Decision time

[Sans Souci]

Our old furnace has heated it's last liter of water and it is time to decide on how to handle our 7 month heating requirement.
The plumber has quoted 8 000 euros for a replacement chaudiere and I am not apt to consider that much and we will also have to replace the radiators.
As we are only here for 7 months - April through October and have 3 fireplaces, I was thinking off just using electric panel heating.  Someone then suggested to just use a moveable Delonghi style heater as it uses less energy, is more efficient, lower first cost and can be moved out of the way when not needed.  Seems reasonable.
I am also getting a price on a pompe chaleur system which is a great alternative and cost effective with the French gov't tax rebates - but the supplier could not tell me if I would qualify as this is a maison secondaire and I live in the US and file taxes in the US.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this also.
Thanks in advance for any advise.

[Kitty]

Look through the threads on the Tempo system of electricity in France.  You will save a lot of money if you only live in France during the 'blue' period, where the tariff is much cheaper.  See below, for example:

 http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1192607/ShowPost.aspx

[Dave&Olive]

hi ok

   why not get a second hand one ??? loads on this site

http://www.leboncoin.fr/vi/11105311.htm?ca=20_s

 Dave

[Nick Trollope]

Coupla points;

1) All electric heaters are 100% efficient (unlike eg. a gas system). 100% of the energy used comes out as heat. It is just a matter of what "type" of heat they produce and what you do with it.

1.1) Don't waste your money on cheap panel radiators, they are not nice to live with...

2) Heat pumps are more than 100% efficient in as much that they extract energy from something (free) other than the electrical supply. They are certainly not free to install; the cost and disruption can be mind-boggling. The cost recovery time is measured in generations....

3) To qualify for tax rebates you must be a French "taxpayer" (even if you don't pay tax) - you are not/can't be.

4) Tempo is not available for new customers any more - suprise, suprise!

 

[Monika]

We have wall mounted Electric heaters with a frost setting (our Project Manager suggested them) and we are very happy. We only use them as "back up" heaters because our woodburner heats our whole cottage. The De Longhi heaters are OK as a stand by but I think if you come to sell your cottage in the future something more permanent would be a selling point.