GBA77

Hi to all.

Been lurking on here for a while and thought I better say hi.

Bought a place in Zala a few months ago and busy getting it presentable - for us. Shed loads to do but will get there no doubt.

Will be over mid August for a few weeks so sort some stuff so if anyone has anything I may be able to bring over just shout. Not sure about how much room there will be in the poor estate but willing to try.

Cheers

duztee

Welcome aboard.
Always nice to have new views and input.

'Shed loads to do' sounds normal! Just bear in mind that Hungary can be somewhat slow and bureaucratic at times, so try not to get frustrated when things are not progressing as fast as you like. Just relax and enjoy your new life.

duztee

P.S. The only thing I really miss is proper Fish 'n' chips, but they would probably be cold by the time you get here. :-)

TerryandBrigi

Hi, we also renovating future home in Zala....see you around

GBA77

Cheers Duztee.

Its not the cold fish and chips, its the smell in the car for 30 hours

I have already come across some of the bureaucracy. It is rather frustrating but it is the way of things and needs to be accepted or some sort of work around found. An example is the house is wired using the radial system with is necessary in Hungary and no problem but the wiring self is 2 & E - twin and earth. I have been told that as it is embedded in the plaster work and there is no conduit it will all have to be taken out and the walls chased and conduit fitted etc. Whilst I can negate some of the problem by fitting wireless light switches, the Germans and a few other countries allow the use of 2&E embedded in the walls without conduit but not Hungary.

I knew most of the difficulties going into this venture so no reason to moan. It is however as you say, frustrating.

Cheers.

GBA77

Hi Terry&Briggi.

Thanks. Also Gloucester uh!. Small world.

Good luck with the house renovations. You doing it yourselves or getting trades in to do it?

GBA

TerryandBrigi

Bit of both, Plumbing and heating engineer myself, other parts of my wifes (who is Hungarian) family are tradesmen too. Hoping to use as little contracted labour as possible. If you read some of the posts you will see they can be........... "different".
Will have to get Combi boiler fitted by registered fitter etc, solar water do myself along with all the controls. The grounds will have to be contracted in for sure, I am not digging 4000m2 laying turf, planting, laying driveway and such....too much like effort !!!

blackwaterman

Hello Terry&Brigi,
Very interested in your proposal for solar energy. In UK I have a 3.6kW PV installation under the Govt scheme, but Hungary could really capitalise on solar in a way UK never can! I have one of those gizmos that divert 'excess' to the HW tank as I'm under the "deemed' rules, which could disappear soon.

Of course, there'll be no Govt help presumably, in Hungary but even so, I imagine that given the high cost of 'normal' electricity, some very useful savings can be made, if only on hot water. It never ceases to amaze me that with such proximity to Austria and Germany, these systems don't seem popular in Hungary yet.

Travelling around Tiszaujvaros area, I've only seen a few buildings such as schools, clinics and so on with extensive solar. I assume that it's an EU requirement (or perhaps only a suggestion?) for new builds.

Anyway, good luck with it.

wolfi

Yes, blackwaterman, it's really strange that solar energy isn't used more often - at least for heating water. It's probably because of the intial cost - most Hungarians would have to take out a loan and at the ridiculous interest rates banks ask here ...
It's also a question of knowhow - kind of a vicious circle ...

Carrot_Cruncher

Agreed, and as far as I know there are no feed in tarriffs here to improve the return on investment. And again, as far as I know, there is only one electric supplier, Eon, so competition is stifled to say the least.


A little OT, I have been saving beer cans (alcohol free - I really like Radlers) for over a year now and at some stage I am going to have a go at building a beer can solar heater. Seen plenty of tips on the net just need to get around to it.

Peter_in_Hungary

As far as I know twin & e can be embedded in the plaster. When conduit is fitted t&e is not used as you could never pull it through the conduit. With conduit single strand solid conductor with single layer insulation is used.

Certainly it was OK to bury t&e in plaster, it is double insulated anyway so that counts the same as conduit plus single insulated single strand. Even if the regs have changed since I last did some wiring there would be no reason to rip out what is working just to comply with a different regulation. (Imagine the consequences if every time a reg. changed everything had to be renewed) Typically things that are working can stay as they are until upgraded then that element is brought up to the current standard.

What you do have to do is to follow the standard for placing the wire or conduit in the wall i.e. vertical runs up and down to and from sockets or switches etc.

Peter_in_Hungary

with regard to solar energy is is now reckoned to be better to install PV rather than solar thermal but in Hungary there is not the government support for solar like the UK or Germany which means the whole cost has to be supported by the householder. There was a grant for industry previously and this year there was the first energy grant for private houses which was essentially fabric insulation upgrade but could have solar included, I think the grant opened at the beginning of June and closed at the end. i.e. 1 month to get the grant in. I haven't heard how much over subscribed it was.

Depending upon who does the PV installation I have seen breakeven times (ROI) of between 8 and 14 years and as the typical installation is close to a years salary for many people it is little wonder that not much is seen.

GBA77

Thanks for that Peter. We have a lot to sort out but have time.

GBA

fidobsa

I have moved most of my sockets down lower than their original heights which were either at light switch height or about waist height. As the vertical runs are from junction boxes just below ceiling height and the ceilings are quite high this did mean at least 3 metres of extra cable for each socket. In UK the wiring is often under the floor so you would need far less wire for the sockets but possibly more for the lighting (not so bad as the lighting stuff is thinner and therefore cheaper). I would guess there is a minimum height for the push on cover type junction boxes which need to be out of reach but is there a regulation concerning socket height? I find the Schuko plugs so fiddly to plug in that I may come to regret moving them down to the typical UK socket height!

wolfi

Most of our Schuko sockets are at 30 cm above the floor and I had to tell the electrician to put in more sockets that he wanted to do - still, with all those electronics we have to use a lot of extension cords.

Only in the kitchen, toilet and the bathroom are the sockets on the switch level.

PS:

I've said it before: Better safe than sorry - we had an FI (RCS ?) installed for all of the house!