Life can be challenging at times, but of late I have learnt to take things as they come, shrug off the problems and carry on. Recently however, I discovered a complete win which landed at my feet completely free of charge!
A while back I had been given a pile of rectangular fluffy sheets to assist with the house move for wrapping glass etc, I was about to discard them once the move was complete but I had an idea. The sheets were insulating material of a very high standard which got me thinking. The source of these sheets was in the packaging of the ‘Hello Fresh’ boxes, (other makes of food boxes are available!) food for a week if you are busy people and I get that, after a long days work the last thing you need is to visit a supermarket. One of these boxes lasts for 5 days so my calculation is that you need 73 boxes for a year equating to 146 sheets.
I set up an experiment to see just how insulating they are, I cooked two slices of bread in the toaster, placed them on two plates and covered one of them with the insulating material, the uncovered one went stone cold within 10 minutes as you would expect, but gently lifting the material on the other plate while gingerly poking my finger at the toast, realised the bread was still hot. I amused myself for a while by adding peanut butter mixed with equal amounts of Marmite on the cold toast and munched it slowly. After another 10 minutes I tried again and to my utter amazement it was still very warm. Finally after 40 minutes it was cold, I consumed that slice with the same topping and considered my options.
If the material retains heat that well there must be a useful purpose for these sheets other than to discard them causing waste. It dawned on me that I could save some money with the heating on my workshop, I say workshop, I haven’t made nor fixed anything in there since we moved it is far too chilly. It is a lined structure but uninsulated, the heater is electric and doesn’t really do much so I formed a plan. I have noticed many households have the Hello Fresh boxes, you see them sitting on doorsteps while the owners are at work, I wrote a note for all the houses and requested I perhaps could have the insulation to save the general waste bin volume allowing for real rubbish placement.
After a couple of weeks, I collected the bounty from the houses, to my surprise most people had hoarded them in case they would be ‘useful’, I ended up with over a hundred! As you can imagine the management suggested they should be thrown away but after I explained what I could do with them and was issued an authority chit to allow them on the premises.
I purchased some industrial strength aluminium foil and a tub of glue to stick gorillas together with, after a while of careful cutting and sticking I made a reasonable insulation sheet, I proceeded to staple them to the walls and ceiling of the workshop, it took hours but by supper time the task was complete, I had a hairy ceiling and walls it looked rather daft but I thought I would test it. The foil was stuck with the shiny reflective side facing downward hopefully reflecting heat back through the material sheets. I turned on the heater, shut the door and went for supper. About an hour later I returned and turned of the heater, it was positively hot in the room, far more that I had noticed before.
I went indoors and got stuck in to watching Masterchef and some people dancing while dressed as furry animals and completely forgot the experiment. In the morning I rushed outside in my leopard print slippers and matching dressing gown expecting to walk into a freezing room. The journey was fraught with neighbours laughing at my attire from across the boundary, but I was not put off. I opened the door and to my delight walked into a room that was positively hot!
I can now whittle sticks while sitting in my shorts rather than winter coat and woolly hat, that gave me a thought… I went indoors and pulled out my rule and calculator, after a while and another round of toast I worked out I would need 13,140 sheets and 3 rolls of foil to insulate between the rafters in my loft. I think it will only take 4 years to achieve, think of the savings and the heat!
Here is a link to one of my lesser known but very thought provoking books https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hell-Within-My-Head-following-ebook/dp/B0CN3FH2PQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
John F Bennett, Author, Blogger and Military Historian 