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Oil Central heating


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Having spent a few cold weeks in Jan and March huddled round a wood stove, we think we have to include central heating in our renovation plans, everyone seems to say oil (we have water and electricity) but what specification?; our place is a 2up 2down fermette and if we were in the Uk with gas we would buy a wall mounted condensing combination boiler. In the UK we had several Vaillants (German); but being oil and in France we have little idea what would fit this spec locally, any recommendations anyone?
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hi seems no one has had a go heres mine

first how big is your 2up2down where are you is wood cheap where u r , this is just my thoughts that an oil fired heating system will cost x to in stall , good insulation will cost y, and your little wood burner might then be warm enough for the winters with say a       type fire for the coldest nights

            dave

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Hi! We have two up; two down but one of those rooms is huge with mezzanine - total area of house is 153 sq mtrs.

Plumber (French) installed oil central heating two and a half years ago, we also have huge  woodburners (Supra and Godin) which are both excellent but we still need the heating for background and bath/shower rooms as the winters here in rural Charente are sooooo long and cold!!

We have Ferroli boiler and 11 rads plus 2500ltr tank. Oil prices have increased since so you have to factor that in (at the moment 0.45 per ltr HT) and the installation for us was around 8000 euros. You can obviously DIY cheaper buying parts and boiler at places like BricoDepot but we are extremely happy with ours and really glad that it was done ready for our first winter here!

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We had oil central heating, 12 rads, installed 2 years ago and left it all to the installers who we were very happy with as they installed everything in our newly decorated house with hardly a mark.

Cost was €9500, with a Die Dietrich boiler which seems very good. You can do a certain amount DIY but around here (11) they will only sell boilers to professional plumbers unless you have committed yourself to a devis from one who will do the work.

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Hi all

thanks for the replies, our place is about 129 sq mtrs, though we are still waiting for the architect to confirm dimensions. Since the bedroom ceilings and floors are rotten these have to be replaced and raised up into the roof to give us more head room. The old suspended timber ground floor is also rotten and may be replaced with a concrete floor which we are being invited to consider underfloor heating. Mainly however the smoke from the wood smoke literally gets up Sues nose, (my eyes really weren't stinging, honest!) so wood is just going to be an occasional novelty. She also expects instant non stop supplies of hotwater: as at home in the UK! so we like the combi boilers delivery of this. As for budget, I am hoping to disguise this in the initial budget! and have a minimal system for background and hotwater installed, which we might add to later..

Are the Die Dietrich or Ferroli boilers combi? does anyone run underfloor heating off them? 

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If by combi you mean heats water as well our Die Dietrich boiler would do this except that we already had a 200ltr water heater which is very efficient. Whilst electricity is not cheap, neither is oil now!
The boiler is also in our utility room so it would be too hot in there in the summer I think.

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DIY costs for 200m2

Lamborghini oil boiler (32kw) with Deville Burner 741 EUR

17 Rads 630 EUR

Bunded 1000L oil tank 617 EUR

Pump, Expansion vessel, gauge and security valve 160 EUR

Pipe and all fittings 440 EUR

TRVs and rad valves 290 EUR

Oil pipe and tank fitting kit and filter 110 EUR

6m Flue and fittings 210 EUR

Grand total of materials 3198 EUR

Never seen a skint plumber, have you?

 

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Thanks for the very detailed info!

Did you get the price details off the web?

What is the best supplier?

Is the Lamborghini a Combi boiler (instant hot water to the tap without a tank?)

Sounds brilliant if it is just for the name!!...

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These are prices I have just paid. They are a mix of Leroy Merlin and local Tout Faire depot. I should also point out that you can do cheaper too. We went for Stainless steel for the flue, for instance, and chrome TRVs...and plumbers get a trade discount of course.

This is not a combi, we have electric Chauffe-Eaus. A "combi" version will cost you about 800 - 1000 EUR more. Note that they are not actually combis as such. There is a small (90-120L normally) ballon (tank) within the boiler case. The boiler automatically keeps this hot as you use water. The ballon only takes about 20 minutes to fully reheat. In practice, you never run out of hot water. The good thing about these is the hot water is at mains pressure, without any restriction that a combi would impose on the flow rate. Superb showers.

Oil combis all work this way. An oil boiler relies on a massive cast iron (fonte) heat exchanger and a burner that requires some 10-20 seconds to fire up. You would be rather cheesed off waiting for 10 minutes for hot water!!!

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[quote]LPG is more expensive than oil and town gas, is highly contractual, and is a big, ugly tank to hide! At least with oil you can shove it in a garage....or bury it. If you had town gas....[/quote]

Underground LPG tanks are available but I agree it is an expensive form of fuel.

ian

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[quote]Thanks for info, I hadn't realised how different the combi's were. Why do people not use tank gaz? Does that this mean that the comparative costs for gaz tank installation and combi's and tank gaz us...[/quote]

Oil (fioul) is still cheaper than gaz but it has increased in price considerably in the last 2 years and so has gaz.  Gaz has a high yearly maintenance charge for the tank and also a contract that if you cancel before it's expiry can be costly.

So if you you are starting from scratch i would say go for oil.

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