What Preps are you doing this week? Part 13

[Frnc]

I've barely used the heating recently. Maybe 4 hours in the morning. Some days I've used my electric radiator a bit, but only minimally, eg less than 14p worth in a day. Today I'm almost too warm. Looks like winter's pretty much over.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

Got the lawn mower out of storage yesterday, for the first cut. I use fuel stabiliser so that I don't have to drain it over winter before putting it in storage. Fired up fine after a couple of pulls. Also gave the generator a bit of a run because thats been sitting in the shed.

And finally finished off the smaller solar rig - is just has a smallish panel but its using the redundant kit I had when I upgraded the main solar to LiFePo4 batteries and upgraded the charge controller. Might stick a small inverter on it, but original intent was to keep in at 12v and use it to recharge small items / usb or the eco-flow (which can also be charged direct from solar).

[ForgeCorvus]

With the price of gas going up due to the conflict, I'm expecting both domestic gas and electricity prices to go up.

Are you just on the Standard Variable ?

I got a cheap fix a couple of weeks back, I'm expecting the price cap to go up now wholesale gas is going to cost more. But being fixed that isn't going to affect me.
On the Martin Lewis show he mentioned that the Gov. are shifting some of the Green Levee to general taxation, so the will be a drop in April (and yes, it will all be passed on to customers..... Even Fixed ones)

[Frnc]

Spoke too soon. Looks like there will be a few days of colder weather around the 23rd -27th. Nothing drastic - lows of around 2-3°C, and highs of around 8-9°. I turned my boiler down from 61 to 58 a couple of weeks ago. I'm not going to turn it back up for a week. Also, yesterday, I turned my thermostat down from 18 to 17 during the day. I might reverse that if necessary. Once we get into April I'll probably drop my boiler a bit more, to 54 or 55.

If gas and electric prices go up, well, I'm already at high efficiency. Not a huge amount of scope for reducing energy use. I'm only running my central heating for a few hours a day, all in the morning. This is very efficient.

EDF have said I should only be paying £78 a month now, so I've reduced my DD to £80. They don't contact you, thought they may do it automatically at some point. I found out by clicking on 'manage direct debit'. They normally show what you should be paying. Last time I looked it was 100, but I expected it to come down.

April Ofgem prices is expected to go down 7%. But obviously this war could push it up in June, or even April.

[Frnc]

Interesting couple of days. Average temperature yesterday was 7.5°C, so gas budget was 30kWh. But decorator wanted heat off. I may have run it just for about 3/4 hour early morning. So I relied on my electric radiator in my room all day including evening. I always use a tiny bit first thing in the morning, about 0.14 kWh. Total for the day, excluding that, was only 1 kWh, so cost about 27p. 30 kWh gas would have cost about £1.80. This isn't something you could do the same for long periods, as the house would be cumulatively losing heat each day, becoming a heat sink. Heat is stored in the fabric - bricks, plaster, furniture, timber, solid floors etc. However if I did, it would be the rest of the house getting colder, not so much my room. In fact this is what I did in early autumn, and will do in the spring - keep the C/H mostly off, and rely on the electric radiator. Bills were Sept £45, Oct £50, Nov £53, Dec £55, Jan £52, Feb £44. The higher bills also include dehumidifier runs when drying laundry inside in winter. Obviously in the early autumn, the house has heat from the summer stored in the fabric. So this won't be an early spring thing.

[jennyjj01]

Last few days I've been stocktaking and reorganising my food reserves out of assorted cardboard boxes and into matching, stackable crates.

Every can, packet and jar clearly labelled with expiry date and registered into a complex workbook. Revealed some issues of overstocking and understocking. Those extra bags of rice sure mount up

So far, over 225 Kilo of food organised and I've barely scratched the surface of my rice and pasta. I've used 17 x 35 litre crates so far and have had to distribute them around my 'space' to stop the ceiling sagging

[diamond lil]

Not worried about food, but might invest in some seriously warm woolies in case the heating goes off. We have gas central heating included in the service charge.

[Frnc]

Checked all the marker pens in my BOB map case. They are for writing on waterproof maps. None had dried out.

Friday and Saturday were quite cool, and no heating on for two days, while decorator put lining paper up in living room. So I used a lot of gas on Sunday to warm the house up, and dry the wallpaper. Three windows open. Used 3kWh on electric rad on Saturday, but only because of the decorating. Today he wants heat on, windows open, as he is on painting. Couple of low corners in living room still drying from papering.

Got caught out with parking. Zero warning on website. Apparently your ability to buy visitor permits only lasts for a year and then they cut you off. Sod's Law, happened on a Saturday. No streets nearby with no restrictions. Fortunately we share an entry and neighbours were understanding. The remaining 10 permits I'd paid for are wiped out - what a rip off.

[Winterprep]

Got 80 Ltrs each of Petrol and Derv put away and treated with some Stabil.My car and the wife’s are full and we will keep topped up.

Spoke to my log supplier and agreed a price for a big delivery of logs.Need to go today and get some full Calor gas bottles I have a few empties at home.

Added a few hundred pounds to my cash stash all in £10 &£5 notes.

My freezers are pretty full but will do a food shop after having a look to see what’s needing topped up.Im also going to try and get the garden ready to grow some veg and salads as I didn’t get much grown last year.

I fear we will be seeing at least a big financial cost to bare from Trumps stupidity .

WP

[Frnc]

Got my parking permit sorted. It does actually say the expiry date on the website. Council reviewed it by 9.15 am, which is pretty good. But it's bad that you lose all the unused permits you bought before that date. The old paper permits never expired.

Decorating is almost done now. Should be over in a couple of days. Back living room, front living room, and front bedroom. I only use the back living room, so I have two spare rooms, which used to be lodgers' rooms. Front living room will have a bed, wardrobe and drawers, so I can get a lodger if I want.