[quote]Hello, I have owned an appartment in the South of France since 2002. My question concerns my water heater. It's the large white elecrical cylindrical tank type, located in the bathroom. The probl...[/quote] If so, what time is this likely to be, and can I override it when I need to ? Thanks in advance. Our Heures Creuses are 01:00 till 07:00 then 14:00 till 17:00 but you have a choice of a few hours either side - you can call EDF and give you client reference number and they should tell you. As for overriding the automatic system I can offer advice according to our system. I think you need to look at your fuseboard and find the unit for the water heater and as opposed to trying to turn it to Jour or Nuit there should be three settings from which you can select the best for you. 'O' is off completely and 'Auto' will work with the heures creuses and then there is 'I' which turns the heater on regardless of the time. If you arrive outside the heures creuses hours then turn it to 'I' and it should heat up: