Thursday, November 29, 2012

Gas central heating in Cyprus

I'm pretty sure this past month has been rather warmer than usual, despite it beginning to feel a bit chilly. Last year, after a great deal of rain, we had started using our central heating by the middle of November, as we had during 2009. But in 2010, winter didn't really start until a week into December. [What a good thing I keep a blog, since there is no way I would have remembered any of these dates!]

Unlike at our old house, where we had small gas canisters that we had to change ourselves when they ran out - usually every three weeks, although they were only used for cooking - we have a large, static one here.  It's nearly as tall as I am:


During the winter months, a guy in a large truck comes around and fills it up, usually once a fortnight. He waits until the weather starts to get cold - and this year,  he didn't arrive for the first time until a few days ago. 

I'm not entirely sure how he managed to get through to the gas canister with the pipe that attaches to it, as there are rather a lot of Richard's tools and also some junk sitting in the way: 


But somehow he managed it. And charged me a little over €140, which is, I suppose, the gas we have used for cooking since March when he last came. For nine months of gas, that's not bad. 

Unfortunately, the central heating, once we switch it on, will use up a great deal of gas, no matter how much we try to economise. We usually run it at around 16-18C, which is why we haven't needed it yet as the indoor temperatures are still about 19-20C.  I'm sitting here in a sweatshirt and a fleece, and it's not really cold. Not yet. 

Our house is equipped with radiators in every room:


.. and there's a boiler system in a shed next to the gas canister, which Richard will need to service before we switch the heating on. He plans to do that at some point over the weekend.

[I was going to write an introduction to this post explaining how we were quite surprised to find that we needed central heating at all in Cyprus, but in looking back at other posts I made on the topic, I found that I wrote all about why we need warm duvets and heating, five years ago. Almost to the day.]

1 comment:

Anvilcloud said...

Yes, the central heating thing is surprising, but you're all set.