jules63

Hi it's the new girl again - after so much good advice on DIY i wonder if people would let me know their thoughts on heating (yes I know wrong time of year but as I am completing failry soon would like to do any work before I get too settled). I will be using a town house in Oliva as a holiday home and for long weekends etc. I would like to use it year round so wondered if it was worth getting a wood burning stove put in. I am a soft londoner and dont want to be freezing. I know townhouses are cold and damp in winter, espcially if left empty but what do people advise about heating?

Any advice welcome

Jules

big wheels

Providing that you have got somewhere to store the wood. A wood burner is in my opinion the best way to go.
There's nothing better than a real fire to sit around on those cold winter nights.

Eve

Hi Jules,
I have an old town house, and stay in it in the winter. We have one gas heater and a couple of the oil filled electric radiators, they are really good, left ticking over they keep the chill off, the gas heater is nice to put on when ready to settle down for the evening. I must admit though this Feb we borrowed anothe gas heater and had that on downstairs and it was amazing how quickly we had all round heat, very effective and the bottles last well. You should have a gas contract to be able to purchase these bottles but I know off people who haven't!!
Just for a back up if needed, we bought them when we first had the house, we have halogen heaters, great for instant heat and a nice warm glow but not that effective in a large area, our house is very open and over 3 floors, good for when you wake up in the mornings, just reach out turn on and snuggle down until the chill has gone!!
Good luck, I hope this has helped, I would love a wood burner, but not sure where we can fit one, so we will carry on as we are doing.
Luv Eve

Mitzyboy

Mrs Eddy on here has a town house in Oliva and I'm sure she said it was damn cold in the winter.
We're in Oliva but have a modern house which seemed to be warmer

Fred James

The best solution is to instal an aircon unit with heating.

You can get one including fitting for around 500€ or less. It will heat in winter and cool in summer. The running costs are low as they are very efficient.

poollounger

Fred I have always been told that they are expensive to run....I know people who won't use theirs because of the cost.
We have a wood burner and I think they are well worth it if you have the space. It was our first winter out in Spain and when we got there the house felt damp but after a day of the fire it warmed up nicely.

Fred James

Heating using aircon units is not as expensive as some would have you believe.

A unit rated at around 3kw only uses about 1 kw of electricity. Any other electric form of heating is always going to be expensive unless it is some sort of storage system using off peak power.

Wood burners are OK but not as controlable as aircon and wood is getting really expensive. They work well in a small area but are not so good in a larger house unless you have a ducted system.

It is always difficult to come up with a single option - if I had to choose one type alone it would be aircon and that decision would be based on our own experience. We have 5 aircon units, a large wood burner and full electric underfloor heating. The aircon is used more than the other 2 options.

poollounger

Fred how do they get rid of the condensate when you are using them as air con?? Is it just ducted to flow down an outside wall ?? I stayed in a pensione where they just had it hosed into a plastic bottle in the room..messy and untidy.

Fred James

The water from the inside units is taken down a pipe through the wall and drains outside. The outside units just drain direct - they are all mounted at the back of the house and drain straight onto a gravel area.

mikelincs

We use a gas heater, (bottle gas, catalytic) and the A/C oh heating. Do know of people who have had one of those oil filled radiators set on very low and left on while they have been away, but not sure that I would like to do that.

Mrs P

We have aircon units that give out heat but unless you sit underneath it I never felt warm. We switched to oil filled rads which are much better. Wouldn't recommend the gas heaters unless you keep the place well ventilated as they cause pints of water as condensation which will cause mould. They are ok for a quick blast of heat.
Wood isn't cheap here and neither are the fires to burn them in, and as someone has already said, not so controlable.
We were going to have central heating installed but for the outlay costs it would pay for alot of years electricity and it's not like you need heating for many months of the year.

Mitzyboy

We have a large aircon unit in the lounge, a wood burning stove which we don't use as the amount if wood it uses is extaordinary, and three oil radiators. I switch the aircon on in the morning for an hour, and then have the radiators on during the day. Having said that we really didn't need them that much this year as we're in a modern place which is insulated and seems to keep the heat in. However if we leave it for a few days in the winter its then like an ice box when we return

jules63

what concerns me is that I wont be there all the time so looking for something that will heat the place up when we do get there, and hopefully keep damp at bay as best we can. We stayed in a townhouse in January this year and it was cold - no stove there just the fan heaters which were fine if you sat close to them but didn't do much for anywhere else

Mitzyboy

You probably need someone to pop in there every so often to air the place, and maybe put a time heater on in there. My neighbour left it 10 months between visits and it really smelled damp in there.

Minding round here costs about 8 euros a visit, so for a few euros a month it gives you peace of mind when you're not there

Lynn R

I have an old townhouse which we used for holidays only before we moved in permanently six months ago. It was left empty for two or three months at a time and I did expect it to be damp so did things like leaving drawers and wardrobe doors open so that the contents wouldn't get mildew, but strangely enough it never was. The first winter we spent Christmas there was freezing - we just had oil filled radiators and a couple of electric fan heaters. The room layout downstairs is pretty open and the stairs go up out of the sitting room which doesn't help.

We now have a portable gas heater which soon warms the sitting room when switched on, use an electric fan heater to warm up the bedroom before getting ready for bed, and have an electric heat/light fitting in the bathroom as I don't like shivering in the shower! The oil filled radiators are OK in a small room but my main bedroom is pretty big and I found they didn't make any impression at all on the chill in there. We also hang door curtains for the coldest months over the doorway between the sitting room and kitchen and at the top of the stairs.

Having said all that, we didn't need to use any heating at all very often this past winter, as it was so mild. Hope the next one is the same!