Do you know what the government assistance is regarding the installtion of panels? With my depleted hearing and the difficulties I have in French on the telephone, I am waiting for them to come back to me otherwise.
Due to my practice of ignoring phone calls that I do not recognise I have missed at least one from EDF and, quite by chance yesterday, because I heard someone talking when I flipped the lid yesterday without speaking, I was able to say to the lady ‘please only sms or email, as promised’. On verra.
It doesn’t apply to tenants unfortunately, so I didn’t complete it myself.
Edit: although looking at it again, I’m not sure if that simulator is for just having the panels installed. It’s maybe for when getting the whole shebang done.
I always like the idea of underfloor, but I’ve been in 2 houses now that have it, and they’ve always felt cold to me. One of them always has a supplementary oil filled electric radiator in the room to make it bearable. I wouldn’t have it in my own home out of choice.
My house is very cosy thanks to it and as I like being barefoot and sitting on the floor, I particularly appreciate it, it is really nice especially in bathrooms. My floor acts as a storage heater and I love it. Part of the house has radiators and cold floors and I don’t like it!
Thats really down to how they are setup, you can have the same problem with a std radiator. There is a building in I think its Islington where the architect built pipework into a wall in the same way as underfloor so the whole wall becomes a radiator.
I’m currently living in a passive ish house with an earth floor, no central heating and just one wood burner in the middle of the main room.
It is permanently toasty and during the coldest parts of the winter we only lit the fire around 5/6 pm and some mornings if I was working at my desk and thus liable to feel chilly.
Insulation is key!
Our three storey stone-built C14th house has a log burner on the ground floor that very effectively heats top floor bedrooms through a mixture of a duct and convection up the staircases. How effective this type of system is will vary enormously according to the individual property. Wood sourcing and storage is sometimes problematic as it’s very much a variable according to where you are and how much space you have. Also some people aren’t that good at tending a stove (I’m married to one!)
We also have air sourced heat pumps that were already installed when we bought the house, but found they were insufficient in our first cold winter and are now used mainly for cooling/dehumidifying which is much more pleasant and cheaper to run than their a/c mode.
Lastly, we also have a pellet burner on the middle floor which was easily installed, is very effective and economical, with instant heat, pellets easily sourced and stored can be controlled with an app if needed.
So not a simple answer to your query, but I hope it might contain some useful info.
Nevertheless, many people in France seem unaware of how the dehumidifier function may be preferable to A/C. It’s not just useful in SE Asia and Florida.
Our house is effectively a new house insulation wise wrapped in a 18th century facade with internal original features preserved.
Heating and hot water orovided by log burner with wrap around boiler. When the fire isnt used the system automatically switches to off peak electric for hot water.
System is good and cheap to run but does entail manual loading of the fire and when we go out in the winter the heating goes off as no one to load the fire.
There is also the dust and dirt which even being careful when loading the fire is hard to aviod.
We decided to look at air to water heat pump and have had 2 quotes, 18k and 14k with 2.5k grant.
Nice idea not to use bois de chaffage and have heating when we are not at home.
The cost isn’t a problem but justifying spending it certainly is (Yorkshire blood).
We have decided to continue as is for a while longer.
Couldn’t agree more Gus. Not used any heating hardly at all this winter, the sun does it for me free. We have water flowing in the Agly and Tet at the moment too which is a good sign although the barrage at Vinça might have been opened because of the ongoing snow up high.
My family contacted EDF about panels but just too expensive because a bank loan would be needed and they worked it out that they would not get any benefit because of the repayments monthly on the loan and they want to move eventually so would be paying out for someone else to benefit. They did not qualify for any grant either although they were led to believe they could get one so check that carefully if you do decide.
