When we bought our house about 9 years ago, it came with a tankless water heater that had only been installed 5 years prior. This was something new for us because in the US we had always had a tall, well-insulated tank (the bigger, the better) hidden away in a closet, in the basement or in the attic. Now, in the kitchen, in full view, hanging on the wall, was a relatively small box with 5 pipes sticking out of it to supply “endless” hot water to the faucets, shower head, and radiators scattered around the house. It takes a pump to circulate that water upstairs and down and we had already replaced it twice since we had lived here so when that familiar knocking sound returned we knew it was time for a replacement of the heating system.

The first person with whom we discussed the project was the plumber who had been servicing the heater since we moved in. In France, you are supposed to have your system checked every year so this gentleman, who had been recommended by a neighbor, was familiar with our boiler. To make things simple we were hoping to have the radiators drained and flushed and replace the boiler with its newest, most energy efficient equivalent model that could just hang in the place of the older unit. Following those instructions, the plumber gave us his quote for 5000€.

Given that Bill had already found the exact replacement boiler on the website of a national hardware store for 1300€, retail price to the general public, it was time to get another opinion. There’s a nationwide chain of heating/air conditioning specialists called Proxiserve and on their website you can select exactly what type of equipment you want installed and receive an instant quote. If you are happy with that estimate, you can schedule an on-site visit from a technician who can confirm the price, taking into consideration any extra work that might be required. Their quote was 3000€ to include:

• Boiler (le chaudière)
• Installation
• Cleaning/descaling (le désembouage) of 7 radiators

The work was scheduled for two weeks after we had signed the contract and it took about 8 hours from start to finish.

France has implemented environmental regulations called RE2020 (Réglementation Environnementale 2020) that aim to reduce the carbon footprint of new buildings. To our understanding, it is prohibited to install a gas boiler in new buildings; however, it remains currently possible to replace your old gas boiler with a new one in your existing home. Still, the government would prefer that we switch to something like a heat pump or a biomass (wood logs, chips, pellets) boiler. We’ll check back in 14 years to see what will be available then.

Photo notes: Clipart images are from the government’s RT-RE-bâtiment website, thank you.