Winter storm

The card's tent-indoors trick is the best single item in the scenario set, and its hypothermia line needs the part that comes after recognising it.

The three rewarming mistakes

The card gives the signs: clumsy movements, mumbling, confusion. Add shivering that has stopped, which is worse rather than better, and any behaviour that seems out of character.

The number that matters indoors

18 degrees C is the figure to know for occupied rooms. Below that, the risk to older people and to anybody with a heart or lung condition starts rising, and it rises steadily as the temperature falls.

Which reframes what the card is asking you to do. Heating one room to 18 is achievable with blankets over doorways, bodies, and a small amount of fuel. Heating a house to 18 is not, and attempting it is how households burn through fuel in two days and then have none.

A cheap thermometer in the one warm room turns this from a feeling into a number, and it is the single most useful five pounds in this scenario.

Watch the people rather than the thermometer, though. Older people often do not feel cold in the way that would prompt them to act, which is why the card's instruction to check on neighbours is not a courtesy.

The pipe bursts on the thaw

Frozen pipes do not leak while frozen. The ice plug holds the split closed. The water appears when it thaws, often hours after the cold has passed and when everybody has stopped worrying.

Before the freeze:

• Know where the stopcock is and that it turns. The tools companion makes this the first job in the house.
• Lag exposed pipes, especially in the loft, the garage and against outside walls.
• Leave the heating on low rather than off if you are away, and open the loft hatch a little to let warmth up.
• Drain the outside tap and disconnect the hose.

During, if a pipe freezes:

1. Turn the water off at the stopcock, before thawing anything.
2. Open the nearest tap, so melt water has somewhere to go and you can see progress.
3. Thaw gently, with a hot water bottle, a cloth soaked in warm water, or a hairdryer on low, working from the tap end back toward the freeze.
4. Never use a blowtorch or any naked flame.
5. Watch for the split as it clears.

After a thaw, walk the house and look. Loft, under the sink, behind the washing machine, the outside tap, and any pipe in an unheated space.

Making one room actually work

The card's five steps are right. These make them work better and cost nothing.

• Pick the smallest room with a door, not the nicest. South-facing if you have it, and upstairs, since heat rises.
• The tent is the trick. It reduces the volume your bodies have to warm to something the size of a bed, and the gain is large enough to feel within minutes.
• Get off the floor. Cardboard, cushions, a folded duvet. Conductive loss into a cold floor beats anything the air is doing.
• Blanket over the curtain rail and a rolled towel along the bottom of the door.
• Hot water bottles at the core, not the feet, and never boiling water, which perishes the rubber and scalds people.
• Eat and drink something warm before sleeping. Digestion produces heat, and going to bed hungry and cold is how people wake up colder.
• Layer with wool if you have it, and change out of anything damp before bed. Damp clothing at night is what turns a cold room into a hypothermia risk.