A North Yorkshire-based expert in home heating has issued five tips to help householders keep warm during the current cold snap. Michael Wood, who is an expert in expense reduction analysis, believes that six out of ten UK householders pay around 30 per cent too much for their electricity, and that around 10 per cent of their yearly spend will be caused by the current cold weather.

“Part of the problem is that people don’t know how to shop around to get the best electricity tariff,” he says. “And then they struggle to know how to use their electric heaters efficiently. This is a real issue during very cold weather and when energy prices are so high.”

“For most people, 80 per cent of their energy is used in the six winter months, 40 per cent in the two peak months and around 10 per cent in the five coldest days.”

Michael’s business, The Economy Radiator Company, is based in Dalton near York. It has grown from a standing start to a GBP 4.5 million turnover in just four years. The company, which has a policy of employing from the local area, has just moved into new, 5,000 sq foot premises, tripling its capacity.

Michael has issued his top five tips to help householders keep warm:

1. Make sure you’re on the right tariff. For electricity you should be aiming to get as close as possible to 8 or 9.5 pence per kilowatt hour (2.5p for gas). Look at comparison sites and switch to the best tariff for you.

2. Don’t automatically use Economy 7 or 10 tariffs. The night rates on Economy 7 or 10 are low but the day rates are correspondingly high to average back what you believe you have saved

3. The most economical way to heat your house (assuming your heating is thermostatically controlled) is to leave the heating on all the time with a four degree temperature reduction at night or when out at work.

4. Regulate your heating intelligently from room to room so that it’s warm in rooms only at times when you need to be in them, each room being set differently.

5. Make sure you have the correct capacity heater for the room you’re heating. Measure the width, length and height of the room and buy a heater that will do the job. An incorrect (too small) capacity heater will use more energy and still not achieve the desired effect.

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Winter has barely started, yet already more than 10 incidents involving falls through ice, several of them fatal, have been reported in the news media. Experts blame unseasonably warm temperatures and alternate freezing and thawing for the dangerous conditions.

“We urge everyone to stay off all frozen bodies of water,” said Kim Burgess, executive director of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance. “The perceived recreational benefit is simply not worth the risk to yourself or your loved ones.”

“It’s also important to prevent pets from roaming onto ice,” adds NDPA Board Member Gerald M. Dworkin, an aquatics safety and water rescue consultant at Lifesaving Resources LLC. “More than half of ice emergency 911 calls are triggered by people trying to save a pet who fell through ice. Never attempt to rescue an animal yourself, but rather, call 911.”

“Ice seldom freezes uniformly,” explains Dworkin. “It will be thinner when it has formed over moving water and where it surrounds partially submerged objects.” He adds that snow-covered ice and ice that has thawed and refrozen is not as strong as new, clear, hard ice.

Dworkin offers the following self-rescue and response tips:

If you fall through ice -

• Do not try to climb out immediately. Instead, kick to get horizontal in the water with your legs behind your torso. Then, try to pull yourself forward onto solid ice.
• Once out of the water, roll away and avoid standing until you are several body lengths away from the ice break.
• A set of ice picks is an ideal safety tool for rescuers and victims alike. When the ice pick is jammed on the ice, the retractable sheath exposes the pick. This allows a rescuer to crawl out to the victim, or gives a victim the opportunity to crawl his way out of the ice hole.

When trying to rescue a person who has fallen through ice -

• Call or have someone call 911 first.
• Try to improvise a buoyant throwing assist, such as an empty jug with a line attached.
• If going onto ice to reach a victim is unavoidable, use a device to distribute the rescuer’s weight over a wide area.
• Use a reaching assist to prevent the rescuer from being dragged into the water by the victim.

“All first responders should be trained and equipped for ice rescue,” says Dworkin. “Ice rescue suits, ice picks, water rescue rope, and an animal control stick are the minimum equipment needed.”

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