A fiery subject

The many unattractive options for heating your Italian home

For many years I have wanted to make an environmentally-kind house – not just double-glazing but photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, underground heat pumps, the works. This project has made me see that it’s not quite as easy as all that.

Apart from the fact that the house is intrinsically well-insulated (metre thick stone holds the heat in winter and keeps you cool in summer!), it’s 16th century structure doesn’t lend itself to our space-age ideas. For example, we’d love to put in efficient underfloor heating (which couple well with solar water heaters), but we don’t want to destroy our lovely tiles by lifting them for the process.

Most of all, our budget doesn’t suit our ideals! There’s plenty of sun here – at least in summer – but the cost of solar panels just wouldn’t pay itself back for over ten years. We may move in under 5 years.

We reluctantly decided to keep our project as modest as possible. There is no existing fireplace in the house (strange in an old house, but it was probably heated by a mobile stove). Keeping on the modest theme, I decided – against Roscoe’s wishes – that a fire would be a luxury and a hassle and radiators would be much more practical. Then just about everyone who saw the house or pictures of it said, “A fireplace/wood stove would be lovely...”

We’ve also been warned that gas is expensive while wood, woody pellets or Sansa are cheaper. (Italians have recommended Sansa on cost, but not on smell. I need to work out exactly what it is!)

My resolve is weakening.

Bewildered by the many options, I sat down to list them out.

It looks like we’d have to have gas boiler plus radiators as a back-up with whatever option we choose, making the cost of a secondary option off-putting. Nonetheless, I’m open to being charmed by other options. I suspect our weekend will include a trip to the fireplace shop.

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PS We did, in fact, go to the fireplace shop, and didn't see anything that appeals. The fires/stoves that combine with water heating systems were all huge. An open fiire in the lounge would still be nice, but doesn't add any practicality. We'll leave it for now.