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ViewsSpain - LifestyleFrom Wiki
[edit] Driving Licence InfoDrivers who take up residence in another EC/EEA country no longer have to exchange their driving licence, but may continue to drive using their own national licence for as long as is remains valid. You should however check with the appropriate driving licensing authorities where you are now resident for information on any conditions that the host member state may stipulate. National licences may only carry an address from the country which issued that licence. We are therefore unable to re-issue your British licence with a foreign address. It is accepted that drivers who move to another part of the EC/EEA could be holding driving licences showing an incorrect address. This is permissible under the terms of the EC Directive on Driving Licences. UK Licence Info on Gov Site [edit] Car Information[edit] Annual road worthiness test information(ITV)From the company that runs the ITV stations, in Galicia, here is a link to a PDF that confirm the rules and regulations for the test. Although this is from a Galician website the rules are the same throughout Spain.
400 pages PDF, in Spanish [edit] Telephone Info[edit] Telephone Number ChargesIn Spain, the charged-at-premium numbers begins with 80 or 90 (except the 800, 900 and 909, which are free, the 901 which is shared cost, the 902 which is like a provincial call and the 908 which is like a metropolitan call). The most popular prefixes are 803 (porn hot-lines) and 806 (services), also are used 807 and 905. Previously all the numbers starting with 90x (except 900, 901 and 902) were charged at premium rates but the 906 had been moved to 803, 806 and 807 and the 908 and 909 prefixes were created for Internet dialup services. All those numbers have 9 digits. Also there are other range for information services (weather, white pages, etc...), there are all the numbers starting with 118, they can have 5 or 6 digits with a variable cost per number. 11823 is free from Telefónica's telephone cabins. Previously 11823 was 1003.
Telefonica manual in English
It is a PDF file, this free program will allow you to read it if you do not have Adobe reader, its also faster and smaller program. [edit] Chimney and Fire Stuff[edit] Chimney and Fire stuffA fuel can only give out so much heat. Correct useage will maximise that. Wood is a fast fuel, coal is a slow fuel. In order to maximise heat output, coal needs to be held up and the ash allowed to fall away. Failure to do this makes the coal burn slower, and the bars to burn out. Wood is a fast fuel, and if held up on bars, with the ash falling away, it will burn more to flame, and flames send smost all their heat up the chimney. If you don't believe me, see the difference between holding your fingers to the side of a candle flame, or above it. Wood needs to burn more smothered in its ash in order to give out more heat. In an open fire, radiant heat is effectively all the heat you get from the fuel, and you get that more from coal and embers. Flames may look pretty but are very extravagent. If the grate has a lot of bars between you and the coals, then again, that will reduce heat output. Mixing wood and coal risks you getting the worst of both worlds, as the wood will be more likely to burn to give flames, and the coal will be smothered by the wood ash. If you cannot get a good fire from wood, trust me you are doing something very, very wrong. Damp fuel is one of the commonest reasons. A damp log can hold a lot of water, and a lot of the energy from the other logs will go towards driving all that water out, which reduces the heat available to warm the room. Remember that that water has to undergo a phase change which is horrendously expensive wrto energy. A phase change is when water changes from ice to liquid, or from liquid to steam. Consider this. Put a cupful of water into a saucepan, bring it to the boil and time how long that takes. Now without altering the flame, leave it until all that water has boiled away and see how long that takes. That will give you an idea how expensive a phase change is, and, since a damp log can easily hold a cupful of water, how much energy is wasted through burning damp fuel. This is why steam scalds so badly, and is so dangerous. When the steam hits your skin, it starts to cool, phase changes downwards and dumps its high heat content into your skin. As for coke burning out a flue. It has little to do with heat, and more to do with acid. All fuels burnt put a lot of acids up your chimney. Carbonic, sulphuric, sulphurous, nitrous and nitric acids, plus a few halide based acids. The sulphur based acids are far higher in so called smokeless fuels, and the nitrogen based acids increase with fire temperatures. So, burning coke and other smokeless fuels will result in a higher risk of acid corrosion in metal chimneys. The heat damage is usually caused by a buildup of soot and tars from burning wood and or house coal, which is why regular sweeping is important. A chimney fire can do spectacular structural damage to masonry chimneys as they can burn at temperatures far exceeding that of the fire in the hearth, and it can also accelerate corrosion damage in metal chimneys/flues. Contributor - BE Member bil [edit] Carbon MonoxideCarbon monoxide from smokeless is far more dangerous, because it carries no warning smoke. Smokeless produces just as much monoxide as anything else. Green plastic scrubbies will scratch stainless steel, so I can assure you they will scratch glass, even if you don't notice it. Ash too is an abrasive material, so don't use it. Even fine scratches will result in the tar sticking worse in the future. Only clean the glass in the approved way with the proper cleaning techniques. If the inside of the stove is getting tarry, and smoke billows out into the room when you open the door, this is quite possibly the result of the flue being partly or completely blocked. Do check it, it could save your life. All joints need to be constructed so that the male drops down into the female, and I have never in 30 years seen one of those leak condensate where they are the right way up. Get those joints wrong and no sealant will fix it. Metal tubes passing thru a wall mst be surrounded by flexible fireproof materials, if they are cemented in, they will all too often split the cement, and cause radiating cracks all the way round. A length of single skin metal flue inside is a great way to maximise heat transfer to the living space, but it does lead to higher soot and tar deposits, so the flue will need cleaning more frequently. Chimney fires are not safe or clever and do real damage. Joints between fluepipes when correctly installed need no sealing, a friction fit is perfectly adequate. If any joint or portion leaks smoke/fumes, then there is a fault above that point which needs urgent attention. Any hole/gap in the flue should at all times see air from the room going into the flue, never the other way. A small amount of air entering the flue like this is unimportant, too much can result in chilling of the flue gasses. If the flue gasses are chilled too much, whether by ingress of air, excessive runs of single skin pipe, or from a metal flue outside being chilled by the wind, then the flue gas temp may drop below the dew point, and condensation will then take place. This can result in black, acidic, tarry water running down the flue in considerable quantities, and where this hits an incorrect joint, leakage and staining will result. A butterfly damper in the pipe where it exits the stove is usually an indicator of poor quality. It usually means that the seals around the door and the air intakes are less than adequate. Check always that the throat plate can be removed for cleaning. That's often a danger point. Contributor - BE Member bil [edit] Smoking Fireplaces/AppliancesHere's a quick trouble shooting guide for a smoking fireplace/appliance 1. Does it smoke all the time? If Yes, it is most likely to be one of the following. Chimney or flue totally or partially blocked, fireplace/appliance opening too big for flue, or restricted terminal. This may sound stupid, but check that it actually HAS a chimney/flue. There are a few occasions when I have discovered that's been the problem. Equally, a flue that is too short, below 12 feet, can fail to function. cures obvious. 2. Smokes some of the time. a) if it smokes but stops when you open the door or window, there isn't enough ventilation in the room. cure, allow more air into room b) smokes only when the wind blows. If the flue terminates too close to the roof, or below the ridge on pitched roofs, then it is too low and needs raising. If it can't be raised, fit a spinning cowl. if the flue terminates high up and doesn't have anything within 25 metres that is taller, then you most likely need a cowl. Again the spinners are good, but a chinaman's hat is simpler and does much the same. Make sure all such devices are securely fitted to the outside of the stack/flue. Contributor - BE Member bil [edit] Useful LinksPilgrimage across Spain by the lost Photographer |