What would I do with an Aga?

We commissioned it ourselves (trying to avoid 8% that estate agents charge on sales here). It was about 450€ and took quite a while because he did the two houses separately and we did think he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the size of the task. We were able to prove that we had the insulation though, because we had photos of it going in. Wood-burners plus oil is pretty standard here; gas is only available in cylinders and costs more than oil anyway. I have also heard that stone houses get marked down, even with the thick insulation behind plasterboard that we have.

When I married in 1958, i had little experience of cooking. Armed with a 1987 Good Housekeeping cookbook and thinking that If I could read, I could cook I was fairly confident I would cope. BUT - it didn't tell me how to light the fire, clean the flues, control the vents according to which way the wind was blowing, or how to know how hot the oven was in the rayburn, which was my only oven. A frantic letter to my mother came back with the advice to put a piece of greaseproof paper in the oven - if it turned brown - cook pastry, but if it stayed the same it should be baked potatoes and rice pudding, and get it in QUICK! Before long I had tamed the beast and ended up even cooking all the bread, buns, pastries etc for my growing brood.

An Aga is a larger equivalent and to have a gas controlled one is my idea of heaven. In most cases they provide, cooking, hot water and heating and are economical to run. don't be afraid of it, you will love it.

Mamie in the UK as far as I know, fuel bills are not used to assess energy efficiency as peoples heating patterns are so varied. If you took a pair of semis with exactly the same level of insulation and two households of identical age and size, one neighbour could have fuel bills twice the size of the other because they have the heating on longer, on a higher setting and keep a lot of windows open. Here, the energy assessors use a basic energy efficiency calculator developed by the Building Research Establishment that calculates how energy efficient a house is based on how well insulated walls, roof, windows and floors are and assessing the efficiency of the CH boiler, whether there are any open chimneys and whether the lights all have low energy bulbs. However the software is based on the assumption that everyone lives in an absolutely standard modern built house with cavity brick walls, tiled roofs and double glazed windows.

This caused endless problems for those of us living in houses which do not conform to the software norm. particularly where the materials used in the construction were not known or were mixed. So many problems that since the beginning of this year all Listed Buildings have been exempted from the regulations and no longer need to get an energy efficiency rating.

This is quite a relief, not that we are thinking of moving, but we were curious how the assessor was going to assess our house where the ground floor at the back is double brick with a narrow cavity (1960's), an end wall and a quarter of the front is single brick (late 19th century) but half of which has been insulated inside (21st century). the rest is wattle and daub (15th century), but again about a third of the walls have internal insulation(21st century), Oh, the roof (15th century) is standard clay tiled(19th century(?)) and has the recommended 300mms of roof insulation.

Thanks Flickety, that is helpful. We had done all of the things on your list and had even changed the last three lightbulbs, which he didn't look at. Very frustrating.
Therefore, if you ever sell your Normandy house, beware of the fuel bills. I guess a holiday home might score quite well on that basis though as it wouldn't normally have as much fuel consumption. Bonkers!
The stone walls are all double skinned with earth between the two sets of stone so I am not sure why that scores so badly.
The house dates from some time before 1730 so I guess it would be listed in the UK. Mind you if they did listing here then we couldn't have put in double-glazing, plasterboard over wall insulation etc. My Conservation Officer cousins do a lot of wandering around with a sharp intake of breath here.

A friend bought an Aga last year(?) and got a full day's cookery demonstration including eating the results. Maybe you would be able to pay for this if you explain the situation -) if they do it anywhere close enough. Friend did have to go to Glasgow.

I would have to redesign my kitchen and get rid of some cupboards to fit one in.

450 euros for 2 EPCs !!! Way cheaper than that in the UK.

Mamie Our Normandy house is also very old, possibly 1600 and, like yours it has stone walls with an earth infill, which should have a reasonable U value. We too are very glad that, unlike our British home, it is not listed. We have replaced all the external windows and doors with plastic double glazing, that looks no different to the wooden windows they replace. For the last few years we have been turning most of the space on the first floor back into habitable accommodation and that is very well insulated, both walls and ceilings. the house is now much warmer.

The irony is, as you point out, that although we have diligently done all this, it seems all they will look at fuel consumption, and that is very low.

The other irony is that this year we have used very little fuel as it has been so mild. Last year was really cold so we used more fuel and that was used for the calculation.
I don't know if you have ever demolished one of the double stone walls, but when we did we found that the infill was full of skeletons of small animals, acorns, hazelnuts etc. We also found a pair of ancient shoes, which used to be put in for good luck. We photographed them and then sealed them up again as they started to fall apart in the air.
That part of the house was occupied by refugees from the north after the invasion in 1940 so I hope they got some of the good luck.