Hi all
Would love some advice about buying and installing a wood burner with boiler which would run 8 rads plus underfloor heating for two rooms, don’t need it for hot water.
We’re in the Nontron area so any recommended installers, suppliers or your tales of experience would be welcome!
Have to replace old handmade stove which previous owner had built ‘Heath Robinson’ style.
Cheers
Joan
sorry email address is tegwyn.GREENAWAY @wanadoo.fr i found them originally in French property news where they advertised i have had a quick look but i cant find the site advertised in the latest issue if i come across it i,ll send it on sorry about wrong name
Many thanks Bryan
Have tried to google them but nothing showing up, will try more research tomorrow.
Cheers
Joan
Try these people i found them very helpful tegwyn.green@wanadoo.fr this is their email but i am sure you can find them under their name.they mainly sell what you want but i think they can install if you are close,the stove i wanted was going to be a hunter with a detachable back boiler they do both either fitted or you can fit it one on price was excellent they can deliver anywhere in france for a reasonable cost. in the end though we went for bottled gas central heating as my wife pointed out do you really want to be out in the cold cutting wood when you are old and croutchy.i,m crouchy now but hey wives are usually right in the long term
Many thanks to everyone…we’re back in Scotland now for a few weeks, will continue to research this topic, so any further comments most welcome.
Cheers from Scotland
Joan
I don’t think so, there was loads of reports on forums from people who had these type of boilers installed who then found it didn’t heat the house whilst they spent all day feeding logs into it. There was other info around that seemed to back him up. Wood gasification boilers have to be connected to a large accumulater the heating is then fed through a coil within it. when the heat store is satisfied the boiler cuts off, the logs sit and smoulder until the fan kicks in and they burst into life again.The problem most people seem to have had is that they undersized the accumulater so the heating system quickly cools the heat store and thus the boiler never cuts out. I have been a heating engineer for 44 years and it makes sense to me.
Hi John,
I need to muddy your waters a bit by saying please don’t be put off with water panels. Your quote is definitely too high for an average sized house (you don’t live in a chateau, I take it?)By the way I dont sell the panels, I just know a bit about them.
The main starting point is, have you got a suitable south or south facing area to instal the panels and secondly there’s a whole government department here designed to encourage installation and provide free professional, independent advice.www.ademe.gouv.fr
http://www2.ademe.fr/servlet/KBaseShow?sort=-1&cid=96&m=3&catid=12430
I specialise in secondhand stoves from France and am looking for a French contractor to partner up with at the moment, so would be happy to give you a free quote over the next few months…I’m in the UK from 5th-12th so if you like, can advise for free when I get home. 0549034953…photos of your situation would help, plus as many details as possible about your current system and what you need re-energy usage.
Andy the scottish advice sounds a bit iffy to me. What reason did they give you for using a boiler twice the size of the one you need? Was it anything to do with the size boiler they needed to sell, perchance?
Hello Joan, welcome to the group.
I’m an eco-artisan renovater of French antique and secondhand woodstoves. There are lots of advantages to heating with wood but it needs to be suitable for your situation.here are 3 incentives I know about in France…
Avantages fiscaux du chauffageau bois :
crédit d’impôt sur le matériel posé ;
TVA à 5,5 % si l’installation est faite par un professionnel ;
aide de l’Anah (Agence nationale de l’habitat).
Vous trouverez des informations sur les aides et subventions liées à un chauffage au bois auprès de l’Ademe et sur le site Internet du ministère des finances (rubrique impôts).
I would disagree with John and definitely not rule out solar water heating, because if you are renovating or new-building you might save thousands of euros in a very short time with a 2 panel system. Water panels are the best investment/return of any of the renewable energy systems.BUT… …You need a SOUTH or SOUTH WEST facing roof, or space on the ground, to instal water-heating panels. It should provode a minimum of 40% of all your heating needs, even in winter.
There are free advisors in France, via this site
http://www2.ademe.fr/servlet/KBaseShow?sort=-1&cid=96&m=3&catid=12430
and IT’S SPLIT INTO REGIONS.
if you can’t speak french, ADEME may help you find a free advisor who can speak english.
Paying someone to help with translation/liason and who knows a bit about heating systems in their appropriate settings, will anyway probably save thousands in the long run, by getting the right advice tailored to suit your situation.
I specialise in finding secondhand systems for people, but new ones are coming through all the time and can be very, very efficient. if you need any more help feel free to contact me 0549034953.
I looked into and got very enthused about installing a wood gasification boiler which in theory burn at very high efficiencies and only need topping up with wood about every 24-48 hours. After hours (days?) of reading stuff on the web, I found so much conflicting information my head was spinning. It was clear if you get it wrong it’s a disaster, I finally found someone in Scotland who gave me the sound advise that you need a boiler double the output of the house and accumulater for a 60KW boiler which if I can remember was about 3000L. I found suppliers and priced it all up for around 14,000 euros including a solar system to heat the cylinder in the summer, As I am heating engineer I would have fitted it myself. I decided that the logistics of installing a boiler the size of a morris minor and a cylinder two metres wide were just out of the question, it’s true as well as oil, 14K buys a lot of gas. In the end I fitted a solar system including cylinder for about €2K which works like a dream, I will have to put with the horrendous gas bills for the heating system I have now but learn to rely on it less. If I had my time over again starting renovation ( with a lot more money) I would have liked to have given it a go.
I know that’s not quite the system you had in mind Joan.
Hi John
Very interesting, it’s a mine field…will keep up the research for now. Off back to Scotland, a lot colder there.
Will sort this out when we return in December.
Thanks
Joan
Hi Joan for the last 6 months i have been going through the same process trying to find a wood burner to run 5 radiators, having contacted a number of companies who all want to fit a wood burner and solar panels and want to charge 100 euro for a survey but as soon as i say no to solar panels their interest wanes and i hear no more off them, we have oil heating and its very convenient but expensive so thought of wood as we already have a wood burner in the kitchen even had a estimate to remove the oil burner and fit a pellet burner keeping all the radiator system but at 18000 euro no thanks, that would buy us enough oil to last about 15 years so it looks like we stay with the oil going green is a bit to expensive