Pompes à chaleur

[Spectrum]

Well living in a new house we are all electric, air to air PAC, fully A/C on separate units, our bills have just gone up to 209€ per month, but we have excellent insulation in the walls floor and ceiling. As for your rads they will need changing to larger ones, a none PAC heating system runs at 70/90 C, the rads can be to hot to touch at full wack, a PAC system runs at about 50 C thats why you need more of a cooler surface area than you do with higher temps, as said get lots of quotes and good luck.

[Blaze]

Ha, just had yet another mini power cut (this is becoming more frequent so we've started to note them). We'll stick to our oil c/h as long as possible because our 2 storey + grenier granite farmhouse with no floor or wall insulation would cost a fortune to heat with electricity (we are about to have the north wall in our hall lined and insulated). As it is, it would seem that our combined bills for oil, electricity and wood are quite a bit lower than what I see quoted above. En plus, it would take us years to recoup the loss of replacing our existing system.

We live in a very mild/temperate climate here, so no air con necessary, and mostly we only run the heating twice a day (never at night).

[Lori]

@ Lori, " they said they could not bring in new, stronger electrical lines to the house."

The answer is that as from April 2011 the maximum puissance souscrite in single-phase has gone down to 12 kVA. The EDF/ERDF/ENEDIS used to do their branchements monophasé also in 15 kVA and 18 kVA. Above 12 kVA the only option is a three-phase connection.

Thank you. Yes, that sounds like their explanation in short version.

Our current house is 130m2, has all electric heat, (new or newer units) and lots more electrics in the house than the rental house. It cost us half of what we paid at the pompe a chaleur rental last year. Keeping the house at around 22 or 23 in Winter. That system cost us a fortune to use and it cost the owner somewhere around 13,000 to install (I think that's the number he told me).

[MAD87]

This ’is why I love this forum – you’re all so knowledgeable.
Firstly, thank you for your comments. I shall now reconsider and ponder other solutions – more insulation, blinds/curtains in the véranda, etc. The latter is the real cold spot, but whare I spend a lot of time, and is unheated apart from a portable gas fire.
Our house is stone, 115 m², 50s built by the State after the massacre, large rooms with high ceilings, double-glazed with roller blinds and 6kw electricity supply. Hot water is electricity, rads by said new(ish) gas boiler.
Maybe I should get Engie in to advise on our gas consumption/make suggestions.

[L Austin France]

The latter is the real cold spot, but whare I spend a lot of time, and is unheated apart from a portable gas fire.

Our first french home had a flat roofed kitchen which was always freezing.
I liked to spend time there with the 'paper at breakfast so installed an infra red electric heater which, directed at me, heated just me & not the surrounding air. Lots of choice including panel heaters.
Might be an idea for your veranda.

[RobertArthur]

@ Mad87, in disguise as Robert Engie, simple energy/gas saving tricks, saved us about 20 %:

There is a lot to be gained with tuning your central heating system. Most central heating boilers are set to the factory settings of 80ºC, but work more efficiently at 60ºC. Often set at 80ºC, this results in higher energy consumption than with a lower-set boiler. It may take more time to reach your comfort zone, but it prevents also the effect of a start/stop cycle with rad temperatures at the end of the cycle a bit too high: the heat waves sent into your rads will be moderate, no slightly excessive peaks, resulting in more constant rad and ambient temperatures.

With almost all radiators, a part of the heat emitted is lost through the outer walls. It is recommended to use radiator foil. This is a thin two-layer aluminium (in between insulation, bubble wrap) reflective film that can be stuck on the wall. I measured wall temperatures before installing the radiator foil with a Fluke infrared temp meter: only a little bit lower than the rad temperature. It went down considerably to a little bit above the surrounding wall temperatures. The foil reflects about 90 percent of radiant thermal energy.

Don't heat your whole house. Turn off the heating in rooms not in use, including bedrooms.

When you are at home, do not set the thermostat higher than 19 degrees

To prevent a power hungry cold start: set the thermostat to 15 degrees at night and leave the thermostat at 15 degrees if no one is home during the day.

Enough said by Robert le Bricoleur, now the recipes as proposed by the professionals of ENGIE. Probably trying to sell their intelligent thermostat or a pompe à chaleur.

[MAD87]

@RobertArthur aka Robert Engie Le Bricoleur , I've been on virtual shopping trips to Leroy Merlin this p.m. and will get rad isolation - I remember we had it in the UK. I hope we don't have to remove the rads to install it as they're big heavy cast-iron beasts. If so, I'll have to hire a couple of hairy Vikings.

[RobertArthur]

@ Mad87, strong double-sided tape, also available in a special quality for this type of insulation, is enough to slide them into place. After two years no problems.

[niemeyjt]

If it is thin and floppy, tape it onto a backing board and slide that in instead.

[Polly]

Interesting article about a noisy heat pump preventing the sale of a house, in a mixed article in Connexion today:

https://www.connexionfrance.com/article ... -360876346