[Growster...]

It's been so cold today, with heavy rain, 'The Turrets' is suffering from a drop in temperature, so the first fire is lit, and we're planning to watch a Lovejoy dvd, mainly to remember Tinker Dill (Dudley Sutton), who popped off last week.

Ho hum - autumn becomes us doesn't it!

[greenjay]

definitely cooler. tried to light the fire last night filled the room with smoke and had to open windows and doors!
today chimney swept and rayburn cracks filled with fire cement.
haven't lit it tonight just put another jumper on. still need to get more logs into the shed before starting emptying it. where did the summer go?

[snowdrops]

We were away last week in Cumbria,we had a fire every night,Twas lovely. We don’t have a fire at home so especially nice.

[mumofstig]

My heating turned itself on, so yes much cooler now, I've also put the duvet back on, as well!
The changeover from summer to autumn seemed to happen overnight rather than a gentle drift from one season into the next....

[Lardman]

The heating is staying off until we move the clocks !  although hot water in the bathroom might be a good idea. 

[al78]

I've noticed the drop in temperature, and this weekend has been the annoying two days of foul weather in between nice sunny days when I am at work. At least it was sunny this afternoon and I managed to get my water butts set up on the plot. Still far too warm indoors to put the heating on, it has not dropped below 18C yet, and it is only the last couple of days I have had to wear long sleeved clothing. I am going to experiment this year by setting the thermostat to 12C and compensate with extra layers, to see if I can make a dent in my energy usage, it worked a few years ago.

[madcat]

The heating is staying off for a while, but a fire in the evening ... We lit our first one last night, and again tonight.  It is so damp and miserable!  But as it warms and hopefully dries this coming week the chimney needs sweeping.   

[DanielCoffey]

We are in a new house with underfloor heating (still off till the end of this month) and heat recovery ventilation (now on normal rather than cool) but we have noticed the sudden drop too.

We have a full set of duvets (4.5, 7, 10.5 and 13.5) and this year we skipped the 7 entirely, had the 10.5 for about three weeks and have just landed back on the big thick ones.

It will be interesting to see what sort of winter we get... remember '76?

[JayG]

A potential tip for those in similar houses - my downstairs living room has a door leading to the stairs (the only door to upstairs), and despite the cold winter I managed to use less gas than in previous milder winters just by keeping the door closed (didn't change the program times, target temperature or anything else.)

Although I do heat the upstairs rooms the radiator thermostats are turned down lower than those downstairs - I reckon closing the door prevented the warmer air rising upstairs and having to be reheated.

[mumofstig]

My stairs are in the middle of the house, directly facing the front door which is only 3ft 6ins away. Both living room and dining room are doorless, although the stairs are walled in. Suffice to say that I don't use the radiators upstairs, except the bathroom one, but struggle to keep downstairs warm enough 

At this time of year I hang a curtain over the living room door, which helps a bit 

[Goosegirl]

We lit our fire a couple of times last week but this weekend it's not going out until the sweep comes with his brush and a new chimney cowl as the old one blew off in the recent gales. Although we have a lovely mahogany fire-screen with silk embroidery, I must say I love to see the fire lit and also we can burn some household rubbish. Logs are drying out in our old sheep shelter ready for a certain festive season, and some more smokeless fuel and slack will be delivered soon. Keeping your house draught-proof does help a lot with fuel bills too.

[Growster...]

We all seem to be in similar circumstances, but as today has been fantastic (lunch outside at The Lime Wharf, Newenden), we may still manage to stay in the conserv and read - maybe with a few more layers...

And we still can't work out what happened in the Lovejoy episode (1)... Long discussions on the way over to lunch, and still none the wiser!

[Goosegirl]

Re- fires, I used to make paper spills out of rolled-up and twisted newspapers and dad used to use them with bits of wood and some coal on top, then put a newspaper against the fire to get it going and he sometimes added a sprinkling of sugar. I always gad to go out and see the sweep's brush come out of the chimney pot and still do that today!

[Growster...]

My favourite uncle and aunt would just get a newspaper, screw it up tight, pop it in the grate and light it. It gave off some semblance of heat and light!

An old neighbour visited once, and exclaimed that 'they didn't need to light a fire just for her'...

[oldgrunge]

First frost here, last night, very early!Went off very quickly though. Down to 1 deg. In greenhouse.