If you’ve been following my blogs, you’ll already know that Spanish winters can be damn cold – not necessarily because of cold days – but because villas have little insulation and at night the temperature dips – ugggh!
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When will they catch up - well maybe they are doing - but not in my villa - and the construction of concrete beams forming the ceiling, means that I can't get into the roofspace to lay any - well not without major building work.
Keep away from shade .Winter time in Spain can bring beautiful sunny days – and when it is, it's warm providing you’re out of the wind and of course, away from shade.
When it's sunny, I absolutely love my little courtyard. A coffee with a splash of brandy goes down well around midday
.But come evening …. Whoops! Where's that sun gone. Who stole the heat .... Hells-bells, get out your thermals, lads.
Expensive
Gas central heating has become very expensive to run -it's all bottled stuff around here - delivery man has a field day when it's cold.
So, I’ve had a high-efficiency eco wood burner installed to help out . You know the sort, has an insulated firebox, an auto vent on the stack to prevent heat being lost up the chimney, fans to circulate heat around the room..... all high tech stuff.... different to the open fire I knew as a kid.
I love it – thought it was the bee’s-knees–
- until I visited a friend’s home.
What a lovely snug place he has – I couldn’t understand why it felt so comfortable until he pointed out he'd had underfloor heating installed. Wow – what a difference.
My memories (showing my age now) of underfloor heating are of electrical elements buried in several inches of concrete – and not a lot of efficiency. They were heated in the middle of the night by off-peak electricity, which made it lovely in a morning but dreadful in the evening. I never saw the point. .
Lower, yet snug.
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.These modern underfloor heating systems such as the one in the picture from HandyHeat Floor Heating Systems, of Nottingham, UK, seem great.
Not a bit like I recall. They're warm all day.
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The air temperature is actually several degrees lower than my place - yet it feels more snug. Something to do with - warm feet cool head - I've no idea how - but it works.
Reproduced by kind permission of HandyHeat
Underfloor heating seems the way to go, so I might just give it a whiz – if I can sell enough books that is..
- Next post on Tell Me a Story
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Story Characters - 7 Cool Secrets
Book Strategy - Tactics To Promote Your Book
Plot Of The Book - Mastering The Art Of Plot
Underfloor-heating Underfloor-heating Underfloor-heating ***
End of post - Underfloor Heating rules, okay!
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