It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Its freezing.

We are doing all we can to keep warm-huge open fire,electric radiators,halogen heaters.

Anyone know something better to do

and

we are not sure of the electricity consumption on these things either but we have to have heat.

Iberdrola are gonna have a laugh on this this year i reckon.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

First winter here? ;)
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs8/i/200...y_sentrien.gif
A woodburner is much more efficient than an open fire btw.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

How much do woodburners cost?? I've just bought a gas fire which I thought was the best value and gave out the most heat?

Jo xx

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Lived here in the wintertime before but that was in a flat.

We live in a house now and it is rented.

It has a large 3 bed upstairs with the equal below in the underbuild,which is not colder than upstairs.

The dream of central heating-ummmmm!!!!

This house will be great in the summer but having just moved in we need to deal with the heating which makes a massive difference cos we work from home.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Anything from a couple of hundred euro upwards. Generally, the more you pay the better quality they are and the more efficient they are. there are free-standing types, insert types...big ones, small ones...top loaders, front loaders...
Whether one is for you depends on how easily you can come by suitable firewood and whether you can physically easily put one in your property.
The main problem with gas fires is the water vapour they produce.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

below -3 up the mountains where i live. we have a huge old village house,terrific in summer,so cool,but winter, forget it. we have a huge open fireplace in the kitchen,but it only heats the kitchen!! as we live upstairs,i use a portable gas fire which throws out enough heat to keep us warmish...
funnily enough when we go walkies with the dog,it is normally warmer outside,this is the only house i have owned that you need to put extra clothes on when you enter it!!!!

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

hhhmmm, maybe if I was to buy a house. This gas fire is brilliant tho. it cost 99€, we've had it a month and its only now just run out of gas, so thats 11€ a month - no condensation, but then we have an open plan house and staircase, so that probably means the water vapour evaporates, however this thing heats all the way thru to the bedrooms, where he have halogen heaters which we put on just before bedtime!

I'm totally in love with my gas heater!!

Jo xxx

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

The kids came home today with a note from the school. All schools are closed in Galicia tomorrow because of the expected large fall of snow!

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Lovely here :) Been out shopping today, centrally heated shops :D got home, switched on the central heating, walking around on carpets and feeling cosy and warm. Going to have a nice hot bath in a short while and then settling down to watch tv .... in English (well American English but at least I can understand it :)) Oh the joys of being home :thumbsup:

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Hey I understand that lovely cosy feeling.

But were glad were not living it this year.

Its our new life and it really is great waking up to a new day with new things every day.

Its cold now but it wont be infinite,like the english weather.

Sorry that comment sounds awful-its not meant to be.

Spain/UK love - good and bad in both but I choose Spain

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I'm going back for christmas, so I'll get some of that. I still wouldnt want to actually move back there for good tho. A visit for a week will give me my central heating fix :D

Jo xxx

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I agree with you Lionda,lovely to be back home with central heating and carpets etc,also got a log fire burning away too........coz it is bloody freezing outside!But good Christmas feel out and about though.Anyway Happy Christmas to all of you,wherever u r.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

We’ve lived here for many years and every winter have got by with two oil filled radiators for the downstairs part, which is all we use in the winter. This year, so far, has been the coldest yet and we’re going out tomorrow to buy a third radiator.

Gas is cheaper, but we had an accident with one of those and don’t use them any more.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Haywards Heath??? Hhmm, I have a house in Worthing that I'm going to for christmas!!

Jo xxx

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Worthing eh,well how strange.not many miles away Jo.Well i hope you enjoy your stay back over here.........will u be tempted to come back i wonder?!

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Thats lovely til the bills come in and then you still need them in April :rofl:

We get 2 months of cold and 10 months of sunshine :thumbup:

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I have central heating but no carpets....

still toasty and warm...

No snow here (yet) maybe a bit of frost tomorrow morning.

It has seriously dropped temperature here. Today was sunny but cold - about 7 degrees..not complaining about that.

:)

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

What happened in the accident?


Not sure I want to know. I've already got a phobia about the gas heaters.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Marble floors and no heating at all in Cadiz :D

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Get some heavy curtains up, we have no door at the bottom of our stairs, so have a curtain. Makes a big difference to keeping the living area warm, leaves up stairs colder but with a leccy blanket warming the bed t'is real cosy :thumbsup:
If you don't have carpets get some nice thick slippers ;)

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

we are sorbas way going bak out there in jan electric blanket for us and wood burning stove .husband is going to constuct aform of central heating frm our wood burner some friends have done it its wonderfull one wood burner heates 7 raideaters .usually have snow in feb is it going to come early this year?

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

You're lucky! There have been years here when the heating's gone on in Nov and stayed on until April!
Winters might be sunny (well, not today!) but they're still bluddy cold inland ;)

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

If you haven’t got one large and stupid dog, as well as a small and stupid dog, who chase each other around the room, you have nothing to worry about.

The dogs were fine and only a carpet and armchair got damaged because we got there in time.

We haven’t had to plug in the third radiator today because the sun’s out, it’s got about 40 minutes left. I suppose it will be plugged in tonight, the news is predicting bajo cero for the night. I’ve never known it on the coast.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Our fifth winter here; we have heating down to a fine art.

Gas fire in hall at bottom of stairs. This warms the hall, kitchen and the heat goes up the stairs into the ....

....Living area where we have another gas fire and a thick curtain across to keep the heat in instead of going into the back of the house and up the second lot of stairs.

Our bedroom/bedsit has a woodburner, it's the only place with a usable chimney. Warm and snug. It is a sitting room as well as a bedroom, we love to sit in there and read or listen to music.

One upstairs room is presently used just for storage, so we don't bother heating it. The study is heated with a fan heater as and when. The shower room has a blow heater on the wall over the door.

The other bedroom has an oil-filled radiator, but it's a guest room so not used all the time.

By far the best investment has been our electric blankets, especially if we don't light the woodburner (we only light it if we are using the room to sit in - the TV is in the other room).

On the whole we are warm enough. But it is quite often warmer outside.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Sounds absolute bliss!!!:)

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I think we have done as well as we can with no central heating an an old, uninsulated house with ill-fitting windows!

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

A 10 degree rise in temperature outside today and its warmer outside than in.

I love our house and it was built with good insulation in the 80s but still a struggle to keep warm during the day but its lovely with the huge fire etc. in the evenings.

At least the sun is out today but it is so windy.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I think that last winter was said to be the coldest for 50 years (which suggests it was even colder 51 years ago!) so I've looked at ways to warm-up our relatively small apartment (near Benlamdena).

I've come up with Air-Con! Yes really, but a 'heat-pump' version which, apparently, against all the odds of what one would expect, will give out 4kw worth of heat for every 1kw of electricity put in.

Being fitted straight after Xmas, will let you know mid Jan :) !

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I bought electric radiators my first winter in spain. We had been using 2 rads, one in the lounge and 1 in the bedroom, unforunatly the landlord lived in the UK and didnt always let us know what the bilss were straight away, we ended up with 2 lots of electric bills (which covered 4 months usage) totalling 800 euros. Not good!! We invested in a gas fire after that lol

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

heres one for you all my husband says he can make a central heating system from the wood burner has any one else done this ?

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

No dogs! But I'm always afraid that the cylinder might explode.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

If it has a back boiler to heat the water then yes he can, but not a DIY job really.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Another tip I would like to add with wood burners is this - if at all possible and if the design of your house permits, have the chimney flue from the top of the woodburner go up INSIDE the room and the hole in the wall going through to the chimney as high as possible. You then gain more usable heat from the flue as well.

We had a Jotul in the UK which was too hot for the house there so shipped it over here and had it fitted as described, but we do have a very high ceiling. The previous owner tried two woodburners but built INTO the fireplace and too much heat was simply lost up the chimney, they were useless.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Peter

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

thanks for that any more ideas would be great than you.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I don't want to frighten you, and it's not an exploding cylinder, but today's front page of the online Costa Blanca News should be compulsary reading.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

I've just read it.

Have to say I am paranoid about gas heaters and stories like this don't help.

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Could you supply a link, I have no idea where you are looking

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Took me a while to find it. ;)

http://www.costa-news.com/index.php?...338&Itemid=162

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Thanks, missed it completly before :-)

Regards,

Peter

Re: It's cold outside.How are you coping?
 

Having just looked at the link, and having also bought a hard copy, I now realise that the hard copy contains far more information than the electronic one, something I hadn’t realised before. It makes sense I suppose.