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fire places/wood


Tracey

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I have been looking at many houses on-line in the Chapala to Jocotepec area in anticipation that in a year from now I will retire to this area. I visited there 5 months ago confirming this is where I desire to be. I learned when I was there that trees were very important. They belong to every body. I saw them built into walls, sidewalks, houses, fencing and everything in between rather than being cut down. My question: Over 50% of the houses I saw on-line had at least 1 fire place, many 2. If you can't burn wood - i.e. trees, then what is it that they burn to stay warm?

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I heat one room with the fireplace but I also have gas heater mounted on the wall and connected to the gas tank, it is cheaper and more efficient to heat the house or the rooms I want heaated that way. I use the heaters about 2 months a year. We live near the lake, the house is shaded by trees and faces north , pleasant in April and May but very cold in December and January.

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The wood here burns very fast!

Consider a gas log set-up. They come with many different type of flames & log appearances, and remotes

The gas here is propane, so check the gas jets

Seal off the chimney so the heat does not escape...

That is twice that you have said to seal off the chimney.

BEFORE anyone seals off their chimney when using a gas log set, they had better make damn sure that they have an UNVENTED set of gas logs. If you have the kind of gas logs that need/require venting then you will asphyxiate yourself if you close off the chimney.

I know most of the houses here are not sealed well but I'd rather be a nag about this than have anyone die because they didn't check and make sure.

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We buy a pickup truck load of burnable wood, delivered and stacked for $1200 pesos. This year it was $1500. We use a fire in the living room to takeoff the chill in the mornings and we almost always burn one or two logs in the evening in the den. We also have fires when it has been too rainy and the damp sets into the bones. We buy two truckloads a year.

We buy it from the same fellow for 8 years. He drives around Ajijic with the wood in the back of the red truck all year around. He usually stops by in late August and September and then again in December. I found him by stopping him on the street one day to ask about his wood. Don't know his name and when I ask his he just says he knows mine. True enough when we moved house to another part of the village for 6 months he knew where we were and since it was winter he came with a truck load of wood. Then when we moved 6 months later, sure enough he knew where we had gone and showed up in September with a load of wood. So apparently I do not need to know his name.

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To be efficient we use a gas catalytic heater with a 20 litre tank. Many houses have these. I use the fireplace for fun as it costs at least twice as much to run as the gas heater. No cord you can move them anywhere. I burned 10 gallons of LP last year not a big expense but when you are cold you need some heat. These heaters can also be plugged into the main gas tank as we don't use natural gas here but propane like your BBQ up north. Just make sure if you remove the tank and plug directly into big house tank you put a weight in the heater to keep it from tipping over.

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