Cold weather on the way *brrrr*

Qualcast&Flymo

Qualcast&Flymo

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🥶 The weather forecast for the rest of this week is for very cold weather - windchill making temperatures feel even colder, like 0 degrees at times even during the day in some parts of the country including the Midlands. The forecast even shows the possibility of snow on Thursday round here. So it's time to max out on warming and protective measures for outdoor piggies.

My oil filled radiator is now on all night in my piggies' outbuilding, it's managing to keep the inside of the hutch at 17-18 degrees overnight, but at a cost I think. The other day I had a look at recent usage figures, and I'm using about the same amount at night as during the day, and I believe much of that is the heater.... So my electricity bill is going to go up a lot until the warmer weather comes back ☹️
 
Doesn’t feel that long ago since we were fighting the heat and now it’s so cold. My oil heater is on in my pig room too to supplement the heating for the skinny pigs as their room has two external walls and gets chilly.

Boo to the electric bills ☹️
 
Oh dear! Glad my pair are inside. I’m using oil more sparingly this year, but if it wasn’t for the piggies and a dog with a lung condition, I’d be putting an extra jumper on, but can’t have the house cold and damp for the critters!

Is there any way of insulating to save on electric?
 
How is your attic insulation? I know that is a big source of losing warm air in a home. It gets pretty chilly here in Indiana in the winter. We can get down into -10F/-23C, but on a rare occasion, a bit colder. I have curtains in my windows and close them once it starts to get dark. If you don't have curtains, you can use a quilt or a blanket to help keep in the heat.

Our energy companies offer an energy audit and they will come and inspect your home to see where you are losing warm/cold air (depending on the time of year). They will then advise where you can insulate so you can save your money.

Hopefully things will not stay too cold for long.
 
The snugglesafes are up in full force for all my oldies and the biggest fleece is used as a draft excluder in the bay window area overnight when the heating is off. The piggies share the lounge with us; it is the warmest room in the house. We have done quite a bit re. insulation over the years so the house is keeping the heat in much better than it used to.
 
Lavinia said:
Doesn’t feel that long ago since we were fighting the heat and now it’s so cold. My oil heater is on in my pig room too to supplement the heating for the skinny pigs as their room has two external walls and gets chilly.

Boo to the electric bills ☹️
Click to expand...
I'm glad I don't have skinny pigs, I don't know where I'd have put them when we moved, they certainly couldn't be in my outbuilding :no:
 
There was frost here this morning. The piggies were fine overnight while the heating was off. I closed the curtains, shut the door to keep heat in and covered one end of their cages with a bath towel. They looked very comfy this morning.
 
We have blankets over cages and extra hay, along with snugglesafes!
Those three looked very toasty when I went in nippy from my bedroom, as it’s the warmest room in the flat with the tropical fish tank heater keeping them nice and warm!
 
Ruth1 said:
Oh dear! Glad my pair are inside. I’m using oil more sparingly this year, but if it wasn’t for the piggies and a dog with a lung condition, I’d be putting an extra jumper on, but can’t have the house cold and damp for the critters!

Is there any way of insulating to save on electric?
Click to expand...
Make sure you have no draughts ,
close curtains as it gets dark
maybe a curtain at your front door
you can get specialist foil to put behind radiators if they are on an outside wall
I’m sure other members will think of more !
 
I feel like the heating is never off atm but I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. The goblins need the heating for the time being, so on it goes. The cold weather isn't their fault. It hasn't dropped much below 16° again, thankfully, but the sooner I get a heating solution for their room the better. Then I can turn the heating right down and wear a hoodie. I'm good with a hoodie.
 
Could you look into a heat lamp like for reptiles ? I know they are available with a stand but I’m not sure how you’d regulate the heat or how expensive they might be
 
Just make sure they don’t have a cut out that is too low - hopefully it could be an adjustable setting
Good luck with it all 🥰
 
@Lorcan

Your heating system sounds like ours. The damn thing was clicking on every 40 mins or so through the night to keep downstairs at 16 for the piggies. Partner and I very hot and grumpy today!
 
Spaniel said:
@Lorcan

Your heating system sounds like ours. The damn thing was clicking on every 40 mins or so through the night to keep downstairs at 16 for the piggies. Partner and I very hot and grumpy today!
Click to expand...

Mine's just ancient. The "timer" is a mechanical dial with 4 moving levers marked A, B, C and D. A and C switch the boiler on, B and D switch it off. Couple that with a thermostat in a room that's almost always freezing, and you have a heating system that should've been ripped out years ago.
 
Lorcan said:
Mine's just ancient. The "timer" is a mechanical dial with 4 moving levers marked A, B, C and D. A and C switch the boiler on, B and D switch it off. Couple that with a thermostat in a room that's almost always freezing, and you have a heating system that should've been ripped out years ago.
Click to expand...
Yours sounds older than ours. Ours is coming up to 30 years old. Dial thermostat and open plan, draughty cold downstairs, spiral stairs for the heat to go straight up! Original doors and windows too! I feel your pain!
 
I'm 34, and I'm adamant it's older than I am. Sixties, maybe, if not more. Mine's just a straight staircase but with downstairs being open plan as it is there's no stopping the cold coming up those stairs. The boiler's an old back boiler, and the gas fire it's connected to had to be disconnected entirely because the gas fire was condemned.

I'm in a back to back terrace, so I'm surrounded by 3 other houses. Only one of those is currently occupied, one's recently been sold, another's having work done (it could be three having work done at this point, I dunno) and the last one I've no idea about. But they're not helping with the heat like they would be if all the houses were occupied. No fault to the owners, I should point out, just the way it is.

The downstairs is that draughty I could swear I could smell the weed some kids were smoking nearby when I went downstairs yesterday. It was definitely in my room (open window) but there's no good reason for me to smell it downstairs and not at the top of the stairs, except that there's a big enough draught from somewhere.
 
With the owner you have Lorcan I don’t see your boiler being changed unless it’s condemned ! Hopefully it gets a yearly service. If you have any old towels/ blankets you could use those as draught excluders but often in an old house it’s hard to reduce the draught. Extra heaters where you need them…..ie the boys is the way to go 🥰
 
It actually gets serviced twice - the letting agent sent someone out, and then the housing association sent someone out, both checks passed. Nowhere near as efficient as a combi boiler, but definitely passed, and I'm not too miffed on that front, because it does work.

I mean in the original For Sale ad the letting agents put up, they claimed it had a modern gas heating system and double glazing. Everyone on the street had a good laugh at that one.
 
It looks like one I'd need to leave behind the door, which I'd rather not do. I could probably fit it onto the windowsill though!
 
Just mentioning all this in case it helps anyone with a few ideas.

This house is very drafty, the doors and windows don't fit, a draft comes down the chimney in the living room, there are air bricks in the walls which mean drafts come up through the floor (we don't have carpets). We keep the curtains closed, I have curtains on the doors as well as windows. Rolled up fleece liners act as draft excluders along the front edge of the living room where the worst draft comes under the skirting board. I have a leftover piece of corex across the chimney opening attached with bull dog clips to the gas fire surround (we don't use the fire). I have draft excluders along the bottom of the front and back door and one across the living room door to catch any draft that gets through the defences at the back. The heating thermostat is on 16, it's in the coldest area of the house but hasn't come on much yet! The thermometer in the living room has a minimum of 17 showing, max 21 so I think my defences are working so far! The piggies whose cages are on the floor have a thick newspaper layer under the fleece liners and grid high corex round sides and back of cages, at night I bull dog clip grid high corex to the fronts. So glad I've kept all the corex off cuts!
The piggies that will use them also have cardboard boxes stuffed with hay. Brillo in particular spends a lot of time sleeping in his box.
We had thick frost this morning the main complaint was about there being no grass. I couldn't pick any it was frozen!
 
None of our extra measures seem to be working this year. Heating set to 16 overnight but clicking on constantly. This morning it’s gone a stage further to every 15/20 mins. Lowest reading on our thermometers this morning even with it clicking on that often. It’s the french doors mainly. Got bubble wrap on the glass, a sheet of correx up against it and thermal curtains but it feels like it’s open. Put a better thermal curtain up at the front door yesterday which we thought had helped but obviously not much. Not sure what else to do.

Pigs cage thermometer was 15.9 with all that. Room thermometer 17.2. Seems ridiculous considering how much the heating is clicking on.
 
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