Pompe à chaleur - are they any good?

[DominicBest]

We were tempted by pellet, but they are controlled by electricity and when we realised that that would mean replacing our wood burner and that that would leave us with no heat during power cuts, we decided to leave ourselves with the back up.

There is quite a good choice of dual fuel, pellet/wood, poêles available these days.

[Spectrum]

If you are worried about power cuts then the same will happen with a log/pellet burner with rads, they still need a pump, I think the OP and the lady are trying to make it easier and warmer for her instead of log burners in each room. The beauty of UFH that if the power is off the "Slab" will keep warm for a good few hours, but as said mainly for new builds, after that its woolly knicker time

[Headers]

If you are worried about power cuts then the same will happen with a log/pellet burner with rads, they still need a pump, I think the OP and the lady are trying to make it easier and warmer for her instead of log burners in each room. The beauty of UFH that if the power is off the "Slab" will keep warm for a good few hours, but as said mainly for new builds, after that its woolly knicker time

My neighbour basically lives in 3 rooms of the house unless she has family visitors.The rest is just kept from freezing. Her oil fired heating system is well over 20 years old and will need replacing but the can has been kicked down the road for the time being.

[Spardo]

If you are worried about power cuts then the same will happen with a log/pellet burner with rads, they still need a pump, I think the OP and the lady are trying to make it easier and warmer for her instead of log burners in each room.

We have only a very small house on one level and the wood burner used to heat all of it, no electricity required for heating. But a pellet burner wood have needed ripping out the wood burner, so no back up if there was a cut.

[RobertArthur]

Not a manual, how to do it, not an answer to the question: should I do it or not? Only a survey under the supervision of Promotelec, opinions of the French and some interesting statistics. Also an effort to promote the pompe à chaleur without mentioning the potential pitfalls. The survey: La pompe à chaleur. L’outil par excellence de la transition énergétique. Étude sur les propriétaires français.

Mixed blessings: two different technologies working together? When temperatures drop below zero use your old chaudière fioul in series with a pompe à chaleur, a summary.

[DominicBest]

If you are worried about power cuts then the same will happen with a log/pellet burner with rads, they still need a pump, I think the OP and the lady are trying to make it easier and warmer for her instead of log burners in each room.

We have only a very small house on one level and the wood burner used to heat all of it, no electricity required for heating. But a pellet burner wood have needed ripping out the wood burner, so no back up if there was a cut.

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[RobertArthur]

Now that the pellet burner has been mentioned: ten years ago it had a green image. Using otherwise unused wood to produce these pellets. Today they are bringing down complete forests to be able to satisfy the increased demand. Yes, but we are going to replant trees. Really? It takes sixty, hundred years to get these trees back. Not a very friendly solution. Several member states of the EU have already abolished their subventions for these pellet burners, the fading image of a supposed green technology. The consumer organisations mention quite a lot of installation, reliability and maintenance issues.

In France the EDF has this guide, what will it be, a pompe à chaleur or a chaudière à granulés: comparatif. In this article an inventarisation of the pros and cons.