Rising energy prices mitigation

[Rusty74]

havent posted in a while but hot water bottles,we have always used them in the winter(not keen on electric blankets),had them as a kid in the 70's,boil the kettle on the rayburn or log burner,nothing better than getting into bed and pushing it down the bed and keeping your feet near it...

[grenfell]

On really cold re-enactments I have sometimes warmed up a large roundish rock , wrapped it in a towel and took that to bed with me. That works too. I've even tried it with a brick which again works but can be a bit more uncomfortable owing to the shape.

[Arzosah]

On really cold re-enactments I have sometimes warmed up a large roundish rock , wrapped it in a towel and took that to bed with me. That works too. I've even tried it with a brick which again works but can be a bit more uncomfortable owing to the shape.

There was a New Age-y type guy in the west of America somewhere (really exact, I know, sorry) who copied some of the Native American sweat lodge traditions and heated rocks in fires - one exploded, and killed a client of his. Ah, here's a link, 3 people died, it's saying https://cultureofhealthequity.org/what- ... eremonies/ (overcrowded, and with plastic construction of the lodge, hmmm).

It's a very old form of heating, though, isn't it, if you have any respect at all for the geology of it all, you could do it safely.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Some rocks including concrete shouldn't be heated

https://howtofindrocks.com/what-makes-r ... en-heated/

[Arzosah]

That's an interesting website! A sort of starter website, it's very repetitive, but very useful, thanks for that. Particularly interested in what it says about slate - I have a big slab of slate in front of my living room chimney, and I'd always imagined that if I was going to use a little bistro stove indoors, one option is to place it there.

HOWEVER (sorry to shout, I'm frustrated with myself) I've finally been getting to grips with my bistro stove, which is this one from Halfords https://www.halfords.com/camping/cookin ... 63134.html

I bought it a few years ago, and never got it going, assuming that because its around so much, it would be easy. A mistake, of course. I was at least storing it in an extremely accessible place, I'll say that for me

The problem is the cover of the cartridge compartment, on the right of the Halfords pic. I've been watching youtube videos on how to instal the cartridge and use the stove, and every single one has the cover flipping open and then installing the cartridge, then off to the races. The cover won't budge. I can push my finger into the big hole at the bottom right of the pic, near the control knob, and I can tell there's no cartridge in there already. When I waggle the lock/unlock slide, I can see the fittings moving at the side and underneath. But the cartridge cover still won't open.

I'm cursing myself for not doing this immediately after I bought it - but the choices are that this one is defective, or I'm doing something wrong that everybody else knows how to do

Does anybody have any ideas on what the dickens my next step is, other than throwing the thing out and buying another one?

[grenfell]

Some rocks including concrete shouldn't be heated

https://howtofindrocks.com/what-makes-r ... en-heated/

Tend to put the stones , well big pebble type things on the edge rather than in the fire as much to not overheat them than anything else. I have made the mistake of going to bed with one a bit too hot. Slowly destroyed the cotton pillow case I had put it in
I think I've mentioned it before but on re-enactments we have a bread oven and to make it easier to move it has loose blocks inside. We've used concrete paviors for the job and no problems although a couple have broken in half. On one show we forgot them and scavenged some blue bricks thinking they'd be less permeable than regular red clay bricks but they turned out to spit little shards out of the front of the oven.

[rik_uk3]

When winter/sub zero camping I'd often fill a bottle or water bladder with hot water to put in my sleeping bag, works well and the water boils quicker than snow in the morning

Those little bistro stoves are a good back up in a home kitchen or warm weather camp but butane stops working at temps from +5c down so for colder weather buy the more expensive cartridges containing butane, propane and isobutane.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3408252 ... ove:8:15:2

Sort of thing.

Our gas and electric is now over £200 a month so the options are pay up or get cold and we are fortunate enough to be able to pay up but a lot families are struggling to pay for heat and light...never thought I'd see this happen again in my lifetime L(

[Yorkshire Andy]

Those little bistro stoves are a good back up in a home kitchen or warm weather camp but butane stops working at temps from +5c down so for colder weather

Not that I've ever been on a building site each of us with a cartridge up our jumper just before brew up swapping them out as the pressure drops


Our old engineer used to do Forrester's and associated machinery with logging .. they had a "security" rota where 2 would caravan camp by the machine's over night .. one cold night the butane froze = no heat (off grid lpg and leisure battery that was it)

Engineering solution. Long length of hydraulic hose from the spares van....

Extend caravans gas hose to reach van gas bottle in passenger footwell window cracked to get hose out ... Van heater set to foot gear linkage popped off just incase and van left ticking over all night "well we don't buy works diesel "

[rik_uk3]

Improvise, adapt, overcome semper fi

Paraffin/kerosene don't worry about the temp



Had some bad news, builders start on the attic conversion 21st of Feb and the wife expects me to unbox my radios and use it as a radio shack but...I'm really happy now in my shed/mancave in the garden with a few stoves/lanterns and little radio so I'm going to have to sit down and make plans; wish me luck.

[diamond lil]

When we lived out in the hills, even propane froze a few times. Think something to do with the regulator, I had to cover it with straw in the end.