Abby

Thanks Clair. Do you know how common the wood pellet boilers are in France? Are there the same kinds of grants/subsidies avaialble on those too? Abby

Is it easy to get hold of the pellets in France? I've also heard you can make them yourself with a small machine?

That's fab Anton, thank you. We do have insurance on the house. Do you know of any way for roughly calculating the costs of materials for wiring a house of approx 176 sq m? Abby

Thanks Nick - no, no plans to sell unless we have to - and it should be a permanent supply. Your answer was a great help! Thanks!

Hi - I've just joined this forum and would welcome any advice. The electrical glossary on another thread will come in very useful but I've scoured the section and can't find the answers I need - I apologise if they are in there somewhere.... My husband and I are having ahouse built in Lozere. It's in the Gorge du Tarn, which is a conservation area. Builders have basically erected the shell of the stone house for us (we have full planning permissions etc from the relevant bodies), the water is in and runs up to the edge of the house, the septic tank is in and the electricity has been brought up to the corner of the plot - there's now a box there (re the rest of the house, the roof is on, windows are in so the house is secure but empty). We were hoping to continue slowly from this tpoint but we got so badly stung on our last payment with the exchange rate that we decided to hold fire for a while to see what happened. That was a year ago and we really want to get started again but cash is short. My father in law who is currently out of work is a trained electrician and has offered to go over with his brother (also a trained electrician) to wire the house and perhaps do some plumbing. We need to draw up some detailed interior plans (where pipes will be, sockets, bathroom fittings etc) before they can start but what I'm concerned about is whether they are allowed to carry out that sort of work in France. The local mayor told me he thought they were as long as they used French regulation materials but since then a couple of other French people have said they don't think this is right. Therefore (sorry for being so long winded) my questions are *Can a UK trained electrician carry out this sort of work? *Will it need to be inspected? *If they can do the work, where can I access jargon free, easily translatable regulations etc? *Are they allowed to take the electricity from the box and run it up to the house or does the electricity company have to do this? We seemed to have one company taking the electrity from the pylon and another fitting the box - am feeling a bit at sea as to who needs to do the next bit... Finally, any advice as to generally proceeding from this stalled position with the house would be much appreciated! We are loving our house and are happy to camp out in it but as my husband puts it, until we get any further it really is the most expensive tent in the world! Thanks Abby