Poolguy

[quote user="woolybanana"]Does anyone know if there are thermal imagers in France and if so, how much they charge to check out a house? Thanks[/quote] If you contact Nick Trollope in 22 he can do that for you. He is a contributor to this forum.  

John you dark horse you are...   I didnt know that you were also a 'woodie'..... but to also be a rotary polisher owner now that is special. I'm getting envious now! I've always hired even though I would have owned in a heart beat. But these puppies are so dear W. If you use a tung oil derivative then you can rest with that but you still need to burnish with the above doova lackki! Waxing is only obligatory in high traffic areas. [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/AUT_0521.jpg[/IMG] Above is a simple oiled finish - medium patina (satin if you like) A+  

Sorry to be late with the response. Answer is that it depends on the oil and the wax. My formula is well know, Tung oil to seal and burnish the surface and Diamond wax (bees wax and tung oil base) to follow. Then.....; Vigorous rubbing....   more rubbing   more still.....   then beer! [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/ElmOilOLeary3sm.jpg[/IMG] Ahhhh  good job.... just about bullet proof. A+

Yes many many 1000's m2 of burnished oil finish. Andrew

[quote user="Théière"]If you have insulated pipe, insulated pool walls and floor and a good heat retaining foam cover then yes otherwise you'll need a big unit as the losses are considerable but it's do-able[/quote] John You are eternally the optimist, certianly one of your many admirable qualities.  

Iceni If we stick to facts then its OK to say what’s what. Europools are a Franchise, so its not the brand but the reputation of the Branch which is Important. I know for example that the Franchise in 17 La Rochelle has closed the doors and gone, for over a year now. There are others such as in 85 as still going. Do you have a spec for the project yet or still dreaming, as budget is often the deciding factor?  There are no 'bits of string' amount is pools, it all depends on the spec, and that even can vary wildly from expert, to wannabe, to cowboy or DIY to oriental and back again. You'll need ot get specific, but as John will no doubt agree there are some very definite 'No don't go there' offers about;

Its true..... What I find dificult to understand is why anyone would continue to invest in that slippery slope of rising prices. When does it become too much? I've passed that point but it seems others are still prepared to pay and pay an pay and pay and pa Doesn't make sense ....!    

Can I suggest that anyone considering this heed the warning so far posted and add another. To make fire any Pompier will tell you that you need 3 things; Fuel, oxygen and heat; (self evident isn’t it!!) But if you remove one of them then you don’t have a fire. So in this case if you are getting a nice fire going and then you start to circulate through the back boiler with a forced pressurised system then you will soon strip out the heat of the fire it will labour producing masses of soot and eventually go out. The results are many including: cold house; wife on the warpath; p$ssed off husband, chimney nicely sooted up in preparation for the next raging burn which might result in a chimney fire, and so on and so on. There are several clever remedies to this as the problem is by no means new. The first clever devise is a laddomat to control the circulation of the water though the radiators based on a critical temperature base line over which the pump is turning under which it stops to let the fire recover. that this thing.. [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Solar/LADDOMAT21-100ISOLERAD_Mindre.jpg[/IMG] The second clever thing is a Accumulator, to store heat produced by the stove when its burning to be re-circulated when its not. I think the use of this storage is pretty self-explanatory, but it surprising the number of installations, which don't have one. Its making the most use of the energy the so rooms don't get too hot and still the fire can burn efficiently and still the excess heat can be used later. It’s really a no brainer. that would be one of these... [IMG]http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/andrewhenderson/Solar/AKVAir2000Connected-1.jpg[/IMG] Anyone who is interested to see a schematic of how that works, send me a PM Andrew

For the sake of the poster above and a few others besides, I would state the bleeding obvious. Solar radiation hitting the ground in France ranges from 3.2kw/m2 up to 4.8kw/m2 In Britan the range 2.1kw/m2 up to a massive 2.8kw/m2 (source: NASA - Surface meteorology and Solar Energy Data Set) Which goes some way to explain why there is a difference between this solution in France v UK now wouldn't it. If you don't know what that means then I have nothing further to offer. Incidentally, I recall mentioning that PV was unviable in France in my opinion. Good luck to the orginal poster with choosing alternative heating sources what ever they may be. Hope that its not Oil or LPG. I agree with John (as usual) Insulate and then Insulate some more.    

[quote user="Quillan"]Well from what I read on the Energy Trust website and others the type of heating system (and we are not talking just water heating but house heating as well) will cost anywhere between 250 and 650 Euros (using today's exchange rate and rounding down) a square metre to install. The 'average' system costs around 450 to 500 Euros a square metre (of house size) and then, as suggested, will require a secondary heating source. To make a claim that the costs of such a system would be paid back in seven years is extremely dubious at best. To be honest if you are over 40 I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I read an article online a year or two back from Cambridge university who claimed that just generating electricity for your home via solar panels would take an average of 80 years to get it's money back so I dread to think how long a system like this would really take.[/quote] Here is an example of what I'm complaining about Another doubter who is happy to call me a liar without any facts of to back it up. Have any of those English organistations actually done any research in France?  

WJT I apologise for the assuming a gender without clear evidence. Bad mistake. To be clear/ You may be confusing Solar PV with Solar Thermal - common misconception. There have been lots and lots of poor installations of Photovoltaic to be sure. And I would add to that the arithmetic doesn't arrive at a break point, its not a good bet at this time in my opinion. Solar thermal on the other hand, is relatively simple and much less likely to suffer such trouble. There are a number of reasons for that to do with basic physics. The warning you have read probably had no facts whatsoever to validate the claim and so should be taken with more than a pinch. Whereas the results of my system and those of a few others, are published on the net for anyone to see for themselves and to analyse. This is live data not the Bulls£$t which is published by other promoters and the uninformed opinions from doubters. As you can clearly read from the previous poster, most people read what they want to hear and not often what I have said or written. You will never hear me say for example that Solar thermal is a 'complete' solution. I can say this because I have the data, others cannot because they don't. I'm sorry that you did not get a satisfactory answer from me when you inquired - I get a lots of requests and usually I refer them to the nearest expert installer, as I have said, I can offer very little relevant advice until a site survey is done and some information is know about the situation. So if you care to repeat your question then I'll try to do better.  

Yes Sid you are obsessed. I said 'whole of life cost', and that includes the lifetime each person has to get service from the installation. Do the arithmatic. I am serious about it. Sadly there very few like me.    

Yes I've stirred it up again, and that's how it should be. Does anyone actually think that UK oil prices are nolt linked to French prices and that the trend is not similarly upwards. The more times this is debated the more the general populous will get to question to conventional solutions because they are just unsustainable. If anyone looking at oil heating cannot see how their pocket is going to be assaulted by ‘Big Oil’ then they deserve to be fleeced, I fear. There have been warnings and information available for decades for folk to prepare and to choose. Anyone obsessed with 'payback' looking at 'whole of life cost' will have their question answered, by doing their own research. Incidentally, what is the 'payback' on oil - pollution, wild weather changes, what does that all cost- ('oooHHh its not my fault' says joe average, its all industry and government’s fault.....;;;yeah right!) As to what ARE the ALTERNATIVES.....  well There are plenty, but every situation is different needing a different mix of energy sources. So I'm not offering free, 'fits all' advice here, that's a job for an expert to design a solution to each situation. What I will say is that the ‘ideal’ solution is nearly never OIL and just as never LPG. As for my situation, I do in fact heat my house with solar (WJT hasn’t a clue what he’s saying) assisted by whole wood burning. I’m more than happy to say that I will be enjoying the fact, that in a bit more than 4 years I will have reached the point where I am ahead meaning that it took about 7 years to amortise my investment. It has to be said that this is the situation for me and in no way will resemble the situation for another design at another place. There is no standard solution so there is no standard outcome. If anyone really wants the answers then the first step is to ask….. but, an answer cannot be offered until a specific site study of the situation is done. Anything else is just hot air, and not the type required.   edit. Chris ad Julie, seem to be happy to gamble the future of everyone based on the lack of precision of prophecy. Dear me I'm unhappy to say that I don't share your scepticism nor optimism. I'm certain that 'peak oil' will arrive in my lifetime as I have a more than competent grasp of arithmetic. Comes in useful when multiplication meets division.

I don't know how many times I've raised this point but it’s a lot -And it obvious that I will just have to keep on raising it.   'Why on earth would any thinking person buy into oil fired heating at this stage in the 21st century with 'peak oil' less than a decade away.'   its sheer madness. Didn't you see the price of fuel oil nearly double just less than a month ago..... Obviously not. http://www.boilerjuice.com/heatingOilPrices.php Why don't you look around at the alternatives?

I've PM'ed you on that one Andrew