As mains gas is still a rarity in North Cyprus, unless you’re prepared to pay between £3,000-5,000 for the priviledge of having it installed at your property that is, most people just use gas for heating via gas heaters and for cooking. Hobs are usually powered by gas, and when your hob is fitted you will need a connector pipe which hooks up the bottle to the hob.
LPG gas comes in various shaped bottles, from large ones for your cookers or small ones for use with lamps that are mainly used if there is a power cut! You can purchase bottles from most petrol stations, and some of the smaller supermarkets will stock them too. When the bottle runs out, you just take it back and get another. However, the main gas suppliers will also run a door-to-door delivery service in most areas.
The price of gas in North Cyprus has steadily risen over the last few years, and since the beginning of 2008 the three main suppliers, Inter Gaz, Jet Gaz and Koop Gaz have been allowed to set their own prices, so you can imagine the fluctuation since that decision! You can expect to pay between 20-30ytl (approx. £8-12) for a 10kg canister at the time of writing, which is not brilliant if you use them for your main source of heating! Having said that, the government says that it’s working to reduce the cost and that it is aiming to give up all revenues made from gas sales in a bid to really bring down prices.
A slightly (only just!) cheaper alternative is to visit the actual gas companies themselves, all based in Lefkoşa, and get your bottles filled up on site. This usually saves you between 2 or 3ytl each time.
New build properties nowadays usually have the option of being built with central heating pipe work installed, it’s then your decision as to whether you choose to have central heating completely installed or not. If you are fortunate enough to therefore have central heating, you will have a large gas tank which sits above ground (obviously!) on your property, this can be refilled via one of the gas supply companies.
At last count it would have cost you around 1.08ytl per litre, with most tanks being able to hold 400-450 litres that brings a complete refill to around 432-486ytl (approx. £172-195), but again prices do change frequently and these prices are only meant to give you an indication of current costs.
You can contact the gas suppliers direct on Inter Gaz 0392 2256888, Jet Gaz 0392 2256800 and Koop Gaz 0392 2231661