

Solid fuel stove stay lit overnight and just need poking in the morning - as the central heating is on all the time it runs at a much lower temperature. The house never cools down so it never needs heating up

Call your local council re cheap loft and cavity wall insulation. It may be free for for elderly/people on benefits. But for everyone else, it is assessed on how much insulation your house has at present. Because our loft had none, we paid £100 installed. If we'd had an inch or so already it would've cost more. Apparently the scheme is funded by a levy on the fuel suppliers.

Some Victorian (1890s) houses were built with cavity walls, it was to keep damp out.
Harmanm you really cant have no heating on all winter (snap Janitor). There must be another way.
That said, friends (3 bed semi, 6 kids) keep warm all winter just using an open fire in the living room. They have hot water bottles in kids' beds. But they also home-ed and disappear abroad for at least 3 months of the winter.

www.npower.com/spreading_warmth/First_Step/index.htm

This may help.

www.npower.com/spreading_warmth/SpreadingWarmthtariff/index.htm

DP been talking a lot about this too. Bills just too high so worrying a lot about winter. We just bought very cheap thick fabric for £5 a roll to make door curtains and hoping this will help.

I remember as a kid using clingfilm and a hair dryer with my Mum to make our own double glazing on all the windows. You use drawing pins round the frame and warm the clingfilm to make it fit snuggly.

you can still buy that special clingfilm type stuff to insulate windows, quite good fun

my landlord left a dehumidifier.

we found it in the loft and put it on in the girls' room.

it's tank has been filled twice today.

If you can't heat your bedroom an electric underblanket is great, turn it on 1/2 an hour before you go to bed and turn it off when you get in. It then makes a fleecy insulating layer the rest of the night.

Twinklemegan, we run all our raidiators off the fireplace, as Katymac says they don't blast out heat but warm steadily. We spend a fraction of the cost of LPG. Our system has the option of running the LPG boiler too for mornings or quick blasts of heat.

expat - it's a bit scary isn't it? Ours did that for days until we got all the moisture out of the walls and furniture. Then we could turn it down a bit. I'm sure that our health was much better when we didn't have to de-mould the place every week.

Wow that's a nice combined system

I want solar panels & a wind turbine with mine (when my boat comes in)

I preheat the water using solar (even in winter) the pump it round with the turbine...heaven

Yes, solar panels would make my life complete!

And I can't believe I just wrote raidiators. I can spell, normally.