Electric heating, holiday home Slovenia

herne_2

Have just finished renovating an old farm house as a holiday home for my family in Slovenia. The only heating at present is a log burning stove in the living room. I will need some heating in the other rooms while I am there and also plan to leave heating on a very low setting when not there in Winter to keep the damp at bay.

I looked at wall mounted electric heaters in the UK but am not sure if this is the best solution. There is also the additional problem of compatibility. They have 2 pin plugs. It's 230 volts in Slovenia. If I was to use adaptors on them would they be safe to leave on in an empty house?

Electric wall heaters seem to be very expensive and rare in Slovenia.
Any advice gratefully received.

rogerblack

If properly earthed, then it's safe.
However, don't use adaptors.
Cut off the plugs, and wire to local plugs, or preferably, into the mains wiring.
High power devices - heaters, ... into plugs and sockets run unattended for a long time is a fire risk.

I do hope you put lots, and lots of insulation in!

ManAtHome

What about a dehumidifier (or two) - plenty of models with "continuous-drain facility" (you can attach a length of plastic tube and run into a sink or drain). They do kick out a small bit of heat as well as shifting moisture - nowhere near a proper heater though.

chris1973

more importantly, find out what the incoming capacity is into the building. In some places in Europe, especially in older buildings in developing locations, the maxiumum load per household is capped at around 15A - 20A, using Electrical heaters will soon max this out

Its easy to take for granted the 60A, 80A or 100A service fused routinely fitted in UK houses, forgetting that other countries may not have the network capacity to offer the same

The fact that high current heaters are rare locally may indicate the point!.

herne_2

chris1973 wrote: »

more importantly, find out what the incoming capacity is into the building. In some places in Europe, especially in older buildings in developing locations, the maxiumum load per household is capped at around 15A - 20A, using Electrical heaters will soon max this out

Its easy to take for granted the 60A, 80A or 100A service fused routinely fitted in UK houses, forgetting that other countries may not have the network capacity to offer the same

The fact that high current heaters are rare locally may indicate the point!.

Will try to get hold of the builder or electrician to find out. I know they increased the capacity.

Pincher

Search for "tubular heater", "frost stat".
Frost stat means the heater wil only come on if it's cold.

Tubular heaters use around 60W, like traditional light bulbs.
So, a cheap and cheerful approach is to plug your table lamps,
floor lamps etc. into a frost stat.

In case the light bulb blows, use more than one lamp.

Damp. You need to put in permanent ventilation.
Trickle vent. Bathroom fan. Toilet grille.

Cardew

Firstly you don't 'control' dampness by heating - you merely mask the problem as warm air holds more moisture. Ventilation is required.

As suggested in post#3 the obvious solution if you have a damp problem is to get dehumidifiers. That is the solution commonly used in humid areas. These can be set to the required percentage of humidity and have tubes to lead to bath/sink/toilet etc. If there is a danger of freezing you will need to take precautions.

I have just got back from a couple of weeks in Maine USA in a friend's cottage. It gets seriously cold up there in winter and many of the holiday cottages are unoccupied for several months. They just prepare them for winter by draining all water from the house and leaving them with no heating at all, if you don't have a damp problem, you don't need heating - the internal house temperature can fall way below freezing with no difficulties.