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I would be interested to hear what size feed will be put into houses that are going to have the electric underfloor heating.

We have a Marbella at Pinada golf and thefeed into the house is only 32 amps. (normal UK houses are 63 amps) What this means, especially during the winter (unless you are very careful what you have switched on) is loads of black lights when you overload the feeder circuit breaker. This can easily be done, we only have 2 oil filled radiators and if they are on and the water heater and then put the kettle on and hey presto you are in the dark.

Oil filled radiator 2.5Kw = 10.8 amps

Oil filled radiator 2.0Kw= 8.6 amps

Water heater 3.0 Kw= 13 amps

This comes to 32.4 amps and thats without any lights on. We all know energy is expensive in Spain and obviously by restricting load on supplies it uses less overall.

Something else may interest you, is that in Spain they do not wire a ring main for the sockets so the circuit breaker for sockets is only 16 amps, (30 amps in UK)

Also some sockets are wired on the lighting circuit, this is a no no in the UK and against the IEE regs. If there is a socket next to the bed, you can bet it is off the lighting circuit so don't do as margaret used to and plug your hair dryer in or again the lights may go out.

guess you may of guessed now, I am an Electrician.

Hope this is of interest.

Regards Ian

Ian

Once again this is the sort of thing we all need to know and the reason for this type of forum

Thanks from me n him indoors

Much appreciated

GAL

Hi Ian

Thanks for your helpful post.  What are the implications for the combined air con/heating option?  Is this likely to cause more problems than electric underfloor heating?  We are going to live out there permanently in 2 years' time, so thought this would be the best choice, as we were told that it can be very hot in summer and very cold in winter, so we were advised to go for this system.  Were we given good advice?

Interestingly, we have just returned from a week's holiday in Costa del Sol, where there was a notice in our apartment saying that electricity is very expensive in Spain, and we had to pay for the electricity.  We were charged 14 euros for the week, however one of the resort staff said he didn't know how they worked out the bill for individual apartments (he seemed to imply they just guessed!)  As we were out and about a lot we probably didn't use that much electricity and we didn't bother with heating as the weather was good.  (In the Spanish version it didn't mention the cost of electricity, but it did in English, French and German!)

What you said about the load obviously explains why the lights have cut out before when we have stayed in Spanish resorts!

Sue

Sue,

My personal opinion would be to go for gas central heating, I know in the marbella and Azucean there would be implications for space, but i would hope that gas is going to be cheaper than electric.

The aircon heating works well but this will be a very dry heat. Our place at Pinada golf as I said we use oil filled radiators, I assummed that these were more cost effective than the aircon. However I read somewhere that the aircon on heat uses less power than the radiators. When we go back out in April I will test both options with a current meter and let you know.

Linda Needham told me to expect temperatures in winter 10 degrees colder than on the coast. It's a pity the Spanish are a bit behind us, i suggested to SJ doing warm water underfloor heating but they weren't keen. We put this in the house we built in the UK and for me it is the best thing since sliced bread, we will really miss it when we move.

What I said in the original post is the same for Azucen's as well, they have problems with overloading.

Iberdrola charge you a standing charge for say a 32 amp supply. I think the cables they put into the house would take more than this. I know one of my neighbours uprated her supply, thus got charged a higher standing charge. I'm not positive but i think all iberdrola did was uprate the fuses in the street and put in a bigger circuit breaker in the house. No doubt for a lump of money. if this is the case it will be cheaper to get a spark to upgrade for you.

Ian

Just the job for you then Ian though i do know Brian Stephenson knows his electrics !!!

so there will be 2 of you on site

Hi Sue and all.

We originally went for the air con/heating combined unit but have since cancelled that and are now having seperate air con. and gas central heating. We did this because S.J. technical people said that with the duel air con/heating, the main unit which goes outside of the property can freeze in the winter on the occasions it gets cold enough, and sometimes it does, then of course your heating wont work and it could even damage the unit.

The duel air con/heating system is probably a very good system if you live on the coast where apparently it rarely freezes up.

Anyway, that is the information talked about on this site a while back and will give you something to think about.

                  Bob.

HAWKINGS,

I understand from Qualitair that in heating mode the external units can operate at external temperatures as low as  minus 15 degrees centigrade. I really can't see it going below that.

Hi Taxiparrots.

This is the problem in this life when one person who is supposed to know what he is talking about, says one thing, and someone else supposedly experienced, says something completely different. I personally would not put money on either, although you would think that the technical guy at S.J. should know. Having said that, sometimes also, people have their own agenda, and say things according to what they would prefer you to buy in the way of extras. Maybe there is more profit in one thing than another, or maybe just other reasons.

Either way, with electricity being more expensive in Spain as in England, as opposed to gas, we are quite happy to have gas central heating for when we need it in the winter [not very often hopefully]. Air-con is a must as far as we are concerned in the hot summers, but obviously to be used as sparingly as possible. At least we will have both but NOT all electric.

                 Bob.  

Hi Hawkings,

I understand that air con is the primary source of heating in Scandinavia. I believe their winters are pretty cold. Surely if the system froze they wouldn't use it.

Could you send me the present tariff/price comparisons of spanish electric to spanish natural gas ? Just to see what the saving would be.

Hi Taxiparrots.

Sorry mate, but i dont have price comparisons of gas as opposed to electric in Spain, i am just going by what other people have said that live in Spain, that gas is cheaper as it is in the U.K.

           Bob.

Hi Hawkings,

Yes I think i'll wait until i've seen actual present  day spanish tariff figures on both before i make my decision rather than accept hearsay. Regarding the cost of gas in the Uk , as you know it has only recently gone down after being at  a record high. Thanks anyway.