“A very clean and well-equipped chalet, 3 TVs, Sound bar, DVD with lots of films, electric energy monitor, good fridge, very hot water, comfy beds, etc.”
but very little explanation of how things worked or what was expected - such as the need to empty the dehumidifier twice a day, or how the red wheelie bin worked – it was 80% full when we arrive so wondered if we had to put it out for the alternate Tuesday collection? – no body else did and so we left if full! The Wi-Fi was slow but it is very remote so expected.
Our big problem was no explanation of the heating – we arrived in torrential rain on a very cold day and the heavy rain continued for the next four days interspersed with hail showers. The chalet was not very cosy so we attempted to add a little extra heat. The living room and main bedroom had very new looking modern wall convector heaters with an LED display and a remote control. Using the remote I tried to increase the aimed temperature from 18c to 23c for a couple of hours, but discovered that in a few minutes the heater warmed up and then slowly went cold. Complaining to the owner I received a text saying that “The heaters do turn off about once an hour. This had to be done as we had a lot of incidents of the heaters being set at 30c and then going out for the day. The timer may be defaulting to 10 minutes”. I tried next day knowing this but could never get the heater to run for more than about 3 minutes and then slowly cool down; having reached full heat the element never switched on again. I researched the Internet to find the meaning of the LED display and discovered one is called “Room Temperature”, but this is a sensor within the heater and until the whole room temperature has reached equilibrium will never be the temperature across the room at the settee or table. I then received an email telling me his monitoring showed the room at 23c and I realised he was totally controlling the system using Wi-Fi and believing the devices “Room Temperature”. When I explained this to him and said the chalet needed a fan heater for quick heat and accept the convection heaters for background heating he stopped replying. The chalet never reached anywhere near 23c any time and it was clear to me that the owner’s objective was to minimise electricity costs no matter what, so we continued to wear our fleeces over our sweaters and accept the low temperatures. However, in the second half of our week the weather improved and the sun definitely warmed the chalet and the owner increased his settings to 21c but it was still only on limited times.
I may add that the 2nd bedroom had an old heater with simple controls and built-in switched fan heater that kept that room cosy set at about 25%. The settings on the modern heater in the main bedroom were lower than the living area and we noted that the lack of heat is already causing damp mould to appear on the ceiling.
So, in summary this is a lovely chalet which has been equipped with modern heaters that are not fit for purpose and needs a fan heater to cover inclement weather conditions. In any future holiday bookings, we will be packing a thermometer and small fan heater.
Thank you for your feedback. It was explained that during the daytime (not first thing in the morning or the evening), the heating system goes back to a level to keep the room warm but not too hot, and that this was done in response to radiators inadvertently being left on when unoccupied for the day and the bungalow getting up to 27-30C! At any time commented that the heater can be turned back on, the temperature adjusted, or it may be turned on with a timer function, and possibly that the guest had done that with short time-out. Except for checking that the radiators have not got to a dangerous level, the heating levels are not adjusted. They are only set down in the weeks that the bungalow is not occupied. Email replies did not stop, in fact a few further emails we exchanged about the new wi-fi connection and it was assumed that as no further commentswere made that the heating was now performing as required. The heaters are a couple of kW each in what are not huge rooms, and are modern systems. The feedback about a fan heater and will look into that- however that does bring it's own safety issues that must be taken into account! There is an air circulation and filtering system that removes damp air and will be checked as this may inadvertently been turned off, hence the issues with the dehumidifier. Property Owner