Pat76

Thanks for the very helpful replies. Hopefully my poplars will be sorted soon. Pat

Hi I am looking for a tree surgeon to remove some very tall poplar trees, so far without success. Does anyone know of any tree surgeons working in the Charente/ Dordogne area? we are near Aubeterre/Chalais. Thanks Pat /

Hi Theiere (sorry, can't do accents!) Thanks for the reply, and the link. Pat

Hi I have searched but have been unable to find the information I need, so sorry if this has been covered before. We are planning to start our new plumbing this summer, and were hoping to source what we need in England. Currently our water supply arrives from the water meter in a black plastic pipe, about 20 mm in diametre. We are planning to put in John Guest plastic speedfit fit pipework, which would have to be connected to the black plastic pipe. My question is, has anyone done this, and are the connectors readily available, either in England or in France? We would need to connect the black plastic pipe to 22 mm John Guest speedfit pipe. Thanks Pat

Thank you for taking so much time to give me such a comprehensive reply. Pat

I said "odd" because I thought the whole point was to use these heaters when it's cold!  I clearly have missed something, but I'm happy to try to learn. (notice the word "try", but I will do my best) If the temperature drops below 5degrees, as it does in winter, will the air units work? Thanks for the name of the heaters, Cendrillon, I will look at them. Pat

We looked at air units in Brico Depot when we were in France last week, but the ones we saw said something along the lines of  " effective at temperatures above 5 degrees" which seems a bit odd, but perhaps we misunderstood. As to oil heating, we have been put off oil by the cost, which goes up and up. When we move to France we will be living on a fixed income, so we are hoping to keep our outgoings as predictable as possible. Basically, we have a couple of woodburners, and are looking for a form of background heat so that when we get up on cold mornings, we are not freezing while the fires get going. We are now looking at night storage heaters, which run on cheaper overnight electricity, and give an even background heat in the morning. Does anyone have experience of these? Thanks for all the replies, Pat

Thanks for that, Quillan. We are having a serious rethink - much as we would like underfloor heating, the geothermal idea is not going to work for us, it would not be cost effective based on the quotes we have had. We will check out the air source which will undoubtedly be cheaper. Do you know if the air source unit is noisy to run? A friend has the individual air source units and they are quite noisy, but they are a few years old.   Pat

Thank you both for your replies. So, basically we would need additional heating throughout the house. We have a couple of woodburners, and we were hoping that with the underfloor heating they would be sufficient, but that seems unlikely (it's quite a big house) Back to the drawing board. Pat

hi Crossy67 Thanks for taking the time to reply, I'm very grateful. I have done a lot of research on the net, and in books and magazines, and we have considered the air source as well. I was hoping there might be someone who has actually installed something like what we are considering (air or ground source) who could give me their advice. I recently read that the running costs can be quite high, in terms of electricity to run the pump - I wondered if anyone had experienced this.   Pat

Hi I wonder if anyone can give me the benefit of their experience. We would like to install underfloor heating in the downstairs of the house we are renovating, and we hope to use geothermal heat to run it. Has anyone done this? I would be really grateful if anyone who has could let me know if they are happy with their system, and any problems they have had. We have enough land for the geothermal pipes, and we have to lift the floors downstairs and will be installing plenty of insulation. We are at the planning stage, and any help/advice  would be most appreciated. Pat 

Hello I'm not sure where to post this, but here goes- My son has completed a short work experience in France which was organised by his sixth form college, and we are thinking about him organising one for himself, for next summer, prior to starting university. We wondered about him volunteering at our local Mairie, because we are friendly with the Maire, and we organised a work experience in England for his son last year, so feel reasonably happy about approaching him. Before we do, my question is, would it be allowed? Obviously, I don't want to embarrass him. So, can any helpful person tell me if foreign students would be allowed to work voluntarily in a French Mairie? Thanks Pat

I don't know if it would be too far away from you, but we used  Maitre Alexandre Desautel in Aubeterre Sur Dronne, Dept 16. He speaks excellent English. Pat

Hi again We have spoken to our neighbour, who has told us that the  bill is indeed for an inspection of the fosse. His advice was don't rush to pay it, speak to the Mairie in the summer, so thanks again to everyone who took the time to reply. Pat

Hi again Well, the letter certainly looks genuine, and the cheque is to be sent to SPANC, so perhaps we are just unlucky. No phone number, so we will be speaking to our neighbour before we pay it. Thanks Pat