9 replies to this topic

[Susw]

We are thinking of installing some kind of central heating to our house, and wondered if any of the members have installed central heating and what they think of it and of the running costs per month.

[KKW]

It depends on what fuel you're intending to use and where in Turkey you are.

When we built our house near Fethiye we had full gas central heating installed. With the huge rise in costs of bottled gas over the years we can no longer afford to use it. A couple of Sobas burning wood and coal now provide all the heating we need in the house.

[sunny]

I know others who have oil central heating and they have given up using it as it's too expensive. They said their bill for one month was 1000tl.
I have also heard that in the cities that have natural gas many people are returning to use the wood and coal burning sobas (stoves) because of the cost of using the gas.

[Abi]

What you really need is a Sulu somine, It's a fire with a water tank attached, to which you can add radiators. I put a link for you to look at but if you want to search for others on the web just put 'sulu somine'. Unless the web site has an English option or you can read Turkish you will need Google translate.

http://www.izmirsomi...sominesoba.html

[Susw]

Thanks everyone for your posts, we have a large fireplace which has doors to it in the lounge area, so will look into a back boiler system and see if we can have one fitted.

We have the heat system in the air conditioners, so will wait until we spend a winter there and see how we get on.

[Cukurbagli]

Using the air conditioning to heat the house will cost you a fortune. Concentrate on the fireplace idea.

[gazio]

I have a natural gas fired ch system, heating a 3bed house here in Ankara, where temps have dipped to minus15C this winter, and it's cost about 300TL a month for Dec, Jan and Feb. The weather has got much warmer now, so this months bill will be much lower, and it will probably will be switched off in a couple of weeks. Running costs should be far lower down on the coast.

[Vic801]

Gazio, that is interesting to know because natural gas is supposed to be coming to Urgup and Goreme this year (or next year!) and everybody is assuming that it will be so more economic. This winter we have had temperatures mostly around -15°C/-18°C with a couple of nights at -25°C and our electricity bills have been around the 300 TL mark per month. This covers heating one room only with an electric heater (UFO style), the chauffe-bain for hot water on days when the solar panels couldn't give enough hot water, electric oven which have used about once a month, washing machine and fridge/freezer (although we turned it off when it was really cold and put everything out on on the balcony.) We didn't heat the bedrooms we just put as many blankets as possible (the mustard and brown bataniye are really thick and heavy). Coal for kalorifer central heating was 800 TL per ton this year and 650 TL for soba (wood only is not enough for extreme temperatures) and we would have needed a minumum of 2 tons plus wood. For the same size standard flat like ours (130m²) most of our neighbours bought 3 tons of coal and 1 ton of wood and had to buy in another ton of coal in January to see the end of the winter out. Of course some of them had children so were also heating the bedrooms but it just gives an idea of cost.

What I would say is the most important is to check your insulation (walls, doors and windows). There is no point investing in a good heating system when it is all seeping out the windows.

[Cukurbagli]

Running costs should be far lower down on the coast.

You're not kidding! It cost me 350TL for enough firewood for the winter. I started lighting the stove in November and I ran out of wood last week, got a few scraps from scavenging around my garden and using some of the offcuts from my house build (wooden house).

[Susw]

We have decided to have a Stratford back boiler TS90B to run the radiators and for hot water in the winter months and it will also give us a log fire in the lounge area.

So hopefully we will be kept nice and warm.