Hi, In the winter months how much would you expect to spend on heating a 2 bedroom townhouse say in Torrox or nearby, per month. We would be out most of the day so mainly for the nights "electric & butane"
Thanks Keith

Have a look at the thread on Electricity charges, 5 below this.

Which is now not 5 below.

Try this; Electricity thread

Try not to use butane its not good, but the electric oil filled rads are really good !

I use gas heaters and don't have a problem, I believe the cost per kilowatt is about half that of electricity. They can cause a problem with condensation in well built modern properties with no ventilation - we don't have that problem.

All electric heaters cost much the same to produce an amount of heat. Don't be fooled by stories of panels or anything which are claimed to be 'more efficient than other forms of electric heaters' - they ain't.

The way in which the heat is delivered can make a big difference. In a tall room (we have a two storey sitting room) radiant heat should be considered as convector heaters will send their warm air straight up to the ceiling.

If a space is used infrequently (e.g. a bathroom only used used for an hour every morning) there is no point in using a low wattage heater like a panel or radiator to keep the place warm all day - use a 2 kilowatt fan heater that only needs to be on for a few minutes.

If you are out all day it might be worth considering powerful heaters that can warm the place up quickly rather than try to keep it warm all day when no-one's there.

Costs are dependant upon many variables but a bottle of gas will keep a room warm for two or three weeks at around 15 Euros. Electric costs on our three bedroom town house was about 50 Euros a month - it has probably gone up since then.

Further to Jimenato's about panel rads, actually though I accept they're just low-powered heaters, we are very happy with ours. They seem to make a large difference to the rooms we have them in. Maybe it depends (as with many aspects of house heating) on the sheer size/height/wall width etc of the room.

They have their place in the right circumstances and are relatively low powered so don't cost much to run.

The problem is that they are sold as being more efficient than other rads and that is complete nonsense and not far short on a con.

They cost the same for each unit output of heat as any other radiator.

Personally I think they are very expensive for what they are but if you want some background heating from a non obtrusive unit then they do what they say in the specifications (which is not the same as what they say in the marketing blurb).

Yes, for a room used all day every day they provide a good, dry, steady heat and are unobtrusive. I can't see any way that oil filled radiators are any less good, they have the advantage that they are mobile but the disadvantage that they might not look so nice.

It's all a matter of weighing up what is needed for the space required to be heated and the pattern of usage.

Hey Fred - perhaps we should set up a home heating consultancy?

I have a 3 bedroom townhouse in Velez-Malaga so the climate should be pretty similar to Torrox.

We use butane gas for virtually all our cooking (except the microwave) and most of our heating. We have an infra-red heat/light fitting in one of our bathrooms and various electric heaters (oil filled radiators or fan heaters) which we use very occasionally (not at all this winter) in the bedrooms. We use an electric water heater, on a timer for 2 hours twice a day.

We have never experienced any condensation problems from our butane gas heater.

My electricity bills for the whole of 2011 amounted to €400.70 (average monthly bill €33.39, average monthly consumption 144.41 kwh) with 3.45 kw potencia and on Tarifa 2.0A (whatever that is, not anything special like cheap rate night time electricity anyway). We used 7 gas bottles for the heater that year and 2 for the cooker, €15.10 per bottle from Repsol at today's prices, so a total of €135.90 for the year. One bottle lasts between 2 and 3 weeks for the gas heater depending on how many hours we use it, for the cooker one bottle lasts about 6 months.

In the winter we keep all our windows open from mid morning until sundown, both to keep the house ventilated and because the temperature outside is warmer than inside. In the summer, the opposite applies, we close the windows mid-morning and open them all at sundown to cool the house down.

Cost depends on how warm you would like to be

I would suggest more than your heating costs are now and you will still feel colder than in UK.

2 bed place in Frigiliana. All electric, inc cooking, water heating etc.

Total bill average, Nov to Feb, about 120€ to 150€ a month. Largest ever bill a few years ago was €170 for a month (probably 200€ at today's prices).

We use fan heaters and electric rads and sometimes the air-con on hot setting.

I would have thought that aircon on heat setting was probably the cheapest type of electric heating - anyone know?

Correct - AC uses the heat pump principle which means that for every unit of electricity put in you get 3 units of heat out.

Hard to believe but it's a fact.

Just Google "Heat Pump".

I have always been apprehensive to put my Ac on heat mode as I thought it would be more expensive.

Well there you go - now you know the truth - turn it on!