Choosing an energy efficient home in France

Buying and Selling

Written by Julie Savill , Monday, 03 June 2024

It’s good for the planet, it’s good for your pocket. Energy efficient living is coming to the top of the wishlist for a growing number of people buying in France

Hands up anyone who enjoys paying more than they need to on household bills. No-one? I thought as much. If you are embarking on the search for a place in France it may well be that you want to consider the energy efficiency of properties or the potential to improve that in the future.

Walking around a French village have you ever wondered where everyone is? Why every house is tightly shuttered up? A level of energy efficiency is built into the culture in France and people grow up knowing how to make the most of what nature provides. When I first moved here we would take every opportunity to fling the windows and shutters open but we soon learned that we were just letting the house overheat in the summer. By contrast we would often see windows wide open on a sunny winter’s morning as our neighbours gathered every bit of free heat from the day. Older country houses are often built with one face towards the south where it will be bathed in any available sunlight and the warmth that comes with that. Shutters and windows are opened early in the day to take advantage and then closed to conserve the warmth as the sun moves around. Traditional stone properties with thick stone walls have their own inbuilt level of insulation. They take some time to warm up but, once heated, those walls tend to act as a storage heater, retaining the warmth and keeping you cosy. However, even with those chunky stone walls there are other elements to take into consideration. Windows are often single glazed, lofts uninsulated, old wooden floors and doors can be draughty. If you are looking for a property to use simply as a summer bolthole none of this might impact on your choices. However, if you are aiming for year-round use there are steps you can take, either in your initial property selection or in improvements you make after purchase.

The style factor

For a considerable proportion of people, a traditional stone property with old-fashioned charm is the dream; it certainly was mine. Fast forward a few years and I would happily consider a purpose built, more modern house with far better insulation, double (or even triple) glazing and effective heating. For those seeking the balance between traditional charm and energy efficiency, a village house could be a good solution. In a terrace you have far less outside wall space so you are automatically more insulated. Couple that with fewer windows and the fact that villages and towns are generally a degree or three warmer and it’s easy to see that your energy use should be lower.

Cut your energy costs

Whatever house you have there are plenty of options for cutting fuel consumption and cost.

Loft insulation is quick and relatively simple and inexpensive to install and will make an instant difference.
Upgrading windows is more of an investment and will take longer to pay you back. It is more of an earth-friendly and moral win in the shorter term.
Solar panels or a small windmill could make a dent in your bills, supplementing grid power to your house or even heating the swimming pool.
If you are buying a home that will become your ‘maison principal’ there could be grants available for anything from insulation to solar panels or even upgrading your heating system. As a starting point ask at your mairie for details of local schemes which will vary from department to department or even from commune to commune. In some areas it is the prefecture that will deal but your mairie will be able to point you in the right direction.

Building your own energy efficient home

One thing that France is blessed with is plots of land, many with outline planning permission. For less than €50 000 you could be the owner of a ¾ acre country plot with lovely views and the chance to build your own dream home. There are many companies now building or providing kits for passive homes which rely on insulation, solar power or geothermal power for 90% of their heating or cooling needs. The insulation can be in the form of prefabricated wooden panels, straw bales or wool, all of which provide a high level of thermal protection. Quick to build, they cost more than a traditional build but your annual costs will be much lower.

The passive house option

David Crews and his wife, Elaine, built a passive home in the north of the Dordogne. “Passive, basically means, highly insulated, airtight, enabling the inhabitants to need little in the way of either heating or cooling. The philosophy in the build is to be as kind to the environment as possible. Normally, but not always, the building is timber framed, with the exterior wall units made to measure in a factory, and then assembled on site. This ensures little or no wastage, and, because it is lightweight, only needs a minimum concrete foundation. Once assembled the serious work begins - a lot of insulation, regulated by build requirements for passivity. In our case the floor has three different insulation products, including a recycled one plus more for the walls and the roof. Next is the ventilation system, ducted throughout the structure before the ceilings go on. This is an integral part of the success of passivity, vital to maintain a healthy and comfortable environment, in an otherwise airtight atmosphere This is powered by a very low running cost, wall mounted air exchange unit, which sucks in 3 filtered air, mixes with the " stale" air and expels it back out, keeping the temperature to roughly 21°C year round. Again the type of system used is regulated, meaning best efficiency constant performance over time and through winter. The house is facing south to allow sunlight to heat during the winter months and has an overhang to shade the south windows and doors from May until September. Once the build was complete, we had an inspection from a government technical assessor who tested airtightness and air circulation before granting passivity certification. Our house was given full certification, a tribute to our construction company, as many fail. We did not achieve the top award as we had opted to have double, not triple, glazing. Regulation also meant we had to have a pellet burner installed, for those dark , sunless days when we only have our bodies and appliances like fridges to keep the temperature up. Our average annual heating spend has been 31 euros per annum with no cooling cost. The air quality is brilliant, cooking smells disappear quickly and the filtered air means we sleep really well. We do, on occasion, turn the system off and open doors and windows, though it is frowned upon by the passivity community it seems. A guy who I follow and who built the first passive house in Quebec more than three years ago has never opened up!. Passivity build costs are higher, but payback is maybe only 5 years, especially with rising energy costs. Would we do it again? Yes, absolutely!”

Home is where the heat is

Chloe Williams lives in the Charente and spoke to us about her cosy home: ‘We've lived in a solid wood 'eco' house since 2014. We moved from a large stone property which was heated by an oil fired boiler and two very large wood burning stoves. When we were looking for another property, I remember arriving at this house and being met in the depths of the winter by their young daughter who was running around with bare feet on the underfloor heated floor tiles. Moving into a very well insulated home with a heat exchange unit (which equally cools the floor in the summer!), changed our life completely with a constant temperature throughout the house all year round. With sunny cold days in the winter, it's easy to be completely unaware of the real exterior temperature until you step outside! As our only source of energy is electricity, we decided to add some 20 solar panels to the property which supplies virtually all our needs from late Spring to early Autumn. I also have a fully electric car and the next project is to build a large carport with solar panels on the roof to supply the car.’

Warm woods

Saskia Vlaskamp and her family moved from the Netherlands to south west France and set to work transforming a chilly home into a cosy nest. “When we bought our house in the woods in the Northern Lot et Garonne in the summer of 2007 we were over the moon. It was perfectly situated in an open spot surrounded by chestnut and oak trees. Six months later, just two weeks before Christmas we moved to this house permanently. When we arrived, temperatures were well below freezing and we quickly found out that the woodburner had a crack in the back and didn’t function at all. Fortunately we bought a very energy efficient Bekasinen wood burner with us that we installed straight away. This provided a good fire, but we had to sit close to it and keep warm clothes on to be comfortable. It wasn’t until a few years later that we did a full renovation of the house. The floors were insulated, a new roof installed with proper insulation and throughout the house perfect double glazed windows. But the magic happened when the walls were insulated from the outside with 6 cm thick isolation blocks. This is a technique from Poland and, although it felt a bit weird in the beginning, I soon realised that this was going to be a game changer. The blocks were plastered and the house now looks as new. On winter mornings when the sun enters the living room through the ceiling high sliding doors the living room is nice and cosy. At night we still light the Bekasinen wood burner. The house is super comfortable. We walk around bare foot and short sleeved! Sometimes we even have to open the doors to the terrace because it just gets too warm inside…”

What is a Diagnostic de Performance Energétique (DPE)?

In France, the “diagnostic de performance énergétique” (energy performance diagnostic) or
DPE is a report that provides information on the energy and climate efficiency of a home or
building.

Trained professionals known as DPE diagnosticians carry out the process to assess a
property’s energy consumption and environmental impact through greenhouse gas
emissions. They evaluate various factors, including the building’s insulation, heating
systems, ventilation, and energy sources. Additionally, they take into account the property’s
geographical location, climate conditions, and its energy consumption history. A property
will then be issued with a DPE value ranging from A to G. An ‘A” rating denotes the most
energy efficient properties, whilst a “G” rating, the most energy-intensive homes.

The DPE is used as an information tool for buyers and owners - to inform them about the
"green value" of their home, recommend any work that needs to be carried out to improve it
and to estimate energy bills. From 1 July 2021, the DPE took on even greater importance, in
particular by becoming enforceable. The buyer can now take legal action against the seller
and/or the diagnostician if the score given at the time of sale is incorrect.

A DPE is also now a legal obligation before a property can be advertised - whether it is a
private sale or a sale through an agency. It's true that the DPE is compulsory, but it's also of
interest to the vendor. The Energy Performance Diagnostic has a dual purpose: it provides a
better understanding of the property, with its strengths and weaknesses. But it also gives the
seller an opportunity to add value to the property and is seen as an attractive selling point to
potential buyers who are attaching more and more importance to energy performance.

On the other hand, if a DPE on a property comes back with an “F or G” rating this is
considered an energy “sieve”. Vendors with this rating are obliged to commission an energy
audit which shows a detailed report of the state of the property and offers at least two
suggestions for specific improvements that could be made and an estimated cost for this
work.