Skip to content

BYE-BYE, BOMBONAS!

Lined up by my front door, they are a stumbling block. A dull orange eyesore. These butane tanks, bombonas, have been part of my life in Spain forever. Now, I’m phasing them out. Replacing, first, the butane-gas hot water heater that took up space in my kitchen with a solar hot water installation. 

I used to haul these gas bottles in my car from the village and hump them down the steps to the house. Now they are delivered to my door. But, as I get older, I really don't need to be moving these tanks around anymore. So, I'm making changes - first, solar hot water heater, next, perhaps an electric stove. (I have no idea when the butane became propane, as is printed right on the bottles.)

Next to the stove, a butane hot water heater that was installed when I built the house 44 years ago. It's a "demand" heater, that heats the water as it moves through the tube (no deposit tank). It's worked just fine all these years - but I am tired of hauling those heavy tanks. The orange gas tank - just visible next to the stove - fuels both the stove and water heater.
Kitchen is topsy-turvy as crew begins installation of cables and tubes for solar hot water system. I won't be cooking dinner tonight.

Up on the roof - it takes four guys to place the water deposit cylinder. The solar panels, facing south, will be mounted in front of it.  Broken roof tiles get replaced the next day by a separate crew. Note: overcast skies - will there be enough sun to heat my water? (Yes, plus a back-up electric boosts the temperature.)

Selfie! My reflection in one of the solar panels being carried up to the roof.

The two-day installation has left my kitchen pretty topsy-turvy, as a work crew knocked out the old heater, installed cables and water tubes through the wall and across the roof to connect to the solar panels and storage tank.

With the gas bottle temporarily out of the kitchen, I couldn’t use the stove. I made pisto—a vegetable mélange much like ratatouille—in the microwave to go with the chicken. We cleared a place at the table among the stacks of ceramic plates that were removed from the kitchen shelf. Oh yes, there was plenty of hot water to wash up after dinner!

No cooking tonight. Dinner take-out - rotisserie roast chicken and a heap of fries.

Eat those fries while they're hot.

Dinner's served. Exceptional roast chicken by la gallega (Galician woman). Liberally salted before being threaded on the rotisserie, the chicken is stuffed with fresh bay leaves, sprigs of thyme, whole cloves of garlic and a quartered lemon. Why do these taste better than roast chicken cooked at home?


Next on the agenda - trenches under the olive trees to lay new cable so that I can contract for more kilowatts from the utility company and, maybe, put in an electric stove.