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bring stove from uk or buy in france?


Valdo
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We are moving to France in 2 months time and are quite set on installing a woodburning stove with boiler during the renovation of our house to deal with all the heating and hot water.  We are well aware of all the tax credit conditions, etc and have been trawling through all the 'flamme verte' approved models but can't find a suitable one with a boiler (they all seem to be individual stoves).  Even an internet search through the French manufacturers sites didn't turn up much and they are more expensive than the UK.  But when we look up the UK sites, there are stoves a-plenty, of the kind we would like to install and much cheaper than the same models in France.  So the question is: Is it worth buying the stove we want in the UK for cheap, drag it to France and install it ourselves, forsaking all the lovely money the French taxman would dish out? Or is it really worth just paying more for the stove in France and have it installed?  Has anybody had any experience of this and which way worked out cheaper? (it's all down to money really....)

Also, if anybody has one of these woodburning stove/boiler, how much wood does it uses in a typical year (m3 and cost....)?

 

Thanks!

 

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We have a vey big insert type fire which came with the house. Normal sized ones are available in DIY shops here and I have seen them for just over 1000€ including the stone fireplace (Mr Bricolarge).  The problem is that not many of the DIY shops have online shops from which you can get prices. One that does is http://www.castorama.fr/homepage/index.jhtml where you might get an idea. I also see that http://www.leroymerlin.fr/ now do some prices and have a range of fireplaces from standard up to very contempary.

I think you will find, well down in the south anyway and I don't know about anywhere else, that inserts are the most popular. They are very cleverly designed and quite efficient in as much as they use the secondary heat very effectivly. Ours has two low volume and silent fans in the side pillars that then pump warm air around the rest of the house through ducting (also available in most DIY shops) thus providing a warm air heating system. This is available for most if not all of the insert systems and is quite cheap to install.

When we first came here many things looked odd around the house and you think 'English' and think things like "thats stupid, you would never do that in England". Time has shown me that of course it isn't stupid and in the French 'environment' it is actually the best way, one day you look at the offending item and the penny drops and you then think 'ahhhh now I understand, thats very clever, I would not have thought of that'. The point I guess I am getting at is that many things are different here, the fires beng but one of many, and the French have designed these things over the years for peak efficiency so I would stick with the French stuff in your French home.

By the way if you are ready to pay a lot of money like say 1000€ for just the insert you can get one like mine that opens right up to look like a ordinary fire and you can cook and BBQ on it as well. The best time to buy is in the Autumn when there are loads of deals on fire and fireplace combinations. The other thing I didn't mention is the choice of style of insert, you can get internal and external corner ones and central (middle of the room) ones all of which allow your imagination (or the wifes) to run away.

Hope this helps.

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When I was looking for my Woodburner (installed this Jan) – in France I could find very little info on the Internet. Also I could find nothing that gave accurate info on prices (i.e. what you actually pay). The only way I ended up seeing what was available was going to the shops and looking. I found things much cheaper than the UK after the 5.5% TVA and tax credit.

Not had the stove for long enough to give any useful indication on use of wood – particularly as I’m not buying it but using it from trees, etc. on the land.

Ian

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We brought a new "Villager" woodburner with attached boiler to France 5 years ago and having looked around, it certainly seems more substantial and is a lot heavier than many of the burners for sale over here. We ran it for a couple of years without using the back boiler and it kept our 3 bed farmhouse generally comfortable during even the coldest periods. For this winter, I decided to install oil fired central heating to provide a background warmth to the upstairs rooms, particularly the bathroom which has always been a bit chilly. Now we are  vary comfortable  everywhere. The Villager runs day and night during the winter and is a doddle to control from just ticking over to blasting out heat and this winter, we will have used about 3 Cords of wood. Certainly wouldn't be without it and, although relatively expensive to buy, it has proved to be excellent value for money. If you buy one, do make sure that you have a number of strong helper at each end to load and unload it.

www.leschenauds.com.

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We have brought two stoves from the UK to France at separate times.  The first was a Jotul, which we bought second hand at a price that was much lower than if second hand in France.  This has been installed and works very well.

The second was purchased new from www.MachineMart.co.uk.  This was cheap but not the best quality finishing.  Its performance has increased since we stuck 8 mm fibreglass rope to the door joins, which has closed air gaps and improved the draw.  You get what you pay for, but as I said it is now working well.

Both were brought to France on vehicles that were already bringing household effects, so it remained economically viable.  We saved 500 and 800 hundred euros on the stoves doing it this way.  Both stoves connected to standard fittings and accessories purchased in France.

Another choice available to you might be to look at some of the Depot Vente shops where you would find second hand burners and stoves at a quarter of their orginal price.  These are probably being sold because they are no longer working properly as opposed to a room make-over, so be prepared to do minor work on seals and joins.  

 

Regards

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Thank you all for your replies - gave us food for thought.

We are not trying to apply 'English' thinking to our installation (which would be hard as my husband is Scottish and I am French born and bred).  I know the systems run in my relatives'homes in France: mostly electricity and it just doesn't seem very cost-effective in light of the rising energy prices.  My father installed an insert as well a few years ago and is quite happy with it.  We might use that as a secondary heating system to complement the stove (from a different fireplace).  It's just the fact that we have the opportunity to think and design the whole system from scratch through the renovation process rather than accept or make do with an existing system, be it electricity, gas or oil.  The stove fits into our idea of what the house should be like (it's an old farmhouse-type place so a stove wouldn't look out of place) and our wallet should look like in the long run...!

Just like a lot of French people living in the countryside seem to increasingly favour solar energy, there's no reason they couldn't come around the idea of heating their house with a woodburning stove/boiler as well!

We'll let you know what we ended up doing and if we came to regret our decision....

Valerie

 

 

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