The stove sounds like a great idea. I love my fire and any house I've lived in I've always made sure that I'm able to light the fire. My thinking is that should all else fail (electricity, oil etc) I'll at least still be able to keep one room warm. I'm curious also how the stove heats the whole house??

In terms of keeping the house as warm as possible the draft excluders and curtains/blinds make a hell of a difference. Also if you use your radiators to dry clothes - and lets face it at this time of year most of us do to some extent - remember that this is going to really reduce the amount of heat in the room itself.
My dad gave me a little tool years ago for bleeding radiators and recommended I do it every year to get maximum heat from them. Make sure you put a cloth behind the little valve though - it's not called "bleeding" for nothing. Getting rusty watermarks off a wall is not easy!!!!

QUERY: New Home Insulation
 

The Dragons' Den had two inventors that have come up a system to create an extra layer of insulation outside the existing walls of a house. What's more, there were pipes running through the extra insulation to a heat pump to capture any heat that escaped through the walls.

What an exciting idea! Homes of the future could be so energy efficient that they would take virtually nothing in energy to keep warm.

Did anyone see this and have more information about this system ?

Kilo

QUERY: help - solid concrete house no cavity
 

house is old corpo built 1946 made of mass concrete, so dry lining is all im being told works. problem with that is condensation or dry rot behind dry lining as there is no breathing space. any advice on alternative insulation solutions would be great thanks guys

curtain poles.
 

can you tell me where i can get hinged curtain poles, and how much please? thank you.

Hi - the rods are actually called 'Portieres'.... very old fashioned, but still just as effective!!

I've just ordered one for our back door this year - I got ours from here
http://www.gbinteriors.co.uk/acatalo...iere_Rods.html

I checked ebay & the usual places, but no joy - like I said, very old fashioned, but I'm sure we'll be using ours for a long time to come!

Curtain Hinge
 

Thank You So Much, You Have A Good Weekend .

check out old reply
 

Hi search all my posts and look at the one where I replied to someone with similar problem. Hope it assists....

interesting stuff here!
 

i live in a corpo small hoose! draught from back door (15yrs old), and front door awful.
the boiler has been serviced recently but is also same age and you can see the dial has corroded.
recently rehoused the boiler in my last place was also serviced prior to leaving and te guy said tat it was a workable boiler but uneconomical for me.
are their grants for ME! to get my place insulated, boiler up to speed.
corpo wont replace these two ancient doors (which part thereof fell off in my hand when showing the disability officer) nor te boiler.
Why in my straightened circumstances should i pay for an inefficient boiler.
minnie pal

fire
 

I removed our gas fire and replaced it with a grate and now burn home made briquettes from news paper and any wood i find in skips, old furniture, any thing thats made of wood will keep your living room warm and dont forget to invest in a spark guard.I reduced our gas bill from 330 euro to 99 euro, bord gais.... SCREW YOU.

nice handy tips there for the curtains on the doors and the snakes will be trying that, im living in a 3 bed semi a fairly large one and the cost of heating it is so exspensive 500ltrs of kerosene would be gone in 1 and a half to 2 months and the min ya turn it off its freezing! thank god im moving to a smaller place. my dad has been ranting and raving about that ber rating i tought he was mad but reading it here and seening what it was im shocked and delighted. thank god if you knew how well insulated a house was before you bought or renting would be nice to know your not wasting money on heat escaping.

I know what you mean about knowing whether the house is insulated or not and how well before buying/renting it!! I've rented this place for 2 years now, its 300 years old,theres no insulation in the loft and the gaps in the front and back doors are unreal, and for the two years i've been here the landlords said the insulation and the doors would be done and still nothing!! so consequently in the recent weather, I have quilts nailed to the wail covering the doors,highly annoying to get in and out but works a treat and stops the drafts!

heating houses.
 

64moog -do you have a back boiler? We have gas central heating and it is brilliant but am worried about the next bill and I have the heating on most of the time as I feel the cold so much. Was thinking of going back to the old back boiler and open fire but the rest of the family would vote against it.

back boiler
 

To tick tock
the old gas fire that i removed was not connected to the central heating [no back boiler] as it had an independant gas supply and was only used to heat the living room. I do have and still use gas central heating for heating the house and water. The point i was trying to make was that the heating bill with the gas fire was huge and i reduced the bill by removing the gas fire and replacing it with a grate and burning solid fuel.

heating houses
 

We've had so many different heating systems over the years, I still can't decide what is the most economical. If a system is economical this year, ten chances to one it will be very expensive in a year or two. Hard to keep up. The central heating has turned me into a wimp, and now I can't handle any cold at all.

heating house
 

Thanks for the advice Mammasboys
also one think i am using home heating oil for warm my house i am order it online from "swillyfuels"