For our first two winters in France after relocating from Australia, we used the two woodburners we inherited when we bought our small, stone house; we found them unsatisfactory but accepted that temperatures here are, how shall I put it, somewhat lower than in Australia! Before last winter we “invested” in four Radiateurs Inertie Sèche; an excellent idea as it turned out. We saved a mozza (Australian for a lot) by not having to buy wood for the woodburners, our electricity bill increased by only a tad and last winter we had a pleasantly warm house throughout.
I don’t know if that helps you, Mike, in any way; but that has been our experience.
Tulikivi is the brand name. Our friends have an enormous heater with its own oven (which they don’t use) and a double-hotplate version attached to one side.
It was put in by the previous owners and is amazingly frugal on logs and gives loads of heat. They use ceiling fans to move the heat about.
Thanks Lee,
Can you tell us the name and model of your heaters? How do you use them? Do you charge at night and disconnect from the secteur for all/some of the day? Don’t know where you are located - what are your lowest winter temperatures? Can you give us an idea of your summer and winter electricity costs please?
Sounds like it might be a good option for pensioners who spend much of their time indoors in cold weather.
Hmm, putting some thought into this, a small woodburner is around 5kw and often much larger but accepting 5kw and 2 of them is 10kw nominal often a bit more Vs an electric heater at 2kw best possible 3kw and 4 of them would be around 8- 12kw max so equal in heat output to the wood burners.
Maybe it’s warmer (comfort wise) because you can position them in a better setup? It could also be because some installations of wood burner are really bad and allow the heat to escape up the chimney.
We have 2 electric fan heaters. Both are 1 or 2kw and thermostatically controlled. We place them as may be necessary and they do a super job in a cold corner or just when one room needs warming rather than the whole house (CHeating).
I am very frugal with them and the electricity consumed does not amount to much - but they are useful for those odd, chilly occasions which can occur inbetween seasons.
Much too technical for me, John! But what you write sounds eminently sensible.
Mike, I’m not sure I can answer all your questions with confident accuracy but here goes: brand name is Blyss, purchased from Mr Bricolage in Angoulême; unsure of model but will find the paperwork. We leave them on all the time in winter and simply turn the temp down at night. We’re in 16 and temps can be minus at night in winter. Re electricity costs, cannot discuss in a public forum. If you’re on Facebook, I’d be happy to explain in a private message. We were spending close to €400 pa on wood for the 2 woodburners. The radiators made an enormous physical and psychological difference to us! Will get back to you soon.
Lee… if you care to click onto Mike Kearney’s name - a creditcard sized thingy should appear with his details - and if you click onto MESSAGE then you and Mike can talk in complete privacy.
why not give it a go and come back for help if you cannot make it work… 
That is bain d’huile. but radiateurs à inertie are either céramique or fonte (cast iron?) the latter being the more expensive. So they are presumably able to retain heat for a time, but they don’t state how long .
Whilst they can retain the heat, they also will take longer to reach temperature due to all that mass requiring energy.
For me if it’s cold I want it warm now, and if am going out or to bed why continue to heat the space.
That said now the roof is insulated the heat doesn’t escape like it used to and most of the warmth is used to heat rooms, not France.
I think Insulation is definitely the key to the whole thing. Without it whatever we do is just a waste of money and energy. 
1 Like
Absolutely, what are we agreed is the cost Inc tax of a kw of electricity?
If I take my annual electricity bill and divide it by the number of kw used, it works out at just under 20c/kw. We do have 18kw 3 phase with no cheap rate (if we did, the bills would go up rather than down)
Surely you have deducted the Standing Charges which we pay regardless of whether or not electricity is used … 
We have 3 different Properties/Agreements: 3kw/6kw/9kw and the price per kw is different in each case.
I know the abandonment is different for each based on max supply but thought the kw was the same cost?
At around 0.20 cents a kw. 4x 2kw = 8kw per hour even running 12 hours per day = 96kw per day X 30 days = 2880 kw per month X 0.2 cents =€576 per month making €400 pa seem nothing or have I missed something?
Nope the KW price is different for each tariff on my bills.
EDF seem to be trying to regularising in 2019 so wait and see
How bizarre?
I may have been cofusing night/day tariffs… I’m getting sleepy.
I think all the bits and pieces and adjustments on the bills have totally confused me.
Seems the kw is the same and on reflection ~EDF is not the cheapest supplier… 
Many thanks, Stella.