This week we added both solar thermal and solar electric panels to the property to help us in our aim towards being a more eco-friendly house and business. We had the work carried out by our new good friends from Renfrewshire, Scotland. Paul and James and their families came to visit for a week and carried out the installation work in exchange for a weeks stay and spa treatments. Paul and James run Paisley Boiler Installations near Glasgow and after some friends introduced us a few months back we got to talking and hatched the plan to upgrade our heating in the villa. We bought the panels and the other equipment and the guys came and installed it all.

All thanks to Paisley Boiler Installations, Renfrew, Scotland. Paul and James are both head engineers at the company and are both qualified as Gas Safe in the UK and qualified as commercial boiler fitters in both the UK and Spain. (Talk about getting lucky meeting this company!!)

We now have one set of solar thermal panels heating the water for the pool to keep it at a nice temperature through the winter. There is another set of thermal panels heating water for the rest of the Villa’s bathrooms showers and the thermal spa. As we are on a hillside we have added something not many houses have here….. central heating! This has been installed with a Worcester Bosch Oil fired boiler that sits just outside the back door and heats the spa rooms and the guest bedrooms. All of the piping for the hot water was put in by the builders a few weeks ago, all to the boys specifications and for once, (rare in Spain) a building job came off correctly and on time.

We looked at other new boiler options such as gas and bio-fuel and wood pellets. However after a good look into the options the oil was the most cost effective and easiest to maintain here in Spain. There is no gas mains supply to the gas bottles would have had to have been large and the bio-fuel and wood pellet boilers although great for the environment were just not practical here as there is so little supply locally. Heating oil can be delivered by truck and only needs filling up about once a year or so hopefully.

Central heating doesn’t get installed very often in this part of the country with air conditioning units being the preferred choice but the high cost of electricity (and too much power for the solar panels) we thought the oil boiler was a much better plan to keep the spa toasty for everyone to relax through the winter. It took a few days for the pool temperature to rise but after one good day of sunshine it was perfect. The Villa was closed to anyone else that week so that no one would be disturbed by any noise or work going on and so that Paisley Boiler Installation guys could bang on unhindered. In the end they slaved away all day for their first 5 days before they got to join their families around the pool  for the last 4 days of their stay. We also recently bought 10 mountain bikes for guests to use while they stay with us and the families put them to work visiting the neighboring villages.

After the stay we have:

7 happy people leaving with a tan and a lot of relaxation (Well apart from James and Paul!)

1 Eco friendly Villa

7 heated rooms

3 bathrooms with hot water

1 heated pool

3 separate solar panel arrays

1 oil fired boiler

1 happy proprietor

Thanks Paisley Boiler Installations!