Electric bill

[Hotrodder]

From posts I have seen on other forums, heat pumps are OK in newer thermally efficient homes. Retrofitting into older places is an expensive gamble. Lots of cowboy installers about telling lies about savings to be made.

[L Austin France]

I keep seeing all these heat pumps for a euro ads but am surely dubious as to what the hidden costs could turn out to be, and I don't know anyone who as had experience of an installation.

I'm assuming you mean air/air PACs. If you can get 'em for one euro go for it. What's to lose? If you find running them too costly you don't have to use them.
Realistically that shouldn't happen. My first kitchen self installed 'basic' unit lasted 12 years until a pro. installed inverter unit fitted about 6 years ago replaced it. This unit gives out about 4kw of heating for the price of 0.8kw so very efficient costing me about 1€ per 8/10 hour day before the last/latest electricity price rises.
I've been pleased with the Mitsubishi unit so early this year &, feeling like you about the work involved in wood burning, had two more installed which now cover all of the main parts of the house.
I get no governmental help with the costs & only got about €400 EDF Prim d'energy off the €7,400 installation cost (which you won't get without asking) but still consider it money well spent as it now means we have a choice of heating & the house is future proofed as far as selling goes should we decide .
Well worth investigating if you're looking for alternatives to wood burning.

[Lori]

get a remote wifi control switch (very cheap) on your hot water heater

I have to admit, we do have the downstairs (old) hot water heater on a timer. It only runs two hours per day and cost on average about 32 cents per half hour. The upstairs bathroom has a dedicated new hot water heater that heats on demand and costs about 28 cents per half hour (when it runs). In economy mode, it 'learns' the habits of the household and only operates around those times - or on demand.

Both of these things save a LOT of money on electricity. If our hot water heaters run a lot, they add a huge increase to the EDF bill.

[L Austin France]

From posts I have seen on other forums, heat pumps are OK in newer thermally efficient homes. Retrofitting into older places is an expensive gamble. Lots of cowboy installers about telling lies about savings to be made.

My very old stone built house is now reasonably well insulated & the units work well.
Once you know how much heat per unit cost they give out & have experience of other known types of heating that suffice in your house ie. how many Kw are needed it's not rocket science to calculate the running costs.
My background is in commercial Heating & ventilation design so I was able to do my own heat loss calcs to determine what output units I required & binned one local company who didn't agree with me until reverting to the the installers of my original unit who not only concurred but were a larger well established outfit who actually quoted a better price.

[Wilbro]

Our radiators in our old stone barn conversion are heated from our oil fired boiler. I am aware that replacing with a heat pump would require changing them all so it's an absolute no-no. Far too much expense.

[Polarengineer]

I notice that nearly every, if not all, heat pump folders and adverts make no mention of the consumed fan power of the outdoor heat exchanger, it is not insignificant.

[L Austin France]

I notice that nearly every, if not all, heat pump folders and adverts make no mention of the consumed fan power of the outdoor heat exchanger, it is not insignificant.

You really need to be more specific ! What type of heat pump? There are lots of variations.
If you're talking about air/air installations (which I was), these are sold as 'packaged' matched units where the incoming electric supply goes to the outdoor compressor unit with supply & control wiring from that to the inside fan unit.
The references to the two units are grouped as one with the total electrical load given for the pair. In my kitchen unit's case ; cooling 0.82kw, heating 0.8kw.

[Polarengineer]

quite right LAF.

[L Austin France]

quite right LAF.

Yes, I know

[RobertArthur]

Looking this time not at the measuring side of things, not at Harry Bellafonte's "There is a hole in my bucket", not at "There is a hole in my wiring". In November 2022 those cher clients with an abonnement EDF-Pro saw their leccie bills rise with about 300 %. Abonnement Pro: if more than 36 kVA puissance souscrite or running a business with less than 36 kVA (gîtes). The EDF applied these new tariffs on auto-pilot. You had to say no, no, not for me: I'm running only a small is beautiful business, less than 2 mln € yearly, less than 10 employees. More about Les tarifs réglementés (TRV) de l'électricité. There is also a simple EDF checklist.

" Le retour au TRV est possible sous réserve d’attester de votre éligibilité : vous employez moins de 10 personnes et votre chiffre d’affaires, vos recettes ou votre bilan annuel n’excède pas 2 millions d’euros."