Renewable Energies
As autumn rains itself towards winter, our thoughts are turning towards heating methods for the house. A series of factors present themselves for consideration:
- There’s no town gas network in the countryside
- With Peak Oil looming, already here or yesterday’s news, the price of fuel oil is only going to keep rising. In any case, we’d rather find a more world-friendly option
- The house faces due south, with most of its 2132 m2 in front of it
- Apart from the last few weeks, it’s always sunny (Roanne has more sunny days annually than Toulouse — Nouvel Observateur 13 May 2004)
- The soil is mostly clay and the water table is unusually high (more about this in the fruit tree planting discussion coming soon)
Thus, the first choice at the moment is some type of geothermal heat pump although the installation cost may prove prohibitive. The EDF advisor confirms to us that while this form of heating is considerably cheaper to run, at 100-150€ per m2, it’s also the most expensive to install.
So this weekend we are researching alternatives: solar and wood heating. There is a series of open days organised by the Comité de Liaison Energies Renouvelables (CLER | English summary). Thanks to having a cousin who’s a Green Party representative in the Conseil Régional d’Auvergne, we’re off to Le Mayet de Montagne, to the base of l’association Apromer who promote and apply the use of renewable energies. They’ll be able to tell us about photovoltaic solar panels, solar water heating and wood-fired furnaces. I’ll report back next week.
18 November, 2004 — 16h01 (Paris) | energy
