Heating an old style property in Famagusta

[dippersgirl]

Hopefully we will be able to move to Famagusta. We bought a house in the walled city and are now waiting for building permission. We have been debating what heating system to choose. Originally we thought to have a wood burner again, but now we decided it is too much work and also where will we put the logs in a small garden?
What shall we go for??? The house is small -1 bedroom, 1sitting room, 1 office/library room, kitchen/dining room, bathroom. Ceiling height averaging about 3+m, floor area105m²
There is also a mini 2 room (30m²) guesthouse, but depending on the system used, it does not need to be included

Suggestions???

[Becker]

Assuming you don’t have room for gas/oil storage & you don’t want a log burner,unless the latest electric storage heaters are available then I guess the only other option is inverter air con units. When we had a villa there other than log burner that’s what we had.

[thornaby]

I would go with inverter air con units.

[dippersgirl]

So do you need and aircon unit in each room with a unit for each outside?? Or can you have a large outside unit with several indoor outlets??

[thornaby]

Dippersgirl, both systems are available, most people would go for separate units. I would think the centralised system is best suited for new builds because from what I've seen the indoor units on these tend to be ceiling flush mounted but this may not always be the case.

[a1sysman]

Have you considered kerosene heaters?

We bought two large, modern kerosene heaters in Limassol about three years ago, when we were renting here.

I have seen smaller models to ours on sale in the north.

Very efficient and portable. Really good heaters.

[waddo]

That looks a very substantial bit of kit. The only ones I have seen in KKTC are the round tank models! Gaz Oil = paraffin/kero!

[a1sysman]

That looks a very substantial bit of kit. The only ones I have seen in KKTC are the round tank models! Gaz Oil = paraffin/kero!

Friends here in the north have the smaller model. We saw how effective their kerosene heater was and we went on the hunt for the same or the larger model.

When we were searching, Leroy Merlin advertised them online but didn’t have them in stock. In the end we drove to Limassol and purchased there.

I saw Toyotomi heaters advertised in the north, Lefkoşa. Sold out when l tracked the stockist down. It’s a seasonal item.

There are still ways and means of buying from the south, collected in the north, even in these difficult times.

[Reyntj]

Hi dipperinverter air conditioning are the most economic. I think that's the general consensus from past posts.By coincidence I have just bought an old house inside as well for refurbishment. Be good to talk at some point I'd like to see what you have bought. I will
P.m. you

[gates]

Definitely go AC way i have found them to be cheapest cleanest and instant two purposes hot winter cold summer. With the price of logs and work burn them. Also Ac cleaner

[Soner]

Would be nice to be in a home with regulated temperature in all rooms, like in UK with central heating. I still can't get used to moving from a nice cosy warm room to a cold room. To heat all rooms with AC would be very expensive.

[kibsolar1999]

1. avoid gas and kerosene heaters. they emit CO and H2O.
2. avoid chimneys and
3. also avoid wood burners, they both emit fine dust in unexpectedly high amounts.

in an old property we used the old chimney whole and connected 5 m² solar AIR collectors, runned by a small PV panel and a small DC fan.
(alternative, AC fan + timer)
that gave us a "lukewarm (pre) heating" incl a ventilation of fresh air into the house from say, oct to april.
of course, during cold and cloudy days and often after the sun goes down, that is not sufficient, but still saves and dries the house as well.
and, of course, in summer this solar machine must be stopped (cover)

for the remaining needs, a/c heating + PV solar may is the solution.

of course, all old windows and doors must be replaced. the house must be somewhat "air tight".
the roof should be insulated as well. maybe floor as well.
but you wait for a building permission... so that is planned anyway, or?

[thornaby]

Kibsolar, making rooms airtight is not a really good idea if people are using wood burners or any other sort of fossil fuel. All these type of things need an adequate supply of oxygen. What i would advise to everyone using these fuels is to keep the room ventilated and have a working co2 monitor in that room

[gates]

The best type of heating here would be under floor heating. With radiator heating the rads are raised off the floor heat rises there for most of the heat is going straight up the walls. If you can heat the tiles which is causing a lot of the cold then you can get a constant heat through out the unit but you need to lift all the tiles for this expensive but very nice once done. This dose not help you in the heat so you need ac for this. So i think the ac is best way and gives you what you want through out the year with very small investment alternatives to others in

[Reyntj]

Would be nice to be in a home with regulated temperature in all rooms, like in UK with central heating. I still can't get used to moving from a nice cosy warm room to a cold room. To heat all rooms with AC would be very expensive.

We use Aircon and it's on demand . So you nust heat the rooms you are using at the time. Granted if you had it on 24/7 in all rooms it would be expensive. I was looking at a pellet fire for our living area but I'm so glad I didn't bother I updated our ac to inverter and I'm almost certain a pellet fire would have cost more and plus all the bother of pellets plus cost of buying for 3 or 4 months a year.

[kibsolar1999]

Kibsolar, making rooms airtight is not a really good idea if people are using wood burners or any other sort of fossil fuel. All these type of things need an adequate supply of oxygen. What i would advise to everyone using these fuels is to keep the room ventilated and have a working co2 monitor in that room

ok, true.
gas burners are out anyway. nobody buys a house, renovates it and ends up with gas heaters.
kerosine occassionally only, if at all.
to achieve "air tightness" is not as easy as i wrote here, sorry.
Roof, walls incl. micro-cracks, frames, chimneys, reverse kitchen-extractor suction, the lot.....
even new doors and windows (made in NC) are far of being air tight.
if these are alu windows and / or sliding doors (another NO-go) then the "energy saving and comfortable clima game" is finished before it started...
advisable is an "air exchange rate" of 0,5 to 1 (per hr), not more. but old and new homes here easily do 4 or 5. especially when cold and stormy outside. you heat and pay and dry and heat and pay... and still it is humid and feels cold... useless business.
a low air exchange rate is also good for the summer, less cooling demands...

on top, the aim is not to use fossil fuels.

when to use eg, a wood burner, eg, a build in one at chimney position, it is advisable to break the wall, lay an adjustable/lockable pipe (3 or better 4 inch) and "lead" air towards (eg, under) the wood burner and NOT supply the oxygen for the burner through suction from the inside of the room.
that avoids draft.

[thornaby]

Kibsolar,a lot of people still use portable gas heaters, so I just didn't want them to think they could seal off the room fall asleep and die happy!

[dippersgirl]

Wow, what a lot of info!!
Just to clarify, we definitely do not want any type of wood burner. We do have two portable gas heaters and will bring them to use in emergency, i.e. power cuts. Not sure how often one will get them in Famagusta, but in Dipkarpaz it's normal to have several a month in stormy, rainy thundery weather. We also like the idea of photovoltaic panels to make electricity, how feasible that will be, needs to be checked out. Any info on that??
It sounds like AC's are the way to go???
Will look into Paraffin/kerosene for alternative heaters, but not sure, as we have the gas heaters already