Alternative hot water souces (ie more than one)

[Maddie]

I'm having a bit of a crisis.  I had a new fioul chaudiere installed about 18 months ago for the central heating and hot water.  It was installed with my letting accommodation in mind - to cope with the no. of bathrooms/bedrooms etc.

However, it is my only source of hot water and as sod's law would have it, it has given up the ghost when I have guests here.

Was I stupid to go down that route?  After 12 months of very sucessful running I finally sold my old (also virtually new) electric water tank/heater.  I was told my my French plumber that it was not easy to connect the two together hence the disconnection and subsequent selling of it.  Now I am regretting my decision and worrying like mad what my guests may think.

Is it worth the extra expense of having some separate source of hot water "just in case" bearing in mind the fioul boiler is brilliant 99% of the time?

 

[Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>]

Whoever fitted your system SHOULD have been cognisant of your needs... clearly not!

You should have had a Ballon Rechauffage Mixte installed. You would then also have electric heating for the tank, both as back-up (your present problem), and as a means of heating the water in Summer when no requirement for heating and thus the boiler is necessary. There is very little price difference....

(You can put the tank on Heures Creuses tarif if that suits.)

In your situation, I would get the installer back and demand he give you a system that suits your needs, rather than what he had in his store at the time....at a discount.

On the other hand, it sounds like the guy is a bit useless....

[Maddie]

Not a very sympathetic response, but point taken.  As you have no idea who I used or who recommended him or how much it cost it's not really very fair to make such a comment, but he came very highly recommended to me (by my French bank manager) and I WOULD recommend him to anyone else.  The boiler is, in fact, state of the art and was definitely not what he had in his store at the time as I had to wait weeks for it to be ordered, delivered and installed.

Having made the change I would NEVER go back to electric water heating!  The fioul is far more efficient and far cheaper to run that electric and means we have on-demand hot water constantly (very much appreciated by guests) and don't pay a higher tariff for electricity during the day.  I had 500 litres of fioul delivered in April and the fioul gauge has barely moved between then and now - running hot water for 5 bathrooms!

My question is do any of you gite owners out there have more than one source for water heating?  If you have electric water heating do you have a back up in case of power failure? 

A simple question which did not really merit such a hostile response.

BTW It was fixed within 45 minutes of me calling the engineer and involved a very simple replacement part, at full temperature with a tank full of hot water within 10 minutes of his arrival and cost €63 inc parts, call out charge and tax and my guests were actually none the wiser!

[Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>]

I think you have missed my point. I was advocating the use of electricity as a BACK-UP, not as your prime source of hot water heating.

Therefore I was proposing an alternative form of water heating. Which is what we use, and fit. We own 3 Gites, by the way.

If you are happy with your plumber, fine. That's your business.

[Maddie]

[quote]I think you have missed my point. I was advocating the use of electricity as a BACK-UP , not as your prime source of hot water heating. Therefore I was proposing an alternative form of water heat...[/quote]

Owning 3 gites - you must be mad!!!!!   Where are you by the way?  Maybe you could come and have a look at my system and give me a quote for a back up.

 

 

 

[Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>]

La Mayenne....!

Dropping the off-site Gite shortly (sale pending) - it's too much!

[Maddie]

[quote]La Mayenne....! Dropping the off-site Gite shortly (sale pending) - it's too much![/quote]

Mmm, shame - a bit too far I reckon as I'm in the southern Haute Garonne!

Good luck with the sale!

[Liz]

[quote]I'm having a bit of a crisis. I had a new fioul chaudiere installed about 18 months ago for the central heating and hot water. It was installed with my letting accommodation in mind - to cope with t...[/quote]

To answer the original question (I think), we have fioul in our house and a chauffe eau in the gite which is next door.  We have a couple of taps to turn that enable us to route the hot water from the house to the gite or vice versa, in case of necessity if either system fails or sometimes from choice as we prefer the chauffe eau for hot water only when the central heating is not required.  So, in our particular case I could not agree with your plumber that it is difficult to connect the two together - yours of course may be different and in any case it's a bit late now!

 

I wouldn't be too worried about what your guests think, I certainly wouldn't be looking for a back up power supply.  It is awkward and embarassing when things like this happen but sensible people do understand that there can be occasional problems with their accommodation and it sounds as if you got it fixed pretty quick, which to me is the main thing.

 

Liz (29)