Keeping Warm
Nothing is better than sitting in front of a real fire during the cold winter evenings. For those of you experiencing your first winter here in Spain, no doubt you are surprised at the severity of the Spanish winter! The days can be deceivingly warm, but once the sun does go down, the temperature drops dramatically. Not many houses out here are designed for the cold winters. Many of them are built as Spanish 'summer houses' and have no insulation and with the tiled floors, this makes the houses really cold during the winter. For those of you used to centrally heated houses in the UK, where do you start to keep your house warm?
One of the best inventions is the wood-burning fire or estufa. These come in a huge range of size and style and Llamas Chimeneas (page 92) in Mazarrón town has a good selection to choose from. If you have never had the experience of lighting a fire and keeping it going, there are a few tips to help you:
Some of the styles of wood burning fire have either a small oven, or a top that pulls up. All of these can be used as an extra source of cooking food. The tops can be used like a hob on a cooker and of course the ovens can be used just like you normal cooker. Make use of these and it will save you money on either gas or electricity. The wood burning stoves give off a tremendous amount of heat and the ones with an electric convector are even more efficient, although of course they are using more power. If you are unsure which fire would suit you, Llamas Chimeneas will advise you without any obligation.
Chimneys need to be cleaned to remove creosote and soot as this will prevent the fire from drawing properly. Well seasoned wood only should be burned as unseasoned soft wood creates most creosote. Using small pieces of wood, rather than one large log will help prevent the build-up of soot as smoldering fires create large amounts of creosote. If you need your chimney swept, why not contact Home from Home (page 54). There are a number of places to buy logs, including Ray/Jim (page 42) - just make sure that the wood is at least a year old before you burn it and try to avoid burning pine logs, as these will produce an excess of creosote that will clog up your chimney.
Nothing is better than sitting in front of a real fire during the cold winter evenings. For those of you experiencing your first winter here in Spain, no doubt you are surprised at the severity of the Spanish winter! The days can be deceivingly warm, but once the sun does go down, the temperature drops dramatically. Not many houses out here are designed for the cold winters. Many of them are built as Spanish 'summer houses' and have no insulation and with the tiled floors, this makes the houses really cold during the winter. For those of you used to centrally heated houses in the UK, where do you start to keep your house warm?
One of the best inventions is the wood-burning fire or estufa. These come in a huge range of size and style and Llamas Chimeneas (page 92) in Mazarrón town has a good selection to choose from. If you have never had the experience of lighting a fire and keeping it going, there are a few tips to help you:
- Start with small, dry pieces of wood - off cuts of soft wood are good.
- Either use dry paper - newspaper is the best - or a fire lighter.
- When laying the fire, try to lay the wood across each piece so that the air can get between the wood.
- Open the vents in the fire once you light it so that the draft can help get the fire going.
- If you have cleaned the fire out, make sure you leave some of the ash in the bottom of the fire. This will help to keep the heat in the fire and if you have any embers left from the previous evening, these should fire up and you may not need to use more paper or fire lighters.
- Once the fire has started, shut the vents and the fire should take. If there is too much draft, most of the heat will go up the chimney and not out into the room.
- If you can keep the fire banked down over night, or if you are out, this will keep the house warm and is more effective than letting the fire die out and having to start again, as the house will get cold and it will take longer to warm up again.
Some of the styles of wood burning fire have either a small oven, or a top that pulls up. All of these can be used as an extra source of cooking food. The tops can be used like a hob on a cooker and of course the ovens can be used just like you normal cooker. Make use of these and it will save you money on either gas or electricity. The wood burning stoves give off a tremendous amount of heat and the ones with an electric convector are even more efficient, although of course they are using more power. If you are unsure which fire would suit you, Llamas Chimeneas will advise you without any obligation.
Chimneys need to be cleaned to remove creosote and soot as this will prevent the fire from drawing properly. Well seasoned wood only should be burned as unseasoned soft wood creates most creosote. Using small pieces of wood, rather than one large log will help prevent the build-up of soot as smoldering fires create large amounts of creosote. If you need your chimney swept, why not contact Home from Home (page 54). There are a number of places to buy logs, including Ray/Jim (page 42) - just make sure that the wood is at least a year old before you burn it and try to avoid burning pine logs, as these will produce an excess of creosote that will clog up your chimney.