burning stoves all the rage in austerity Greece
ATHENS (Reuters) Once a symbol canada goose of poverty, the lowly wood burning stove is making canada goose black friday sale a comeback among cash strapped Greeks horrified canada goose clearance sale by the soaring costs cheap Canada Goose of central heating as winter begins https://www.canadagoosejacketca.ca .
Even Canada Goose online the wealthiest Greeks are turning to the kind of basic heating methods that most people haven used in decades as an economic crisis deepens, taxes rise and temperatures drop.
Costas Mitsionis who sells wood burning stoves at the central Athens Monastiraki market, rubs his hands with glee as he talks about the doubled demand for his product. His tiny shop is bursting at the seams with stoves in all colors and shapes precariously piled on top of one another almost Canada Goose Outlet to the ceiling.
is up 100 percent, said Mitsionis, 42, constantly interrupted by phone calls from clients. is flocking to buy, poor and rich alike this crisis has put the fear of God into everyone.
In a desperate move to plug its fiscal holes and canada goose replica meet its budget targets under an canada goose outlet toronto factory EU/IMF bailout, the government has hiked energy taxes, driving heating oil costs up to 40 percent Canada Goose Online higher.
In addition, a flurry of taxes due this fall, including a property levy slapped on electricity bills and a one off income tax, means many cash strapped families are facing hundreds or even thousands of euros in extra bills in the first months of winter.
This Canada Goose sale is when Greeks, most of whom live in apartment buildings, must pay to fill the canada goose clearance diesel fired boilers for the building central heating. Many residents are declining to Canada Goose Coats On Sale pay their share of the heating oil bill, forcing canada goose coats building managers to cancel or slash orders to a minimum.
have switched off the central heating and use nothing but the stove instead, said Theodora Doukiri, 39, a cleaning lady in Athens. Her husband canada goose store was fired from his Canada Goose Jackets retail job a few months ago and the whole family depends on her wages of 1,000 euros a month to make ends meet.
no way I could afford heating oil. Now I spending just 60 euros a month on wood and the house is like an oven, she added.
With many following her example, building managers are often putting central heating on Canada Goose Parka for just 2 3 hours, usually in the evening, if at all. The rest of the day each family is left canada goose deals to fend for itself, buy canada goose jacket cheap using electric heaters, air conditioners or wood stoves to heat their immediate surroundings.
used to heat their houses but now they just trying to warm their feet, said Mary Lardi, who runs a fuel supply service to residential customers. been in business since 1974 and canada goose coats on sale things have never been so bad.
BURNING ISSUE It hard to avoid talk of this latest national obsession, with one web site luring Internet surfers by offering heating oil coupons as prizes and a recent TV canadian goose jacket talk show interviewing Greeks in their 20s on how they manage to live in apartments without any heating.
For a lot of people, wood seems the most attractive canada goose outlet store locations alternative option for providing cheap heat.
Stoves that can warm 50 square metres of buy canada goose jacket space are on sale for about 250 euros ($330). Some 1.5 tonnes of firewood, which can get an average household through three months of winter, costs about 260 euros, compared with about 1,000 euros for heating oil over the same period.
a good deal, even rich households in Athens posh seaside suburbs have increased orders, said Tasos Mitropoulos, who runs a firewood business near Athens.
The government also added its own fuel to the wood burning fire on Nov 8 when it lifted a ban on the household use of pellets, a type of wood fuel made from compacted sawdust.
Government officials in northern Greece say foresters are selling firewood at discount prices to help poor villagers in remote areas and imports from neighboring Bulgaria have soared.
But there is also a backlash on environment as increased wood consumption seems to be boosting illegal logging and pollution, officials and environmentalists said Canada Goose Outlet .
recently arrested five illegal logging squads in just one swoop, said Costas Voliotis, who lives near Pelion, central Greece, one of the country most richly forested mountains.
Three big cities in the country colder north, Larisa, Volos and Thessaloniki, have also reported higher pollution levels this week 2018 canada goose outlet and increased smog has been reported in some parts of Athens.
stopped hanging our laundry outside it getting dark from all the soot, said Vassilis Tozios, 36, an accountant who lives in the working class district of Kolonos.