The shower is an electric shower. This is a luxury because when you turn on the shower, the water is hot. In our other bathroom the shower is run on an Immersion system (basically a water heater you have to turn on at least 20 minutes before you take a shower). The water heaters do not stay on here. The water is only heated by the furnace being on (heating the whole house, including the water in the water heater (or "Immersion system") or by turning on the Immersion system to heat it up only and not use oil to heat the whole house in the process. The electricity costs a lot and so does oil so you only use it for what you need and when you need it.
The stove has a main electric switch. If this is not on, then you cannot turn the stove on. The oven also has a switch too. I really like this feature for safety reasons also. What stinks is when I forget about it and turn on the burner to boil water or cook, and come back and it is not on because I forgot to turn the main switch on.
The heat in the house is regulated by the furnace which is set to a timer. It does not just automatically turn on or off when the heat goes above or below a certain temperature. If you are cold then you turn on the heat for more time, or hot, turn it off for more time. Usually we try to keep it off from bedtime until right before we wake up in the morning. So it can get really cold at night but the huge duvets take care of that. It also helps being married to Ludie who radiates heat. When he is not home however I turn on the hair dryer, heat up the bed and jump into it.
This is the switch for the Immersion system (or water heater) which not photographed is well insulated by the way. This is my best friend. :)
The outlets have on and off switches. They are 3 pronged outlets and have function on 220 Volts instead of 110 volts. 110 volts will electrocute a 70 lb pig and knock him out (we won't go more into how I know that). Let's just say, we are very careful with 220 volts and don't recommend plugging in any American appliances. Last time I tried, fire shot out of my hair dryer after it sounded like a 747 about to take off.
Well, that's a little fun insight into the life we have come to love here in Ireland.
2 comments:
You know we all want to hear the electrocuted pig story! LOL
hey, not forgetting that the light switch for the wc is always outside it and there is (in most of places) one tap for (freezing) cold water and another for (burning) hot water in every sink! LOL
Post a Comment