Hello to all


We are thinking of spending a few months of the year in Spain to see if the climate can help the bones!

However we would like to make sure we were in an area where there are other Brits preferably as we do not speak Spanish (yet) and really would be newbies and vulnerable, hence posting here for any advice before doing, or maybe not doing, anything.

Has anyone else had experience of longer term - short stays - in Spain that could give any advice please, both on who to approach regarding renting somewhere and where the most friendly places are to winter?

Maybe if things work out we might buy a property, if there are ways of scratching a living?

Any advice on area or properties would be very much appreciated.

Anywhere near, or on the coast in Spain you will find plenty of Brits. And plenty of places to rent. Try looking at the classified adverts in the locally produced English newspapers eg, www.surinenglish.com or www.costablanca-news.com/ to name but two.
If you are planning to spend the winter in Spain make sure the accomodation has some form of heating, as the nights can be very cold.

regards
BW

Thanks for the links and advice BW, appreciate it.

When you are here you get acclimatized to the heat and feel cool at around 20 degrees, hot to you.
We often go out in sweaters and see the tourists in shorts and tee shirts
As BW says plenty of Brits around the coast, and plenty of bullsh*t too.
Keep your wits about you and your hand on your money, just cos they are Brits don`t mean they wont con you. Play it quiet till you know the score

Keep your wits about you and your hand on your money, just cos they are Brits don`t mean they wont con you. Play it quiet till you know the score [/QUOTE]

Wise words........wise words
Mary

I wondered about that, here I am sweating in shorts and a T shirt and I see people walking around wearing jeans and warm jackets!

Wise words from all.
Places here are designed to stay cool, the winter months can be almost unbearable without adequate heating.
Our first year here we started to use the aircon heating...until we got a monthly leccy bill for almost é200.00 :scared:
So we went to mobile radiators and wearing coats indoors

As for the people and the bullsh!t, it's everywhere, know it alls who actually know nothing at all.

I have to agree with the comments about feeling the cold. We have now moved to catalytic gas heaters as they are portable and cheaper to run than the fixed gas fire we had. Due to the set up of spanish gas fires you need to gas bottles, both open, to run the fire. After the first month or two we found the problems like a bottle running out late evening, and not being able to get another till the following day (once one of the bottles is out, then the fire won't work, even though the other may be almost full). We were recommende to get a portable gas heater, we gave it a try and found it worked well, so we are getting a second for this winter.

Thanks for that tip...and your reply to my thread for tips and advice. A portable gas heater is on our lists of "things we will need"

Lin

We looked around and found our heater for just €69.

Just to comment on the heating issue, If you buy the low cost A/C from Carrefour etc you willprobably get a big big bill, IE they are the tractors of the type,,, however if you buy an energy A efficient unit with Heatpump and inverter, you will find it to probably be more cost effective than any of the other units mentioned, Look at the Panasonics, and Mitsubishi around the 850 to 1000 € mark,, they cost pennies to run and the you have the benefit of heat in winter and cool in summer


NB with gas portables, they produce a lot of water,, beware!!

[QUOTE=Solarwhizz] If you buy the low cost A/C from Carrefour etc you willprobably get a big big bill, IE they are the tractors of the type,,, however if you buy an energy A efficient unit with Heatpump and inverter, you will find it to probably be more cost effective than any of the other units mentioned, Look at the Panasonics, and Mitsubishi around the 850 to 1000 € mark,, they cost pennies to run and the you have the benefit of heat in winter and cool in summer QUOTE]

I think you are referring to the expensive inverter type units. All AC units use heat pumps which is why they are so energy efficient.

The inverter units in theory use less power as they do not switch on and off but reduce the speed of the compressor.

The energy savings are vastly exagerated by the salesmen who quote up to 40%. In reality you will not achieve anything like this.

We have 5 non inverter type units and our bills for heating and cooling are very low. There is no way we would recoup the initial extra cost of the expensive units from our energy bill. The extra cost would be equivalent to 3 years total electricity consumption.

yet another techno-con!

Fred

Totally agree. We have three Toshiba invertor A/C units (cost 3000€ inc installation) and our highest two month electric bill (Dec-Jan) has been 126€. We have met many people who have bought the less than 200€ units and they tell me that their two month bills are in the region of 200-300€.

We use a portable gas heater in the bathroom (about 30 mins a day)and one 12.5 Kg bottle lasts the winter.

Oh yes - another user that has been conned and will go to great lengths to justify their purchase.

Maybe your bill is lower because you use less electricity on other things. Do the people you have met have a house exactly the same size as yours with exactly the same appliances?

What is the difference between your peak winter bill and your lowest bill (probably April/May when you dont use A/C)? That might give you a better idea of the real cost.

We have a large house with 5 units and the highest bill we have is 270 euros. The lowest is 180. That means that at worst it costs us 90 euros for 2 months with these "expensive" cheap units.

On this basis it is difficult to justify the extra cost of the inverter units, even assuming that they save the claimed 40% - for which, incidentally, I have never seen any properly tested evidence.

Fred

The best thing we ever did was have a chiminea. We buy three sacks of wood a week in the winter. It would be cheaper to buy a lorry load but haven´t got the space. It is not just warm but a lovely ambience on a cold winters night.