fionamw

Bl**dy hijackers.............


So if a house is a mix of big old walls - stone also but everything else all chucked in - and one smaller crap quality 8yo extension; none with insulation (of course) all windows having wooden 'door type' shutters inside & only one heat source (in the least suitable but most obvious room) - excluding the mobile oil filled rads & the trusty oven - how do you get over the massive switch which happens this time of year as described earlier in the thread and in autumn/winter when suddenly the house is cold again...? What, and cheaply, will overcome thermal mass, I think I'm trying to say

jay01

Think when we came out last week we must have brought the weather with us, it was sunnyish (enough for me to get a light sunburn anyway) all week while we were house hunting in Alhaurin.

Now we are on our road trip back to the UK it seems to have started raining there again, but the weather is staying dry for us, must be taking it back with us lol.

Promise to bring it back when we return in 4 weeks

Fracman

Good morning Fiona,

We shall be back at the campo next Friday , looking at the Malaga forecast it shows sun for Friday http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/198. fingers crossed it stays that way .
If it does not warm up then I shall have to visit your lovely village to collect another load of logs from the wood man in the valley below the high street.
Re trying to keep our finca warm , we installed a large wood burner in the existing open fireplace, its dirty and dusty but boy does it keep the place snug during those damp wet winter days.

Cheers
Ken

Dick Dasterdly

I believe the ppl of Madrid reckon there are only two seasons,a very cold Winter and a red hot Summer(infierno).
I begin to think the same thing applies to most of the country.
I find it a huge difference to the Canaries where extremes were generally unusual and most changes normally gradual.
Regarding the spell of rain,I must confess its all my fault,having had a couple of dry weeks, I decided to water the garden
Needless to say the rains arrived within the hour, as is always the case for me.Suppose I could always get myself a job in the drought plagued areas of Africa.

fionamw

You & me both... I remember posting a couple of weeks back when we'd had a dry few hours I'd let too much water out of the pool during a mega downpour so decided to re- top it up. Of course it rained heavily for quite a few days after.

bil

Isn't it the case that the house is the same temp, and the external temp changes, making the house seem colder?

fionamw

No, very much doubt it -in summer it gets way up in the 20s plus (probably 30s though I've always got an issue with 8yo whisking off any thermometer I've put strategically somewhere).... in the winter, even with the chimenea blasting through the €€€€€€ like nobody's business I sometimes struggle to get that same room to 20.

Tele Addict

Blimey! This year I bought 2 tons and I still have loads left. I load the stove full twice a day on the colder days. I can just about bridge 12 hours without having to do a relight. That keeps the living room between 24 and 28 degrees and the rest of the house floats around 20 as long as we leave the doors open.

bil

Did I see on your post that your shutters are on the inside? Sunlight blockers should always be on the outside.

You aren't trying to overcome thermal mass, you are trying to slow the rate at which the heat goes thru it. We have straightforward brick walls, but our stove can turn the living room into an oven very quickly. Even solid uninsulated walls should give some resistance to heat transfer. Are there any weak spots where warm air can escape?

fionamw

Yep the shutters (every window and all but one door has them) are on the inside. Were like that when we bought the house. Not sure how we could retrofit anything outside, it's an old property all bar the extension bit at the rear & even that has been done *relatively* in keeping.
I've tried to describe the heating problems of our house, which are manifold, before. Essentially there are steps & stairs all over the place, making it multi-level which means description is even harder.... 'downstairs' there are 7 rooms, only three of which have doors which will isolate them from anywhere else. One is the kitchen, which has double doors to the dining room & an open stairwell to one 'upstairs, which in turn has three rooms only two of which can be closed off (and one's a bathroom!). The other 'upstairs' is two rooms, both with doors.
However the principal issue is the living room(s).... it's about 7m x 4m, plus a ceiling height ranging from about 3m to 4.4m (ish). The fire is in one corner. There are * the main entrance double doors *the archway to the dining room *the archway to the other living room *a small internal open window gap to the other living room.....
getting the picture? ie there's nothing bar curtains to stop the warm air from getting out to other rooms & a huge ceiling well to stop the warm air from being down where we are.
And no, of course we can't or won't change it very much; beams. Light fittings. blah blah.
Still it'll be summer soon. I keep telling myself. Didn't light the fire tonight, btw!!!!

lynnxa

the eternal question................

why does the heating at 20 feel cold, but the aircon at 20 feel too warm?

Fredbargate

WE have a larger living room with the fire at one end and similar ceiling heights.
We have two ceiling fans which in winter are used to circulate the warm air and to help cool in the summer by reversing the direction.

fionamw

We've heard that idea; does it really work? I mean, if I have to be up a ladder in the winter I know the temperature up in the 'heights'. Warmer than at our level! So does this really get evened up? Cos I hate those fans (personal thing) but if they definitely work it's worth considering.

Fredbargate

Yes

fionamw

I'll take that as a yes, then