This winter we didn't just start heating our house with wood, it also gave me the idea to reduce the need for electricity and do more to stop heat loss in our house. I thought I'd share some of my greatest hits, I'm hoping that someone else might benefit from them. Some I just found, some we use for comfort and a lot of DIY because I just love DIY. I already thought about some things I can use at our cabin, but there's a lot I can use even if our house are on the grid.
Wonderbag!
This is the one thing I'm most excited about so I'm gonna start with it!
Slow cooking without using electricity. How cool is that?
I do a lot of cooking, the stove is the one thing I use the most. If I think about it I probably sleep less than I use the stove some days. I often have things cooking or the oven going for hours at a time. Leaving the oven open after I've used it or using a lid on whatever I might be cooking is a very small gesture for reducing the use of energy. It still needs to be on even if I only have something simmering on it.
The Wonderbag can handle up to 180 C (356 F) so food can be heated up in on the stove or in the oven before it's going in the wonderbag where it will continue to cook. It retains heat for up to 12 hours, I think it depends on what model you have.
Another thing is yoghurt and I do it almost every week, I bet I can make yoghurt in this beauty! Now I use my dehydrator and besides the fact that I run it for 10 hours I can only make about 2 litres at a time. The medium size wonderbag can handle pots from 2-8 litres. I think I could make a very long list on things I can do with a wonderbag and reduce the time I actually use my stove.
I'll know how this things work in a few weeks, I just ordered a medium wonderbag.
Picture from yuppiechef.com, link to more information below.
I did find some DIY, but I find this worth buying. Besides the fact that it's washable it has already been tested so that it performs as expected. Another thing is that for every Wonderbag sold in Sweden, Finland and Denmark one Wonderbag are donated to a family in South Africa.
Wonderbag World
Wonderbag Sweden
How it works, YUPPIECHEF
Thermal curtains!
I found a DIY on thermal curtains using an old comforter. There's a lot of different ways to reduce heat loss through windows, but this is something I already had the material for. I started making two for the windows upstairs, they'll be useful as blackout curtains and probably keep some of the heat out during summer. I had two old mattress covers that where slightly thinner than a comforter so I used them, a light fabric to avoid sun-bleach on the outside and the kids chose the blue checkered fabric for the inside.
You'll find the link to the article I found below.
Energy-saving thermal curtains
Heating pads!
Easy to heat in the microwave for a minute or two and they are so great to have when it's bedtime and it's a bit chilly. I also put them in the freezer during summertime. This is now an every-day-item. My hubby has one too. We take turns at heating them every night. It's nearly impossible to go to sleep if your feet are cold as a dead fish. They also work really well when I have a bad day with more aching pain. That was the reason I bought them in the first place, but all of us ended up using them. I found DIY heating pads using dried cherry pits, buckwheat or rice so I just had to try and make some myself. I used rice as fillers and so far they are working just fine. Links to the DIY below!
Sew4Home Diy heating pads
Martha Stewart DIY heating pads
Getting rid of drafts!
One of the worst places for drafts are the front door. I've solved it by hanging a wool blanket as a curtain. The worst spot is the threshold so I usually just lay down a thinner jacket and press it against the threshold during the nights or days when we go below -25 C. I found some more decorative draft stoppers that you can make, but it'll do with the jacket for now. You'll find a few DIY in the links below. The draft stopper from How To Sew has a nifty hanger too! One more thing on my to-do-list!
FaveCrafts draft stopper
How To Sew draft stopper
Heart warmer shawl!
When the boys in our house use sweaters, me and my daughter often use shawls. I made one for her just a couple of weeks ago and my mum made the edge, she likes to crochet. The model I make are easy to knit, beginner level, using only basic knitting stitches. I found a pattern that I'll link below. You wrap them around you and tie them in the back. If you want to try the pattern I use, let me know! I have a much bigger shawl and it's worn to disaster so I'm not going to take any pictures. Besides the shawl I have a number of cardigans and a poncho. All very much used and loved.
Heart warmer shawl free pattern
What's your greatest hits? I can only imagine how many more things that can be done, share what you do!
Until next time, be well.
//S
I made one of the DIY wonder bags. Don't waste your time or fabric. Total failure. I am a capable sewer so I am confident it wasn't me. You are correct, this is a better purchase than DIY. We will be buying a wood cookstove for our home by years end and we expect to have a large energy savings. I also made several door draft stoppers for our exterior doors. Basically, a long, round (about 3" diameter) piece of fabric stuffed with rice that lays at the bottom of your door (on the interior side) and helps to keep any draft from coming into the home. Cheap and easy to make!
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I'm very happy that I bought the wonderbag, it seemed like a project I wasn't sure I could handle so it's good to hear that I made the right decision. I'm not all that good at sewing, but I can make simple things. I'm planning to make more like the draftstoppers so that it's all ready to use when winter returns. I wasn't sure if I should use rise as a filler, but I'll give it a try.
I was stunned of how much we saved on energy only by using our wood stove so I'm guessing it'll make a big difference when you get one. The heat from it is something totally different as well. The sad part about the stove we have in our house is that we can't use it to cook, it doesn't get hot enough, but I can still dry washed up pans and my sourdough starter lives right next to it. I'm thinking about getting a bigger kettle for it, it'll probably heat up water enough to use for the dishes too.
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The rice makes it heavy and it conforms nicely to the area where it lays. We have dogs and I figured if I just used fleece or stuffing they would use it as a "toy". We are getting a woodstove with an oven so cooking with wood is in my near future (this coming winter anyway). Bought a book on the subject because it's SO different than regular cooking. The original stove I was considering was beautiful but so large that the stove place told me I wouldn't be able to stand being in the house... even in the dead of winter... it would be too hot. Slight overkill so I pared down and chose another that, as it turns out, I like the look of even better!
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Hi Arctic Garden!
This is a great article. I honestly had no idea the Wonderbag even existed. I was wondering if you could maybe format the headings of this article so that Google could pick it up (it really is super useful).
If you use :
Then you'll get:
Put your title here
and you can do the same with
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Thank you for your help! I've changed the headings as you suggested. I had never heard of the wonderbag either, I just happened to come across a review on youtube a couple of weeks ago and now I can't wait to try it.
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That wonderbag looks pretty neat. Seems like a great way to slow cook things or keep them warm.
I have a great auntie who crocheted something that looks similar to help keep food warm. It's really useful when bringing warm food over to someone else's house. It doesn't cool off too much while you are travelling.
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The wonderbag are using old methods dressed up in modern clothes and that's what caught my attention. I don't know if you've seen Wartime Farm from BBC? In part 2 Ruth makes a hay box that does the same job. Your auntie sounds like someone to learn a lot from, how great to have something so useful that she made.
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Yeah she has quite a wealth of knowledge. She is a good cook too.
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Wow the different worlds we live in. Here in FL we spend all year trying to keep cool with ice bottles and mister fans. Even sprinklers on a tin roof are great for dropping temp. I think people here only worry about keeping warm for a couple weeks out of the year. We use thermal curtains to keep the heat out not in. LOL great post though.
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That's what our summer feels like, a couple of weeks. I think it's great to get another view of life from different parts of the world, knowing there's a place for all of us. I love winter so I know I'm in the right place, but every once in a while we wish for warmer weather and dream about moving far away.
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