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Have you ever considered the possibility that one day all our roads, motorways, and car parks could all be made of solar panels? Well if this company gets their way, that idea might not be as ridiculous as it sounds. I’m talking about a US company called Solar Roadways. In 2009, they won a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build a prototype of the first ever solar road panel.
They’ve progressed and learned a lot since then. Their idea is to start small with driveways, paths and car parks. Once they’ve perfected it on a small scale, then they can start rolling it out on a large scale, replacing roads and highways everywhere. They believe it would end our dependency on fossil fuels all together.
Aside from storing energy for our homes and offices etc, we could also charge up and run electric vehicles on such roads. Imagine supermarket and fast food chain car parks made of solar panels. You could park your electric vehicle in the car park and charge it up while you’re doing your stuff. They even envisage a time when your car could be charged by the road as you drive along!
They’ve just entered the GE Ecomagination $200m challenge. Might be worth voting for them. See what you think![:es]We keep a close eye on great innovations and visionary organisations / individuals in the energy world, and just recently stumbled across a company with an amazing vision in solar energy.
Have you ever considered the possibility that one day all our roads, motorways, and car parks could all be made of solar panels? Well if this company gets their way, that idea might not be as ridiculous as it sounds. I’m talking about a US company called Solar Roadways. In 2009, they won a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build a prototype of the first ever solar road panel.
They’ve progressed and learned a lot since then. Their idea is to start small with driveways, paths and car parks. Once they’ve perfected it on a small scale, then they can start rolling it out on a large scale, replacing roads and highways everywhere. They believe it would end our dependency on fossil fuels all together.
Aside from storing energy for our homes and offices etc, we could also charge up and run electric vehicles on such roads. Imagine supermarket and fast food chain car parks made of solar panels. You could park your electric vehicle in the car park and charge it up while you’re doing your stuff. They even envisage a time when your car could be charged by the road as you drive along!
They’ve just entered the GE Ecomagination $200m challenge. Might be worth voting for them. See what you think![:no]We keep a close eye on great innovations and visionary organisations / individuals in the energy world, and just recently stumbled across a company with an amazing vision in solar energy.
Have you ever considered the possibility that one day all our roads, motorways, and car parks could all be made of solar panels? Well if this company gets their way, that idea might not be as ridiculous as it sounds. I’m talking about a US company called Solar Roadways. In 2009, they won a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build a prototype of the first ever solar road panel.
They’ve progressed and learned a lot since then. Their idea is to start small with driveways, paths and car parks. Once they’ve perfected it on a small scale, then they can start rolling it out on a large scale, replacing roads and highways everywhere. They believe it would end our dependency on fossil fuels all together.
Aside from storing energy for our homes and offices etc, we could also charge up and run electric vehicles on such roads. Imagine supermarket and fast food chain car parks made of solar panels. You could park your electric vehicle in the car park and charge it up while you’re doing your stuff. They even envisage a time when your car could be charged by the road as you drive along!
They’ve just entered the GE Ecomagination $200m challenge. Might be worth voting for them. See what you think!
[:]
I think everyone agrees that watching Spain winning the world cup was just fantastic. However, it’s good to see that Spain are world beaters in something other than football (and tennis, cycling, grand prix!)…..any guesses?
Spain has just overtaken the US as the biggest generator of solar power in the world with the opening of the world’s largest solar plant in Badajoz. The plant, named La Florida, is about the size of 77 football pitches and generates about 50 megawatts of power.
Not only is Spain doing great things on its own soil but Obama has also just approved a financing deal for a far bigger solar plant to be built in Arizona that will be built and operated by the Spanish company, Abengoa Solar Inc.
Spain is continuing to invest heavily in renewable energy which is great news because it still has to import the vast majority of its energy to fulfil its requirements, which we of course have to pay for. Keep up the good work Spain!
As we evolve here at Oasis from being a company that specialises in heating/cooling solutions to a total energy solutions company, we are obviously focusing more and more on how to save our clients money in the long run. We’re not a consultancy, we still install air conditioning, all types of heating, and electricity but underpinning everything we do is the aim to save our clients running costs through energy efficient solutions. As such, we are now also helping clients with ‘illumination’.
The standard ‘green’ bulbs otherwise known as CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) are not ‘green’ at all. They contain mercury (highly toxic substance) and should be disposed of accordingly, but unfortunately they just end up in rubbish dumps in the ground. It’s horrendous.
There are far better types of bulbs on the market now, namely LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulbs. LED has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, and can fulfil any need you have, from outside garden lights to cosy indoor lights with dimmer switches. They are significantly more expensive than both standard tungsten bulbs and CFL bulbs, but the benefit in terms of return on investment far outweighs any issue regarding initial cost. One study by Panasonic showed that their home 60W LED bulb would last about 19 years, based on daily average use of 5.5 hours a day.
An article in today’s Telegraph highlights the development and benefits of LED bulbs: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/greenproperty/7873021/Green-property-energy-efficient-bulbs.html
We advise, supply and install LED bulbs (installation help only required for large scale illumination requirements).
With that in mind, we have decided to do a short survey to firstly gain a better understanding of the levels of awareness regarding energy, the reasons for energy price increases and the options available to protect oneself. Secondly, we’re keen to understand more about the actions taken – or not, as the case may be – by those who are aware of the challenges ahead combined with the options available.
Increasingly, we find ourselves helping clients come up with solutions to complex challenges. Whether it’s providing the most cost effective solution for powering an entire property or whether it’s providing the most energy efficient and cost effective means for their heating/cooling requirements, our clients’ concerns indicate that escalating energy prices are becoming more of an issue.
However, to what extent energy has really become as issue on people’s minds is not clear to us yet. Therefore, we would greatly appreciate two minutes of your time to complete this very short survey. We don’t require any contact details unless you are interested in receiving the results in our newsletter, which you can sign up for in the right hand column of this site.
Please click here to go to our survey:
[:es]With energy efficiency at the heart of everything we do at Oasis, we are very curious to get a better understanding of the general attitudes of homeowners here in Andalucia towards energy in general.With that in mind, we have decided to do a short survey to firstly gain a better understanding of the levels of awareness regarding energy, the reasons for energy price increases and the options available to protect oneself. Secondly, we’re keen to understand more about the actions taken – or not, as the case may be – by those who are aware of the challenges ahead combined with the options available.
Increasingly, we find ourselves helping clients come up with solutions to complex challenges. Whether it’s providing the most cost effective solution for powering an entire property or whether it’s providing the most energy efficient and cost effective means for their heating/cooling requirements, our clients’ concerns indicate that escalating energy prices are becoming more of an issue.
However, to what extent energy has really become as issue on people’s minds is not clear to us yet. Therefore, we would greatly appreciate two minutes of your time to complete this very short survey. We don’t require any contact details unless you are interested in receiving the results in our newsletter, which you can sign up for in the right hand column of this site.
Please click here to go to our survey:
http://www.oasissolutions.es/more/surveys/
[:no]With energy efficiency at the heart of everything we do at Oasis, we are very curious to get a better understanding of the general attitudes of homeowners here in Andalucia towards energy in general.With that in mind, we have decided to do a short survey to firstly gain a better understanding of the levels of awareness regarding energy, the reasons for energy price increases and the options available to protect oneself. Secondly, we’re keen to understand more about the actions taken – or not, as the case may be – by those who are aware of the challenges ahead combined with the options available.
Increasingly, we find ourselves helping clients come up with solutions to complex challenges. Whether it’s providing the most cost effective solution for powering an entire property or whether it’s providing the most energy efficient and cost effective means for their heating/cooling requirements, our clients’ concerns indicate that escalating energy prices are becoming more of an issue.
However, to what extent energy has really become as issue on people’s minds is not clear to us yet. Therefore, we would greatly appreciate two minutes of your time to complete this very short survey. We don’t require any contact details unless you are interested in receiving the results in our newsletter, which you can sign up for in the right hand column of this site.
Please click here to go to our survey:
http://www.oasissolutions.es/more/surveys/
[:]The on-going disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has now become a catastrophe on a scale that we cannot fully comprehend. Not only is there no end in sight but the repercussions of this tragedy will be felt for many years to come in so many different ways.
With eleven people tragically killed at the time of the explosion, we now also know that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of livelihoods in Louisiana – and probably Florida – will be severely affected through the onslaught of thick crude oil that will permeate every aspect of life along that coastline. Obviously the fishing industries are already in total disarray but the full effects from this ecological nightmare are unimaginable.
Of course, there are hundreds of questions being asked about why and how this could have happened, and to date, there have been very few explanations. However, the one thing we do know is that they were in unchartered territory. At 35000 ft deep, they were drilling deeper than ever before, and we now know that they were totally unprepared for anything going wrong at this level. Without getting into the ‘blame game’, the one very simple deduction we can make from this disaster is that we – as a world – are desperate for oil. To be taking such huge risks at such high costs is a clear indication that our accessibility to oil is fast running out.
Many people believe this to be a good thing in the long run but the fact is that right now we have an energy crisis. All over the world, despite the big concerns from an environmental perspective, nuclear reactors are being built again at HUGE expense in order to try and plug the energy gap.
What does this mean? It means energy prices are going to escalate dramatically. What’s more, Spain is especially vulnerable in this regard because it generates so little of its own energy, and depends on importing it from elsewhere. The BP disaster is a wake up call to the world.
We need to all try and be as energy efficient as possible and use renewable energy whenever we can….to save our bank accounts from disaster and our planet from further catastrophes.
Over the years, we have worked with many different PM (property management) companies on Costa del Sol and Marbella, some of them clearly better than others. For the sake of this feature, we decided to focus on two companies that have stood out for different reasons, ‘Soto Comfort Care’ based in Sotogrande, whose clients tend to be home owners not involved in the rental market, and ‘HomeCareontheWeb’ based in Elviria, who run a fully comprehensive PM service for the Costa del Sol, including an increasing focus on the rental market.
The main reason we have worked with PM companies is because a key part of the service they offer is to attend to any problems the property might have, and organise repairs/replacements accordingly. So more often than not, we have been contacted to repair all types of heating & cooling systems (air conditioning, solar heating, pool heating etc)but also electrical and plumbing problems. Having said that, we also have maintenance contracts via PM companies, whereby we routinely service all the mechanics in the property to prevent problems occuring.
In many ways, it is that proactive and preventative focus that is a defining feature of the best PM firms around. They can save the homeowner not just big headaches but a lot of money by being proactive and maintaining properties thoroughly so as to prevent expensive problems occuring. That is certainly a very important aspect of what Soto Comfort Care is all about. As the President of the company , Anne van Uffelen, says, “It is essential that a property manager takes a proactive approach to maintenance and supervision of the any property. That is why our people are continuously surveying the member’s property…. for each client there is a system of pro-active maintenance to ensure that not only critical systems , but any system , operates satisfactorily at any time of the year , the owner present or not”.
Being ‘proactive’ is a trait that not all PM companies have, and that’s why we were especially impressed with another PM company – HomeCareontheWeb – who run a slightly different type of service, with the ‘rental’ market being a bigger factor for their business. Tony Sidebottom, founder of HomeCareontheWeb said that they have to be proactive in order to provide a specialist management service to meet owners’ needs for long-term and holiday lettings, including finding rental clients and managing the whole rental process from start to finish . What’s more he goes on to say that they “contact their owners via regular email newsletter to notify them of new products, offers and company news. For example, in January the company told their owners about a new product to control the use of air conditioning units, and set-top boxes for their televisions to prepare for the digital switch-over.” As he aptly summarises “Being proactive is the best way to help owners control costs and prevent problems”.
It has become very clear to us over the years, that absent property owners that don’t have a PM company in place usually end up far worse off for it. Obviously, giving responsibility for your property to someone else requires a huge amount of trust. That is why at Soto Comfort Care, “Every member of the company has its own dedicated comfort manager , a one to one relationship with the owner . The comfort manager is the unique point of call and as the title says , they care for the owners property and they look after it as if it were their own.”
When the founders of HomeCareontheWeb bought their holiday house 23 years ago, they couldn’t find anyone they trusted to care for their property, which of course was the inspiration behind setting up the business. As Tony explains “Not knowing where to turn, we explored the options – from larger property management companies to local ‘one-man bands’ – but the experience convinced us that there’s a big difference between ‘managing’ a property, and really ‘caring’ for it.”
Although we’ve covered some of the most fundamental aspects of the PM service, the innovative and professional firms do far more than most people would realise. Yet again, both of these companies stand out in that regard. At Soto Comfort Care, Anne explains that their service goes way beyond what you might expect from a PM company including “administrative tasks such as paying bills , managing insurance portfolios , supervising and managing live-in personnel or simply subcontractors , dealing with the authorities on various administrative and fiscal matters . We offer a full range of services and the member , our client picks and chooses . Our pricing is fully tailored to the client’s needs and wishes . Never are there any surprises .”
At HomeCareontheWeb, the client can be fully involved and up to date via their own interactive website: “What really sets the company apart from its competitors is our advanced interactive website, which includes everything owners need to manage their properties from afar. Each owner has a secure online account management area where they can schedule cleaning before they or their guests arrive, check on the status of maintenance actions, book time to spend in their properties, view and pay invoices and much more, at just a click of a button.”
So our advice to any absent property owner without a PM company is to hire one. Whilst it may seem like a cost now, it will probably save you money in the long run. Many of the repairs that we carry out for clients could easily have been avoided if they had invested in maintenance and care beforehand.
We should point out that whilst we featured two companies to highlight the benefits of good property management, there are of course many other great companies and we couldn’t interview them all.
[:es]With the aim of keeping our readers interested, we made the decision that not all our news features should be about Oasis. From time to time, we shall be exploring other fields of interest, specifically areas of commerce that complement our own. With that in mind, we decided to do a feature on the world of property management, a service business that is often under valued.Over the years, we have worked with many different PM (property management) companies on Costa del Sol and Marbella, some of them clearly better than others. For the sake of this feature, we decided to focus on two companies that have stood out for different reasons, ‘Soto Comfort Care’ based in Sotogrande, whose clients tend to be home owners not involved in the rental market, and ‘HomeCareontheWeb’ based in Elviria, who run a fully comprehensive PM service for the Costa del Sol, including an increasing focus on the rental market.
The main reason we have worked with PM companies is because a key part of the service they offer is to attend to any problems the property might have, and organise repairs/replacements accordingly. So more often than not, we have been contacted to repair all types of heating & cooling systems (air conditioning, solar heating, pool heating etc)but also electrical and plumbing problems. Having said that, we also have maintenance contracts via PM companies, whereby we routinely service all the mechanics in the property to prevent problems occuring.
In many ways, it is that proactive and preventative focus that is a defining feature of the best PM firms around. They can save the homeowner not just big headaches but a lot of money by being proactive and maintaining properties thoroughly so as to prevent expensive problems occuring. That is certainly a very important aspect of what Soto Comfort Care is all about. As the President of the company , Anne van Uffelen, says, “It is essential that a property manager takes a proactive approach to maintenance and supervision of the any property. That is why our people are continuously surveying the member’s property…. for each client there is a system of pro-active maintenance to ensure that not only critical systems , but any system , operates satisfactorily at any time of the year , the owner present or not”.
Being ‘proactive’ is a trait that not all PM companies have, and that’s why we were especially impressed with another PM company – HomeCareontheWeb – who run a slightly different type of service, with the ‘rental’ market being a bigger factor for their business. Tony Sidebottom, founder of HomeCareontheWeb said that they have to be proactive in order to provide a specialist management service to meet owners’ needs for long-term and holiday lettings, including finding rental clients and managing the whole rental process from start to finish . What’s more he goes on to say that they “contact their owners via regular email newsletter to notify them of new products, offers and company news. For example, in January the company told their owners about a new product to control the use of air conditioning units, and set-top boxes for their televisions to prepare for the digital switch-over.” As he aptly summarises “Being proactive is the best way to help owners control costs and prevent problems”.
It has become very clear to us over the years, that absent property owners that don’t have a PM company in place usually end up far worse off for it. Obviously, giving responsibility for your property to someone else requires a huge amount of trust. That is why at Soto Comfort Care, “Every member of the company has its own dedicated comfort manager , a one to one relationship with the owner . The comfort manager is the unique point of call and as the title says , they care for the owners property and they look after it as if it were their own.”
When the founders of HomeCareontheWeb bought their holiday house 23 years ago, they couldn’t find anyone they trusted to care for their property, which of course was the inspiration behind setting up the business. As Tony explains “Not knowing where to turn, we explored the options – from larger property management companies to local ‘one-man bands’ – but the experience convinced us that there’s a big difference between ‘managing’ a property, and really ‘caring’ for it.”
Although we’ve covered some of the most fundamental aspects of the PM service, the innovative and professional firms do far more than most people would realise. Yet again, both of these companies stand out in that regard. At Soto Comfort Care, Anne explains that their service goes way beyond what you might expect from a PM company including “administrative tasks such as paying bills , managing insurance portfolios , supervising and managing live-in personnel or simply subcontractors , dealing with the authorities on various administrative and fiscal matters . We offer a full range of services and the member , our client picks and chooses . Our pricing is fully tailored to the client’s needs and wishes . Never are there any surprises .”
At HomeCareontheWeb, the client can be fully involved and up to date via their own interactive website: “What really sets the company apart from its competitors is our advanced interactive website, which includes everything owners need to manage their properties from afar. Each owner has a secure online account management area where they can schedule cleaning before they or their guests arrive, check on the status of maintenance actions, book time to spend in their properties, view and pay invoices and much more, at just a click of a button.”
So our advice to any absent property owner without a PM company is to hire one. Whilst it may seem like a cost now, it will probably save you money in the long run. Many of the repairs that we carry out for clients could easily have been avoided if they had invested in maintenance and care beforehand.
We should point out that whilst we featured two companies to highlight the benefits of good property management, there are of course many other great companies and we couldn’t interview them all.
[:no]With the aim of keeping our readers interested, we made the decision that not all our news features should be about Oasis. From time to time, we shall be exploring other fields of interest, specifically areas of commerce that complement our own. With that in mind, we decided to do a feature on the world of property management, a service business that is often under valued.Over the years, we have worked with many different PM (property management) companies, some of them clearly better than others. For the sake of this feature, we decided to focus on two companies that have stood out for different reasons, ‘Soto Comfort Care’ based in Sotogrande, whose clients tend to be home owners not involved in the rental market, and ‘HomeCareontheWeb’ based in Elviria, who run a fully comprehensive PM service for the Costa del Sol, including an increasing focus on the rental market.
The main reason we have worked with PM companies is because a key part of the service they offer is to attend to any problems the property might have, and organise repairs/replacements accordingly. So more often than not, we have been contacted to repair all types of heating & cooling systems (air conditioning, solar heating, pool heating etc)but also electrical and plumbing problems. Having said that, we also have maintenance contracts via PM companies, whereby we routinely service all the mechanics in the property to prevent problems occuring.
In many ways, it is that proactive and preventative focus that is a defining feature of the best PM firms around. They can save the homeowner not just big headaches but a lot of money by being proactive and maintaining properties thoroughly so as to prevent expensive problems occuring. That is certainly a very important aspect of what Soto Comfort Care is all about. As the President of the company , Anne van Uffelen, says, “It is essential that a property manager takes a proactive approach to maintenance and supervision of the any property. That is why our people are continuously surveying the member’s property…. for each client there is a system of pro-active maintenance to ensure that not only critical systems , but any system , operates satisfactorily at any time of the year , the owner present or not”.
Being ‘proactive’ is a trait that not all PM companies have, and that’s why we were especially impressed with another PM company – HomeCareontheWeb – who run a slightly different type of service, with the ‘rental’ market being a bigger factor for their business. Tony Sidebottom, founder of HomeCareontheWeb said that they have to be proactive in order to provide a specialist management service to meet owners’ needs for long-term and holiday lettings, including finding rental clients and managing the whole rental process from start to finish . What’s more he goes on to say that they “contact their owners via regular email newsletter to notify them of new products, offers and company news. For example, in January the company told their owners about a new product to control the use of air conditioning units, and set-top boxes for their televisions to prepare for the digital switch-over.” As he aptly summarises “Being proactive is the best way to help owners control costs and prevent problems”.
It has become very clear to us over the years, that absent property owners that don’t have a PM company in place usually end up far worse off for it. Obviously, giving responsibility for your property to someone else requires a huge amount of trust. That is why at Soto Comfort Care, “Every member of the company has its own dedicated comfort manager , a one to one relationship with the owner . The comfort manager is the unique point of call and as the title says , they care for the owners property and they look after it as if it were their own.”
When the founders of HomeCareontheWeb bought their holiday house 23 years ago, they couldn’t find anyone they trusted to care for their property, which of course was the inspiration behind setting up the business. As Tony explains “Not knowing where to turn, we explored the options – from larger property management companies to local ‘one-man bands’ – but the experience convinced us that there’s a big difference between ‘managing’ a property, and really ‘caring’ for it.”
Although we’ve covered some of the most fundamental aspects of the PM service, the innovative and professional firms do far more than most people would realise. Yet again, both of these companies stand out in that regard. At Soto Comfort Care, Anne explains that their service goes way beyond what you might expect from a PM company including “administrative tasks such as paying bills , managing insurance portfolios , supervising and managing live-in personnel or simply subcontractors , dealing with the authorities on various administrative and fiscal matters . We offer a full range of services and the member , our client picks and chooses . Our pricing is fully tailored to the client’s needs and wishes . Never are there any surprises .”
At HomeCareontheWeb, the client can be fully involved and up to date via their own interactive website: “What really sets the company apart from its competitors is our advanced interactive website, which includes everything owners need to manage their properties from afar. Each owner has a secure online account management area where they can schedule cleaning before they or their guests arrive, check on the status of maintenance actions, book time to spend in their properties, view and pay invoices and much more, at just a click of a button.”
So our advice to any absent property owner without a PM company is to hire one. Whilst it may seem like a cost now, it will probably save you money in the long run. Many of the repairs that we carry out for clients could easily have been avoided if they had invested in maintenance and care beforehand.
We should point out that whilst we featured two companies to highlight the benefits of good property management, there are of course many other great companies and we couldn’t interview them all.[:]
There’s a lot of money to be saved once you know about it, and we are one of only a few companies that can help you.
One thing you will all know from the increases in utility bills recently is that our energy requirements are becoming ever more expensive.and will continue to do so at an alarming rate over the coming months/years.
The good news is that there are ways for many of you to protect yourselves, and it’s all to do with renewable energy and energy efficiency. The government of Andalucia is providing huge grants with regards to these issues, both in terms of solar installations and replacing household appliances (including air conditioning units) for more energy efficient ones.
Solar technology has the potential to generate huge savings for domestic and commercial purposes. There are two types of solar installation, ‘thermal’ for generating hot water/heating and ‘photovoltaic’ for generating electricity. For most of us, it is the thermal solar installations that can be most cost effective and beneficial.
One of the main objections in the past has been the cost of getting solar installed in the first place and the length of time it takes to recuperate that cost. However, with huge grants available from La Agencia Andaluza de la Energia, that perception isn’t correct. Typically, we can acquire grants of 40-50% for thermal installations, but in some cases small businesses can get grants for up to 80% of the cost. What’s more, you don’t have to worry about the grant, because we pass on the discount directly to you. It is our job to apply for the grant to make up that discount.
To acquire these subsidies, the installation company needs to have all the correct paperwork and the necessary accreditation from the government of Andalucia, and Oasis Solutions is fully authorised in this regard.
The other major opportunity for many of us to save money both in the short term and the long term is through a scheme called PLAN RENOVE. This is another government initiative aimed at promoting energy efficiency, and it effectively means that you can get 25% discounts (up to a value of 300€) to replace household appliances including air conditioning units for more energy efficient ones. So, not only will you save a lot of money on the purchase, but you will also save money on-going because your appliances will be more efficient.
So, instead of dreading the next set of bills to come in, why don’t you at least give yourself some peace of mind that you are taking the first steps to lower bills in the future? Subsidised solar energy and more efficient air conditioning is too good an offer not to take up!
They say there is a silver lining to every cloud. It’s certainly true that one of the good things about an economic crisis if you are an employer lucky enough to be in a position to recruit, is that it provides an excellent window of opportunity to recruit great talent. There are more personnel on the job market to choose from and whilst most of the exceptional people remain in their jobs or find new jobs easily, every now and then, you can be lucky enough to find a real gem.
So it is, that we welcome Juan Ignacio Hidalgo, who is a heating & cooling engineer of the highest calibre. Juan has twenty years experience including fifteen years as the chief engineer at the company, Aguatécnica, which has always had a great reputation for the quality of its work. Aguatécnica was the installation/maintenance company of choice for Daikin, undoubtedly the best air conditioning brand around. That is to say that Daikin specifically chose and endorsed Aguatécnica to be their engineers for the Malaga province, and they were tasked with some of the biggest and most complex engineering jobs around.
Juan is not only fully qualified and very experienced, but he also brings many other fantastic qualities, including a genuine work ethic, and a keen sense of responsibility and leadership. Ultimately, Oasis will be judged on the quality of its work, which is why we are very excited to have brought in such a great new addition to the Oasis team. We now have 4 full time engineers and all being well, we will continue to grow.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][:es][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]They say there is a silver lining to every cloud. It’s certainly true that one of the good things about an economic crisis if you are an employer lucky enough to be in a position to recruit, is that it provides an excellent window of opportunity to recruit great talent. There are more personnel on the job market to choose from and whilst most of the exceptional people remain in their jobs or find new jobs easily, every now and then, you can be lucky enough to find a real gem.
So it is, that we welcome Juan Ignacio Hidalgo, who is a heating & cooling engineer of the highest calibre. Juan has twenty years experience including fifteen years as the chief engineer at the company, Aguatécnica, which has always had a great reputation for the quality of its work. Aguatécnica was the installation/maintenance company of choice for Daikin, undoubtedly the best air conditioning brand around. That is to say that Daikin specifically chose and endorsed Aguatécnica to be their engineers for the Malaga province, and they were tasked with some of the biggest and most complex engineering jobs around.
Juan is not only fully qualified and very experienced, but he also brings many other fantastic qualities, including a genuine work ethic, and a keen sense of responsibility and leadership. Ultimately, Oasis will be judged on the quality of its work, which is why we are very excited to have brought in such a great new addition to the Oasis team. We now have 4 full time engineers and all being well, we will continue to grow.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][:no]They say there is a silver lining to every cloud. It’s certainly true that one of the good things about an economic crisis if you are an employer lucky enough to be in a position to recruit, is that it provides an excellent window of opportunity to recruit great talent. There are more personnel on the job market to choose from and whilst most of the exceptional people remain in their jobs or find new jobs easily, every now and then, you can be lucky enough to find a real gem.So it is, that we welcome Juan Ignacio Hidalgo, who is a heating & cooling engineer of the highest calibre. Juan has twenty years experience including fifteen years as the chief engineer at the company, Aguatécnica, which has always had a great reputation for the quality of its work. Aguatécnica was the installation/maintenance company of choice for Daikin, undoubtedly the best air conditioning brand around. That is to say that Daikin specifically chose and endorsed Aguatécnica to be their engineers for the Malaga province, and they were tasked with some of the biggest and most complex engineering jobs around.
Juan is not only fully qualified and very experienced, but he also brings many other fantastic qualities, including a genuine work ethic, and a keen sense of responsibility and leadership. Ultimately, Oasis will be judged on the quality of its work, which is why we are very excited to have brought in such a great new addition to the Oasis team. We now have 4 full time engineers and all being well, we will continue to grow.[:]
We install all types of heating systems for pools but a recurring question that’s been raised recently is whether they can get their pools heated from solar panels. The answer is that you can use solar as part of a heating system but unless you invest a lot of money in a lot of big panels, you cannot rely on solar only to heat your pool, especially in winter.
However, what solar heating can do (on its own) is extend your swimming season so you can start swimming earlier in the year and finish later in the year. What’s more, if you have a heat pump as well, then you could have a heated pool all year round and solar panels will help to substantially reduce your bills.
We also get asked a lot about the grants available for solar, and whilst we are one of only a few companies that can get the huge subsidies available from the government for solar heating, unfortunately it only applies to your homes, not your pools.
Of course there is no point in getting pool heating unless you get a pool cover as well (assuming it’s an outdoor pool) to help retain the heat, and there are many different types of pool cover but that’s a subject for another time.
After this awful winter, it’s just great that people are thinking about getting in their pools again….even if they do need their pools to be heated first![:es]In our line of business, our incoming enquiries are often very seasonal. Obviously, going back a few weeks ago, they all seemed to be indoor heating related. Either people needed their heating systems fixed or they were looking to get heating installed – as quickly as possible! How quickly things can change. Suddenly, with a bit of sunshine, it’s pool heating and covers that seem to be on people’s minds.
We install all types of heating systems for pools on Costa del Sol and Marbella, but a recurring question that’s been raised recently is whether they can get their pools heated from solar panels. The answer is that you can use solar as part of a heating system but unless you invest a lot of money in a lot of big panels, you cannot rely on solar only to heat your pool, especially in winter.
However, what solar pool heating can do (on its own) is extend your swimming season so you can start swimming earlier in the year and finish later in the year. What’s more, if you have a heat pump as well, then you could have a heated pool all year round and solar panels will help to substantially reduce your bills.
We also get asked a lot about the grants available for solar, and whilst we are one of only a few companies that can get the huge subsidies available from the government for solar heating, unfortunately it only applies to your homes, not your pools.
Of course there is no point in getting pool heating unless you get a pool cover as well (assuming it’s an outdoor pool) to help retain the heat, and there are many different types of pool cover but that’s a subject for another time.
After this awful winter, it’s just great that people are thinking about getting in their pools again….even if they do need their pools to be heated first![:no]In our line of business, our incoming enquiries are often very seasonal. Obviously, going back a few weeks ago, they all seemed to be indoor heating related. Either people needed their heating systems fixed or they were looking to get heating installed – as quickly as possible! How quickly things can change. Suddenly, with a bit of sunshine, it’s pool heating and covers that seem to be on people’s minds.
We install all types of heating systems for pools but a recurring question that’s been raised recently is whether they can get their pools heated from solar panels. The answer is that you can use solar as part of a heating system but unless you invest a lot of money in a lot of big panels, you cannot rely on solar only to heat your pool, especially in winter.
However, what solar heating can do (on its own) is extend your swimming season so you can start swimming earlier in the year and finish later in the year. What’s more, if you have a heat pump as well, then you could have a heated pool all year round and solar panels will help to substantially reduce your bills.
We also get asked a lot about the grants available for solar, and whilst we are one of only a few companies that can get the huge subsidies available from the government for solar heating, unfortunately it only applies to your homes, not your pools.
Of course there is no point in getting pool heating unless you get a pool cover as well (assuming it’s an outdoor pool) to help retain the heat, and there are many different types of pool cover but that’s a subject for another time.
After this awful winter, it’s just great that people are thinking about getting in their pools again….even if they do need their pools to be heated first![:]
The economic crisis has been tough for everyone. We all know the boom time is over for the time being. Making money for old rope isn’t easy any more, but the irony is that this is actually something to celebrate. When money is that easy to come by, it brings in hoards of second rate (or third rate) tradesmen – otherwise known as “cowboys” – who undercut the real professionals that are trying to carve out a living through integrity and quality. Making money by providing a bad service is never a good thing.
What I was reminded of today when I met my builder friend, is that this crisis is filtering out all the rubbish, and we are left with the good people who have built their enterprises on integrity and professionalism.
We deal with a very broad range of clients throughout southern Andalucia, some of them foreign, but many of them Spanish. However, I have actually met a number of potential English clients recently who told me that they wouldn’t normally hire English firms who work in our sector – heating, cooling, electrics, plumbing – because they had had such bad experiences with them in the past. Luckily, they were able to see that we weren’t cut from the same cloth, and we’re now happily working together. But the point is that the “cowboys” were not only taking business off us, but were also destroying the reputation of our sector all together.
The builder I met today was Albanian but I’ve met some good professional English ones recently too![:es]Después de haber salido de una reunión con un constructor con el que nunca habíamos trabajado antes, me sentí inspirado a escribir algo, no solo por esa reunión, sino porque ha sido algo en mi mente por un tiempo.
La crisis económica ha sido dura para todos. Todos sabemos que el tiempo de auge ha terminado por el momento. Ganar dinero por la soga vieja ya no es fácil, pero la ironía es que esto es realmente algo para celebrar. Cuando el dinero es tan fácil de conseguir, atrae hordas de comerciantes de segunda categoría (o de tercera clase), también conocidos como “vaqueros”, que socavan a los verdaderos profesionales que intentan ganarse la vida a través de la integridad y la calidad. Ganar dinero proporcionando un mal servicio nunca es algo bueno.
Lo que me recordó hoy cuando conocí a mi amigo constructor, es que esta crisis está filtrando toda la basura, y nos quedamos con las buenas personas que han construido sus empresas en integridad y profesionalismo.
Nos ocupamos de una amplia gama de clientes en todo el sur de Andalucía, algunos de ellos extranjeros, pero muchos de ellos españoles. Sin embargo, recientemente conocí a un número de posibles clientes ingleses que me dijeron que normalmente no contratarían empresas inglesas que trabajen en nuestro sector (calefacción, refrigeración, electricidad, plomería) porque habían tenido experiencias tan malas con ellos en el pasado. Afortunadamente, pudieron ver que no estábamos cortados del mismo paño, y ahora estamos felices trabajando juntos. Pero el caso es que los “cowboys” no solo nos estaban quitando los negocios, sino que también destruían la reputación de nuestro sector.
¡El constructor que conocí hoy era albanés, pero también conocí a algunos buenos profesionales ingleses recientemente![:no]Har nettopp kommet ut av et møte med en byggherre vi aldri har jobbet med før, jeg følte meg inspirert til å skrive noe, ikke bare på grunn av det møtet, men fordi det har vært noe i tankene mine for en stund.
Den økonomiske krisen har vært tøff for alle. Vi vet alle at boomtiden er over for tiden. Å tjene penger på gamle tau er ikke lett lenger, men ironien er at dette faktisk er noe å feire. Når det er lett å komme med penger, bringer det inn i hoards of second rate (eller tredje rate) håndverkere – ellers kjent som “cowboys” – som undergraver de virkelige fagfolkene som prøver å skaffe seg en levetid gjennom integritet og kvalitet. Å tjene penger ved å gi en dårlig tjeneste er aldri en god ting.
Det jeg ble minnet om i dag da jeg møtte min buildervenn, er at denne krisen filtrerer ut alt søppel, og vi er igjen med de gode menneskene som har bygget sine bedrifter på integritet og profesjonalitet.
Vi håndterer et svært bredt spekter av kunder over hele Sør-Andalucia, noen av dem utenlandske, men mange av dem spansk. Imidlertid har jeg faktisk møtt en rekke potensielle engelske kunder nylig som fortalte meg at de normalt ikke ville ansette engelsk firmaer som jobber i vår sektor – oppvarming, kjøling, elektrisitet, rørleggerarbeid – fordi de hadde hatt så dårlige erfaringer med dem i forbi. Heldigvis kunne de se at vi ikke ble kuttet av samme klut, og vi jobber nå lykkelig sammen. Men poenget er at “cowboysene” ikke bare tok forretninger av oss, men ødela også omdømmet til sektoren vår sammen.
Byggeren jeg møtte i dag var albansk, men jeg har nylig møtt noen gode profesjonelle engelske også![:]