Ken

audi, try www.1wayhire.com - their website gives indicative costs for one way hire with driver, as well as dimensions etc for their range of vans and even a small lorry. Incidentally, they advertise in Living France so you have lost marks for not reading your magazine! Ken

Thanks Blanche Neige have made a note of Acova.

JR your information re. new generation of storage heaters makes me feel I should at least re-evaluate my natural prejudice against electric heating! I will certainly look into this further. Thanks

Gastines thanks for your input. Second hand heaters is a good thought - your costs certainly seem amazingly cheap compared with UK. What size and age of property? Your general comment that gas or oil must be first choice really confirms my own thoughts. Like others you emphasise again the benefits of insulation.

Benjamin, thanks for your thoughts on underfloor heating. We are probably looking for an older property so may not have the benefit of efficient insulation as you do. I have noted your point about slow response time with underfloor. How is it installed? Is is like a large electric blanket under the floor or are the wires embedded in concrete or something. As you can tell, I'm not a heating engineer!

I did reply to this but hit the e-mail button instead of reply button so my thoughts seem to have been lost forever - not used to the system yet! You seem to confirm my feeling that "electric to radiators" just means ordinary old wall heaters - I can believe they are ruinously expensive! I had wondered if there was some system of pumping electrically heated water from a tank to radiators but apparently not. I can see the benefit of underfloor electric as background with a woodburner for cosy evenings. However, we have been given an indication of cost for logs to a rental property of euro 100 per month, which seems very expensive. Is this typical or just profiteering? In any case, we would hope eventually to buy a property with an acre or two of woodland so that we do not need to buy much wood. Is this realistic? What area of woodland does it take to be self sufficient? Does anyone have any thoughts? Your advice not to be put off by electric heating if everything else seems right echoes my own thoughts. As you say its just a change of attitude and lifestyle.  

Pancake, try www.rentaplaceinfrance.com where you will find long lets from say euro 400/month upwards, but this will be mainly for the winter months.You will have to pay considerably more for high season where the property is suitable for short term holiday lets. Ken

We are just beginning our search for a French home and often see reference to electric heating in advertisements. We have tended to be put off by this, assuming it to be something like the UK style night storage heaters, which in my experience are hopelessly inefficient and expensive. However we have also seen mention of "electric heating to radiators" and  also to electric underfloor heating. We would welcome comments or information on the various types of heating which are prevalent in French properties and their comparative costs.   [:)]