# Hot Water



## hwmartin (Jun 22, 2015)

We've just completed on a 'New Build' villa (actually built just before the crash but never sold). As is the Spanish norm there is no kitchen fitted and no provision for hot water other than the plumbing.

My questions concerning the hot water are:- 
What are the pros and cons of the various options (electric, gas or solar)?
What are the installation costs like?
What are the running & maintenance costs like?
What would you recommend?

Also can you recommend a good reasonably priced kitchen fitter in the Axarquia region?

All advice and suggestions most welcome


----------



## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

hwmartin said:


> We've just completed on a 'New Build' villa (actually built just before the crash but never sold). As is the Spanish norm there is no kitchen fitted and no provision for hot water other than the plumbing.
> 
> My questions concerning the hot water are:-
> What are the pros and cons of the various options (electric, gas or solar)?
> ...


We had a gas water heater in our house when we bought it, but we changed it for an electric one (and have since renewed that for a larger capacity one). The main reason was the convenience factor - it is no fun at all when a gas bottle runs out when you are mid-shower! We have ours on a timer to heat the water for a couple of hours in the morning before we get up, and a couple of hours in the evening. We don't find it expensive to run, our electricity bills tend to be between €45-50 per month, although we do use gas for all our cooking and almost all our heating. My husband installed the electric water heaters himself, so I can't say how much installation costs would be. 

Don't know any kitchen fitters, sorry.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I'd definitely go for solar, with an electric heater as back-up.

Our house has no indoor water tank, it comes straight off the street and is heated by a boiler using bottled propane gas. As Lynn says, this results in the occasional cold shower which is not at all pleasant especially at this time of year! But it is dead cheap, less than €100 p.a. for water and cooking.


----------



## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

I Have solar with a gas back up ,

Solar works great , yesterday was sunny but quite cool , we got plenty of hot water !

If your house is new there is a good chance the pipework for solar has been pre installed


----------



## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

30 litre electric thermo, installed it myself, we are all electric, in total costs one euro seventy cents daily.

Initially we had a gas water heater, twas a pain in the bum, no mains gas here, blooming bottles to lug around.


----------



## AllHeart (Nov 22, 2013)

Here I jumped promptly onto this thread to come to your rescue, thinking you were in hot water.


----------



## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

tonymar said:


> I Have solar with a gas back up ,
> 
> Solar works great , yesterday was sunny but quite cool , we got plenty of hot water !
> 
> If your house is new there is a good chance the pipework for solar has been pre installed


If the house is new and meets all the legal building regulations then it MUST have some form of solar water heating - this is the law.

So the pipes should be there but also there should be a tank and panel on the roof.

If there isn't, then it hasn't been built to the current regulations.


----------



## hwmartin (Jun 22, 2015)

AllHeart said:


> Here I jumped promptly onto this thread to come to your rescue, thinking you were in hot water.


No just the opposite


----------



## AllHeart (Nov 22, 2013)

hwmartin said:


> no just the opposite


lol!


----------



## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

hwmartin said:


> We've just completed on a 'New Build' villa (actually built just before the crash but never sold). As is the Spanish norm there is no kitchen fitted and no provision for hot water other than the plumbing.
> 
> My questions concerning the hot water are:-
> What are the pros and cons of the various options (electric, gas or solar)?
> ...


So not that new then ? (pre crash)
As Tony has said if possible the route is Solar (integral panel/tank) fitted & a butano gas water heater as back up, if you plumb in 2 regs so you can install 2 bottles side by side (easy to do) then this will avoid having a cold shower when the gas runs out.


----------



## hwmartin (Jun 22, 2015)

snikpoh said:


> If the house is new and meets all the legal building regulations then it MUST have some form of solar water heating - this is the law.
> 
> So the pipes should be there but also there should be a tank and panel on the roof.
> 
> If there isn't, then it hasn't been built to the current regulations.


The house was actually built in 2007/8 but has never been sold or lived in. The certificate of habitation (?) was obtained in 2013. Does this alter the requirement?


----------



## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I don't think I could have solar panels - I live in the Spanish equivalent of a conservation area, and I don't know of a single house in the area which has them. Last year the Ayuntamiento were even writing to people to tell them that they must remove air-con units from the fronts of their houses (not that I have noticed any of them being moved up to now, people tend to take no notice until they're absolutely forced to).


----------



## hwmartin (Jun 22, 2015)

Lynn R said:


> I don't think I could have solar panels - I live in the Spanish equivalent of a conservation area, and I don't know of a single house in the area which has them. Last year the Ayuntamiento were even writing to people to tell them that they must remove air-con units from the fronts of their houses (not that I have noticed any of them being moved up to now, people tend to take no notice until they're absolutely forced to).


Strange....I've just done a quick Google Maps satellite view and none of the villas (31) on our little urbanisation or the nearby (150m) village have solar water!


----------

