Love / Help me understand the different mannerisms and mentality of men in Przemysl area! [28]


Very good insight...

UK, Ireland / Disgusting, fat and lying Polish women and Illegal immigration in UK [73]

The title used for this thread insinuates that someone has a problem with Polish people (particularly Polish women) regardless of context.

UK, Ireland / Disgusting, fat and lying Polish women and Illegal immigration in UK [73]

Why Poland though?

UK, Ireland / Disgusting, fat and lying Polish women and Illegal immigration in UK [73]

I can think of many places where it is a lot easier for a foreigner to claim state welfare! Plus the language barrier... Something doesn't add up...

UK, Ireland / Disgusting, fat and lying Polish women and Illegal immigration in UK [73]

Entry into EU. I will not argue with that, but why would an Australian want to enter EU? It cannot be welfare because they have a very strong welfare system over there, no?

Maybe someone fell in love with someone from Poland? :)

UK, Ireland / Disgusting, fat and lying Polish women and Illegal immigration in UK [73]

The grass is always greener on the other side eh!

News / Poland 39. in Human Development Index 2011 [7]

Seriously this scale is not really representative of what things are like...

There are countries that are ahead of Poland on this scale that have an artificially inflated HDI due to the fact that their populations consist of 80% or more foreign workers... If you remove these from the list, then other countries (including Poland) will move up a few spots on the scale...

Off-Topic / What languages do you know? [51]

Fluent: English, Arabic
Intermediate: Aramaic
Beginner: Polish
Some basic understanding of: French, German, Italian and Russian

Law / Bringing a Car to Poland from outside of EU? [6]

Thank you. The car would be brand new basically. Must find out how much is the import tax if we want to register the car in Poland.

Law / Bringing a Car to Poland from outside of EU? [6]

Now that makes sense. And tax free? So, we should buy the car at least 6 months before you move... Thanks Zazulka

USA, Canada / Fedex shipment to Lodz from USA? [6]

You should call the local FedEx office in £odz then...

News / What part of Poland's image do you think is the most exportable? [90]

I sell Polish industrial products in export markets all the time. You need to build an image of high quality and low price, which is largely true for Polish industrial products.

News / Poland being the powerhouse of Europe [40]


It certainly is NOT on the up. My business there has shrunk to less than 2008 levels. Media lies and the boom is just a myth. My business in Poland is actually growing at the moment. I work in a construction and manufacturing related industry.

Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]


Thank you... Very sensible advice.

I have no idea about land prices in the area... This is intended for our own residence, not as an investment.

Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]


Thank you for the advice. For sure we will have an expert look at it. We don't want to go too far away from Mysiadło in general.

Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]


Still trying to find out... I will update this thread once I find out more :)

Thanks to everyone that contributed!

Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]

I know what you guys are talking about. I am in building services related industry by trade (climate control) and I know building anything (even a shed) can be very complicated... But we really want to build our "dream home". Regardless, we will look around and see what we find...

The idea is, if we live near Lesznowola, we can be close to the construction site and supervise directly...

Too far fetched?

Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]

WOW, I really can't thank you guys enough for your thoughtful responses! Lots to think about!

Well, it looks like the plot in Lesznowola will fall through, because supposedly the owner found a bidder offering 150/m.

However, it might just be a chance for us to really look around without a sense of urgency, which should help us find something better.

I will update this thread again once I know more :)

Well I said I would update so here we go. We ended up inheriting a place. Not the best location but! When we are ready we will buy an apartment (not a house!) in the city.

Food / Black pudding & kaszanka [30]

I also like kaszanka and flaczki...

Kaszanka has grains in it by the way...

Food / Black pudding & kaszanka [30]

Jeez you guys made me real hungry and it is still two hours before lunch time... lol...

Law / Bank account in Poland which does not use SMS [13]


This is what we are doing actually. The problem is not related to the bank as much as it is related to the service provider you are using in the other country.

Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]

I work in central heating and cooling for a living, especially district cooling and district heating, where a plant feeds chilled/hot water and/or steam into a large network which in turn feeds several buildings.

The rule of thumb with these systems is that the bigger they are, they more efficiently they run. This is true in the majority of cases. Quality of equipment, fuel/energy source and climatic conditions also play a role.

I am also involved in servicing boilers almost on daily basis. No rocket science. Nearly every plant has duty + standby boilers so you don't always have to shut down the plan to service one boiler. Scheduled and preventative maintenance is the key for smooth operation.

The concept of large district heating plants is going to be a very "hot" topic in Poland over the next 10-15 years by my reckoning.

Regarding heat exchangers, they need to be opened and cleaned periodically, and the frequency of cleaning depends mainly on the water quality and the difference in temperature between the cold side and the hot side. Some heat exchangers are plate design, which is compact but has many gaskets that need to be replaced whenever the plates are cleaned. Others are shell and tube design, which tends to be larger and requires more complex tools and skills for cleaning, however, they have fewer gaskets to replace and therefore may potentially cost less to operate on the long run.

I have attached a picture of an insulated steam pipe sample that I found in my office. This is similar to what is used in central and district heating. This particular pipe is 15mm diameter, schedule 40 carbon steel, with 50mm rock wool insulation and aluminum cladding. Overall diameter is about 14cm. A pipe this size is about enough to provide 60kW of heating power (or about 100kg/hr of steam which is enough for a 500 square meter modern house for example). For district heating, pipes with sizes up to 1m diameter or even more are used. Putting this infrastructure in place is expensive and time consuming, not to mention difficult.

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Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]


Because I expect stricter regulations with regards to boiler emissions in the future, and this will make it increasingly more difficult for charcoal fired boilers to remain competitive because the cost of complying with stricter regulations will eventually outweigh the savings generated by using lower cost fuel (coal vs. oil or gas). This is what happened in North America over the years. Both Canada and the US have massive reserves of coal, yet most homes in both countries are heated with either centrally generated steam or oil/gas fired boilers. Of course, greener energy like solar will be used more often, but it will not become the primary source of heating energy for some time to come due to capital cost.

Also, since the cost of buying energy is going up, people will inevitably look for lower cost alternatives, such as district heating, and investors will see this as an opportunity to cash in.

Remember, most of New York City is heated by centrally generated steam, and the same goes for many other large cities. If it can be done in NY, it can be done in Krakow. It is not easy to retrofit a system to an existing city, but it can be and has been done elsewhere.

I am not very familiar with Skawina, but with will, and equally importantly, money, they could probably get their steam to where it is needed.

Technically speaking, the distance that steam can travel depends on the quality of the installation and the pipes being used. Hot water is easier to deal with, but carries lower energy content and therefore larger pipes and higher flow rates are needed, which results in more energy being used just to pump the heat carrying medium.

Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]


A heat exchanger can (in theory) be built to any size as needed. Limitations are due to space, weight carrying capacity of plant room and shipping. You can have a heat exchanger that services a single jacuzzi or one that serves a 25 storey building or more.

I have attached a picture of a heat exchanger sample that I took last Monday at an exhibition. This is the plate type, and typical of what is used for heating or cooling. Most of the plates have been removed so you can see a few individual plated and gaskets. The gaskets need to be replaced periodically. The plates are usually made of stainless steel, and can be cleaned and reused under normal circumstances.

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Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]


That is not unheard of. Considering how much return they will make on their investment, don't be surprised. However, they may impose contractual conditions such as using them exclusively as a source of hot water or steam by all units in the building for a certain number of years.

Also, while they may agree to retrofit the building to work with their system for free, the aesthetic quality of such free installation could be questionable (example, lots of visible piping and valves etc). This is hard to avoid when retrofitting an older building.

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]

Industrial salt is just normal salt without added Iodine (which is added to table salt) and usually in larger crystals.

It is not toxic in reasonable quantities. Furthermore, food processing industry usually uses industrial salt, not table salt, for making things like sausages etc.

Remember, even too much normal table salt can be fatal (more than 1gm per kilogram of body weight in a single dose).

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]

Guys, if you call a salt supplier and ask for industrial salt to be used for food processing, with no further elaboration, what you will receive is NaCl (Sodium Chloride) and is IDENTICAL to REFINED table salt, without the Iodine. Dishwasher salt is basically industrial salt with more anti-caking agent. It remains on every plate and every glass that goes in the dishwasher, yet it doesn't kill anyone - if used as intended.

Unrefined salt is something different, and that is used to de-ice roads for example, where it is mixed with sand or grit intentionally to improve traction and to enhance its ice abrasion properties.

Lots of potentially toxic substances go into food processing.

Did you know that Potassium FerroCYANIDE is added to the salt you eat everyday to stop the grains from sticking together when the air is moist?

My grandmother used CaCl2 (Calcium Chloride) when she made jams and preserves, and nobody ever got sick :) This "salt" has hundreds of other applications.

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]


That is why it is highlighted :) Just like the way people panic when they hear "industrial" for example :)