France Energy

Originally published September, 2015

As you may know, France has no petroleum reserves and must rely on other, often unstable, countries for their supply of these products. They have made a lot of progress in this effort over the past 43 years since the oil embargo.
 
They generate over half of their electricity using nuclear power. They are also doing more with alternative fuels.
 
In the area of energy conservation, they have been renovating all of their old buildings to be tighter with super-efficient heating and cooling systems. Those buildings look old on the outside, but most of them are super-modern on the inside.
 
In the area of transportation, they are far advanced. Their train system extends through all parts of the country, and it’s fast and cheap. The cars they drive are tiny, and it's not unusual to see parking places for recharging electric cars.
 
The reason I wrote this blog is to tell you about the Energy Consumption Information that French real estate agents are adding to their home sale listings. There is a colorful graph on the bottom of the page that goes from lowest to highest costs in terms of heating the home or apartment. You don't have to understand French to understand that the example given is in the most energy-consuming category.
Keep in mind they measure energy consumption in kilowatt hours (KWH) instead of BTUs, as we do here.
 
This is excellent information for anyone shopping for a home. Too often I have seen young couples get into a home without knowing how much it will cost them to heat. There have been some who have lost their homes or have trouble heating their homes because of this sad situation.
 
I don't expect the Unite States to include this information on our listings anytime soon, but maybe it will happen one day. In the meantime, we at Crowley Fuel are always happy to give our customers and potential customers a free assessment of your home’s heating system. 

Bob

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