It ain't half cold....brrrrrrrrr!!

There are 52 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 10,868 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.

    UK Man ....I understand....if you are in the open, with a free standing house in the province, for sure u need heating.

    In my case different, I'm in between two houses, wall to wall....makes a lot of difference!!! I basically only need to heat when temp falls below like 13-15c at daytime... otherwise the house stays round 18c.....! Actually first year in house I didn't have any heating, and that with 7 meter high ceilings!!! But at a certain point your body just get tired of the cold and you have constantly runny nose. So, yes, I need heating too!

    • Official Post

    I really hated cold days in Italy, with heating kept to 18C. The heating went on when indoor temp. went below 16C. Still, damn cold if you are sitting all day to study or work in front of the computer. I remember having an electric heater for my legs when I was up working or studying at my desk until late.


    We spent about €2000 per winter in heating, even when we were out most of the day (and heating was off).
    Here I pamper myself with A/C heating whenever I want it, keeping indoor temp above 20 C. It must be noted that here it is more humid.


    During the energy efficiency for buildings class we were taught that study shows that optimal temperature is 20-22 C with 40-65% humidity.



    I don’t have an hygrometer, just my AC remote showing the indoor temp registered, but I check the weather app for humidity - given the poor insulation of windows here, I don’t expect outdoor humidity to be much different from indoor. We also have mold issues and paint flaking on the walls. I hate it!


    My husband diligently uses bleach to clean mold, but accidents have caused clothes and bedding to be stained irreversibly.


    My MIL was a fan of bleach even in Italy, it must be a Latin American thing.



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    • Official Post

    We have one solitary gas heater in the small hallway off the living room, but it has disadvantages like that gas smell and we don't use it when we go to bed, because of the risk of CO2 poisoning.

    Anyway, we looked at a very nice log burner today in Sodimac and I've always loved a proper fire. We've got a builder coming next week to check out the chimney and see if we could fit one.

    Also, we intend to take advantage of the government 12 payment zero interest offer for national products.

    https://www.argentina.gob.ar/ahora-12

    We have a central heating system with water filled radiators. Our house has 350 sq. meters, and as we are only living two persons, we decided to install Air conditioner split Hot/cold in some rooms. Now we choose where we have to stay and use only the electric air conditioner in only one room. That is a good outcome, we shall have perhaps a higher electricity bills, but no extra natural gas consumption.

    It sounds strange for me the comments of the member of this forum, mainly their sensibility towards cold. All of them came from latitudes from 45° to 55° North, therefore they must be accustomed to cold weather. We are only at 34° South, the same latitude of Northern Africa.

    Be at peace, dear members. Here the cold waves lasts only one or a bit more weeks. Temperate weather will return soon.

    Splinter ......great Idea!

    Just to give u two advices.... because here they are not thaaaat far in all this here in Argentina:


    -choose a fireplace with double combustion......it ignites the gasses from the smoke before it exits.... therefore much more energy efficient!!! (Don't listen to crap.....Google it if u have doubt).


    -try to let the chimney go through the house as much as possible, to release the most of it's heat, again, energy efficiency.

    Also opt for a cast iron chimney or heavy thick iron chimney......that way the rest heat of the smoke is transferred to the chimney inside house, and delivering it to inside instead of outside!!!!


    Following these small advices can multiply your output of heat ....

    Splinter ...

    Way to go.....just make sure it's double combustion......and also the one pic u post from Sodimac, don't think it is......on top it's tiny.....it means that u need to load aaaaallll the time to keep it running, also with Quebracho. With one a tick bigger u can stash more wood in for night time or if u leave the house many hours.....the one on pic won't burn more than a few hours, then it dies out. If u r home, no prob, but if u wanna have it on for heating continues, could b annoying.

    We've got two log burners out at the countryside place. One in the kitchen which has an oven section and the other in the living room. Although we're there most days we rarely use them as we don't stay long enough when it's cold.

    Nice to have however they do take a bit of cleaning and can be a faff to light. We also have our own wood which saves money.

    Here in town we have a Tromen oven outside which is fantastic for cooking pork rib/chicken. I found beef is better cooked on the parrilla.

    Its funny to think, a few decades ago it was considered highly environmental NO NO to use wood for heating....now it's actually considered one of the cleaner and better solutions for the environment.....I know that you have highly energy efficient woodburners that capture 90% of the the energy released from burning wood.....I guess it must be cold smoke coming out of the chimney!


    What is also a super advantage is the improved ambient quality.........nothing beats the pleasant dry heat from an oven.....in fact for me the absolute top is the quality of the air and heating in a wooden cabin....

    The absolutely worst I know of is aircon heating and cooling.....(sorry serafina), It just makes me feel miserable.....either I'm hot or cold, never just comfy.

    Quote from UK Man

    Yes you can't beat a real fire for atmosphere during the cold weather as long as you have some other form of heating.

    Yes like 10 Brazilian girls dancing samba in your living room :P