Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Hi Folks
I know as you are all melting in the superb weather just now that this may be a somewhat 'off season' question but, I am looking forward to the winter in North Cyprus and would welcome ideas and experiences others have had on this subject.
I have a bungalow where there is an open fire and it heats the lounge no problem in the winter months. However, I wonder what others have found to be good or otherwise in relation to heating the kitchen/dining room, bedrooms and bathrooms.
All advice and experience welcomed.
Cheers

I now live here permanently and have CH. Before that I have wall heaters in the bathrooms and the kitchen. Also bought two portable heaters from Arcelik ,with both gas bottle and halogen bars,( Belt an braces.) Not sure if they still sell them, but worth investigating, both still working and are about 12 years old.

Thanks Owl Lady - that sounds and interesting combination. Did you ever have problems with condensation from the gas heaters?
cheers

Not forgetting power cuts, don't rely too much on electricity. Doesn't CH need that ??? We got a wood burner in the lounge. We are lucky as we have an old cypriot house. the wood burner is situated in the middle. Most days we just light it at sun down and fill it up when we go to bed, leaving all the internal doors open. On the few occasions, when it was extra cold, we lit it in the morning and supplemented it with a gas heater(we have two, but have not used the second one so far).Haven't found a problem with condensation. My husband is the one who uses the gas heater most, as his work room is furthest from the stove. He is an artist and obviously stores quite a bit of paper in his room. No problems there, but as I said its only supplementary heating. I also tend to cook and make bread in the evening and find when the oven is on, the kitchen is really warm. Our house is roughly 100 sqm. We use about 2 lorry loads of wood. We have a gas boiler for the water if needed.

No, no problems from condensation from the gas heater, Forgot to say I have a generator. Sold up in the UK and that was one of the criteria when we moved, CH and a genny. Having been for Christmas a couple of times. Got rid of the real fire as the heat just went straight up the chimney!!electric coal effect in its place now.

Thanks both. I asked about the condensation as someone at one point did say to me that there was a problem with gas heaters but good to hear of your experience. I too leave all the internal doors open when the wood fire is on and it does heat up that entire area but also feel a significant percentage of heat goes up the chimney!
cheers

We had an open fire... then we had a small log burner placed into the open fire with the pipe going up inside the chimney ... eventually we removed the chimney breast to expose the wood burner and the pipe completely (going outside into the chimney stack almost at ceiling level)... now it puts out 100% more heat. Totally sufficient to keep the house toasty. We have never felt the need for central heating and we are glad that we don't have it...
Paraffin heaters do create moisture...

PS bonus -if the power fails we can cook on top of the log burner!

Whatever other means of heating you decide upon, please remember that all forms of combustion ie: Gas, Paraffin, Log Fire etc all need adequate ventilation both in and out of the premises. Failure to provide free flow air can result in build up of condensation and more worrying Carbon Monoxide - the 'silent killer'. Instal a Carbon Monoxide Detector (not the same thing as a smoke detector)
Be Warm and Safe.

Many thanks
Leaning towards doing away with the open fire and yes you are right re the carbon monoxide detector.
All food for thought. What sort of price would I be looking at re installing woodburner and doing away with open fireplace?
cheers

We knocked the fireplace out ourselves so that cost nothing and we did it with care... We left the existing concrete plinth and got Cyprus marble to create a granite cover - £200, we had the wall tiled from plinth to cornice with marble - tiles 400TL, labour for fitting granite cover and tiling 800TL. We got Akinlar out to measure for a chimney pipe from back of existing wood burner to existing hole in wall which had been behind chimney breast, they were supposed to fit but that's another story. The first pipe we got wasn't right, we fitted the second one ourselves - pipe cost plus black sealant from Akinlar 120TL.

We had the wood burner inside the fire place for about 6 years and were never happy with it. Once we did the above work, the difference was unbelievable.

Mrs G (the household accountant)

Mrs G - thanks for that - it all sounds too technical for me to attempt on my own though!
cheers

Re carbon monoxide detectors. We had two installed here,when we used the heaters and then were told they were a waste of time as they didn't work on the gas canisters provided here!!!!!Jet Gaz or Co-op. Took them down in the end!

journey1 wrote:Mrs G - thanks for that - it all sounds too technical for me to attempt on my own though!
cheers

We only chose to do it ourselves, you could easily pay someone to do the work....

This whole installation cost us 220TL in 2012, including making the round whole in the wall and we have never regretted it!!

yep!!!! dipper girl's heating experience is the same as ours, love ours....works amazingly well in the winter. gas heater with bottle as an extra. nothing else needed!