sagraiasolar's activity

... there is a sensible core on the forum that is like a virtual family. Come back soon  -  we'll miss you.

Jackie    I see Monte Acuto in your picture and we share a similar view from the road up to Preggio so no doubt our paths will cross. We nearly always go to Umbertide market on Wednesday mornings which seems to be the local gathering point.   Welcome to the patch.

...  this is a crude brush stroke but it works well enough for the average family sized stone farmhouse. The total energy you need for heating and hot water over a 200 day winter is 25,000 kW.hrs and 100 quintale of wood will comfortably produce this if it's not wet. It always pays to order a bit more to avoid stress and start off the next year with a dry stash.  These figures assume you use no other energy supply so your basic heating and hot water bill for the winter should be in the range of €1,000 - €1,300.  If you are a part timer then take the number of days you are here and multiply by 0.5 quintale. To give you a feel for how much wood this is it will be a couple of truck loads and you will be using 2 wheelbarrow loads a day when it's really cold. A good quality stove will run all winter without relighting so it is quite easy to run. As winter cold levels come and go as a curve I have a non linear model which can predict heating bills for multiple power sources quite accurately.  The ultimate for economy and convenience is a wood + heat pump combination. The heat pump fills any gaps very well and adds very little to the overall cost because its running cost is not far behind wood and far ahead of the rest of the usual sources.

You don't need to invent anything here ... as part of the earquake proofing your builders should put a reinforced floor above your rustic ceiling below.

My favourite by far is Giorgeschi in Citta.. up the main industrial road and next door to Euronics ... Anna there is very sensible and helpful .. no silly prices. and a good range of repro and antique furniture, In particular they make credenzas with restored doors. As for sofas and beds we gave up in Italy and shipped them out from PJ's

... I see this tired old thread has come to life.... oldandbold when you say that a combi boiler would be the best I would suggest you go over even more of the many past discussions on the heating topic. I think it is generally accepted now that, to a limited power level, wood is the cheapest source of energy available here and only by a narrow margin a heat pump is the next on the list (if not first due to sheer convenience). The list is long but you'll find that gas is at the very bottom of the list.

often overlooked but makes a big difference. Low properties can get pooled cold air overnight and are under the cold mist in the mornings as a result. This doesn't seem to be a benefit in the summer where the heat seems to be worse.  To be under the snow line, warmer in winter and cooler in summer go for about 550m in Umbria. The difference on a typical winter day will be 5c.     Contrary to the advice you seem to be getting I would go for a wreck. Italian builders know exactly how to restore them and will do a fantastic job if you take care to get one with a good reputation.  As there aren't many good wrecks left and a good chunk of northern Europe is retiring to seek the sun so they should be a good investment.

The chances are that your geometra 'forgot' to do this for you so the 'mare begins. I'm just doing mine too... and in Umbria. Step one is to go to the geometra and ask of course.  If the answer is no you'll need a whole raft of things like geological report re position of fosso biologica, about 6 pages of stuff on the plumbing and heating... On the latter front I managed to reduce the cost considerably by re-drawing the house on Sketchup and producing drawings of the pipes etc... the normal price for the plumby stuff should be about €600... even so the electrician and the plumber will need to come round to remind themselves what they did before they sign off.  Best of luck.

Badger,   I don't have that much to do with Aermec but I'll do my best to answer your points. 1/. Experience of installer - as one of the biggest aircon installers in Italy there are hundreds of experienced installers all over Italy.  2/. No the price did not include a tank.  3/. I don't know offhand who makes the compressor but it is up with the most modern standards - variable speed and running on r410a

Yes Badger I tend to agree with your sentiments. As my expectations for these things is a good 15 years of service - they're just like a fridge after all - I would think a 5 year warranty would help to overcome the apprehension some new adopters might feel. The Aermec ones use the latest scroll compressors with minimal moving parts so they should be intrinsically very reliable.