What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Nice of the friends to help out lil


Just about reroofed my allotment shed the wind saw to the aging felt and removed it... Our tenency says we must use felt not polythene I've used some tyvec underlay and a black EPDM roofing sheet so we will see if the Gestapo say anything...

[diamond lil]

He's eating what I put under his nose but no enthusiasm. No medical advice really cos he knackered and there is nothing he can do - too icy to even try walking outside even if he was able.
I'll tell next door she's been christened the Wee Coal Fairy
I'm thinking now that we need to sort something out for the future re the coal fired stove, this is an HA house and Scotland I think will be trying to dump coal and move to something "cleaner" - aka "dearer". Although the coal bill for this fortnight was £128 so I doubt we will not be much worse off with electric.. just colder.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Look into bio ethanol

[Arzosah]

He's eating what I put under his nose but no enthusiasm. No medical advice really cos he knackered and there is nothing he can do - too icy to even try walking outside even if he was able.

I'm sorry to hear it, Lil. Depending on medical input, have you heard of chairobics? It's for people who are literally confined to chairs for the most part.
https://www.multicare.org/happy-back/bl ... le-seated/
https://activewellbeing.me.uk/chairobics/
I know you're not asking for advice, sorry, and because of the heart issues chairobics might still be a non-starter, but its always sounded so important to me, probably because a lot of my dad's issues were vascular.

I'll tell next door she's been christened the Wee Coal Fairy

It just came to me she sounds lovely.

I'm thinking now that we need to sort something out for the future re the coal fired stove, this is an HA house and Scotland I think will be trying to dump coal and move to something "cleaner" - aka "dearer". Although the coal bill for this fortnight was £128 so I doubt we will not be much worse off with electric.. just colder.

Bleeping bleepiness, thats bad Jansman has mentioned something on here about ... crystalline? .... radiators? My sister had oil-filled radiators in France that were powered by electric (bought in England). I've no idea how HA heating investments work, I suspect the rules are different between England and Scotland, but they sound *better* for your situation than in England. Here's hoping.

[jansman]

Infra red. Carbon crystal. We have one in our back bedroom ( small room) and one by my armchair, both wall- mounted. The best ones seem to be German ( what we have) and they are easily purchased from Amazon or eBay. They heat the object they hit, not the air,so you have to be aware of where you put them. Those two work well for us. The one in the living room is great first thing in the morning when we only need that much heat before work. Then we have wall mounted, timer- controlled convection heaters that have a 1 or 2 kw heat setting. They work really well, and we are very pleased with those. Modern looking and quick to heat up. Of course, we prefer the multi fuel stoves, and they are our primary heat source.

Regarding cost of operation, we have no problem with electric heating. If you are spending that much on coal, then electricity wouldn’t be that much more. As you are housing association, it could be worth enquiring if they could install storage heaters( especially as hubby is unwell). On the right tariff, that could work well for you.

I must admit, that when Mrs J was post-op,using solid fuel was an issue.In fact , I wouldn’t let her light a fire unless I was there. I like the fuel mix, but I can see in the fullness of time, that it could present physical obstacles, just like yourself Lil.

I do think that eventually, solid fuel will be legislated out because of environmental rules. Although today, a government advisor was saying that gas boilers should be abolished ahead of the 2050 deadline. If you were not aware, your gas central heating is also killing the planet! You will have to convert to Air Source Heat Pumps, so electricity will be the way to go. Mind you, you will keep warm because you’ll be walking everywhere, as the same bloke said that petrol and diesel vehicles need to be outlawed within the next 11 years. How we will fuel all our houses AND power all those electric cars Is another matter though...

[diamond lil]

Gawd Jansman they haven't got a clue have they
We have no gas here,so needs to be electric. I think the HA have been putting in fancy new heating in some places but I haven't heard any feedback on it. Our HA are very very good, my plan is to ask/nag/make them leave the chimney intact so I can still have some kind of open fire. I think they will.
TY Arzosah, will try and get him moving if at all possible - he has slept all day and is so white it's scary.

[Arwen Thebard]

I'm thinking now that we need to sort something out for the future re the coal fired stove, this is an HA house and Scotland I think will be trying to dump coal and move to something "cleaner" - aka "dearer". Although the coal bill for this fortnight was £128 so I doubt we will not be much worse off with electric.. just colder.

We have recently upgraded two 25 year old, economy 7, storage heaters for their modern versions (Dimplex Quantum) and they are excellent so far, certainly much better than the old ones, they seem to be keeping the room temperatures very even. Expensive to buy but the estimated running costs are predicted to be 30% cheaper than the old ones so we hope to recover some costs over time. Ideal "prepper" heating as if we loose power they hold their heat for 24 to 48 hours.

[diamond lil]

That sounds good!

[Arzosah]

I popped out to my local shops on some Christmas errands this morning ... then, early evening, I was looking at the photojournalism on the Daily Wail of the flooding, and found pix throughout the whole day of roads local to me absolutely flooded. I'd been watching the Environment Agency warnings, which showed red alerts around the edges of my town, downhill somewhat, but nothing inside, and certainly nothing within walking distance (police tape is still up, grids on the street round the corner are still bubbling up with water).

I didn't know anything about it until I saw the photos online which I find quite unnerving I realise now I need to be checking very local sources of information, rather than just the national ones. Easy enough for photojournalism - the website of the local paper has lots.

But where do people find localised flood warnings? If I'd had problems and needed to get to my sister, or my friend in the opposite direction, I'd have run into trouble no matter what route, no matter what type of transport. I'm actually fine, perfectly safe and no prospect of that changing, but it just makes me wonder. What If .... and all that.

[jennyjj01]

Laughable,

But today and tomorrow will be dedicated to dehydrating LOTS of carrots from Tesco for 19p / Kilo
I feel a bit miffed that LIDL have them at 15p I've wasted 80p !

Convinced these are what would normally be graded as Donkey Carrots but who cares.

Tesco have spuds at 29p a bag too, but the reviews on those STINK.