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Redmik - scubaboy wasn't talking about importing an electric  blanket from John Lewis. A humidifier falls under 'small and large
electrical, which JL does not deliver internationally

Alf007 wrote:

Hi Canuck (Or Joe Toronto)... So the difference between Canadian Winter and Maltese winter is called HUMIDITY... and that the houses, doors and windows are not winterproof as you can find in every average house in Canada.

I will strongly recommend for you to get a GAS HEATER... 3 reasons... 1 it is obviously cheaper than electricity, 2 you know what you are spending rather than receiving the surprise from ENEMALTA after a nice warm winter... depending on the size of your flat you can move it from your room, to living, etc and you do not have to heat the whole flat...I know, not convenient at all but electricity here is expensive. Regards

Thank you for the advice but I will never use gas inside the house. I fully understand that many people use them, I am not comfortable with it and would rather pay a higher monthly bill.

There are several incredible portable electric heaters on the market that can heat up to 80 square metres while using minimal energy. This is the most practical, cleanest and safest direction to go in my opinion.

It sounds like whichever place I get I should get a modern air con in the main living area and bedroom and I will be more than fine during the brief 15 days of **'winter'.

** Days with daytime temps above 10C is not winter, coming where I am from

I have only been to Malta in the summer so I have never experienced a winter in Malta. I have heard many people say that the winters in Malta are brutal and I don't understand why. If you look at a map of Europe, you will notice that Malta is further south than 95% of all of Europe so I would assume that it is warmer than 95% of all Europe. I'll admit that it is not as far south as a tropical island in the Caribbean but still warmer than most of Europe. I looked up the average temperature of Malta in January (the coldest month of the year) and it said  that the average high temperature is 59º F (15ºC) the average low is 50º F (10ºC). You could see the website here:
It seems that the temperature is always way above freezing even at the coldest time of the year so there would hardly be any snow. If it was 59ºF outside, I wouldn't even wear a jacket and since that is January weather, the temperature is only going to get warmer for the rest of the year.  I understand that the reason why the indoor temperature is cold is because people don't heat it or use good insulation but it is not the weather's fault that you don't use heat. If you want heat then buy it just like the rest of the people in Europe or other countries in the far north do. I hear complaints about Malta's winter but I want to ask you. Would you rather live in Northern Europe,  Siberia, Canada, or Alaska without heat. At least you can live in Malta without heat but you couldn't in those other places. Why do so many people complain about Malta's winter when it is warmer than so many other places including New York where I live?

jmuthe wrote:

I have only been to Malta in the summer so I have never experienced a winter in Malta. I have heard many people say that the winters in Malta are brutal and I don't understand why. If you look at a map of Europe, you will notice that Malta is further south than 95% of all of Europe so I would assume that it is warmer than 95% of all Europe. I'll admit that it is not as far south as a tropical island in the Caribbean but still warmer than most of Europe. I looked up the average temperature of Malta in January (the coldest month of the year) and it said  that the average high temperature is 59º F (15ºC) the average low is 50º F (10ºC). You could see the website here:
It seems that the temperature is always way above freezing even at the coldest time of the year so there would hardly be any snow. If it was 59ºF outside, I wouldn't even wear a jacket and since that is January weather, the temperature is only going to get warmer for the rest of the year.  I understand that the reason why the indoor temperature is cold is because people don't heat it or use good insulation but it is not the weather's fault that you don't use heat. If you want heat then buy it just like the rest of the people in Europe or other countries in the far north do. I hear complaints about Malta's winter but I want to ask you. Would you rather live in Northern Europe,  Siberia, Canada, or Alaska without heat. At least you can live in Malta without heat but you couldn't in those other places. Why do so many people complain about Malta's winter when it is warmer than so many other places including New York where I live?

I completely agree. This is why I said Malta experiences only 15 days of winter and that's being generous. Sub zero temperatures are non existent which is what a true winter is in my opinion.

For the very mild and brief winter Malta experiences, plug in a couple high efficiency electric heaters and you're good to go. Not sure what the big fuss is about. Home owners in Malta do notpay property tax (they call it council tax) which means they save minimum of $2500/year compared to other nations such as Canada/USA. The way I look at it, the money saved by not paying property taxes will easily cover my utility costs

Thank you Joe for responding and thank you even more for agreeing with me . I love it when people do that. But seriously though, since I am from New York and you are Toronto, we live relatively close to each other and experience somewhat similar winters although you have them a little worse in Toronto than I do in New York. So when we deal with sub freezing temperatures or have to shovel a foot and a half of snow, we might get a little annoyed when people in Malta complain about it being 59º F. However, I have a theory as to why they do complain and I think that it is because Malta is located on a minimum threshold of comfortable weather. If Malta was a little colder than everyone would just heat their homes and nobody would complain about it being cold indoors. If Malta was slightly warmer, then there would be no need for heat at all and people would still be comfortable indoors. However, Malta is located in an area where heat is not necessary but where it is uncomfortable to not have it for a short time of the year. Some people may not like that, but I look at it as a blessing because if you live in Malta you have a choice. You could buy heat if you want to but you could still live without it if you don't. In Canada you wouldn't have a choice. You have to get heat.

Although people like to complain about Malta's winters, I see some advantages and disadvantages to Malta's summers. The thing that I hate about the summer's is that there is almost never a cloud in the sky so if you step outside anytime from 9AM to 6PM the sun will hit you directly and make you feel uncomfortable. That's a shame because it means that while children could go outside and play during summer vacation days in other countries, it is harder for Maltese children to do the same. They could still go outside and play at a time of the year when it is cooler but their summer vacation is only during the summer. However, one thing that I like about Maltese summers is that they are a lot less humid then they are in New York. That means that once the sun goes down the air feels a lot better. I have spent a lot of summers nights in Malta and if you sleep by a window and use a fan it usually feels comfortable. However, in New York, the humidity will never let me sleep at night unless I use an air-conditioner. That means that I could save money in Malta by not using the heat as often in the winter and save money by not using the air-conditioner that often in the summer. Oh, and since the days are so sunny, I could also save some money by not using the drier to dry my clothes as much as I do in New York.

with respect to you guys  - jmuthe and joetoronto - if the ordinary hard working maltese people had the salaries similar to the USA then they would be running air con all day and night too but they dont as they cant afford to do so, in fact many people cant afford to do so, electricity here for them is an expensive commodity (mainly borne out of 20-30 years worth of heavy subsidy having been removed rather suddenly in recent years...thus making it a heavy burden in the everyday maltese working family. average salaries here are low at 11000-14000 euros per year, childcare and schooling is expensive, cars and fuel is expensive, clothing is expensive,schooling materials which have to be bought by the parents are expensive, school buses are expensive,   

gas for heating and cooking used to be 5 euros per 12kg bottle 4 yrs ago now its 20 euros per bottle, and bear in mind there is no insulation, no central heating, high humidity and as a result the walls that retain heat in summer and water in winter, combined with large rooms make you roast in summer and feel cold although its more likely to be a damp feeling and as you get older its not pleasant.

Winters arent so much brutal IMHO,,,just once you acclimatise in the long summer then the winter comes you feel it more...i always try to advise people to come in winter first...as we did...its then not so hard a transition. We rarely have snow, more like hailstone..never have a frost, but we get plenty of rain in the 3 months of winter.

I am not Maltese but I look forward to winter too....the summer here is far more brutal than winter.

toonarmy9752 wrote:

with respect to you guys  - jmuthe and joetoronto - if the ordinary hard working maltese people had the salaries similar to the USA then they would be running air con all day and night too but they dont as they cant afford to do so, in fact many people cant afford to do so, electricity here for them is an expensive commodity (mainly borne out of 20-30 years worth of heavy subsidy having been removed rather suddenly in recent years...thus making it a heavy burden in the everyday maltese working family. average salaries here are low at 11000-14000 euros per year, childcare and schooling is expensive, cars and fuel is expensive, clothing is expensive,schooling materials which have to be bought by the parents are expensive, school buses are expensive,   

gas for heating and cooking used to be 5 euros per 12kg bottle 4 yrs ago now its 20 euros per bottle, and bear in mind there is no insulation, no central heating, high humidity and as a result the walls that retain heat in summer and water in winter, combined with large rooms make you roast in summer and feel cold although its more likely to be a damp feeling and as you get older its not pleasant.

Winters arent so much brutal IMHO,,,just once you acclimatise in the long summer then the winter comes you feel it more...i always try to advise people to come in winter first...as we did...its then not so hard a transition. We rarely have snow, more like hailstone..never have a frost, but we get plenty of rain in the 3 months of winter.

I am not Maltese but I look forward to winter too....the summer here is far more brutal than winter.

spot on toonarmy - as you say, if Maltese had US, Canadian or UK salaries, most of the problems would vanish.

I also think that if the eco discount thresholds (currently 1000 and 750) were tweaked a little (to say 2000 and 1000) to allow for cheaper electricity to be used in the summer and winter months air con and heating could be used to benefit more people in the harshness of summer and winter. Of course that doesnt help the environment much but whats the point of a nice eco friendly environment when you are roasting or freezing.....not good for your long term or short term health....

Absolutely right. You can't compare USA/Canada to Malta in terms of market, salaries and specially the way to generate electricity...

Since it will be my first winter here in Malta I'm very curious about the feeling

At the moment it's still quite warm during the nights, but because of the humidity the laundry takes very long to get dry, inside the house as well as outside - how to managed this in winter? Do I have to put a heater in front of the laundry rack or is it necessary to buy a tumble dryer ?

hi there
the only thing that works for us at the moment for laundry  is the dehumidifier, i noticed the difference straight away.
Guseppina

yeah dehumidifier is a good idea and for the bedding use an electric blanket on low setting before going to bed and as tip for the damp clothes in the morning place a single elec blanket over a drying frame and place your morning clothes on that - lovely

tumble dryers are good but expensive to run

Winter in Malta, my favorite subject... it's my second one to enjoy. Just got an electric bill for all the aircon that I used in summer and it made me sick. Still not going to sacrifice on heat, but feel like I can never get comfortable enough inside the house even with all kinds of devices running and my hood on. Sealed the stupid holes in the walls that let the air in from the outside and make draughts and blow on your head. Now the mold will probably start to slowly but surely accumulating on the walls, ceilings and clothes. So, to all the optimistic Canadians and Americans, please don't delusion yourselves, you got to experience it to truly appreciate, otherwise it's just talk. Malta was statistically rated to have the best weather in the world, and it's definitely much warmer than most places, so it's really hard to understand where all the fuss about winter is coming from, but there IS a reason for it. Winter in Malta sucks!

I love winter here - long walks with the dogs, plenty of sunshine, nice a green countryside, and almost no tourists or Maltese in Gozo :-)

I like fall and spring, very fresh and lots of flowers. There are some nice winter days, too, hope this one is warmer and sunnier than last years'.

agree - it was maybe the worst in my 10 years here

I know this may be sightly off topic but I want to know if Maltese summers have high humidity or low humidity. I have been there many times in the summer and the air usually feels hot and dry. It also barely rains which makes me think that the humidity is low. However, when I go to MaltaWeather.com it says that the summers are hot, dry, and humid which doesn't make sense to me. Humid means that there is a lot of water in the air. Dry air means that there is very little water in the air. So, how can the summers be dry and humid at the same time if dry and humid are opposites of each other?

"So, how can the summers be dry and humid at the same time" - the sea

believe me it is humid.....

Just to compare, when my sister came here to visit this summer (she lives in Spain), she noticed that even though the temperatures were the same at the time, it was a lot harder to tolerate the heat here, because of humidity.

If Maltaweather.com and the people on this forum say that the Maltese summer is humid then I believe it. I am not denying that fact. However, I still don't understand how the air could be dry and humid at the same time. As I said before, if the air is humid then that means that there is a lot of water in the air. If the air is dry, then there is very little water in the air. Therefore the summer air is either dry or humid and can't be both. If you say that the air is dry and humid then you are basically saying that the air is dry and wet at the same time which is impossible because dry and wet is the exact opposite of each other. Yet on Maltaweather.com that's exactly what they say. I'm not a meteorologist so maybe I am misunderstanding the meaning of the word humidity.

Hi jmuthe,

it is not the air in Malta that is dry but the weather during the summer. The 'dry' at Maltaweather refers to the rainfall . The subtropical high pressure zone moves northwards from Africa in the summer and so the air descends and does not allow clouds to form and basically  causes a desert climate like the Sahara.

But, as Malta boasts high temperatures and increasingly high surface water temperatures with unlimited water available for evaporation , the humidity gets very high. Especially towards the end of the summer when the water temperature reaches 28 °.

It does not matter where the air comes from ,north,south, east or west,by the time it reaches Malta it has travelled over hundreds of miles of rather warm water.

Otherwise you are right. Air cannot be humid and dry at the same time but it can feel dry because of the sea breeze and the sun.

Cheers
Ricky

when I was working in Saudi Arabia it was also dry and humid at the same time, the humidity came from the near sea but during the day the sun rises the temperature up to 48 or 50°C and increases the humidity to maybe 5 or 10%.
As soon as the sun set, the humidity climbed up to 95-98% (and it was NOT raining ) and the temperature fell to about 40°C ... it was like a steam sauna.

So, compered with that (and many other places I have been) the climate in Malta is very lovely ... that's why I am here

May I respectfully suggest that JoeToronto gets himself out of Toronto and actually visits another country before he makes the comments he does? How can anyone pass so much judgement on a country and its weather that they have not even visited?
Malta and its people are uniquely wonderful and one has to get to know them and their ways first, another reason we are going to spend winter on Gozo.

I want to thank you Ricky for answering my question and Matm for adding to it. Like you said, I guess that Malta is humid and dry in the summer because it has a lot of sea water in the air but not a lot of rain. However, as I mentioned before, I visited Malta in the summer many times and although the days are warm and too sunny, the nights are mostly nice. That is a very stark contrast to New York summers nights. In New York, at night, you feel the humidity badly and it makes sleeping very difficult without an air-conditioner.

Although I was told that this year's summer was unusual hot (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) and I came here beginning of July I used the aircon only during 5 or 6 nights. Normally open windows and fans (with much lower wattage) have been sufficient ... and they keep the mozzies off

Hi mat,

no need to correct you. You are right, the summer of 2012 is probably the warmest on record:

June : Average temp = 25,8 °C (+1,4) Second hottest on record

July : Average temp = 28,8 °C (+1,4) Third hottest

Aug  : Average temp = 28,6 °C (+2,3) Fourth hottest since 1922

Sept : Average temp = 21,8 °C (+0,2)

I found it bearable too . I don't think we used our aircon this summer !
And November is doing well too.

Cheers
Ricky

I know that I may be a bit of a pain by asking this again but I have never been to Malta in the winter before so I want to make sure that I am being thorough. I apologize in advance. I have made the point many times that since Malta is warmer in the winter than people who live further north, they would probably pay a lot less money to heat their homes. After I made that point, many people commented but nobody said whether they agreed
or not. They mostly commented on the mold and humidity or said that it may be warmer outside but the poor insulation in homes makes it feel bad even if the temperature is only slightly cold.  I agree with that point. They also point out that the gas that is used to heat their homes is more expensive in Malta than in places like Canada. However, even if it is more expensive, wouldn't the people in Malta still save money since they would use a lot less of it to warm their homes then Canadians would. For example, let's say that gas cost twice as much in Malta than it does in Toronto, but since Toronto is so much colder than Malta, the Canadians would use ten times as much of it to heat their homes each year than the Maltese would. I would assume that the people in Malta would still pay less but I could be wrong. That is why I want to ask a simple yes or no question. Do people in Malta spend more money to heat their homes than people who live in much colder climates? Yes or no.

but they will end up paying more for cooling in summer!!!!!!

"Do people spend more for heating their homes in Malta than in much colder countries?" You can't say yes or no to that, because it depends on many factors: what do you consider a normal temperature inside the house (for me it's above 24 C, some people here mentioned they could be ok even with 15); what you are using for heating and how often, the size and insulation of your place, how often you are at home, etc. Since I am a pretty heavy user, I can tell you my electric bill estimate, around Eur 100 - 150 a month, not including buying gas bottles at Eur 20 each, which last about a week or two for gas heating. No, you don't use less of it, because as soon as you turn it off, it gets cold immediately (poor insulation issue). Some people quoted their bills to be around 60 to 100. Like I said, all depends on how much you are willing to economize on utilities. Then again, there are warm days in winter sometimes, when you wouldn't use heat. Hope it answers your question more or less, but you shouldn't stress too much over it.

I remain firmly of the opinion that one cannot and should not compare the two costings as they are based upon different economies. There are also other fundamental differences related to relative temperature, humidity and acclimitisation, not to mention personal preferences. We are all different in these regards and the priorities and values we each place upon our individual needs.
Medical conditions will also affect those needs as will a previous dependence or not in the use of artificial climate control methods. Generally, from my experience, Malta is hot and dry during the 'summer' and much cooler and air damp in the 'winter', which is usually when it may rain and storms with some localised flooding will happen. Another thought, define 'winter' and define 'summer' as to do so based upon weather conditions, which are relative, may give rise to misunderstandings.
Just visit, experience and then base one's views upon one's own experience but what is good for one may not be for another.
Chacun a son gout mon ami.

Okay, I guess that is a fair response. Thank you.