Gas central heating radiators - Page 2

Hi Carolina  My wife and I recently purchased a 1 bedroom holiday apartment in Murla Costa Blanca . There is a combi gas boiler in situ ( has been for 9 years) but was never used and is in excellent condition. The central heating pipes are all in and the valves etc and all that is required for the radiators to be hooked on ( 4 in total)  Can you by any chance provide a boiler service and supply radiators (could fit myself as reasonably mechanical) or do you know of anyone who can provide this service Thanks and Regards David

Hi Davy

Call this guy. Genaro is Spanish but speaks fluent English, is registered, legal and fitted my central heating 2 years ago. 639687185

Hi David 

We used a builder in Pinoso S2M to fit and service the boiler and fit the radiators 

Regards 

Mark

Hi Mark Thanks for your reply ill look them up  Regards David

Thanks WTF  Much appreciated mate. I’ll give him a bell 👍

Hello, let me add my twopenn'th  to this discussion,

I have looked into panel rads from the UK with a view to fitting a system. Having looked at a number of suppliers I found that Screwfix offered the best prices and free carriage within the UK. They also do all the push-fit plastic pipework you will ever need.

My personal choice from experience is FloPlast and it's considerably cheaper than anything in Spain. Spanish copper is incredibly expensive as it is a lot thicker than UK.

There is a Screwfix Europe website but the range of sizes is a fraction of the UK site. This is important since you need to find a rad to fit in the space available that also has the heat output you need for that room.

Spain uses exactly the same threads as the UK which is BSP (British Standard Pipe) but I have found that they are what I call a sloppy fit and not as well made as the British ones. This means that you will need to use more thread tape and PTFE sealer to ensure a leak-proof joint. Not really a huge problem.

Sometimes they tend to give the thread sizes in millimeters which can be confusing as BSP is an Imperial thread form ie inches. All this means is that they are referring to the outside diameter of the male thread.

With regards the boiler. If you have natural gas, great. You can bring one from the UK with no problems. I would only go for a combi. You can get Propane combis in Spain but you would never keep pace in changing bottles. A bulk tank in the garden of say, 1tonne is not worth it as it is so expensive, even if you can get permission. The Spanish seem to be scared of this option.

If you are looking for a shower, go for the combi option as you will get a mains pressure shower and you do not need much electricity, typically 200 watts or so.  But please ensure you have a decent water pressure or you will be looking a fitting a tank and pump which is what I had to do. The pump only runs when you turn on a tap.

Regarding the cooker options, you need to be very careful you do not overload the supply. Someone has already said the supplies are around 5kw but the voltage varies greatly too. Sometimes we only get around 190-200 volts instead of 230.

What we did is have a propane top and an electric oven (2.2kW) so you get the best of both worlds, but be aware that if the voltage is down it may not reach the set temperature.I always check the voltage if my wife is doing any baking!!! I am reliably told that electric fan ovens are much better than gas as they have better heat distribution.

In my quest for panel rads I found a guy near me (Villena) who does the Spain/UK run most weeks and will bring anything back for a fee. You just have to get the load to a relation's house near London. Screwfix will do this. He charges by the cubic metre.

I hope this helps someone.

Thank you very much Classic Man for your very informative post. Good to know you have experienced these issues and the pitfalls and willing to pass them on to a "greenhorn" like myself (very helpful) Although we come from Northern Ireland my daughter lives in Brentford and the guy who does the frequent run would be very useful should we need anything brought over. Thanks and Kind regards David

HI There is no natural gas as of yet in PInoso( Note original posters location),

It is planned for the future , but dont know when, May be going in as we speak even.