Fire Wood

[alan h]

Originally Posted by Geotherm

Why not just put in a costing for the winter heating in the rental, that way you can provide a good supply of wood, or if they prefer then they can use the gas instead.

When we were house hunting [in Winter] we stayed in an apartment. When we asked for the heating to go on, there was an additional daily charge for running the gas central heating.


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[Lisa C.]

Strawberrystar,

Unless you have complete confidence in the tenants, I would be hesitant to let them use the wood stove. Recently here, a multi-million dollar house was just lent to the owner's friend and burnt to the ground when the friend left a bucket with ashes around. This is not the first time I have heard of this happening. Our neighbor down the road did the same thing and burned down his kitchen and living room!

[alan h]

Originally Posted by Lisa C.

Strawberrystar,

Unless you have complete confidence in the tenants, I would be hesitant to let them use the wood stove. .............

I tend to agree with Lisa C on this matter. Much safer to add something like 10 Euros a day, [or whatever you calculate as the real figure], to cover central heating costs, and put a 'do not use' sign on the log burner.


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[Angie and Robert]

Its a difficult one isnt it?. You want to provide a nice experience for guests and woodburners are so attractive, but for people on holiday, perhaps after a few drinks and being unaccustemed to using them ,could be a recipe for disaster. For the same reason I also dont provide candles, which seem to me to carry the same risk.
Keiths idea of a built in charge for winter gas is one we follow, and yes we are hurting from the current financial situation.
Perhaps we should be supplying thermals and hotwater bottles as well.Or even considering not letting over the winter months?.
A

[jepsonclough]

In line with accommodation we have rented we will be adding a heating deposit - if they use less (we've just had a meter added to the gas pipe) then we'll given them some back, if they use more we'll take it out of the security deposit. If you build the heating charge in then there is no incentive at all for people to be environmentally responsible.

Not sure why but telling them where to buy logs does look cheap - provide some (as you might with half a bag of charcoal in the summer) and then say where more can be bought.

Chris

[strawberrystar]

I do feel like if someone is going to rent the house during the winter months they probably want to experience the log fire, which I know is a risk. I did want to supply guests with the first load, and then recommend somewhere they can top up after that. We do charge for gas use but have found this difficult to estimate as some guests have totally misused it having it on constantly and at 20 degrees, while others use it just mornings and evenings and keep it low. It is difficult to provide guests with an accurate estimate of these costs, and thought that being able to offer an alternative might be a better option for some guests as they would be in daily control of the costs.

Hmmm.....so I guess in answer to my original question....no one knows of anywhere where you can buy small amounts of wood? I'm not really asking for further deliberation on whether I am doing the right thing, just where you can buy it!

[alan h]

Originally Posted by strawberrystar

........ We do charge for gas use but have found this difficult to estimate as some guests have totally misused it having it on constantly and at 20 degrees, .................

That doesn't sound unduly unreasonable - when I'm in my place [just got back from there last week - temperature inside house was 2C when we got there!], I tend to aim for 20C - 21C in the daytime and 16C at night

After all - its a holiday and you want to feel comfortable.


Still - if its your own place - nothing beats an open log fire for relaxing in front of.


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[annec]

Originally Posted by strawberrystar

Hmmm.....so I guess in answer to my original question....no one knows of anywhere where you can buy small amounts of wood? I'm not really asking for further deliberation on whether I am doing the right thing, just where you can buy it!

You can't dictate what sort of answers you'll get strawberry - people are only trying to help. And in that spirit - I've bought nets of logs from Conad in Comunanza before now. Can't guarantee their quality and the availability is sporadic. I'd rather buy the tronchetti from Giannini's myself

[strawberrystar]

Thanks very much for the responses everyone. I guess it's interesting how everyone does things differently. I have used the tronchetti before, so will leave a couple of boxes out and let guests know about where to buy them if they need more.