Eco-friendly, future-proofed house near Aurignac, south west France
A few years ago nobody was really interested in central heating
systems when house hunting, especially not in southern France. The only
question occasionally posed on viewings was whether a house had heating or not
and whether it was actually necessary (yes). How things have changed – heating
systems and energy efficiency is now recognized by sellers, buyers and governments
as one of the major considerations and high on the list of criteria when
viewing and buying property, even out here in sunny south west France.
Nowadays we are all looking for alternative ways to heat our
houses that don’t involve increasingly expensive fossil fuels and finally we
are all beginning to understand the importance of living a more ecologically
friendly lifestyle. Worryingly, I am clearly getting old because I find myself
now really quite fascinated by the various heating options that I am starting
to see appear in many of the houses I view for clients and I have to admit to
sometimes even getting a severe case of heating- system envy.
Old fashioned, stand alone oil or gas central heating
systems are becoming rare; almost without exception (ruins excluded), most
houses I view now have at least one wood burner and often a selection, usually
with means of heating other rooms simultaneously. More and more houses also now
have solar panels for hot water and increasingly for running low level heating
systems, under-floor being the most usual. This makes so much sense in a region
where we get a very high number of sunshine hours throughout the winter months
and warm sunny days even in February but cold mornings and nights. And, more
recently, I am seeing both geo-thermal and aero-thermal heating systems which
appear to be fantastically efficient and cost effective, at least over the
longer term.
Big properties clearly present the most difficult challenge
when it comes to finding an affordable method of heating but are coming up with
solutions which might well benefit us all in the future. In the last few months
I have viewed three châteaux all with completely different heating-systems,
each apparently effective and economical as well as ‘green’:
The first had a state of the art, wood-fuelled central
heating system; effectively a huge wood-burner but on a much larger scale than
usual (we are talking twice the size of a standard oil tank located in the
outbuildings) connected to a huge boiler. The burner was filled with logs from
the grounds once a week and then comfortably heated a 20 room Château.
The second was a large biomass boiler linked to a huge
storage tank in the ground that was filled with all sorts of natural forest
waste, branches, leaves, walnut shells, bark etc collected from the land around
and belonging to the Château. A huge cork screw system ensured that there was a
continual supply of fuel pushed through the system, controlled by a thermostat;
hence heating this huge property to a really comfortable level all winter
practically for free.
Thirdly, just last week, I viewed a huge manor house/château
that had decided on the pellet burner option but on a far grander scale than I
had seen before, with an enormous storage hopper for pellets in the adjoining
barn that was filled a couple of times a year directly from a delivery lorry to
fuel the heating system that was fed automatically by a pump, heating the house
at a tenth of the cost of the previous gas system.
Of course, none of these options are cheap to install; each
cost well over 30,000 Euros and all rely on an abundance of large outbuildings
for boilers and hoppers and, in the case of the first and second property, land
and trees to provide the fuel. But, as a long term, ecologically friendly and
affordable way to stay warm, these systems all have a lot going for them and will
undoubtedly become more refined, efficient and cheaper over time.
It again makes me realize how lucky we are to live in this
region with its plentiful wood supply, year-round sunshine, an abundance of spring
and mountain water available for hydro-electric systems and masses of available
land for growing and providing natural fuel. More by luck than judgement, we
live in an area where we have the resources to heat our houses sustainably and
in harmony with the environment as long as we learn to innovate and make the
most of and replace what nature has so kindly provided us with here.
State of the art, wood-fired central heating system
