What are you all up to

Oh!!! wow, we have ours set to 17.5c overnight and it has cut in at approx 0330 hrs for 2 nights now, but 22c during the day just now, fortunately we are on a fixed tariff of 2 years ago until Nov 2024.

-2c here with fog, no sunshine, solar panels only generating 378w. When we moved south to the bungalow some 12 years ago we added a conservatory to the rear and in those days we used it all year round, now to keep it warm it is like throwing pound notes out of the windows, seriously considering putting a solid roof on, but they do not come cheap. 

Correction, that should have been 18.5 at 8.00am so the heating usually has to work overtime to get up to temperature in the morning depending on outside temps. It then bumps up to 19 at 3.00pm and again to 19.5 at 5.00pm for the evening until 10.00pm when its back to 17. When its cold outside that seem to work OK but if the outside temperature is higher, say low single figures, we sometimes have to use the boost facility to warm us up a bit.

We also have a conservatory but I am not sure how effective a solid roof would be because the roof panels are double glazed glass and it has floor to ceiling glass double glazed panels? We tend not to use it a lot over winter although its handy for storing all the motorhome bits when it goes in for service and I have my exercise bike in there as well. The most its been used was during covid when we parked visitors in there (when it was allowed) and we would talk to them from the house french windows!

David

Thanks for all the messages re Mrs M's injury! Amazingly, she has got an appointment at the fracture clinic at RUH on Tuesday so will ask about all your suggestions then.

Thought it was about time to bake some of the Savoury Christmas Shortbread from Goldie's recipe last year this morning. Feeling rather pleased with myself when I got everything rolled out and into the oven ...... until, when clearing up I discovered the unopened packet of parmesan! 

So have now got to explain why they don't taste quite as cheesey as last year's batches.  Still, a good reason to cracking on with another batch! 

David - I can tell you from our experience that putting a proper roof on a conservatory makes a massive difference.  When we bought this house, 11 years ago - and literally ripped it apart and almost started again, one of first things our builders recommended was putting a proper insulated roof on the conservatory. It has a vaulted style ceiling and the side bits are insulated with a 'space blanket' material and the top bit is stuffed with rockwool or similar. The tiles are of a composite material, so very light. The kitchen and conservatory are open plan - thanks to the previous owners - so something had to be done! The work was being carried out in November - there was no heating because that was in the process of being completely ripped out and replaced - and the Building Inspector turned up and the minute he entered the front door said "I can tell you've got that roof insulated before I even see it - the difference in temperature is so noticeable"! 

I dread to think what our heating bills would have been like if we hadn't done it.

My breakfast view this morning.

Regretfully the sun has disappeared and we have a few spots of rain. Nothing much happening today as we await to see if British Gas can be bothered with keeping it's latest appointment.

Trying to decide on replacing our really old cantankerous printer with a smaller one. Any suggestions? Don't need to print loads of photos but must be fairly compact size, roughly 12" in width and not more than 16" in depth.

we have a Cannon MG3600 ok for your depth but it is about 17 inches wide very cheap from i think PC world/Currys, but it is more than adequate for our needs

"David - I can tell you from our experience that putting a proper roof on a conservatory makes a massive difference"

yes we believe this to be true, our conservatory sits on 2ft high wall and is approx 12ft wide x 6ft deep fully doubled glazed, i worked it out roughly and it would cost approx £12k to provide a roof, we can provide a lot of heat for £12k

Our conservatory is only coming up to four years old. We don't really use it as an "extra room" except perhaps in the summer so I can't see that being £12000 well spent for us. If we were using it as a regular extension of the house it might be worth considering. 

On the question of printers I have always used HP printers, had several over the years. Size might be governed by what you want to use it for. Our current Envoy model has a built in scanner which I find very useful. However I wouldn't class it as being compact! I also subscribe to HP Instant Ink, I pay £2.99 a month for up to 50 pages of print and HP send me new cartridges as and when required. It has to be linked to the internet for this service. JL have an Envoy printer for £45.99 here 

David

Rufs - that seems an awful lot.  I know it was 11 years ago and the builders were 'friends' - and it was a small part of a £50k refurbishment of the house - but when I asked him what he had allowed - he said about £2k - give or take.

The conservatory is about 5m x 4m and had a pitched roof 'glazed' with polycarbonate sheeting. All they did was remove the polycarbonate - reinforced the existing aluminium frame with lengths of 3x2 timber bolted through the frame - then felted it - put lats on and tiled it in the traditional way but using Marley composite tiles that look like slate. 

It was waterproof in a day and fully tiled the next day. The plasterers came in later and did the inside and that's when the insulation went in.

I am aware, though, that it is now very much 'in vogue' and there are some firms out there quoting silly prices for such work. A doggy walking friend had hers done last year and the conservatory is half the size of ours.  They used tiles that looked more like bits of lino and it still cost her nearly £5k.

Well a mini adventure today, we left Keswick with a very slight covering of snow but the main roads clear and headed for Grasmere. We met heavy snow going over Dumail Raise and it got worse. Traffic was at a stand still past Grasmere where we turned around. Quite a few cars stopped but once again our KIA's AWD proved its worth. Once past Dumail Raise the snow stopped and clear roads and nothing at all in Keswick.

We're reading the local news and there is emergency overnight accommodation in the parish room at Ambleside for stranded travelers. 

Hope no one here is affected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/cumbriahttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/cumbria

This was Keswick at 4pm, no trace of snow.