Ouch! We have learnt the hard way, we used three large gas bottles in a few days! Now we are sitting around the fire to keep warm.

Any tips on how have others learnt to keep the gas bill down?

We are buying our wood from the main strip in Arenal, Javea. I am not sure if this is the best price, does anyone know where I can buy wood at a reasonable price?

I always see a local Olive farmer, usually really cheap, however lately his prices are creeping up a little

Three bottles in DAYS? what type of heating (don't say gas!) ?

It does seem a little excessive doesn't it?

We've got a commercial kitchen to power and a bar and flat to heat and I never have to buy more than two bottles per week (standard room-heater size bombonas).

It certainly does seem a lot. We changed the gas bottle on our heater on 13 December and it hasn't run out yet.

we pay 13 cents a kilo for olive wood 14 cents a kilo for almond 15 cents per kilo for oak

In October we had 2 tonnes of wood delivered, a mixture of olive and almond. 150€ This is down by Pinoso nr Alicante. Having said that another ex-pat couple in the village had gas central heating fitted in August this year. They are going through 2 of the tall gas bottles every 10 days or so, don't know if its true but they say the bottles are costing close to 104€ each. thats over 200€ for gas every 10 days

Put on more clothes and move around a lot

or go sit outside in the sun

it is something newbies find hard to believe - never in the UK would you dream of sitting bundled up in blankets to watch TV, except by choice

carpets make so much difference

We pay 10 cents per kilo for wood - I don't know what type it is but it's fine.

When I read these sort of post, people dressed up like Nanook of the North to go to bed, electric blankets, huddled around a gas fire, cold damp houses, I have to ask is this really living the dream? Never mind, give it six months and the a/c, 40º+ type threads will replace these!

the council sent a guy out to trim some trees around the local park, he left all the trimmings on the ground under the trees, they are drying out nicely but no one round here seems to want them so they are just sitting there.

sounds like alot of gas being used, we have one fire on all day every day and at the moment a bottle is lasting about 12 days.

perhaps different types of estufa/calentador have different gas usage like cars

I've done the cold damp huddled round the gas fire.....when it was my dream to live in a villa in the hills with 'views'

reality & common sense set in after the first winter - we moved down from the hills into a modern central heated apartment

we have underfloor heating now, the thermostat is set to 15 & does kick in at night when the temp really drops & we do sometimes snuggle under blankets to watch TV in the evening, although it rarely actually feels cold enough to do that - but during the day the terrace doors are open most days

That does sound a bit steep. We used about 3 per month, sometimes 4 during cold spells. We had 2 log fires too and had about 4 metro cúbico of logs (75 euro each) every winter. I think as Lynxa said the tiled and marble floors make it harder to heat adequately. We carpeted one bedroom and moved into it at the end of October.

Have a similar sized house in the UK and it costs less to heat than it did in Spain and it is warmer. I think it is because UK houses hold the heat better.

So typical of you, it`s like listening to a parrot.
One day you may post something new, I can only hope.