Covering your windows with solar film really helps. I have just fitted a removable (during winter) film which cuts out 87% of heat from the sun. Possible to get up to 95%, many different colours available. https://www.luminis-films.com/
Hummm. In the Charente, windows are designed to be higher than across to profit from the sun and when the heat is oppressive, best to close the shutters. With the sun at full height during the summer, less sun reaches into the room but during the winter with the sun lower in the sky, it reaches further.
Thatâs the design concept anywayâŠ
No need to close the shutters now 
Youâre not kidding.
Before we moved full-time, we once drove down for a week break in Feb. On arrival it was 5degC in the house. Obviously we immediately lit the only log-burner that we had at the time and the temperature rose by 1deg per hour but only for 5 hours. After that initial burst of heat into the air everything else was just sucked into the fabric of the house and the temperature barely rose at all.
Now weâre here full time itâs much easier to keep the mass of the house warm and cosy - usually running 1 or 2 of the 3 log-burners in the later afternoon & evening is enough.
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During the last 10 days or so (since the relatively cold weather started) Iâve noticed that the temperature in our house is dropping by around half a degree C a day.
Iâm thinking of putting on our gas central heating 24x7 set at 19.5 to 20C, hoping that this will maintain the heat in the house at minimal cost.
Weâre obviously opening the shutters and curtains during the day and closing them at dusk.
This year rather than use electric heaters to eliminate cold spots Iâm having extra small CH radiators fitted.
Some years ago when we lived in the Allier, a Dutch resident showed us his house (for sale) in which he had oil central heating to cast iron radiators. His take on this was to keep the heating going 24/7 as low as he could manage without the burner going out. His view was that it would feed the stone walls as a heat-sink and maintain a more constistant temperature. It seemed to work and he didnât spend that much on fuel in a year.
The same heat-sink principle is used very successfully with the polystyrene bricks (EPS) filled with concrete.
Thereâs definitely a âthermal massâ effect in our old stone house with thick walls, etc - slow to heat up but equally very slow to cool down; we also have the south-facing -windows-in-thick-walls effect - shaded when the sun is high, maximum warming when itâs low. It really works.
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Welcome to the club!
After I refused the Linky, they hit me with an invoice for 2049,67 euros! I changed to Total and since I am reading my meter on a weekly basis and keep a record.
Tomorrow I am heading to the consumer Protection Service and see, whether they will do something about it!
EDF knows about the dicscrepancies and such a company is being traded at the Paris Stock Exchange!
Weâve had weird estimated readings, but they have always been rectified in the end. Partly because we had a 3 month winter booking in the gite one year which drove up our energy use and has taken a couple of years for the estimates to reset themselves.
But I thought Linky was being rolled out nationally no matter what provider you use. Having resisted one for a while Iâm actually quite pleased with it now as can really see where energy use is coming from.
Thank you! Just signed up.
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I have a completely open living room and kitchen with a 5.75m ceiling! The volume of the just the living room and kitchen is 350m3. On top of that I am next to a river and in a dip in the village so a restricted amount of sun. I used to suffer with a wood burner, every morning I felt like Cinderella having to clean out the fire and getting it going again to bring the temperature up asap. I couldnât store enough wood either as it had to go in the small garage, try buying dry wood around here in winter! Then every 2 days I had to drag wood through the house and store it around the fire; a hard and messy job!
Last summer I changed to a pellet burner; what an eye opener! It is on a timer so lights itself in the morning before I get up, I have a portable parafin heater too that is on a timer set to come on when the pellet burner goes off before I go to bed. The oil burner is set to its minimum temp so is basically on stand-by putting out a minimum of heat but itâs enough to keep any chill away and 5L of oil lasts 4 nights. Before I get up and turn the oil heater off they are both on giving a morning boost. I have a fan on the ceiling where I noticed the heat builds up and this has given a much more even temperature throughout, it is always on. Also storing pellets is so much cleaner and easier and you can buy them all year round if you run out although a little more expensive. Cleaning is a doddle - a quick 2 minute hoover and hardly any residue at all compared to wood. No ash dust covering everything as you get with wood having to open the burner door several times a day; you only open the pellet burner door to clean it when itâs off so no dust at all. No more Cinderella!
One thing that I noticed is since having a bedroom, that is directly off the living room, completely insulated it gets enough heat from the living room so insulation is the key. I have recently spoken to Total Energy and they advised that you can get the 1 euro deal for replacing old insulation that is over 5 years old with modern efficient material. They are coming to make a survey in April. I am also going to insulated under the floor as I have been putting lots of rugs down in winter to help.
One thing that astounded me that I read is the amount of air required to burn both wood and pellets and this air is must come from the outside and is cold!
Since the pellet burner has an intake pipe that goes through the wall to the outside I am no longer drawing in cold air through any gaps in the floors etc. I have really noticed how cold draughts no longer exist in my house since the pellet burner arrived - no more cold ankles!
I have a 200L cumulus which is overkill for one person but needed when I have visitors so Iâm having a second cumulus fitted of 50L and Iâll use that for winter and probably most of the year now! I donât mind using the 200L tank as it will only be during summer months.
Allin all what has been noted throughout this thread is that insulation is the key and I completely agree; even if you have 70cm solid stone walls you donât need to heat them if you have efficient insulation between you and them! Of course aethetics is another thing!
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With all that said, I pay 65 euros/month to Total Energy for 9kVA(a 10% reduction on EDFs tarif, in Feb I used 215kWh) using D/W, W/M, microwave, 70cm F/F, one fan on 24/7, pellet burner on for 15 hours a day (unless itâs sunny, then between midday and 4pm I sit in the garden even in December!), oil heater (has blower and on 10hrs a day), 11 lamps (all LED and mostly on timers), Mac (on constantly with all energy saving buttons pushed), big amplifier playing all day and evening but on timer so switched off at night. I donât have a TV and cooking is bottled gas, which costs 30 euros a bottle and lasts over a year even though I cook every night. I donât have an oven either but recently bought a free standing hot air oven which I use to make pizzas and cakes a couple of times a week.
Not sure how that compares to everyone esle for a house of 165msq but I hope it helps.
Interesting post. Thanks for your view on pellet burners. Our place is a new build wood framed single level property with very good insulation. 120 mÂČ
We use an old Godin cylindrical wood burner in our open plan lounge/kitchen which is quite efficient and attractive to look at when not in use (although a pig to light sometimes if the outside atmospherics are not helpful) and had been considering a pellet burner until someone mentioned the constant noise element from the fan and the pellets dropping in the hopper which in a sitting area could be quite annoying.
Do you experience that and what model burner do you have?
Hi Graham, I was slightly worried about that too but I really havenât noticed it, or got used it. Itâs a gentle blow to be honest and I sit close to it when Iâm on the computer 1.5m away. The dropping of pellets is audible but more like a tinkle than anything. I rarely sit in silence being a musician!
As I mentioned with all the benefits I would put up with a lot more noise from it than I actually have!
I bought mine second hand, itâs a Sicalor Matisse, 10.5kw, one of the nicest looking ones Iâve seen. It was 800 euros. My only gripe is that on its lowest setting it is sometimes too hot even in a 350m3 room! I have thought about investing in a brand new one that I can control via Alexa and also my phone and that has an even lower low setting but now Iâm just being picky! You can also get ones that can pipe hot air throughout the house and even heat your water, you probably know that. Have a look at this one:
CrĂ©dits fidĂ©litĂ© : 5,95 âŹ. 
PoĂȘle Ă granulĂ©s air Frida - 8 kW - Blanc
PoĂȘle Ă granulĂ©s air Frida, couleur blanc, idĂ©al pour vous tenir au chaud durant tout lâhiver
Nous aimons :
- Le creuset en fonte qui optimise la combustion des granulés, tout en atténuant le bruit de chute des granulés
- La classe Ă©nergĂ©tique A et de forts rendements qui permettent de rĂ©duire lâimpact sur lâenvironnement et rĂ©aliser des Ă©conomies
- La double Ă©vacuation des fumĂ©es qui vous permet dâĂȘtre libre dans le choix de lâinstallation du produit
- Le dĂ©marrage rapide qui permet dâatteindre la tempĂ©rature souhaitĂ©e rapidement
Voir la fiche technique complĂšte
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Digressing slightly - has anyone used/tried the Smart TRVs for radiators? Can they be programmed or are they just expensive TRVs (ie - 24 hour - 7 day type program like a normal thermostat)
I was finally going to put a thermostat into the house - but saw some programmable TRVs and searching also threw up Smart TRVs but I canât work out if I can programme them or just up/down in real time from a phone
Iâm generally thinking forget the house thermostat - if I can program rads/TRVs that would suit the house better - or suit how we live/use the house better.
We have a small (80m2) old stone house in Gironde heated by electric radiators. They have built in timers and thermostats but are quite complex. Our electricity bill is 140 euros per month.
Recently my wife noticed that the radiators were on full blast at 3am - which they shouldnât have been.
Eventually after a lot of adjusting she has managed to get them to actually work for just the times we want. This was in December 2020. The timers were simply not intuitive.
The above chart from Total Direct Energy App using data from Linky shows our reduced usage since the adjustment with a reduction of approx 33% - which is fantastic.
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