# UK appliances in Spain



## vix2000 (Jan 20, 2019)

Hi all, we are signing for our house on 12 August. We are driving down to Chiclana so are bringing some things with us. I have been wondering if UK electrical appliances work in Spain, small appliances like kettles, toasters, iron, hair dryers and straighteners. Also things like TV's, chest freezers, microwave? Thanks


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## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

All will work just as they do in the UK.
Good quality adapters needed (13amp) at first until you get the plugs changed.


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

vix2000 said:


> Hi all, we are signing for our house on 12 August. We are driving down to Chiclana so are bringing some things with us. I have been wondering if UK electrical appliances work in Spain, small appliances like kettles, toasters, iron, hair dryers and straighteners. Also things like TV's, chest freezers, microwave? Thanks


Everything works, you will have to change the plugs or buy loads of the changers.

TV might give you issues wit it has freeview built in, as I think it won't connect to the spanish version. But I'm not too sure on this. But someone with specialist knowledge will comment

Have you thought of buying new? You get the correct plug and a guarantee.
Also our toaster, kettle, MW, hair drier were all about 5 years old.
It worked out cheaper for us to buy these items new than to ship them.

We used a little electrical shop in the town near the flat, he gave us a discount and said if we needed any help with larger stuff (washing machine etc) he would be happy to deliver and install the same day for no extra charge.

The toaster, TV and kettle would have been cheaper at Carrefour but using local services helps you to integrate, he said hi to us last week when we saw him in a local bar.


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## vix2000 (Jan 20, 2019)

Thanks Barrie and VFR. So can you just change the plugs then? We are coming down in a van so don't need shipping, but am going to buy the kettle toaster and microwave. I have cleared our holiday home here in the UK and have a nearly new TV and a small chest freezer that I will bring if they will work OK.


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

If the TV is newish the cord likely detaches. You should be able to buy a replacement EU style cord for a few €. I've bought TVs and found both cords in the box. UK and EU. But if you don't have one it's easy enough to change. 

Just take the old cord to the electronics/electrical shop and ask for a Spanish version.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Another good reason to bring your tv from home rather than buy a Spanish one is by bringing your telly from Blighty you will be able to watch all your Uk channels and proggys instead of the daft foreign stuff

Toasters and electric kettles work perfectly well but remember of course with the 1 hour time difference making a cuppa or morning toast takes an extra 60 mins


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## Beach buddy (Jul 7, 2018)

Try to be a bit selective though. I know people who moved lock stock and barrel and years later had still got stuff in storage and ended up throwing it away.


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

vix2000 said:


> Hi all, we are signing for our house on 12 August. We are driving down to Chiclana so are bringing some things with us. I have been wondering if UK electrical appliances work in Spain, small appliances like kettles, toasters, iron, hair dryers and straighteners. Also things like TV's, chest freezers, microwave? Thanks


We brought all our electrical appliances with us when we moved to Spain 12 years ago and simply changed the plugs. One thing to bear in mind is that electricity is contracted to homes in Spain at varying power ratings. Our house was contracted at 3.3kw so using an electric kettle at the same time as other appliances caused the power to trip. We have since had the power supply upgraded so no longer have this problem but if your house is in a remote area an upgrade is not always that simple. A friend who wanted to upgrade was quoted €10,000 because Iberdrola said the old wooden poles carrying the cable to his house would need to be replaced with concrete posts at his expense!


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## Monkey104 (Aug 24, 2014)

The Skipper said:


> We brought all our electrical appliances with us when we moved to Spain 12 years ago and simply changed the plugs. One thing to bear in mind is that electricity is contracted to homes in Spain at varying power ratings. Our house was contracted at 3.3kw so using an electric kettle at the same time as other appliances caused the power to trip. We have since had the power supply upgraded so no longer have this problem but if your house is in a remote area an upgrade is not always that simple. A friend who wanted to upgrade was quoted €10,000 because Iberdrola said the old wooden poles carrying the cable to his house would need to be replaced with concrete posts at his expense!


We are on 3.3kw and made enquiries to upgrade and was quoted €2500. I walked around the house, put on all 4 aircon units, kettle, tv,lights with no tripping whatsoever.
I figure that if the power is not going to trip with that lot on when is it going to. Been here 4 months now and no trippage!


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## Monkey104 (Aug 24, 2014)

rabbitcat said:


> another good reason to bring your tv from home rather than buy a spanish one is by bringing your telly from blighty you will be able to watch all your uk channels and proggys instead of the daft foreign stuff
> 
> toasters and electric kettles work perfectly well but remember of course with the 1 hour time difference making a cuppa or morning toast takes an extra 60 mins


woosh!!,


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Amazing coincidence - we completed our house sale on 12 August as well, back in 2005! Hope it all goes as smoothly as ours did.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Re plugs, bring a UK 3-way adapter and fit a Spanish plug on that. Then your toaster, kettle and microwave can just plug straight in.


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## Love Karma (Oct 10, 2018)

I brought similar with me years ago and they were a godsend. 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sockit-EU-...teway&sprefix=spanish+adaptors,aps,166&sr=8-1


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

Monkey104 said:


> We are on 3.3kw and made enquiries to upgrade and was quoted €2500. I walked around the house, put on all 4 aircon units, kettle, tv,lights with no tripping whatsoever.
> I figure that if the power is not going to trip with that lot on when is it going to. Been here 4 months now and no trippage!


I'm guessing that you don't yet have a smart meter? Nearly all the houses around where I live - including my own - had "unofficial" upgrades before our electricity supplier (Iberdrola) replaced the old fashioned meters with the new smart meters. With the old meters a dodgy electrician could easily swap the official cut-out with a higher-rated one. One of my neighbours had a 3.3kw contract but a 10kw cut-out. It came as quite a shock when the old meters were replaced with the fool-proof high-tech versions! I understand that smart meters are being rolled-out across Spain so unofficially high supplies will soon be a thing of the past.


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## Monkey104 (Aug 24, 2014)

The Skipper said:


> I'm guessing that you don't yet have a smart meter? Nearly all the houses around where I live - including my own - had "unofficial" upgrades before our electricity supplier (Iberdrola) replaced the old fashioned meters with the new smart meters. With the old meters a dodgy electrician could easily swap the official cut-out with a higher-rated one. One of my neighbours had a 3.3kw contract but a 10kw cut-out. It came as quite a shock when the old meters were replaced with the fool-proof high-tech versions! I understand that smart meters are being rolled-out across Spain so unofficially high supplies will soon be a thing of the past.


I am assuming we don’t. For Iberdrola to quote the €2500 we had to have an approved electrian come out, assess the property and send a report to them. At cost to me, obviously!


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## bikerboy123 (Sep 30, 2018)

keep the original british plugs and buy quality (not Chinese crap) adaptors, before anyone cries ''nonsense'' I was an electrical test engineer before moving to Spain.
PS yes your appliances will work on 'Spanish electric',,,,, it's all about the voltage and Hertz lads lol!!!!


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## bikerboy123 (Sep 30, 2018)

VFR said:


> All will work just as they do in the UK.
> Good quality adapters needed (13amp) at first until you get the plugs changed.


''Good quality adapters needed (13amp) at first until you get the plugs changed'', good advice about 'quality adapters' (what price your neck) but I would stick with the fused british plug.


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

bikerboy123 said:


> ''Good quality adapters needed (13amp) at first until you get the plugs changed'', good advice about 'quality adapters' (what price your neck) but I would stick with the fused british plug.


I bought 2 x 5-packs of the adapters noted by 'Love Karma'. All work perfectly. Where two or more devices are to stay put - TV/STB/DVD/Stereo Amp - one adapter > 13A UK > 6-way block, fused and surge protected. 

I have many power tools, from a mini breaker to soldering iron. An adapter on the UK plug of a 4-way extention lead means I can use these tools without endless swapping of adapters or the faff of changing the tools' plugs. 


The smart meters are impressive. The Iberdrola 'Customer Area' allows one to see bills on line. Monthly consumption per year-to-date is a 12 bar chart. Any month can be opened to show consumption per day. Any day can be opened to show consumption per hour. 

The other day I noticed a great spike around 8pm. _Wha?_ --- Electric oven! Pizza! This led me to monitor the daily chart for consumption due to the AC. I saw a massive spike every evening around 8pm - not a pizza this time but switching on the AC in the salón/comedor - from around 300KWh to +/- 1500KWh. 

Having a think about AC and the options in settings, I tried a 'soft start' by starting on the 'drying' setting before switching 20-30 mins later to 'cooling'. This has worked. The spike is now 500KWh lower. Once the thermostat is cutting off the AC at the set temp, I switch back to 'drying' for the rest of the evening.

I do the same in my bedroom at night. After the room has cooled down on 'cooling' I switch to 'drying', which, here in Valencia, can be the more comfortable setting anyway. 

There are considerable savings to be made doing this.


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

What kind of A/C do you have? I think most of the mono split heat pumps have a limit under 1kw. That's full power until the thing reaches the preset temperature. 

If you have an older unit the power savings alone can make swapping it an idea to consider.


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

NickZ said:


> What kind of A/C do you have? I think most of the mono split heat pumps have a limit under 1kw. That's full power until the thing reaches the preset temperature.
> 
> If you have an older unit the power savings alone can make swapping it an idea to consider.


I'm not sure what you mean by 'mono split heat pumps have a limit under 1kw'. I have the very latest Mitsubishi split units, one ext/one int unit per room.

I think the point is that setting the thing going on 'drying' for a while until the room is perceptably cooler, before switching to 'cooling' for a period, has achieved what I set out to do - reduce the peak level of the spike. And once running on 'drying' again, it is more economical, with no perceptible decrease in comfort. 

I learned this trick with the 'drying' setting from a comment by a user in Singapore which I know from years of experience is exhaustingly humid


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

1kw is 1000 watts. Locally I've not seen a room sized unit (12000 BTU or smaller) that peaks at above 1000 watts. That's in full power mode. Some have an eco mode that limits the peak to maybe half the normal peak.


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## RagnBowman (Jul 23, 2019)

Since moving here I have used surge protector plugs and strips on all expensive electrical items just in case🙏


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Surge protectors are essential. We get dips and spikes all the time, especially when the storks are nesting on the pylons. That's the official explanation from the electricity company, anyway!


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## RagnBowman (Jul 23, 2019)

Alcalaina said:


> Surge protectors are essential. We get dips and spikes all the time, especially when the storks are nesting on the pylons. That's the official explanation from the electricity company, anyway!


That made me chuckle, but yes agree essential but also gives peace of mind


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