[Fleur]

I have a Demirdokum gas combi, it was very expensive when I bought it 5 years ago, but I must say it has never let me down.

[Steve B]

Fleur, is it a condsening type or standard? Which area of Izmir, here in Karsiyaka/Bostanli we didn't get natural gas until 3 years ago.

[gurciguzeli]

Since you've got the subject going friends, what sort of initial layout of cash is necessary to outfit an apt/villa of around 100 - 140 sq meters with either a gas or electric heater? How does it get installed? If it's a combi heating/cooling unit, do they place it in a window? If so, then each room gets one? Sorry if I sound like an idiot but I write from the land of central heating/cooling, and I've never actually asked any of my family members in Turkey what it costs to get one set up in an apt. I'm trying to estimate what I need to consider if I purchase a place without one.

[Steve B]

Gurciguzeli, I am not sure where you are planning to live here, if it is Izmir, we have natural gas now, at least our district of Karsiyaka, and most places here, although they are still quite a few waiting for the service to be laid in there areas. We have split klima for the bedrooms for heat/cool, but the price is prohibitive for electricity, even with our Hitachi inverter, very new and easy on electricity. We chose to get our old oil boiler, which is even worse cost wise, and electric hot water heater to be replace by a new, modern condsening type gas fired combination boiler, which means it heats the radiators and gives hot water. They are very small units, hang on a wall, either inside or outside on a balcony, (ours will be installed outside, we feel safer). The condenser type reuses the gases that would otherwise be lost out the flue and uses them in a secondary heat exchange to get maximum effieciency for our heating dollar. Natural gas, although expensive, it much more economical then electricity or LPG. Our heatings costs and hot water costs should drop in at least half during the winter months here to around 160 TL. Ours is being installed today and tomorrow. It is a lot of work, they have to bring the gas lines into our apartment, punching holes in many walls, take the old oil monster and tank out, and bring domestic hot water from the main bathroom along the walls to our back balcony as well as the gas pipes, where it will be installed. The total cost for this system after much checking and haggling was just a little over 4,000 TL. We chose Buderus, they make a very good condensing boiler, made in Holland, with the latest technology, and a wireless modulating thermostat fully programmable for whatever we want it to do. The best and most technologically advanced condsening combi's seem to be Buderus, Valliant and Weissmann, all foreign made. We chose Buderus for it's features, ease of servicing, and savings over time it will give us. And also the installer, he was the only one that put us at ease and took the time, over 4 hours, to explain the features, how it works, how they will install it, and Buderus after service. There is also an initial outlay of 630 TL for "membership" and security deposit for the gas authority, Izmir Gas, which also includes purchasing the gas meter, new to me, in Canada it's free, as it belongs to the gas company. The gas boiler was 2,300 TL down in cash, then the rest, 1750 TL over 5 months with a promissory note. The gas fee from Izmir gas was 230 TL down, the rest over 5 months. But the savings to be realized from switching to gas are great. Hope this helps. About a split klima system that provides heat/cooling, you can get systems from Mitsubishi and Hitachi that have up to 7 or 8 indoor units connected to one big central outside unit. Our neighbour in Yoncakoy has one, 6 indoor units, 1 outdoor unit, she lives there year round, the cost 2 years ago for this Mitsubishi system was around 11,000 TL.

[Steve B]

Well, the job is all done, the equipment is installed, the service inspected yesterday by Izmir Gas and approved, and yes, they checked it against the blueprints submitted by our installing company, a bit of a surprise, also, the documentation showed our installing company had taken out an insurance policy in case of damage caused during installation, the policy costed them, (I'm sure added in our cost) 7.35 TL, good to know. The hot water is endless, on demand, shower after shower, 3 showers were had one after the other last night to check it out, worked flawlessly, and the temperature in the apartment is toasty warm this morning, the wireless programmable thermostat worked perfectly, coming on at the designated time. Will even be better once the new windows are installed, but we are going to put it off until June, still recovering from all the dust and mayhem of the work done installing the combi!

[kibris]

My 160 square metre duplex is all electric and i use a mix of convector heaters with timers on them in the kitchen\diner and lounge and wall mounted fan heaters in the bathrooms and a lot of people here use electric blankets .The average price for each heater is 50lira and a water boiler for your showers etc is about 250 lira.In the very cold weather i mainly use my dining kitchen as its cosier than the big lounge and keep a heater on low in my bedroom 24\7 my electric bill for the last 7 months was 936lira which includes all my cooking- showers- dishwasher- and washing mashine.Im trying to keep away from anything that needs installation or maintenance and if one of my heaters breaks down i can easily go and buy another straight away.This has been my first winter here so i am experimenting-at the moment i am getting info on the ecco panel heaters which cost 150lira each and you just hang,em on a wall and plug,em in.I used to use gas central heating in uk but it gave me a stuffy head and i got flu very bad every year--my head is clear here in turkey and no flu so i think my convectors are a healthier option for me.My advice would be to try the electric heaters for your first winter and see if you feel you need a full gas system.kib

[Steve B]

I agree with you Kib, but my wife and mother in law who is 78 really like it warm during the morning and evening, and the use of oil or electric heating was so cost prohibitive. The cost of electricity will keep going up, along with the price of gas, but it is a double whammy with electricity here in the Ege region, as our electricity comes from gas fired generating stations, so the cost of the gas increase is put into the price of electricity, plus a increase in the transmission costs and mark-up, not so bad, although increase none the less, with gas. Also, as most people here in Izmir, as gas in relatively new, only been here for 2-3 years depending on which area you live, we put our gas combi's outside on a balcony, so no chance of fumes inside the apartment. And the machine is silent, and no worries about high wattage electric heaters plugged in. We also had two gas detectors installed, connected to a solenoid valve outside our front door gas meter which will shut the gas off if a leak is detected. Over all, the even heating throughout the apartment last night at 23.5 C was perfect, the wife was so happy. And again, 3 showers were had, hot water on demand, no lack of hot water, constant, and no need to store a large amount of hot water in a tank, wasting electricity to keep it at a constant temperature. Also stove hooked up to it, no more blue bottle, much cheaper. I figure the cost of cooking and hot water will be somewhere around 7-8 TL a month, not sure on the gas costs yet, almost too late in the heating season to get a good measure, but am sure it will cut overall engergy costs by more then half with the condsensing gas combi, and as I like just wearing a t-shirt in the apartment, no more sweaters, just like I had it in Canada. Our apartment here is 165 square meters, a good size, so am very pleased with the decision to go with the gas combi, love the constant temperature from the radiators, and with the wireless programmable thermostat, the level of custom control over heat, both for radiators and domestic hot water is incredible. Have it set for 4 different times to both lower and raise the temperature, and different for the weekend. Will agree, the intial outlay is a little expensive, but with the probable future increases in engery prices, am sure it will pay for itself over 3 or so years, and savings on using gas.

[expatroy]

Any Idea if there is a plan to get Gas in Kusadasi? And if so, when?

[Steve B]

I don't know when natural gas will come to Kusadasi, but it must come sometime Roy.It wouldn't take that much to bring the big gas mains from Izmir to Kusadasi, I believe there is the population to support it, as most people would realize the comfort and savings to be had by having natural gas. It maybe something to bring up at the next Foreigners Committee meeting, they might have an answer or get one for you. Here in Izmir, the population is about 3 million, and if common sense prevails, the first account number starting at 1, then we are the 92,328 customer since they started bringing gas to Izmir.

[kibris]

I find it all very interesting steve and you do a real good in depth post on it and i would love an example of costs but as you say its a bit late in the heating season.I suppose gas will come to kusadasi eventually-like many others i had my oil guzzling monster of a boiler taken out.My consolation is that i still have the cost of a fixed heating system in my bank account and earning good interest-which goes toward those winter bills .I find it all 6 of one and half a dozen of the other at the moment and forgot to say on my other post that i also had an electric power shower installed for when friends visit and the water boiler would run out.Today im sitting here with no heating on whatsoever -it isnt needed-in uk i would be nudging the thermostat up.lol kib