No, as I explained, even though the air outside, to us, is cold in winter, there is still thermal energy in that cold air that can be extracted and turned into heat, by the heat pump.
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Yes, as long as you have a good heat distribution system (enough radiators or, better still, under-floor heating). This is why heat pumps are so popular in Norway, for example.
Heat pumps have improved a lot in recent years and can now match gas boilers in heating ability.
Because as I said above they only work in modern ultra insulated buildings and then only marginally
That’s no longer true if the system is properly specced, but the running costs may be higher.
We’re happy with 19-20C and we’d use the wood burners when we needed to, for ambience and for when it was particularly cold.
Sorry, but that’s nonsense, As stated previously ,our house is 600 years old and they work very well for us.
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I was talking about UK of course where it is 100% true according to heating engineers I know who regard them as a joke for 95% of homes. May well be different in France as I said.
Most of us are citing personal experiences of using these systems in our homes in France, where they’re very common, rather than hearsay from electricians in the UK, where they seem to be a comparative novelty.
Also the thread keeps going back to heating, whereas for many of us in the Midi, we use them more for cooling - fan or dehumidifier or ac.
I do understand that not all of France has the same requirements… 
Personally, we need heating in winter…
we haven’t needed aircon or dehumidifiers for all our years in France so far… although the climate is changing, so who knows what the future holds…
I’ll just keep an eye on those around us… if someone locally has the air to air fitted, I reckon the rest of us will be keen to see how it works out for comfort and costs.
thanks for everyone’s input… 
I did start off referring to UK at the start of the thread. Interesting though to know they can be used for cooling which is not so much of an issue here!
in ‘normal’ soil, in the N hemisphere, if you put a thermometer on the surface it will read it’s maximum in July / August.
However, if you place the thermometer 2m underground, it will read it’s maximum in January.
That is perfect for a heat pump.
Many ‘heating engineers’ in the UK barely understand combi boilers. Heat pumps are beyond them. Younger ones are more with it. I suggest the ones you know are of the former lot…
To be fair heat pumps in the UK winter suffer poor efficiency, Brittany has the same problem. The intake air is damp and just above freezing.
That means the pump will drop it to below freezing and, in doing so, I’ve will readily firm on the heat exchanger.
If the intake air is -10° it will be relatively dry so there’s not nearly so much icing.
No they are contemporaries of my sons one of whom works for a heating company… in UK heat pumps just don’t work for most buildings at present.
Going back to the original thread, why dosn’t the OP get some quotes in from reliable installers to see what sort of money and if possible, what help they could get as its the installers usually who deal with government grants. It costs nothing to do this but do not sign up for anything until you have a fair few ideas. Personally speaking, the mainproblem will be the construction of the house walls which will need piercing and what costs the money, hence why back in Bretagne I could never have entertained it with metre thick solid granite walls but here in this new build, they are installed as compulsory now as are the flat shower floors because trays are no longer installed (only in houses already constructed and older). I have and am very happy with my reversable air to air and the savings alone on electricity for the water heating are half of my previous standard chauffe-eau ballon system!
sorry for slight thread drift… but you live alone… how big is your hot water tank??
Our hot water comes from the oil boiler or a kettle… and we’re wondering about a separate HW tank for summertime… there’s only the 2 of us 99% of the time and the washing machine takes coldwater only… no dishwasher now… so not really much HW usage…
My tank is 270 litres whereas the old standard chauffe-eau was the 200litre size. You could put a small chauffe-eau for say 100litres in seperately, I had one in my rear building that family used and the big one in themain house. Have a look round the likes of Leroy Merlin to see what is on offer and even a damaged outer shell unit can save you hundreds of euros like my son got €500 off a €1500 new unit that had a couple of dents on the casing.
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Hi Rice Pudding, thanks for this information.
I looked up this unit and it appears to cost in excess of £10,000. Then there would be the cost of ancillary equipment and the costs of installation. Maybe £20,000? Does anyone know what level of grant aid you might receive from the French authorities for this?
Perhaps try this
I have a very old electric water heater and an equally aged oil-fired boiler. I hate the fact that the oil tanks (2 x 500 litres) are in the sous-sol right next to a structural wall - if there was ever a substantial oil leak the potential for serious structural damage frightens me.
My oil-fired central heating would heat my little house (2 bedrooms, one living, one kitchen and a bathroom) through the winter, but during the past week I have been sitting indoors, sweating, in the middle of the day. One or two nights have been a bit muggy. I don’t have any ‘cooling’.
However, when I read this -
- this would seem to do everything I would need, cool me in summer and heat me in winter. I love the chunky old radiators that I have, so I guess I would have options: install a single external unit which supplied 4 internal units -one in each of the main rooms, and/or have it feed my lovely cast iron radiators with hot water through the winter.
That said, I would be quite happy to retire the radiators and leave them in situ as a reminder of the past!
To those of you who understand these things, am I right?