Biggins Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Please can you help? We are in the process of renovating a very old stone house. We shall be installing some type of electric heating - we do have a large woodburner but require fuller heating. We have no room for an oil tank (very tiny garden) and no gas. So, electric is our only choice. Do you have any suggestions? Can you recommend a electric heating system? fixed heaters? how economical? where can we purchase them/it? how much? The house is in Brittany - so we will get long cold winters. We would so welcome your help. Many many thanks.Biggins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldgit72 Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 We lived in a rented stone house in central Brittany in the winter of 2006/07. We only had an old woodburner and the place was nice and cosy. How big is your house? You can get some pretty efficient woodburners these days that can heat up to around 500m3. Failing that, there is a recent thread on air to air pompe a chaleurs which can generate around 3x the energy consumed. We are considering this as a back up to a woodburner in our barn conversion (250m2). Winters in Brittany arn't that cold anyway. More like Cornwall than the rest of France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 First of all, Biggins, I believe that the winter weather in Brittany does depend on which part you are in. For example, in Morbihan in the south, it can be quite mild (but Sue who lives there will correct me if I'm wrong) but in the north, near Dinan, it can be both wet and cold. And I have a French friend who was from Finistere and she said it was very wet there.What I think more about, however, as you have described your plot as small is where and how you are going to install a fosse (cesspit) that will conform to regulations.Now, I don't want to alarm you but this is one aspect that is worth investigating IMHO.Edit: sorry, Biggins, I am making assumptions. You might well have mains drains. My only excuse for jumping to conclusions is that I have been (figuratively) up to my eyes in cesspits for several months now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 We have electric heaters which operate off a radio-controlled thermostat system. Thus when the woodburner gets up to snuff they all start turning themselves off as the house heats up. Sadly, try as I might, I cannot find out what make they are but they are slim and very efficient. Back in the UK we had our central heating run off the multi-fuel boiler (a wood burner in effect which also burnt anthracite and had a heat exchanger) but when we didn't have the time or the energy to light the thing we had no choice but to freeze. I'd back the electric things any day - much more convenient and no more expensive to run. And they're clean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyn_paul Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Will this be a holiday home or are you planning to be there full-time?A couple of hours browsing in your local brico will reveal that there is a wide range of electric heaters ranging from the wall-mounted convector heaters with mechanical thermostats (noisy switching on and off, and very annoying in a bedroom) which are fairly cheap. Posher versions of those with (silent) electronic thermostats. Oil-filled, electric versions of wet central heating rads. And thin storage heaters which - to my eye - seem much more expensive than their uk conterparts. Most of the above available in a wide range of wattages to suit all sizes of room. Your choice in this, as in most things, will be governed by the depth of your pockets.Things to remember: -You will almost certainly need to bump your EDF abonnement up into the top bracket if you intend to heat space, heat water, and cook at the same time.If this is a new electrical installation requiring Consuel certification, then either ensure all your heaters are {NF}-marked, or if they are simply {CE} -marked, then don't install them until after inspection (it's one of those Xenophobic French things: the subtle distinction between safe and legal!). If you are going to be all-electric (and see first Q above) then switching to HC/HP is a no-brainer, and worth spending the extra to get heaters with control fil, which enables you to take advantage of the cheap-rate electricity switching facility. p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Guerriere Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 If it's a holiday home HP/HC is a bit questionable. I've been thinking about it for a while without coming to a definite conclusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyn_paul Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 [quote user="La Guerriere"]If it's a holiday home HP/HC is a bit questionable. I've been thinking about it for a while without coming to a definite conclusion.[/quote]Hence my question to the OP.. You really need to do an incredibly b-o-r-i-n-g spreadsheet review of your electricity consumption and occupancy.Good Luck ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Guerriere Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Exactly, and at the moment I can't be a.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG MAC Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 If your garden is too small for an oil tank.........is that because it's full of logs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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