Warm for winter

[Redstart]

We bought a freezing cold house nearly three years ago but now have insulated walls, ceilings and floor plus double-glazed windows and we've only to have the lights on or cook and people comment on how warm the house is to come in to.

For winter we have central heating (district heating run on wood pellets which are made from waste material from the wood processing industry) plus two wood burning stoves (one old and one new) and old two tiled stoves (also known here as "seat stoves" because they have a seat built in that you can sit on (on a cushion because they get quite hot). Because of all the insulation the central heating never comes on fully (the radiators never get hot) and we rarely actually need to light the wood-burning stoves and tiled stoves.

However, when it's icy cold and snowing outside, the house maybe warm as toast but there's something about lighting those wood-burning stoves and using them to heat the old tiled stoves (via a flue), sitting on the tiled stoves and feeling that heat, just like people did over 200 years ago, when the house was first built. It may not be quite as efficient as the central heating but somehow it's "warmer" - psychological heat I know but I reckon this need for direct warmth goes back to much earlier times, when people gathered round an open fire in the cold. The sound of the kettle steaming away on the hob and knowing it's the burning wood that's heating it just adds to that deep feeling of comfort.

Of course, we also wear warm woolly jumpers in winter so that we can keep the central heating down a degree or so and save both money and the environment. But come the really cold weather we'll be snuggled up on those tiled stoves!

What do the rest of you do in your homes in the cold weather?

[jazzactivist]

Hi Mandy, your tiled stoves sound fantastic. We have good insulation (sheep's wool and recycled paper pellets), but have no real choice in this village but to have either electric or oil fired central heating which are the least environmentally friendly and hugely expensive. We also have two woodstoves in the sitting room and dining room and try to keep our carbon footprint and costs down by using these and keeping the central heating carefully timed. Has anyone tried one of those gadgets for making burning blocks out of old newspapers?

[CountryLady]

I haven't tried one yet Jazz but will more than likely be buying one soon. Watch this space!

[Oola]

jazzactivist I think you mentioned one of those on CL? I would still be interested in seeing what it looks like and how much it costs.

[sheddie]

Well we live in the town and last year we opened up our fireplace and had a lovely log fire, the only thing was we got a letter in the post from the council saying someone had complained and we would get a fine if we had one again - I so loved it too and we didn't inconvenience anyone, but I think the curtain twitcher next door probably saw us unloading our logs.The basket!

[SummerSkye]

We are just finished winter and it has been long, cold and very wet. We have a huge wood burning heater which is very efficient often our living room is 25C. We have a ceiling fan which works on reverse to push the warm air around the house. I love sitting watching the flames through the glass window feeling so warm and snug whilst outside it can be downright miserable. Lots of councils are pushing to ban wood fires because of pollution but if burning dry seasoned wood there should be little if any smoke.

[Redstart]

Wood pellet heating is being promoted here as it produces much less smoke.

However, I love the smell of wood smoke on the cold night air. Such a promise of warmth.

We've lost a lot of the romance with our modern heating systems, haven't we?

[jazzactivist]

That's a pity, Sheddie, you must live in a smoke-free zone. Oola, I have seen a couple of advertisements in weekend newspapers for a gadget that seems to crush old newspapers into brick shaped logs for burning in your woodstove. It looks very manual and I am not sure how it works, but something like that would be very handy for using up old papers and cutting down on using logs and coal.

[Pippa]

I have a log making gadget. First of all you have to soak the newspapers, I use an old tin bath, then put the mushy paper in the 'basket' pull the two levers down to push out all the water and there you have a newspaper brick. They need to dry out so the summer is a good time to make them, I dry them in the greenhouse, they look like loaves out of the oven. It is time consuming and you need good strong arms- or else a husband with good strong arms. They burn OK and don't spit which is grate (sorry) in an open fire or chiminea.

[Healing Hands]

Ahh...log fires...I just love them. I have been told once I have lite the log fire that is me for the winter...hibernation sets in. I love the smell of log fires and the romance of them too, as you say Mandy the romance has gone with central heating.

What a shame about Sheddie that the council told you that you cannot light a fire, I have never heard of that before, living in a town or country, what difference does it make! Confused!

[eleanor2]

you can have a fire but it has to be smokeless fuel.dry logs shouldn't smoke.we burn logs and a bit of coal.no-one complains cus theres an incinerator down the road.puffing it out at night.its horrifying really. can you imagine if they complained about my little fire.

[sheddie]

We couldn't believe it either, we used dry logs, but you can still smell them a bit in the street I suppose but once again no live and let live. My OH says he's still going to light one when it gets colder but i shall worry. My neigbour across the road used to be on the council and says they had a log fire but received no letter.

[sunflower]

Our lovely warm air central heating broke down several years ago. British gas refused to repair it because of it's age. It was cost effective, and fantastic for drying washing. We still have no central heating because, having a small house, so a small living room radiators take up precious room. A couple of years ago, I invested in a calor gas heater that looks like a log fire with a real flame. It was fantastic, but unfortunately it broke down, and we cannot find anyone to repair it. Even the Corgi registered calor gas repairers wont touch it. So, we have resorted to anelectric fire that is like a stove and looks lovely(we have no chimney only a small flue for the warm air heaters)Good thing our house is naturally warm.

[Redstart]

We installed electrical central heating back in the mid-seventies and it didn't work. So we called the installers back in. In the end the electricity board came - the installers had put the pump on upside down, so it was pumping cold air in and suckng warm air out! And the log fire in the next house never worked, it always smoked. Various "experts" looked at, we had it cleaned, the brickwork was fine - in the end we decided the wind simply blew the wrong way for the chimney. That's why we are so pleased with this modern, automatic district heating (run on woodchips). It works!

[lily]

have been looking into double glazing, replacing victorian sashes with hardwood frames etc seems very expensive, so I think it will be woolly jumpers again this year No cavities to fill and no loft to insulate- won't score very well when /if we need a HIP. We do have coal/ log fire and fortunately are not in a smokeless fuel area. I think maybe the council complain if you are in a smokeless zone? Perhaps if this is the case you could try a different fuel?

[lily]

have been looking into double glazing, replacing victorian sashes with hardwood frames etc seems very expensive, so I think it will be woolly jumpers again this year No cavities to fill and no loft to insulate- won't score very well when /if we need a HIP. We do have coal/ log fire and fortunately are not in a smokeless fuel area. I think maybe the council complain if you are in a smokeless zone? Perhaps if this is the case you could try a different fuel? There is quite a bit on the net about smokeless fuels + smoke free area, might help?

[Oola]

Our house is really quite bad for heating. We have central heating that works very nicely, but we do try really hard to have it on as little as possible. The thing is we have old original sash windows that rattle like mad and let the drafts in. Our loft extension isn't insulated either. The bare floorboards in the front room are also very drafty in winter (the bits that aren't covered by a rug), and the dining room floor is the original terracotta tiles straight onto the earth. The kitchen has no heating and a drafty catflap, but the gas oven or hob does a really good job of heating it when we're cooking dinner anyway. One year I was so cold I was having to take my showers or baths in the evening in hot water just to stop my fingers going blue! Our bathroom is the only part of the house with double glazing so the radiator doesn't have to be on long in there to get it lovely and toasty.

We too have a working open fire and try and use that and stay in the front room, rather than heating up the whole house. So far this year we've just been using wood that we've collected and dried from the garden - the remnants of half of the crab apple tree that fell down. I can't see how doing this is any less environmentally friendly than using the central heating. Also our row of cottages and the ones next to that were all built by the same people, and three out of the four still use their fireplaces regularly in winter. There's not a lot of smoke, but you can smell it when you walk down the street. I think it adds a really nice touch as our road is quite old-fashioned anyway. No one seems to mind at all.

I remember about 2 or 3 years ago there was a blackout during the early winter. I was so glad we had a gas stove and working fireplace - it would have been awful without!

Sometimes in winter though, I have to have the window open in the bedroom and have the heating off, so I end up wearing my PJs, socks, ski socks on top, jumper and a hat! Lovely and cosy, but my nose does tend to get pretty cold!

[Redstart]

Oola: the reason why we kept our two wood burners and our two tiled stoves is because we were in an all electric house when a hurricane arrived and we had no heat, no light, no hot water andno cooing. Never again.

Could you not lift your wooden floors and put insulation between the floor joists?

[Oola]

Well to be honest it's a financial issue at the moment too, we just have to live with the drafts and wear a couple of pairs of socks! I think we may lift the original tiles in the dining room, but we'll have to concrete the floor before we put any carpet in. Again, this is just a job that'll have to wait. We have an old rug over the floor so it's not too bad.

As long as I have slippers on I can live with it :) We try to keep costs down as much as possible by only having the heating on when really going blue at the fingertips. A small working fireplace in the front room throws out a surprising amount of heat, and a few layers of clothing help too. And yes, I too have a thermal vest!

[Redstart]

The thing to do is wait until you have the necessary finance and then rather than spend it on carpet or whatever, spend it on insulation. I am still gobstruck at the different insulation has made to this house, and because of it we have really low heating bills. We've gone from -13° inside (during the renovation) to always feeling warm. Other people's heating goes on at night now but ours doesn't. It's warm enough just from the light and the cooking. Someone came in earlier this week and commented on how nice and warm the house was - but we'd no heating on.

[Sparrow]

First of all, I LOVE THIS SITE. Thanks for telling me about it Sheddie. Redstart, I am so envious of your tiled stoves. I live in a part of New Zealand with the fiercest winds and it can be freeeeezing. Most houses are built of wood, because of earthquakes, and many are built badly with no insulation. So, I wear a lot of layers in the house - mostly NZ wool sweaters and hiking type thermals. A large tom cat on the end of the bed and his smoochy sister at the top help to keep warm at night. Also, hot porridge every morning:-)

I "nag" my beloved once in a while for a wood burning stove, but I know what will happen if we get one, our cats will park themselves in front of it and absorb the heat before it reaches anywhere else. :)

Hello to all the other wonderful correspondents online, i look forward to spending many a happy hour reading your notes.

Love from the bottom of the planet

[Oola]

Hello sparrow

Very warmest welcome to the site! Looking forward to your future contributions, hope you enjoy it here!

Oola xxxx

[Pippa]

Hello Sparrow, good to meet you, looking forward to hearing all about NZ.

[Redstart]

Hello Sparrow and greetings from near the Northern Alps - this house is mostly wood (timbered at the front and all wood at the back - the back being the older, original house) but since we insulated the walls (and floors and ceilings) and returned the orginal thick wooden panels, it's been really warm and toasty.

And we also have brother and sister cats and they love it when we put the woollen Welsh Tapestry bedspread on the bed in winter - we can hardly move at night and more than once I've woken with a cat perched, purring on top of me. The heating pipes are near the surface in the kitchen to take the chill off the tiled floor (the only underfloor heating in the house and we didn't really want a heated floor) and we know where the main pipes over as we trip over the cats, stretched out along them. If you want to know where it's warm - find a cat!