electrical appliances
 

will my t.v.,laptop,music centres etc.work in spain

Re: electrical appliances
 

Yes. If your TV is less than a couple of years old it will work fine. Models made prior to that don't work properly. You get the pic but not the sound - though that's not applicable if you're using a digi box and satellite system in which case there is no prob at all.

All you need for the rest of your home electronics is plenty of adaptor plugs which are readily available in Spain as well as the UK.

cheers sibsie,you`re the man(or woman)

Woman last time I checked. ;)

Re: electrical appliances
 

Sibsie,

I have just found this website and as I have an apartment due to be completed In southern Spain next month (hopefully!) I was really interested to read this thread - particularly as I have found that TV's are so much more expensive in Spain. Someone on another website said that, 'TV and video tuners are unlikely to support the spanish pal variant'. I don't have a clue what a 'pal variant' is but maybe it relates to 'older' equipment. If you say that relatively 'new' TV's do work in Spain - then that's great news for me. :D

It seems therefore that it would be worth my while buying here and transporting them. I'm buying my furniture in Spain, but there are a number of things I have bought here (which are mounting up!) and I'm beginning to think that transporting them separately is the thing to do.

Thank you. :D:D

deedee/

My TV was two years old when I brought it over. I plugged it in and it works fine both on the satellite digi box and on the Spanish terresterial.

A word on Spanish furniture. I've found it divided into two camps. Cheap holiday home type furniture and *very* expensive furniture with little in the middle. If I had my time over again I'd have brought more things over, especially sofas. I bought two new ones here that cost €1000 each and they aren't especially swanky. My chest of drawers whilst lovely and large was €2000 and two new double beds with a decent mattress were €900 each. If you're shopping outside of a chain store you can haggle if you're paying cash. The first word I learnt was "descuento". (Discount)

Shop around on your next visit and do a good price comparison between having to buy new and shipping over.

Places like Caprabro and Carre Four do cheap electrical items. My DVD player was only €80 and a little less for a VCR.

Great advice Sibsee, thank you.

I have tired to get a discount but without much success! (It always seems to happen to others!!) I have already ordered my key items of furniture and they are at the upper end of the market - certainly in terms of quality - and I guess I am paying for that. However, there are quite a few other items I need and I'll certainly do a little more shopping around and try harder to get a descuento when I do.

By the way, did you transport anything over here? If you did, who did you use and was it very expensive?

Thanks again.


deedee/

I brought quite a lot out including two cats.

I used GB liners for my household things and they were faultless.

110 voltage Europe-wide?
 

I recently hear that instead of the 210/220 voltage that is currently standard in most places in Europe, the the EU PTB were going to force a 110 voltage on the whole of Europe. This means that most of us ex-pats, with 240 volt appliences, not to mention the population with 220/240 electrical equipment will mostly be proud owners of a whole heap of junk - and if the countries you are all living in is anything like Ireland, you will even have to pay to dump them!

Why oh why, can't these overpaid and underworked officials confine themselves to the definition of a sausage????

I think we only get 110 in Spain now, if the amount of cuts we get is anything to go by, it seems to trip out quite regular. :D :D

Re: electrical appliances
 

If you are planning on staying in Spain you'd be better off, and safer, buying replacement plugs, removing the British plugs, and replacing them.