Relative cost of energy and heating a pool

[Tony Orsman]

Having read through the thread on oil or gas heating, I'd be interested to know if anyone has experience with solar heating for either domestic hot water or a pool.

We're building a house in Languedoc, so plenty of sunshine, but nobody in the village uses solar - why not?

The data I have on costs shows that oil is cheapest with town gas about the same. Propane is about double and roughly the same price as EDF Tempo. EDF normal rate is about double Tempo. Please can someone give me typical costs for these per KWh.

We're planning to use Propane for CH and the pool as we don't have natural gas in the village. We could use oil but want to cook with gas. It's also cleaner. The alternative for the pool is a heat pump but the installation cost means a 5-7 year pay back compared to Propane. For hot water we plan to use electricity plus solar. The reason being that for solar you need a large hot water reservoir so a gas combi isn't a suitable partner. Or does someone else know better?

I believe the rigid glazed solar panels used for hot water are not suitable for heating pools because a pool requires so much greater volumes of warm water. Can anyone confirm this.

Has anybody tried using the heat from the pool to warm the house in winter via a heat pump?

Any information about almost any aspect of heating system selection gratefully received.

[Mazan]

>We're building a house in Languedoc,
>so plenty of sunshine, but
>nobody in the village uses
>solar - why not?

Because the French just aren't interested in this technology. I haven't the faintest idea why not. Probably because it all comes from abroad.

I know someone locally who bought solar heating equipment for a pool and it came from New Zealand/Australia via an Englishman living in the Dordorge!


>The data I have on costs
>shows that oil is cheapest
>with town gas about the
>same. Propane is about double
>and roughly the same price
>as EDF Tempo. EDF normal
>rate is about double Tempo.

Sounds right to me.


>Please can someone give me
>typical costs for these per
>KWh.

Full-rate electricity is about 50cts/kwh IIRC.


>We're planning to use Propane for
>CH

Is that the giant tank or the very large bottles?
I wouldn't have either.