What are you all up to
Comments
-
Thanks, Linda, that personal touch makes all the difference.🤣
Happy New Year! 🎊
4 -
Yes I think you're totally right about insulation. We have it, well not exactly coming out of our ears but extensively. We replaced the loft insulation from the one the builder put in, which was about one inch thick to a full plus four inches a few year ago and we noticed a big difference. Also the snow on our roof always last longer than some others that haven't replaced it. As you see our boiler only actually 'worked' three hours and 22 minutes out of the 13 hours it was switched on for and during the cold snap when it was -5C for a few days it worked for three hours and 32 minutes out of 13, not too different.
Also we have 'air locks' to the outside with unheated porches and that appears to help.
0 -
We set our heating on the remote thermostat kept in the living room usually set at 17. It comes on at 8am and goes off at 10pm. If we are sitting in the living room we close the door so that it becomes warmer in there and cooler in all the other rooms.
Happy New Year to everyone. I enjoy reading your posts on here and thank you for sometimes reading mine even when I sometimes post mundane rubbish. It’s a nice friendly place to post, and, even when most of us will never meet, hopefully we feel like friends.
5 -
btw I liked it not referring to your mundane posts (they're not) but everything else. And yes we do.
2 -
So far it is all going as expected, the kitchen is being heated for lunch, other radiators are all off. Interesting to see the temperatures in the different rooms of the house, like millie we do not like it too warm while sleeping so set our bedroom to 14 overnight, however nowhere in the house dropped below 15.4 with heating off from 22.30 till 08.00. We had 1 degree outside.
All our living rooms are upstairs, our house is set into a south facing slope so the upstairs has the views and the most daylight. Heat rises from the downstairs hallways, and bedrooms are cool in summer.
All upstairs rooms are still over 18 degrees at present.
It was built 34 years back with as much insulation as we could fit in, 160 mm in the living room ceilings and 200mm over the kitchen and granny flat. There is also 100 mm in the walls and under the floors, and 120 mm in the garage ceiling/living room floor. We plan to add some more in the loft once we get it cleared out a bit.
Bedroom doors we always leave open, bathroom doors are closed, and living area doors are always closed other than in summer.
0 -
Interesting to read tales of heating methods, temperatures and set ups.
We had a new boiler to replace the existing one in this new to us house, floor standing probably 40 years or more old. It had a weird system add on which my brother solved for us luckily - being his area of expertise, last September. Runs very well, doesn't heat up like the old one did - old one was a bit like an aga. Despite larger radiator in kitchen diner it's not as warm as it was, don't forget we had a HOT summer, it needs the door closed to be cosy, but dogs water is in the kitchen.
We have wireless thermostat and we've worked out kitchen diner is best place to keep it, generally 20c but up and down manually if needed. Pleasantly surprised at bills, 😂... very comparable to our previous 1930's solid wall house with it's new boiler, bigger house and no shared wall..... Except our ensuite, really hit home over last cold snap! Have added self double glazed with 2 sheets of thick plastic and keep the thermal blind down 🥶 and can barely get to 15c..... Beautifully recently refitted by the looks of it, but no attention paid to more than looks. Its a dormer with fully tiled matching floor and walls 🥶 to the touch. Electric underfloor heating, expensive and makes little difference. I conducted an experiment recently. Need to discuss with a builder in the new year - expecting expensive solution whatever way its tackled.... But its in dire need of insulation.
Hard landscaping starts Tuesday, forecast wet, followed by cold snap - expect mud for few weeks, but it will be lovely to get rid of uneven joints and surfaces of existing back patio and veg area, we have both measured our lengths on existing 😉. They'll also extend the existing block paving so we can stay on hard surfaces to get bins out..... Upside I can start real gardening once it's completed 😀
Right I must get back to the few tasks for today.
Wishing everyone a happy healthy and prosperous 2023.
3 -
Wow.
We can't even think of having heating on all day and night, otherwise we'd be heating outside. There are usually 4 or 5 windows open on any given morning,(Winter and Summer) some just on vent, even when weather was below freezing, to allow some freshness to the rooms. They may only stay open for an hour but it's a rare day when none are opened.
Heating is only on for an hour in the morning and about 3 hours (winter only) in the evening. Not changed our habit due to energy prices, just happens to be the way we like it. If one of us isn't feeling too good we may have it on for an hour during the day on particularly cold days.
Same in the caravan, never have any heating on whilst asleep.
Anyway about to have a look at our finances for end of the year. Wish me luck.
It's been a funny old year. Excellent caravanning year but health could have been better. Nice to have met a few of the regulars on CT this year. Hoping to get out and about again soon.
May all of your problems be small ones.
5 -
Corners What's this gymnastics thing I must be doing this posting on CT wrong! Mundane posting is what helps when life is tough, it encourages chat.
I wish you all a Guid New Year, when it comes and look for the "pockets of happiness" in life.
Take care of yourselves
6 -
Before lunch I shampooed part of the carpet in the lounge, been meaning to do it for a while, so hopefully it will be completely dry by tomorrow. Meantime we have moved our chairs to the other side of the room.
We went out for some shopping this afternoon, Tesco was very busy, but we got what we needed and did not need to go to any other shop.
By the time we got back at 15.30, the temperature in the lounge had dropped to just over 17 degrees, which is rather chilly for sitting about. We are taking along some mashed swede to have with the steak pie etc at DD's tomorrow, so kept busy preparing that and fiddling with the heating settings while OH dealt with the washing she put on earlier. Heating now back on and time to prepare some food.
David......the hive smart TRVs are simple to fit if you already have regular TRVs in place, you just swap the heads. No need to pay anyone to install them. But you are right in saying that they are not cheap to buy!
0 -
After catching up and reading all the heating info, I've now got brain ache 🤕 far too complicated for me 🤣 Much simpler system here set temp and either on if required and off if not, always off at night, can't sleep if bedroom is warm. I am a bit like Wherenext windows often open "refresh the air" as my Mum always used to say! 😉 Have to admit that I have been feeling the cold more this winter, but it could be the radiotherapy 🤔
Weather has been horrible today very wet and windy, so haven't been very far. The fireworks have already started on the estate 😱
Wishing everyone a Very Happy and Healthy New Year, let's hope we all get plenty of happy caravanning trips next year. 🍾🥳
4 -
Kj
I am not really sure I would get the benefit from the Hive TRV's. I tend to subscribe to the warm house theory in that if you have cold rooms they just suck the warm air in anyway! We do have manual stats on most rads and upstairs they are set quite low. The set heating temperature drops by a degree and a half at 10.00pm so the bedrooms are not overly hot when we go to bed. Its got to be quite cold outside for the heating to come on overnight. The only window we leave on the notch is in the bathroom, but we never close doors upstairs at night so I suppose there might be some circulation of air? I am sure I am not alone in monitoring energy costs quite closely under current circumstances and it seems thus far we have used less gas this winter but of course it cost more. I am sure we are all looking forward to the time energy prices start to fall and we don't need to worry but I suspect we will still all use caution in future given our experience the the last year!
David
0 -
We are very similar to you Helen and WN, sleeping with window at least cracked open and no heating on, even in the van in the winter. If it gets really cold while we are away we might put the van's heating on around 4:00 am but never when we are at home.
Hope you are feeling less fatigued after your treatment. It has been yet another wet day, but not windy and have managed all our walks so far without getting wet thanks to a big brolly.
No sound of fireworks yet, but we are well away from any major centre of habitation.
I would like to wish one and all a Happy New Year and hope all have a wonderful year next year whether touring in your units or otherwise holidaying in ways that suit.
1 -
Our heating is very easy the wireless thermostat is set at 18c. The unused bedroom TRV is set to 1, our bedroom to 2, lounge, dining room and kitchen are open plan, no heating in the kitchen but the radiators in the lounge and dining room are set on 5. Hall and bathroom set at 4. During winter cold spells the heating is on all day from 8am to 9pm at 18c, once it warms up in the spring the programmer is changed to on 8am off 10am, on 4pm off 9pm. The house has good cavity wall and loft insulation, new this year double glazing, the only thing that let's it down is concrete floors, they can be cold even with good underlay and carpets. Over night temp barely drops 2 or 3 degrees, we rarely go to bed before 11pm but house is still warm even 2 hours after heating going off. Couldn't sleep with heating on.
Frost not lifted all day today and snow forecast for tonight, glad I'm staying in. OH has kindly shared his cold with me. The hotel in the village is having a 'do' on tonight, free entry but you have to have a ticket. I guess fireworks at midnight, might be in bed by then as I'm feeling a bit rubbish.
Happy New Year to all, hope 2023 is a good year for you.
1 -
I think you are correct David K, the way you are operating suits your needs so no need to change things. In our case we have specific needs that require more controls, and quite a large house, so the smart TRVs work better for us.
Sitting here in the centre of our living room, waiting for the carpet to dry, looking directly at the radiator in here, not a view we normally have as usually chairs over there. Never really realised before how large it is!
Must be 2.8 metres long, 600 mm high. The room is 7.2 x 3.6 metres, but needs a lot of heat as we have a "cathedral ceiling" so maybe 3.5+ metres high at the top. Lovely feature, cannot imagine the room with a normal flat ceiling, but more expensive to heat of course.
We have the same ceiling out in the hall/stairway, but have a fan there that we can use to push the hot air back downstairs.
All ready to see in the New Year now here, we have a bottle of champagne chilling........my former work colleague in Wales sent it to me for my 80th in August.......so we will have that tonight.....if we can stay awake long enough!
Sending best wishes for 2023 from us here in Glasgow to everyone on Club Together.
1 -
Well - it's here - Happy New Year everyone
1 -
Enjoying a lazy morning listening to the music from Vienna on BBC 2, early dog walk with three dogs, lots of mud removal needed.
Booked a rally, some of the lists are out and some fully booked already. Going to visit a spot we don't know, canals and docks for a weekend.
Hope you both feel better soon TG, keep fit and well everyone.
1 -
We saw hot cross buns in the supermarket on the 'seasonal goods' shelf last week robsail 😁.
1 -
Happy New Year to all from us as well🥳 Just sorted our NY meal for tonight, a nice homemade lasagne😋 Back on restricted eating tomorrow😬
Bought a new year treat for us, for later in the month. We can’t get away at the moment due to my caring duties, but we have Wentworth Woodhouse on our doorstep, so I have taken advantage of one of their special offers and we are going on a tour later in January. It’s the Lady Mabel one, all about its role as a Teacher Training College for Ladies. Should be fun, it’s where I did my B.Ed Teaching Degree, so be good to poke around some of my youth again. Then lunch in the village after…😁
Anyone local to South Yorks, check out the website, great 2-1 offers, including NT member discounts as well👍 It’s well worth visiting.
3 -
That's nothing, I'm told Christmas cards are on sale today! Far too early in my view.
Happy new year everyone.
0 -
OHs parents owned a pub for 18 years so today we visited it again with our Son, Daughter in law and 5 of our grandchildren. Our son was first taken there at 5 days old, lovely to see his two lads ordering drinks at the bar today. Our son at 2 years old used to toddle around handing crisps out to all the customers, they were regulars and just used to thank him and then pop them unopened back on the bar. There was the time when he was in primary school and wrote in his English book that we had spent the whole weekend in the pub! Omitting to mention that we were stopping the weekend with his grandparents and it was their pub. So many lovely memories brought up today. I didn't venture upstairs to get reacquainted with the 16th century ghost though.
5 -
Hope you both feel better soon TG, keep fit and well everyone.
Thanks brue, throat not so sore today but I now have a cough that isn't helping. Did another Covid test happy to say its clear. Don't feel ill which is good.
Very quiet night last night, even the village do wasn't noisy, never heard a single firework.
Snowed overnight but all gone again today due to having a light rain. It's clear skies so will have a frost tonight I would think.
Gosh Easter eggs and hot cross buns 😱 I'm still working my way through the Christmas food and I didn't buy a lot.
0 -
Our village ws also very quiet TG. I went to sleep before 11 and wasn't woken up by any fireworks. Asked OH and she said there wasn't any in the village but a few from a couple of local country house hotels. Apparently my snoring drowned them out.
Lovely day today, if you happen to be a duck.🦆
2 -
Plenty of fireworks at midnight which woke us up, and then at 6.30 a group of noisy foxes in the road playing woke me up again! So had an early start. 😂
After all the rain yesterday, today was actually dry although cloudy so ventured up the M40 to Warwick and had a walk along the river which was very high, and into St. Nicholas Park. Had a coffee afterwards in the park cafe.
Our microwave decided to pack up tonight, managed to find one online in the sale. 🙂
Hope you feel better soon Tammygirl.
0 -
Plenty of 'Noisy' fireworks around ABM's residence last night but got off to sleep ok untill about 4 am when some noise awakened me, and the flashing Blue and Amber lights, although silent, were flickering across the blinds ~~ it seemed that ambulance was attending a poorly neighbour for some time. Not sure if they took the poorly person off to hospital or did their own cure-all works. I do hope they helped them, coz we really don't want to lose anybody whom we are used to seeing
1 -
Well the decorations are put away did not have many this time and cards dealt with.
OH needed to go to the Phamacie for the next month so did that and a little bit of shopping as we are do the main shopping tomorrow in Villefranche.
Weather duller today with a little bit of light rain dry for the next days then looks like a spell of rain for awhile so will need to get a few chores done before the heavy rain appears.
January sales here start next Saturday the 7th and finish 8th February as quite a short time here as they are strictly regulated here by the Government.
0
