The Big Freeze

You've probably heard that much of Europe is experiencing colder temperatures than normal, and it's having quite the effect on transportation, school, energy consumption and so on. Scotland is no exception. Last night in the highlands it got down to -22.1 degrees C, which is very cold for the UK. The weather expert on BBC Breakfast this morning said that we're on the road to beat the record low temp. of -27. Schools have been shut for days, towns are getting 10cm on snow a day, airports are shut and major flights cancelled across the country, and the lack of gritting streets and sidewalks is affecting drivers and pedestrians alike. It's dangerous to go out for a walk. Just about everyone I know has fallen at one point or another.

All of this is very unusual for the UK, and people, buildings, and city/airport infrastructure is not prepared for temperatures and precipitation like this. Britain hasn't experienced such a sustained deep freeze since 1982. We should have known something was up when it started snowing on my birthday, and snowed everyday for a week. Having a white Christmas hadn't happened for the entire UK for 5 years. Two weeks later and the snow and ice are still here (they were reporting instances of freezing fog on the news this morning -- I hadn't heard of that). Let's put this in context. Last winter I believe we had five 'big' snowfalls, and maybe once did the snow last for more than a day. So how are we surviving in this country that is unprepared for snow, and living in a flat that is unsuitable for facing cold weather? Let me tell you...

Insulation

Like roughly 50% of Edinburgh's population, we live in a tenement building. Ours was redeveloped in the 1880s. It lacks a couple features that we would consider standard back home in Canada, but that would be quite uncommon in older buildings of flats in the UK. One is insulated walls. Another is double glazed windows that counter the cold Scottish winds. I would have thought that this would be a standard feature in such a cold, damp, windy country, but it's not. Not only is it not usual, but its actually forbidden in our building due to being a heritage protected building. So we now keep the curtains and shudders drawn at all times to make a slight difference and keep a bit of the cold air from circulating around the room.

One major problem we faced was that there was no insulation or draft excluders around our front door. Unlike a lot of flats, ours opens directly to outside, and without any sort of insulation or weather stripping around the old door (with a door frame that had seen many different locks cut into it over the years) we had cold air constantly pouring in. We spent weeks talking to the property agent, waiting for a contractor to come and put on some weather stripping and a brush along the bottom of the door. He came, he insulated, he insulated so much that the door would no longer lock and Derek had to call him back, and then the next night after wondering why it was still so cold I put my hand along the door frame and felt cold air pouring in. Sigh. So we trekked over to the hardware store a half hour away and to our surprise in the opening racks of the store were tons of insulation foam strips. It took two days and building up sections of the insulation to 1.5 cm out from the door frame (only at certain points though, due to the warped door), but the cold air seems to have stopped, and we no longer feel that using the front hall heater is a waste of money.

Heating

There is no central heating in our building, or in most buildings. We don't have gas heating, or electric storage heating. We have a giant electric fireplace that might as well be a big toaster for the usefulness and efficiency it achieves. We mainly use a space heater to heat the main living room/kitchen because it has a fan. We have the hall heater on low, and Derek has the bedroom heater on a timer that runs for an hour or so before bed, and then turns on again around 4am when the room gets its coldest. He also bought a thermometer to keep an eye on the living room's temperature. I don't venture out of the main room unless necessary if we have the door to the rest of the flat shut, because its just so cold beyond the door. The washroom can be pretty frigid, and a hot shower doesn't tend to warm me up anymore, although a nice hot bath can work.

Having a hot bath also takes a bit work and planning. The water heater is old and inefficient, and because we rarely use hot water during the day, we have it set to go on for 45 minutes to an hour each morning. If we wash the dishes in the sink we heat the water with the kettle, we wash our clothes in cold water, and we have an old electric shower that heats its own water (like a kettle) as well as providing the water pressure Edinburgh is missing. So I've found that as it's gotten colder it takes two days for the water heater to produce enough hot water for a good hot bath in the morning. That's not too bad.

The worst thing for me was probably hopping into a freezing cold bed every night, under a cold duvet and on top of chilly sheets. This we've now taken care of. A couple days ago Derek walked over to Argos and brought home a heated underblanket that we laid on top of the mattress and under the sheet. We turn it on an hour before bedtime, and can now crawl into a toasty warm bed at night. It makes us feel as though the energy being used is worth it, as it's heating us up, not the room (from which it would eventually escape out the windows). So this £25 purchase was definitely worth it.

Clothing

I have never in my life owned woolies before this winter. Now I wear them pretty much everyday. We probably wear 3 layers of clothing at all times when home, and 2 to 3 when out. We both have fleece sweaters that act as a middle layer, and than hoodies to go overtop. Derek had gotten me furry slippers that go up past my ankles, and I wear them everyday for the entire time I'm at home. When I go out I wear my UGGs which also keep my feet nice and warm (unless it too wet or raining, when I pull out my wellies and wear very thick socks underneath). Derek has thermal socks that he pulls out. When I was painting my toenails this morning I realised it had been a very long time since I'd spent more than a couple seconds walking around without socks and slippers or UGGs on. My toes were cold, so the silver was just right.