Gas Bottle Replacement

[kevinb]

Someone might find this useful, I have two gas bottles for my Austral Companion room heater, the in use bottle ran out tonight so I fitted the other full one , held down the rotary knob and pressed the ignition button, the pilot flame lit on second attempt, waited the usual time and released the ignition button ,the pilot went out, tried it six times and Still no go, found a posting on the web said disconnect hose from regulator, take bottle outside and open valve and purge gas for couple of seconds, also shake bottle and turn upside down,did this took back in house reconnected hose and the heater lit fine, apparently you get contaminants in the gas that need purging,worked a treat.

[gaveteran]

Very handy to know. I lit my calor for the first time today and had terrible trouble getting it to "settle down". It did so eventually, and I (silly now I think about it) put it down to the unit itself being "dusty". Makes perfect sense now I realise I was using the remnants of an old bottle from the heater, which likely was standing all summer! I guess I eventually burnt all the contaminants/old stuff.

The water heater always likes to leave a good ten hours calor gas heater gas in the bottle. So I save them for winter as a "bonus" and take them back completely empty.

[kevinb]

I'd bought an empty bottle off a friend, a Repsol one, I'd previously got a filled Cepsa bottle from the supermarket on the hill for €15.65 so was pleasantly surprised when I took the empty Repsol bottle to the petrol station at the GA entrance and only paid €12.60 for the same size bottle. Pity the heater ignition sounds like a dustbin lid being hit with a hammer, I light with a match if my wife is still asleep in the morning, I'm sure they can hear the ignition three houses away. Came out to GA on Tuesday, only forty people on the plane from Stansted, was told that a plane from Bristol was only half full. So far I think this is the coldest visit we've ever had.

[DaveG]

I have a propane water heater and have always found Dial Prix to be the cheapest in GA - I got two in late November under €12 which is the cheapest I've ever had.

Going off the subject (but staying on heating) we had two storage heaters fitted in October - they are made by a Spanish company called Elnur and the model is called Ecombi. They are very up to date and only (unless you require a boost) operate on the off peak electric tariff currently €0.06c / kWh. As we are now in the winter they auto switch on at 10pm and go off at 12 the following dinner time. The cost for the two combined, charging for the full 14 hours but "heating" for 24 is €1.76 / day. So far we are very pleased with them but left in Dec for Christmas in the UK so not tested in the worst of winter.

Horses for courses and maybe an expensive outlay but very clean, attractive and no maintenance.

Dave

[kevinb]

The storage rads sound very interesting Dave, my gas heater does produce a lot of water vapour ,I had thought about gas central heating but we don't have gas on our phase and paying another standing charge puts me off. Do you have the 5.5kw electric supply ? .I never realized that storage rads are available in Spain , might have a serious think about this form of heating, we are only out here for a couple of weeks in January but this year has seemed very cold for night temperatures.

[steve watson]

Ho Dave G
Where did you get them from / cost to have installed
I’ve looked on the net , there are a few called Ecombi, do you have a ref number.

Thanks steve

[Billogs]

We had similar heaters fitted a couple of years ago by Tony at Sparks Electrical. Good people to deal with. info@sparksinspain.es
They sorted getting us on the day/night tarrif and supply boleton for work done.
I haven't done any costings but the house is warm and bills lower than they used to be. Set your water heater to warm up during the off peak and use washing machine in the morning. Saves you a lot.
Gary

[DaveG]

Hi All,

I have attached the manufacturers technical spec and here is an extract from an email with details current last October: -

"There are 5 different sizes available and they range in price from €382 plus IVA for the smallest which will heat an area of 10 to 15 square meters up to €646 plus IVA for the largest which heats an area up to 40 square meters. 
Each heater can be individually programmed to suit your heating needs via the Elnur App available for both Apple and Android devices which means that you can control your heating remotely.  Installation is charged at €50 plus IVA per radiator and they are hardwired into the back of a socket or straight into a junction box so there is no ugly pipework or cables showing.
I have attached a copy of the brochure in English which details the technical specification of each of the heaters, the largest is only 1.4kW so they are very economical to run especially as they trickle charge during Iberdrola´s off peak period and because of the density of the integral bricks they stay warm 24/7"

The manufacturers website is: -  https://www.elnur-global.com/

It's essential you are on the dual tariff but that's easy to arrange at the Iberdrola shop in Santa Pola. Take last bill, NIE and passport; takes about 20 minutes (once you are at the front of the queue). Not sure if you have to be on the 5.5kw but we are and I suppose it would make sense to be as they do put a load on for 14 hours.

They are best fitted on an internal wall as the heat produced permeates the wall behind and transfers to the adjacent room. Also a socket close by is required for the hard wiring.

We found two installers: -  sparksinspain and electriciancostablanca. We got quotes off both and they were €20 different although that included a discount for two from electriciancostablanca.

They will both visit and advise on the size needed dependent on the size of the room. Don't go off the room size to heater size ratio in any English documents as the equivalent unit in Spain will heat a larger room as the outside temperatures don't go as low - apparently.

Good luck

Dave

[kevinb]

Thanks for all the info Dave.