Hello

Welcome to our forum. I think you mean "fioul" which is heating oil in UK vocabulary? I'm no expert on things green (except my old UK lawn!), but I think in the terms used for rating houses in France fioul is nearly the most ungreen. Fioul is simply the English word fuel à la française, but with the specific meaning of heating oil. Chaudières tend to be expensive and are almost life time investments - so changing one is expensive.

Last year my Fr son-in-law changed his heating from fioul to a heat pump. It was very expensive but his old chaudière was on its last legs. He reckons it will be cheaper, but over a very long time. The heatpump still uses fioul when it can't pump fast enough - usually when it is very cold.

The other option is to use a special chaudière which burns little wooden pellets - sold in supermarkets now. Don't know much about them.

DejW

 

There is still a tax credit to be had for installing various "green" options in your home - including heating equipment. And what's even better, these are refundable credits, so if you don't owe any French tax, you'll get the money back from the government. More information here: Économie d'énergie : quels équipements donnent droit à crédit d'impôt ? | Le portail des ministères économiques et financiers

The legalese is a bit inpenetrable, but once you're here in France, you can talk to some of the local contractors to see what they can offer. The precise equipment subject to the credit changes a bit each year, as does the amount of the credit. We managed to claim a 50% credit - but only on the cost of the material (in our case, a wood burning stove), not on the labor to install it. The amount of the credit has been reduced each year and appears to now be at 25% max. However it's still worthwhile checking out what equipment is eligible for the credit.
Cheers,
Bev

 

Probably the best thing you can do initially is to check your insulation and improve where necessary.Once you have done that then I would get in a proper central heating engineer not just a glorified plumber who can go through all the options with you.For example when I moved into my house there was fioul ch.The boiler wasOK so I had a woodburning cooker (ESSE) installed that does CH HW and cooking and had it connected up to the oil boiler so the two work in tandem but this is a job for a pro.In respect of pellet stoves you get what you pay for-I know of people who have all sorts of expensive problems but other swear by them

 

Yes, I agree re plombiers and heating techncians. Most plumbers and ramoners (chimney sweep) know a bit about the big chaudiere, but you need a heating technician when things need a real expert.

DejW

 

I can only re iterate other comments
I know of a local friend who has a super efficient gas boiler and she got a rebate from the government . I still dont think it was a good investment myself as the cost gave a 10 year pay back over a cheap boiler and its broken down a few times already. Far too complex a thing . But there are subsidies available for green options . get a good heating engineer in not a plumber.
And go for lots of heat insulation first. I spent a lot of money on insulation and its worth every cent


bon courage

 

Get expert advice as above and make sure you look into heat pumps.

 

heat pumps

Merci - do you have any more info on heat pumps?

 

Heat pumps = Pompe â chaleur

Have a look at this site:

Que choisir comme chauffage et quelle énergie éco-nomique-logique électricité, bois, gaz, fioul, solaire, géothermie, aerothermie

PS. Heat pumps/Pompe â chaleur are noisy and ugly.

 

My niece has a heat pump in her home (in the attached garage) and has no problems with noise.

 

Merci Smeg

 

We looked at heat pumps and were told that they don't work with very low temperatures (forgot what the temp is) just when you would need them most!

We did a lost of research and decided on a ( Hargassner) wood pellet boiler to replace our old oil boiler that runs wet mostly iron radiators. We had it installed last November. We are extremely pleased. It is very economical and very easy. In fact we are paying out a fraction of what we did on our old inefficient boiler that we didn't use but a portion of the day, we now keep our old drafty stone house warm and toasty all day for a lot less .

The plumbers did build a silo that holds a little over three tons of pellets. Hargassner does offer silos ready made but we needed a special size to fit our cellar. We have a local wood pellet (granule) company that delivers three tons of pellets at a time and they have a special blower that automatically blows them in the silo where the boiler uses the pellets automatically.

Can highly recommend it!

By the way, we did receive a tax refund on the boiler less labour. Not sure what it is this year but believe they may have increased the rebate on this and other green installations.

 

Ver helpful -merci Lacroze.