Okay, so not perhaps the most sexy subject for preppers, but with the current cold weather it brings the success or failure of your home insulation to your attention.
I decide to write this as last night was so cold I did something I'd thought about during the recent heavy snow. Our roof had a satisfying even layer of snow cover except for the areas around the chimneys and over the two Velux lights. So last night I cut some cardboard and pushed it into place inside the lights. It's was rather hard to tell how successful this experiment was last night, but this morning when I removed the cardboard the inside of the glass and the wall to where the cardboard sat had ice on. I'm concluding this to be a successful experiment and will be cutting some plywood to make more permanent fixtures. I'll try to blagg some Kingspan to back the ply with to further improve the insulation value of these.
Seeing as how effective such a simple measure this is, I think I shall try to fabricate some internal window shutters from ply to supplement the double glazing, while having the benefit of acting as blackout screens too.
Thought I'd share this with you all.
H
Insulation
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Huorn
Re: Insulation
It's difficult to say really, it was very cold last night. We don't have an external thermometer say can't say what the temperature went down to last night outside, fair to say it was nithering. Big difference my cardboard experiment made was the lack of icy blast you felt walking past the Velux light, that and the way the ice inside the house stopped at the cardboard suggests it was offering a degree of insulation. This was the first time I've seen ice inside this house, unlike the one I grew up in where it was common-place, and I'm now thinking it can't form inside the Velux light normally due to the room heat. This is why I plan the plywood and Kingspan shutter and internal shutters for the other windows. Fuel costs are getting stupid and are unlikely to decrease, so if I can save any heat from going out the windows I will!smileyt wrote:Did you feel a difference in the temperature of your house?
I've recently spoken to a friend who's just returned from working in Poland. He was talking of -20 to -25C most nights while there, but said they're wooden houses were so much warmer than our brick/stone ones he's talking about cladding the inside his rooms with timber to make them warmer.
H
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Huorn
Re: Insulation
I think this is the way ahead for these cold spells. I like the Swiss internal shutters too, they wind down from the top of the window frame and offer a locked but ventilated position so the windows can be left open but remain burglar proof (not that the Swiss seem to suffer from a burglary problem) or wound down fully to completely shut near blackout. I can't see the listed building loonies agreeing to them on our cottage though.Northern Raider wrote:I know people who do things like fit Kingspan inserts into the windows when its really cold, others have binned the curtains and gone for insulated shutters. i would love hinged window shutters but they are pricey, keeeps burglards out as well as cold.
Stay warm fella!its forcast for munus 20 here tonight so I will be popping out looking for warm spots.
H
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tfish
Re: Insulation
you can pick up huge windscreen protectors very cheap like £2... they wont be that cheap now with winter coming but i bought mine in summer.
these can then be trimmed to fit windows and they have decent thermal values. They are just silver foil and air pockets but thats all you need.
these can then be trimmed to fit windows and they have decent thermal values. They are just silver foil and air pockets but thats all you need.
Re: Insulation
I used to live n my parents house and they couldn't stand my working hours in the house and so they Very Kindly gave me a new shed in the garden to use for work as an office.
I used it all year round (24 hours too) even with temperatures substantially into the minuses and with snow and frost on the ground and a few inches of ice on the fishpond.
Its only heating was one singular electric oil filled radiator.
It was single glazed.
I took some of the sheets of expanded polystyrene insulating material that was left over from insulating the place and shoved that in the window against the glass with pegs holding it in place.
That stopped the window area from losing all the heat.
That made ALL the difference. I mean ALL the difference.
Polystyrene sheeting if you can get it is BRILLIANT, but it can be a fire risk so be careful.
I used it all year round (24 hours too) even with temperatures substantially into the minuses and with snow and frost on the ground and a few inches of ice on the fishpond.
Its only heating was one singular electric oil filled radiator.
It was single glazed.
I took some of the sheets of expanded polystyrene insulating material that was left over from insulating the place and shoved that in the window against the glass with pegs holding it in place.
That stopped the window area from losing all the heat.
That made ALL the difference. I mean ALL the difference.
Polystyrene sheeting if you can get it is BRILLIANT, but it can be a fire risk so be careful.
reperio a solutio
Resident and Co-Ordinator of AREA 2
Area 2 = Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Bucks
Resident and Co-Ordinator of AREA 2
Area 2 = Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Bucks
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Ogre
Re: Insulation
We have the old standard of loft insulation (4") But the floor is boarded and we have a lot of preps there. I've stapled emergency blankets (2 for a quid at the pound shop during summer) to the inside of the rafters. Seems to work so far.