Mike, further to my earlier reply which I assume you’ve seen, we bought the radiators from Brico Depot in Angoulême, not Mr Bricolage. Will let you know the model tomorrow.
Mike, did you receive my private message, please?
Sorry folks, I should have looked at my electricity bill! Heures creuse are charged at 70% of daytime rates, so any gain is likely to be offset by unavoidable inefficiencies. In the UK I believe the difference is greater. Not that economy rate is cheaper than here, but because normal daytime rates are much higher.
I think that probably explains why shops are full of fan heaters. As Paul Flinders pointed out, you only get out what you put in, but these cheap, portable heaters have the unique advantage of being directable so that the heat warms your feet before inevitably rising to ceiling level.
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Mike - we also use a ceiling fan which sends the risen hot-air back towards the floor. Only a gentle motion, but it works and makes a great difference. Thus we can have a gentle heat wafting around the room… so comfortable.
I once visited a factory with a very high roof. They had a fan in a wide plastic tube that blew warm air back to floor level.
We never had Night Storage Heaters in the UK as we did not have Night Time Saving. We have heures creuse here and we sat down and worked out the cost of using the heaters and it was much cheaper than using oil and more efficient than wood. We purchased 2 older Creda ones for upstairs, two small ones for the dining end of the living room (the total room being 44 square meters) and have managed to get a large one (and I mean very large) for the living room and will move the other 2 if it works well. Our electricity is not cheap but it is a good, clean and working method which provides us with what we need. We would not be without them. (We also have a Deville wood burning stove for cooking in the living room if we need it).
The heaters are on timers and come on at different times to avoid surging and cutting out the electric but we will see how long we are allowed to use them under the new (to be enforced) not so fecking Smart (Linky) meters.
Imteresting. Were your heaters originally purchased in France, or were they privately imported from the UK? Do you only charge them during heures creuse?
Does your cheap rate finish at 6.30am? How late in the day do the heaters continue to give useful heat?
I don’t think your new meter will give you any problems. Its main purpose is to put meter readers out of a job. The advantage for you is that it can be read remotely, so you will get accurate bills every time without having to read the meter yoourself or accept an estimate.
Hello. We purchased our heaters here in France second hand they are English. We try to only charge them during heures creuse. Our hours are from 11.30 - 7.30 I believe (I will check that) and our kilowat input level is at 15 I believe. Anyway we do not have a new meter yet the village is holding out. I do not want to put meter readers out of a job if I can help it. Our heaters have a dial for input and output so we decide when to release the heat from the bricks - but to be truthful it does stop being effective at about 4pm. However we have been known to put it back on early but then that is not a very green idea.
I don’t believe the amount you pay the electricity company has an actual colour, it cost you more at that time of day that’s all.
A clever person on another forum worked out via a spreadsheet that you need to be running 40% of your electricity during the low cost time to make up for the over the top price the rest of the time, less than 40% you are handy money out.
Hi all, we are renovating a property in Puy du Domestic, very cold in winter, installing electric radiators, they can be programmed for temperature on an hourly basis, but more importantly we are installing 200 mm of insulation every where, previously only 100mm brick walls and no insulation!
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Hi Graham,
Seems like you have got the insulation right, but you really should consider switching off the predictive text!
Hi Mike, oops! Can’t seem to find how to do it ?
It’s hidden away in the settings somewhere. I’m no expert, whenever I have a problem I just Google the key words and usually find that a million people have asked the same question and someone has an answer that I am able to understand.
Dear John
I like your sense of humour but we either have to bite the bullet and be cooler than we would like or we can light the fire at 4 which we do usually as it has a small wood burning section and an oven by the side and it works reasonably well. We run our the washing machine between the hours of 11.30pm and 6.30 am. Our water heater can be set to heat up at that time also.
Our wood is mostly free except for the effort it takes to cut it down and store it and given to us when we clear out for people. That said we are of an age whereby we know we need wood in case of power cuts but we prefer heating by electric storage heaters. We do not mind paying extra for the benefit as we do not go out for meals and we do not drink alcohol or smoke so our expenses are manageable (at the moment).
Interesting. Must find time to overcome my inertia and do the calculations.
I think that’s important Mike, as stated the stored heat runs out around 4pm and obviously the facility to heat instantly is not an option. Not that was what you opened the discussion with. Ariston made some radiators with small fans to force convection, they would make the room feel more comfortable sooner. We still have an 1800w radiator in the lounge which did practically nothing to help warm until we had insulated and it can do quite well now but the insulation was the key factor.