Another recommendation

When we had our central heating system installed by the builder, the cost was sky high. Still, we got a working system that has given us very few problems in the nine years we have lived here.

A couple of gripes though, 1. the only control that we had was a wall mounted thermostat which acted like a simple switch to turn the system on or off and 2. we would have liked towel heating radiators in the bathrooms.

Now we have managed to resolve both of those issues.

1. Instead of the thermostat in the lounge area, we have a programmer which allows us to set times when the heating comes on either on a daily or a weekly basis. It also allows us to set a temperature at which the boiler will come on regardless and a frost protection setting for those times when we are away. There is also the facility to program the heating to stay off whilst we are away and come back on again ready for our return. Short of putting the kettle on for an early morning cup of tea, this device does everything we require of it. The controller was installed by the technician from CAMINSTAT who I have mentioned before. Since we have a service plan with him, there was no charge for labour.

2. We had originally thought that heated towel rails would be out of the question because the pipes to our Spanish radiators fit top and bottom. Apparently this is not a problem, you just need to re-route the top pipe to the bottom of the new radiator and that is what the plumber did. The extended pipe is mostly hidden by the new radiator and so it all looks neat and tidy. The plumber who did the job was recommended by our neighbour Pepe and turned out to be based in Bigastro. Fontaneria Aqua Azul is in the Pligono Apatel on Calle Medio Ambiente 6. For two plumbers working for almost two hours each we paid 60 euros plus IVA. Having experienced the charges that plumbers make in Britain, I think that is more than reasonable. And yes, they cleaned up afterwards and left us with the old radiators (many plumbers in Britain would want to take those away to use on another job).