Heaters

[Peterh]

We are anticipating cold weather when we are at our house at the end of the month and we will need some free standing heaters.  We have seen petrol heaters advertised in France and wonder whether they have any advantages over electric heaters. Secondly are electric heaters cheaper in France than in England? If we take them from England I anticipate having to pay about £40 for a 3 kw output with thermostat and timer. How does that compare with French prices?

I know that we should have looked when last over but didn't think about the cold when the sun was shining,  which it did occasionally.  Any help would be much appreciated.

Peter

[Lori]

I can't honestly tell you what the price per KW hour is, but I can tell you that we gave the electric heaters a try last winter - to compare fuel over electricity (yes, we are crazy). The 3 electric heaters we used brought us the largest power bill we have ever had. We were quickly brought into reality that electric heaters cost a fortune ! And, we turned them off every time we went out. Stick to the petrol based ones. That way, you don't get a whopping bill after the fact.

Lori

[Diana]

Last winter when our ancient central heating system was playing up, some days it would work and others not, we bought some and borrowed some parafin heaters.  They were brilliant.  Going from memory there are 3 grades of parafin the cheapest is best used in a green house as it stinks.  I could not really tell the differnce between the next two apart from the price so we opted for the mid range one.  A full tank of parafin would last 24 hours on a good heat and you could get 5-6 days worth from the large plastic container it came in for about 20euros.  We also borrowed a calor gas heater but only used it once as even on a very low setting a cylinder only lasted 2.5 days. I can't remember how much the cylinders are but very expensive compared to parafin.  If you are going to buy a parafin heater I would suggest getting a large one with the largest area befind to reflect the heat forwards,  As I said we had several different ones and the big one seemed to work twice as well without using twice as much parafin.

I don't wish to gloat but right at this moment we are having our new boiler installed so am looking forward to a nice warm winter.

Diana

[Jackie]

Can I support the view that electric heating is very expensive to run. Paraffin is pétrole, for God's sake don't put petrol in them, I am sure that you knew that! These heaters are very good and only smell just after turning off for a short time. The refill you can get from a large tank into your old container from some places can smell a bit but we have had no problems with the pre-filled plastic containers you can buy off the shelf. You always have a source of heat available during power cuts too. I reckon running costs about 4 pence a unit equivalent.

We buy 20 litre containers from Bricomarche or E. LeClercs about 14 to 15 Euros each this year, they are on promo at the moment and we don't buy the expensive stuff at more than 20 euros. The price is a little higher this year as is car fuel etc but that is down to oil prices I guess. We have a Zibro Kamlin poêle à  pétrole and are very happy with it. It has an output of about 3kW. When it gets colder we light the log burning stove but use the poêle à pétrole in the mornings to warm the place up........................John in Dept 79

[Caz<H2><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=3>Carole (87)<FONT><H2>]

We completed in November last year and managed quite nicely with two mobile calor gas heaters until we fitted poeles.  They are still really useful for warming up small areas quickly or places where you dont need heat all the time.

Only criticism would be that the bottles dont last that long if you are using them continuously but they are easily available at all petrol stations and if you are only there for the occasional winter break then it doest work out too expensive.

Carole

[Richard-R]

We have a couple of petrole heaters as back-up for the electric rads. Keep one in the fire place now. We found burning wood dirty and keeping it dry a pain, oh and going out to the wood pile in the p***ing rain not much fun. They work very well. There cost in the Brico's seem to range a bit-from 60 euros to 700 euros. Our 150 euro heater in the fire place is very good and a real god send when we have had power outage's. Also very easy to see the amount of fuel that you have left, unlike gaz. The best bet is to have a range of heating. Portable heaters are good because they can be moved room to room.