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Gas more than oil; perhaps as much as 50% more, but what the bill will be depends on so many factors:

location (Med. or top of the Alps)

location (exposed or sheltered)

metres cubed to heat

control temperature (1°C increases your bill by roughly 10%)

insulation levels

level of occupation (holiday home or permenant; occupied during the day or out at work)

etc.

 no one could even give you a guess.

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It really depends on the size of your house and how warm you like it.  Also, depending on where you live, you may not have that choice.  We don't have city gas here, so the choices are actually between oil, electric or wood.

We do happen to have oil (fioul), and we keep the temperature set to 16 during the day and 19 for a couple of hours at night while watching tv, then it goes back to 16 for sleeping and comes back on to 19 for getting up in the morning and taking showers.  We filled our tank once in September and once in January, but still had about half of the January fill when we topped it up this September.  I would estimate that it costs us about 1200€ to heat our house, which is a bit over 200 square meters.

PG

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True what PG says...there may not be a choice.

I live in a beautifull village with no mains gas;  an enclosed courtyard garden - no oil tank;  no access for wood and if you think I am carrying cordes of wood all the way through the house...[:'(]

We have petrole heaters and I must say they are excellent, especially since we bought the posh ones which you plug in.

Only softies have central heating.....[:D]

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After having oil fired central heating installed four years ago and the price of oil now is nearly double what I paid then, I'd say go for neither! (Tanked gas is much more expensive than oil and electric heating is out of the question!)

If we move we plan to have woodfired central heating (50% tax credit on energy efficient burner) and a combination of solar/electric water heating (again 50% tax credit on the solar panels). May buy one of those super paraffin heaters for emergences though!

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The trouble with using wood is that it is bloody hard work.

First there is all the cutting and stacking then, and you can bet thousands of pounds on this, even though you have a good supply in the house you can guarantee that when you need some more it will rain torrentially for four or five days...and the wind will have whipped the bâche away so it is all wet.

Trust me!

There is also the well know fact that if it isn't that cold, the fire will burst into life but if you need a fire before you freeze to death, it won't even smoke!

I'm not bitter!  No, no.  Lazy, perhaps!  I like my petrole but is it me or are the bidons getting heavier to lift into a caddy?  Old age I expect.

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What about wood burners, aren't they easier than open fires? We have oil central heating but are going through renovations and are thinking of adding a wood burner or two to top up the rads. But you guys are putting me off [:)]
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Yep, we have two large glass fronted woodburners (use the oil c/h for an hour or so morning and evening). I have no probs with wood - we buy a load ready cut in August, it's stacked in the barn and one of us fills the log baskets every morning which takes ten mins.

I love them, the warmth, the focal point and the smell! We've probably got it down to a fine art now as I've had woodburners for donkeys years. But........I wish one of them ran the central heating!
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Proper wood burning central heating boilers (i.e. true boilers rather than a back boiler taking heat from a room file) tend to work on wood chips or pellets (these days). they have automatic feed mechanisms so you do not have to keep putting wood in them - they are fully automatic. You do need a little more space as the fuel is bulkier.

You do get the tax credit for them, but also, they are expensive. However, the fuel is pretty cheap. I do not know what the expected payback would be on one compared to e.g. oil or gas.

Ian
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It's all a matter of choice as had been said.  However, we have five electric heaters in our home, which consists of five rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom.  We are chilly mortals so expect them to run at 19 during the day and put them up to 22 on cold winter nights.  Our entire electricity bill which includes water heating, cooking plus all the other electricals in the house is 1200 euros a year. We don't think that's bad especially as we are retired and are here a lot.  Looking at an earlier post, I think we're right!

On the subject of solid fuel central heating, we had a heat exchanger on a multi-fuel burner back in the UK, which heated a 3-bedroomed house perefectly well (6 radiators).  It would burn anything, including smokeless coal and wood (provided the latter was properly seasoned).

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[quote user="zeb"]Yep, we have two large glass fronted woodburners (use the oil c/h for an hour or so morning and evening). I have no probs with wood - we buy a load ready cut in August, it's stacked in the barn and one of us fills the log baskets every morning which takes ten mins. I love them, the warmth, the focal point and the smell! We've probably got it down to a fine art now as I've had woodburners for donkeys years. But........I wish one of them ran the central heating![/quote]

At the moment we have one large woodburner and work on the same basis as Zeb - CH for an hour or so to warm bedroom and bathroom in the morning and woodburner the rest of the time.  Then, even in the dead of winter we just use an electric blanket for warmth in the bedroom at night.  If we have B&B guests it's a different matter and we have to use the CH to heat the whole of the house.  When our barn extension is ready (hopefully in a couple of months) we are installing a second, smaller woodburner, in what will be our private (as opposed to B&B guests) living room - again for Zeb's reasons of warmth, focal point and smell! [:D]

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[quote user="cooperlola"]

However, we have five electric heaters in our home, which consists of five rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom.  We expect them to run at 19 during the day and put them up to 22 on cold winter nights.  Our entire electricity bill is 1200 euros a year.

[/quote]

I would be interested to know what sort of electric heaters these are, and if they were expensive to buy, as there seem to be many different kinds available.

Thanks in advance

Sue

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[quote user="Spg"][quote user="cooperlola"]

However, we have five electric heaters in our home, which consists of five rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom.  We expect them to run at 19 during the day and put them up to 22 on cold winter nights.  Our entire electricity bill is 1200 euros a year.

[/quote]

I would be interested to know what sort of electric heaters these are, and if they were expensive to buy, as there seem to be many different kinds available.

Thanks in advance

Sue

[/quote]They are what I believe are known as "panneau" heaters - very slim and attach to the wall.  They were in the house when we bought it so I cannot tell you about the price.  The thermostat works by remote control so no extra wiring needed.  The previous tennants had plugged these into wall sockets but my electrician has since connected them direct to free up socket space. I'll see if I can see something similar in a cataglogue to point you in the right direction.

Found it.  Here  http://particuliers.edf.fr/article59.html

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Thanks for the info - it is most helpful.

The reason for my interest is: we are renting our house and we have found that one of the wall-heaters in the living-room has a defective thermostat, so it needs replacing. As this is an 11 year old convector heater, which are very cheap to buy but expensive to run, we are hoping to persuade the landlord - who is regarded locally as a notorious miser - to buy a more efficient and economical heater. Hence the need for research. Fingers crossed he will agree to our request. Worth a try anyway.

Sue

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[quote user="cooperlola"]

It's all a matter of choice as had been said.  However, we have five electric heaters in our home, which consists of five rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom.  We are chilly mortals so expect them to run at 19 during the day and put them up to 22 on cold winter nights.  Our entire electricity bill which includes water heating, cooking plus all the other electricals in the house is 1200 euros a year. We don't think that's bad especially as we are retired and are here a lot.  Looking at an earlier post, I think we're right!

[/quote]

Cooperlola,

From your comment above I assume you are using your French house as a holiday home not a permanent residence. Could you possibly expand on the 1200E / year figure and say when and for how long you use the electric heating.

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We live here permantently.  The heating is on all the time from October to the end of April.  We cook, use tellies, computers, hi-fi's etc the rest of the time. (Just one electric ring on the hob, three others are gas).  Having said that, the house is very well insulated with the modern reflective type insulation on the entire roof.  Walls are about 2 feet thick too! Also, it's double glazed throughout.
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