PDA

View Full Version : The Winter Home



Oresai
11-28-2008, 06:01 AM
I don`t know what it`s like where everyone else lives..I suspect most of you live in a more modern home than I do (the older I get, the more I crave central heating, which I`ve never had...:embarrassed)
Here in Orkney and Scotland, the weather is described as `temporate`. In reality, this means we get howling gales for nine months of the year, the rest of it we get lashing rain, strong winds and did I mention the rain?
And it`s cold....
Last night the temperature got down below zero, not the first time in the past month that has happened. Today it`s set to hover around two or three degrees.
Coupled with strong winds, the wind chill can push it down to minus twenty often. That wind pierces your clothing, no matter how many tucked in layers you wear, and gets right into your bones.
Och, yes, I`m sounding like my granny now! But it`s true! (hey, you`ll all get here one day, then you`ll be saying "Oh yes, now I know what that auld woman was talking about..." :D )
I often wear fur. The real thing, not the fashion fake stuff. Fur coats, fur scarves, fur lined boots. It`s the most effecient material I have found for keeping warm.
(I`m going to post an article on tanning your own skins soon, it`s rather long and detailed though. Um..wait..that should be tanning your own animal skins, not just your own...:embarrassed)
And fur has its uses around the home too.
On places like Ebay, old fur coats can be bought fairly cheaply. Most of them are rabbit fur, which is quite thin and can be fragile, but is still warm. Occasionally you can buy perfectly good mink or fox furs. Surprisingly, in this PC oriented culture, wolf fur or any kind of exotic fur always gets bought for very high prices. ;)
If you buy just two or three of these old coats, you can cut and piece them together to make a throw for your couch, chair or the top of the bed.
(to clean fur, heat bran or oatmeal gently in a warm oven, sprinkle over the fur, gently rub in, leave for an hour, then shake excess off and brush with a soft brush...dry shampoo)
I have no damp proof coursing in this house, but live on an island only twelve miles by six at the widest. It gets damp here! I use a dehumidifier, but for small spaces like open shelves, closed cupboards etc, put a bowl of table salt there and when it has soaked up moisture (and it will!) throw it away and replace it with fresh dry salt.
I have a closed in stove..an old Doric...to heat the livingroom. This serves a double function because it is also cooked on and in. Coal here is expensive but there is plenty driftwood free on the beaches....good exercise collecting it, and doesn`t cost anything.
Stack wood in a dry, sheltered area, damp wood only spits and hisses in the fire and doesn`t give off any heat.
Change your curtains/drapes for thick, heavy ones. These can be horrendously expensive to buy, so unusual or pretty blankets can be hauled into service as curtains, and you can line them with plain sheets, doubling the insulation...a lot of heat is lost through windows if you don`t have double glazing.
If you live in the country, mud is a constant...I make folks take off their outdoor shoes before they come in, and a coir or hessian doormat is a good idea placed just outside or inside the front door. :)
For folks who care about aesthetics, decor can be easily changed to suit winter tastes by swapping cushion covers for richer, deeper coloured ones, and throwing a few throws in warm colours over the chairs.
(apologies for sounding like an interior design mag! I`m not really, this is just what I do...:p )
If you live in a remote area at all..(here, we often have times when the ferries and plane don`t run due to gales and storms) it pays to lay in food stores, as much as you can afford. One or two extra items, bought in your weekly shop and put away somewhere safe, will always come in handy, either during lean financial times or if you become housebound for any reason.
Check your plumbing at this time of year! With cold and frosts, burst water pipes are common. Make sure yours are lagged and check your hot water tank too. If your pipes become frozen, use a hair dryer to gently thaw them out, after having turned off the water at the mains. In an emergency, old woollen jumpers, or even newspaper, can serve as lagging.
Before the weather gets too bad, have a quick look at your roof, make sure all tiles are there and not loose, and look for any cracks or missing pointing in brick or stone work, and get it seen to before rainwater gets in, corrodes the stone or brick, and makes for a serious problem down the line.

Albion
04-06-2012, 09:20 PM
My house is generally fine, it's just the crappy old windows which let in the cold. They're single pane shit and have condensation on every other day.

The heating is good I suppose even if it doesn't work how it should. It requires certain knowledge, such as the radiators in certain rooms take practically the whole day to cool down making the room unbearably hot without opening the window (even in winter).

The boiler is rubbish, I really, really hate it. It's some Germany model, so much for German quality, it is slow and my piss is probably warmer than the water from it.

Here's the culprit, but mine doesn't have a tank.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Boiler_and_Cylinder.jpg

I've had to fix it many times.

Once it does get going the boiler is ok I suppose, just don't turn on the taps too fast or you'll be waiting for it to heat up again.
I miss my old English heating system which had a tank.


Apart from that it's all good.

Tank-less disadvantages:

Start-up delay: There is a longer wait to obtain hot water. A tankless water heater only heats water upon demand, which is one of its chief advantages, so all idle water in the piping starts at room temperature. Thus there is a more apparent "flow delay" for hot water to reach a distant faucet (in non-point-of-use systems). Many models sold in the UK have introduced a small heat store within the combi. to address this issue. This "keep hot" facility considerably improves the standard of hot water service, which some people otherwise find unacceptably poor with a combi., but it uses considerably more fuel especially in summer.

Intermittent-use: There is a short delay (1–3 seconds) between the time when the water begins flowing and when the heater's flow detector activates the heating elements or gas burner. In the case of continuous-use applications (showers, baths, washing machine) this is not an issue. However, for intermittent-use applications (for example when a hot water faucet is turned on and off repeatedly at a sink) this can result in periods of hot water, followed by some small amount of cold water as the heater activates, followed quickly by hot water again. The period between hot/cold/hot is the amount of water which has flowed though the heater before becoming active. This cold section of water takes some amount of time to reach the faucet and is dependent on the length of piping.

Maintaining constant shower temperature: Similarly, unlike with a tank heater, the hot water temperature from a non-modulated tankless heater is inversely proportional to the rate of the water flow—the faster the flow, the less time the water spends in the heating element being heated. Mixing hot and cold water to the "right" temperature from a single-lever faucet (say, when taking a shower) takes some practice. Also, when adjusting the mixture in mid-shower, the change in temperature will initially react as a tanked heater does, but this also will change the flow rate of hot water. Therefore some finite time later the temperature will change again very slightly and require readjustment. This is typically not noticeable in non-shower applications.

These are the main things I hate as well as all the times it's broken down. Give me my old system back any day.