To heat a farmhouse in Normandy

[Forhorse]

Hello everyone,

I am about to move again and buy (my fingers crossed) a farmhouse to renovate in Normandy, in the Perche.

Everything everything ... will have to be done again!
Without necessarily targeting the BBC label or the passive house, I'm going to take care of the insulation, that's for sure.
Now you also have to choose a heating mode.

Until now, in my homes I did not ask myself the question, it was the cheapest possible to buy, so electric heating.
There, even if it means investing a little more, I would like to aim for a more efficient and more economical method of heating.
But then what to choose?
fuel oil out of the question!
Wood ? gas? geothermal energy? Air / water heat pump?
Geothermal energy seems to me out of budget (a priori it is done by drilling in this region)
PACs I find it hard to trust on real efficiency.
There remains the gas (which increases all the time ...)
or wood
or ? (I may forget some heating modes)

The farmhouse is oriented east-west, so I would have a huge south facing roof. I therefore think of including a solar thermal contribution.
And as the main heating, going on a wood base seems to me the most interesting. Log, pellets, etc? I do not know yet !

When is this type of heating in Normandy? I saw that there are a lot of forests in the perch, so the resource exists.
But at what cost ?

Would there be people from this region on the forum who could tell me about their experience?
I have a lot of questions about a wood-solar coupling

Thank you in advance !

[Kcenia]

I will probably say something stupid, but to estimate the wood resource, a little research on the yellow pages "firewood" in the concerned department?
A few phone calls and you will have an idea of ​​the prices and whether in September in dry we still find them or if everyone jumped on them in March / April

[Forhorse]

It's not stupidity, it's just so simple that I hadn't even thought about it!

[Kcenia]

I thought about it because I'm in the middle of it, to see if someone is not ready to deliver 2-3 cubic meters (the minimum being 5 almost everywhere)

I don't know what it's worth, but here in the lower Rhine I pay 60-70 euros per cubic meter this year

[dedeleco]

As I already wrote, I collect lots of free wood and plants thrown everywhere, more than I need in two places, and even I can recover the plants thrown in recycling center, in addition to the wood remaining from the storm Christmas 1999 !! This in two places distant of 900Km !! (83 77 and 91).
I think that in the Perche a lot have too many plants, like pruning hedges, trees, pavilions (neighbors who smoke me for days by burning their excess wood, and that it is enough to recover, etc. ...)
With a stove or boiler that can burn a little of everything, once dry (summer sun) and wood under cover, it is almost useless to buy wood, in my case.

If we prune the big trees for free at the neighbors (800 € the big oak tree by a pro !!!) we get lots of free plants with the neighbor who is happy with the work for free !!!
It is enough to have a little mechanical sense (mountaineer ropes, saws, even chainsaw at the end of rods, 2 ton manual winch at 30 €, harness, etc.) to take less risk than the pros.
I had to do this at home after the Christmas storm 1999, saw the windfall!

The prices of the wood vary according to its quality and the neglected pines are free, but burn when dry, if we sweep more often.
The directory and also the classified ads in local newspapers, even free newspapers, provide wood sellers easily.
I had bought lots of beautiful wood in mid 1999 (250F per cubic meter), which I have not completely finished burning given the quantity provided by the Christmas storm 1999, at my house and the neighbors for 11 years !!!

[Philippe Schutt]

Do you have any idea of ​​the basement?
What is the surface occupied by the house and is it on the cellar?
If I understood correctly, drilling in the earth is not expensive but it changes as soon as you are in the gravel or rock.
And do you plan to self-build or have it done?

ah, and what is the current heating?

[Forhorse]

No idea of ​​the basement. I land in the region and I know absolutely nothing about the geology of the area. According to the BRGM it is chalk and limestone.
There are several boreholes in the village. Closest at around 200, the water is at 21m (still according to BRGM data)

The surface on the ground I know too little for the moment, I visited only once without taking any measurement. I would say approximately 120m², without cellar (obviously it is not done in the region, none of the houses I visited had one)

Self-construction at 100% or almost (there is only sanitation that I would have to do)

Current heating? well it's simple, there is none! (does an old bread oven count as heating? )

[dedeleco]

(does an old bread oven count as heating?
If not too badly designed, old-fashioned, it's not far from the mass stove, with the mass around stone or bricks?
That can be enough to heat, if a lot of wood, and Normandy not cold, but humid.
As I wish, keep and use.
By adding ducts to distribute the hot air, a heat exchanger in refractory to the smoke outlet, it is the heating to use first, cheap and functional.

In any case you are going to have a hell of a job to read the description !!!!
Almost everything to resume in modern.

The chalk, not very hard, but massive, the water at 21m, ideal for storing underground, because drilling with an easy drill (chalk is soft compared to hard limestone), because not too many cracks for leaks of water (see the Channel Tunnel for this with few catastrophic seawater leaks !!)

So plan for solar and once finished, in a few years, do not lose sight of the storage of summer heat for the winter, outside the house.

[Forhorse]

Using a bread oven for heating, even as a mass frying pan, is an aberration.
Already the oven itself does not have a chimney, the smoke comes out of the mouth of the oven and is then "swallowed" by a hood placed above: the "black soot" ceilings are not great
Then, as in almost 100% of cases, this bread oven is not in the middle of the house but on an edge, almost on the outside. The "mass" effect would therefore only serve to heat the small birds. if everything has to be dismantled to move it and make it usable, you might as well install a real mass stove.

[dedeleco]

the smoke comes out of the mouth of the oven and is then "swallowed" by a hood placed above

strange, bricolo, !!!!

The house is almost to be rebuilt ?????