On the contrary, currently a fully functioning central heating system with 10 radiators and 2 towel rads with a 200 litre hot water tank. The air to water heat pump would be simply replacing the woodburner to provide heating only with hot water provided via electric through the existing 2 heating coils within the cylinder.
I should note that the house is so well insulated that we have never used the upstairs bedroom rads as suffient heat rises via the open stairs in the kitchen/lounge area.
The plumbing required is all local to the existing woodburner and the new unit would be within 2 metres of the current woodburner.
Wow! Then €14-18k is f’king expensive!!! I am on a couple of heating forums and the “Pros” do not like my questions like how come I can by the latest inverter spec swimming pool heat pump for around €2000-2500 for 17Kw wheras a domestic 8Kw heat pump is €5-6k? One expert said your pool heat pump wont have a defrost cycle. Oh yes they do, I replied now justify the additional cost why in the UK at least the £7500 grant means the customer usually puts in another £5000 on top. Ludicrous pricing, like to see an hourly rate break down for your install.
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Don’t worry I will study it carefully. I was interested to do it many years ago when there was little or no help but when I calculated the payback time against my age, decided against.
Just that recently EDF are pushing government help with it so I thought I could at least have a look. 
I hope you dont get Johnboy sort of quotes if you do. Honestly its a good system but not at that price. We dont do ROI calculation for a gas or oil boiler but if its not going to lower your running costs whilst increasing or at least maintaining your comfort level then why bother. I am puting in a new gas boiler at UK home this summer, it will be run at the low flow temperatures of a heat pump system (35-40c) and the additional radiators to increase the emitter size to compensate for the lower flow. Should use a fraction of the gas I used this year whilst providing a better more comfortable space. I would have gone the heat pump route but siting the outdoor unit would be tricky on this property and we are planning another move.
Purely for reference, this is two years worth of granulés (wood pellets) in sacks, ordered yesterday, delivered this morning, and weighing around a ton. 400€.
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How many sacs is that George?
I looked at pellet burners before going with the air to air, but as it required ripping out my lone log fire, thus no backup if the lecky went down, I couldn’t risk it. We have only had one blackout a season requiring lighting the logs but without it we would have been stymied in winter, not just for heating but cooking and hot water too. Was really glad with our choice on those occasions, especially one year when it lasted early evening to late at night.
Only drawback was I had forgotten how hot it burned and we had to start opening windows at one point. 
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You need to take note that you cannot just install gas heating anymore! the powers that be have banned the installing of new gas heating systems, if you already have a gas boiler you are allowed to replace it with a new a high efficiency boiler but the tax has increased from 5.5% to 20% .
Ah, good to know, thanks. That makes that decision easy then 
The gas pipes are still here just disconnected at the mains, but there isn’t any old heating system left.
Not sure if it was removed by our landlord when he bought the place (he bought it as a viager and, according to our neighbours, he did very well out of it) or the previous owner before she died.
It’s 72 sacks of 15 kg…
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Thanks
They work well in my Uuni pizza oven too 
I agree it looks expensive but compared to what?
Hourly rates are for emergency call outs and work that cannot be easily estimated.
It is easy to compare an off the shelf price that Joe Bloggs can buy to that provided by a professional and scoff at the difference but does Joe have all the professional accreditation’s to install the equipment backed up by all the infrastructure of a company?
This is France not the UK and ‘hourly rates’ are vastly different with all the cost the employer has to bear.
Out of interest are you personally installing the new gas boiler and if so are you a registered gas installer?
My plumber and heating engineer back in the UK decided not to keep his gas registration updated as he approached retirement as the cost was simply not worth it.
Also out of interest how long ago were you employed and working in the swimming pool industry and what accreditation’s were required compared to that of the heating industry.
Working in industry in France is highly protected compared to the UK and having worked in both countries as a qualified professional owning and running a company the French way offers far more protection to both the worker and the customer which cannot be a bad thing.
Perhaps as heat pumps continue to increase in popularity the price of installation will come down but for now I shall continue to store, cut and load my oak logs to keep me warm in the colder months and benefit from watching warm flickering flames rather than watching a fan spinning around in a box.
I was gas qualified but like your friend didnt keep it up, I have qualified contractors I used who will check my installation and sign it off.
Swimming pool wise I stopped doing anything in france a few years ago before Brexit time as it was inevitable it would be impossible to continue. I did the Institute of Swimming Pool Engineers (ISPE). But what they taught was quite out of date and like so many industries is just to follow what you are told rather than innovate and improve.
Yes I get the French way which is possibly better from the how it should work route and therefore costs are higher but even in your case you have the heating sytem already there in place so you need a decent electrical supply and a plinth, the rest is so easy it shouldnt really reach the double figures (K). I will be fitting my own heat pump when the time arrives as there is no requirement for F gas unlike A/C units.
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I notice that there are several posts on gas heating installation pertaining to the UK, the orginal question was on installing a heating system in France, practicly the only aspect that would be similar would be the task, heating. Only GRDF approved techniciens are allowed to fit gas boilers even though you can purchase boilers in many Brico`s, I have recently had my boiler replaced (March ) having agreed a price and paid a 30% deposit in November last year😮. New gas boilers are very efficent, the gas and supply of it is quite expensive, wood burners are cheapest but there is a lot of associated work that goes with them.
Condensing boiler? If so then they need to run in condensing mode to be very efficient. Around me albeit the UK there were lots of old boilers replaced with condensing boilers. I see plumes of steam eminating from the flue pipes showing they are not running in condensing mode and therefore only a tiny bit more efficient than the old ones. A heck of a lot of boiler fitters do not understand the equipment they are fitting.
I reckon over capacity is also part of the problem.
Apart from the vogue in fitting condensing boilers the other vogue is combi systems - the trouble is that these need to have high heat outputs because of the direct hot water output. Coupled with small modern houses where - with a 70° flow the return is not cool enough to get the boiler condensing.
I opted for an indirect system but with mains pressure HW (as in France). I had a hard time arguing the fitter into a smaller boiler and even then I don’t think it was fitted correctly (I was especially annoyed that he fitted a new thermostat & controller which in almost all respects is worst than the old thermostat and controller, which I am sure would have controlled things just fine - at least I managed to steer him away from one which needs an internet connection).
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Yes I fear you are correct as any joe blogs can and does fit boilers /central heating in the UK, the fitters are supposed to be certified but there are few checks. Here in France the legal requirement is the boiler is certified by the technicions fitting the equipment also the boiler has by law to be serviced every year by a certified technion, if your boiler is not certified your insurance is void my boiler is certified as being a minimum of 86% efficient and is incredibily quite.
Yes I had that problem,they were trying to convince myself of the advantages of being able to switch my heating on from the airport so that the house was warm when I got home🤔,I was able to point out that my English translation of their estimate stated that my house would be up to comfortable temputure within 10 minutes, my house is only 50 mettre sqare,all on one level.
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Again this is something where the boiler can control hot water separately from the heating flow circuit. The joke is they heat the hot water up to a high temp, only to bring it down again via a blending with cold so really if everything is set to 40c the boiler will be condensing, the hot water would arrive at the shower head or bath tap at around 36-38c which is still plenty hot enough. A lot of boilers/control systems have a legionella setting where once a fortnight the system gets above 60c. This is all dependant on have sufficient emitter size for the lower temperature. Which is really where these fitters fail as they would rather fit a 24kw boiler than do the heat loss calculation
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