So, I’m renovating a house (part of a barn) in the Alps. It is a shell at the moment, so we have pretty much total carte-blanche on what we do with it.

The plan is to have 3 bedrooms + bathroom downstairs, upstairs open-plan kitchen, living area, dining area (+ eventually mezzanine).

There are just 2 of us at the moment, so 1 bedroom will be a spare, the other will be an office for now until we get the mezzanine built some time down the line.

Need to decide soon what we’re going to do for heating. Wood burner upstairs is a given. Do we need additional heating beyond that?

Downstairs, underfloor of some description. Wet? Electric?

Insulating to the max is a given

Restraints are:

No mains gas
Fair bit of land outside, so GSHP is possible, but ground is steep, rocky & cold, so likely to be expensive.
Budget is tight, so, unfortunately, initial cost is a very big factor.
It’s in the valley floor so gets COLD on clear, calm nights in winter.

Wood burner downstairs? Help heat upstairs too.

If initial cost is a big factor, then electric underfloor heating or another wood burner would be low upfront costs.

Other options would be gas heating off bottles…

Build in some decent thermal mass, chuck in decent insulation levels and an ASHP – sounds like your ground work for a GSHP would be pricey. Feed it to underfloor heating or, larger radiators if you have the wall space, since you’ll save on the underfllor heating.

Complement that with some solar thermal on the roof and a wood burner for general boost.

why gas heating off bottles footflaps ? dont they have kerosene in france ?

why gas heating off bottles footflaps ? dont they have kerosene in france ?

Or use kerosene….

Insulation to the max = no heating beyond living in the place needed.

We’re getting closer but have lit the wood burner four times so far this Autumn.