Cheap Electricity

[Scarymary]

Can anyone put me straight as to when the cheap rate electricity kicks in? And any advice on how to get the best value out of these on-the-wall heating jobbies through the winter?

[Baz]

Because EDF have so many variations on offer, I have always advised a visit to your local office. If you go armed with details of all your electrical appliances and your requirements, they will load  this information into their computer and it will come out with the best and cheapest tariff for your needs. I have always found EDF to be very efficient and extremely helpful.

Baz

[Teamedup]

I will say contact your EDF and they will send someone out for about 20euros and sort out what you need. If you are by chance on a Regie, then ask them for advice too.

[Jackie]

Sometimes you can get this information by looking at your electricity meter. Our meter is digital and displays the word "pleine" for normal rate and "creuse" for cheaper rate. Also by pushing a button you get one of the two meter readings for the two rates. Yours may be different of course but ours changes the display to "creuse" when the cheap rate kicks in. Ours changes over at 1am and back in the early hours. We get a two hour cheap rate at lunchtime as well. I believe you can request the redistribution of cheap rate hours within certain limits...................John in 79

[Val_2]

Yes, I would go visit your local EDF office and have a chat with them over the best system for your personal needs - we all have different homes,family sizes and usage differences. Also it seems different depts/regions have different cheap rate hours - here in west 29 ours kicks in at 21.30 until 05.30 but nothing between 12-14 hours. My friend has the Tango system where you get cheaper power but have to put up with so many days per year when it is very very expensive,usually wintertime so unless you live on your own and are out at work all day,it dosn't suit many people.

[SC]

Option Tempo is advantageous for supplies over 9 KVA when the annual standing charge can be less than half that for the other options, and when you can limit usage during the 22 peak price days to just lighting. However it is sometimes (always?) supplied as three phase which could be a problem.  

It seems to me that the two big differences between electricity costs in France and the UK are the high standing charges and 27% taxes in France.  However that should even out when the French energy market is opened up to competition.

sc

 

[Chas]

[quote]Can anyone put me straight as to when the cheap rate electricity kicks in? And any advice on how to get the best value out of these on-the-wall heating jobbies through the winter?[/quote]

Our "heures creuses" hours are shown on the bottom of the electricity bill - 0230-0730 and 1330-1630

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]Our "heures creuses" hours are shown on the bottom of the electricity bill - 0230-0730 and 1330-1630[/quote]

Here in 22 our HC from the bottom of our bill are 22H30-6H30 "peuvent varier de quelques minutes" ..........

Electricity (I got the bill this morning!) costs:- HP 0,0765Euro HC 0,0450Euro. (I have also just noticed that this new s/w does not give me the Euro symbol if I type "AltGr"+"$" - which it should...) Standing charges on our Heures Creuses 12Kw supply are a rip-off 85E/qtr.

 

[Russethouse]

Try Ctlr + Alt + $ = €

[Miki]

[quote]Here in 22 our HC from the bottom of our bill are 22H30-6H30 "peuvent varier de quelques minutes" .......... Electricity (I got the bill this morning!) costs:- HP 0,0765Euro HC 0,0450Euro. (I have al...[/quote]

........and here in 35 (on the east side of Dinan) we are paying 52,50 HT per month standing charges on 24 kw (code 056) and bills paid every 2 months (not quarterly here).

How about this for a bill that arrived on Friday; 773,08 € not an estimated either, previous bill also using correct reading and that's in summer as well  

HC and HP are the same times as Nick as are the charges for electric used.

[Dick Smith]

We seem to pay €13.07 abonnement a month, our heures creuses are 22.30 to 6.30, 9kW, code 026. The bills never seem too high (though it's hard to tell as we are only around for a week or so in any one winter month). Is this a sensible tariff? I've never thought about it before.

[Miki]

[quote]We seem to pay €13.07 abonnement a month, our heures creuses are 22.30 to 6.30, 9kW, code 026. The bills never seem too high (though it's hard to tell as we are only around for a week or so in any one...[/quote]

Sensible! it's a downright give away !

Nice long heures creuse, good enough killowattage and all for little more than a couple of quid a week.

No, that is a good deal Dick

[Punch]

[quote]We seem to pay €13.07 abonnement a month, our heures creuses are 22.30 to 6.30, 9kW, code 026. The bills never seem too high (though it's hard to tell as we are only around for a week or so in any one...[/quote]

Yes, as Miki says you have a good tariff, but unless you make good use of your heures creuse at nightime, the extra standing charge can sometimes outweigh the HC advantage.

We are on 12KW three phase and are lucky enough to be able to have 2 out of of our 8 "heures creuses" during daytime, between 12.00 and 14.00, which is fab for the W/M,  dishwasher, chauffe eau top up, and in winter occasional tumbler drier useage. Living with my three girls (four with Tilly!), it is a reasonable tarif for us, although still expensive compared to the UK.

By far the best tariff, is EJP. Although no longer available (replaced by Tempo), those who still have it are allowed to continue with it. I have several customers who still make use of it's advantageous rates.

Punch

 

 

[SC]

Nick, perhaps you could come down to 9KVA. It doesn't sound much, but our house (120m.sq.) has a HC 9KVA supply. (timed water heater, DW, WM, oven, timed/centrally controlled 6KW background heating, plus occasional fan heater), and we've never had it overload. Of course in a year, you'll only save yourself the price of a dinner, but you'll enjoy it all the more.....

Our gites, that are the same spec except for no elec. oven and 3.5 KW heating, never cut out on 6KW (Option Temp 18KWH three phase, have no problems either.

Our yearly Option Tempo bill for the three gites is normally about £600/900€ total.  (try Alt Gr +4 for €), but last year there was an extra £240 because we had winter guests using electricity on all the expensive days.

Miki, I think I read that you have a large B&B, but that's some bill for the summer months! Of course, north Brittany is notoriously cold Seriously, how do you use so much?

sc

[SC]

Nick, perhaps you could come down to 9KVA. It doesn't sound much, but our house (120m.sq.) has a HC 9KVA supply. (timed water heater, DW, WM, oven, timed/centrally controlled 6KW background heating, plus occasional fan heater), and we've never had it overload. Of course in a year, you'll only save yourself the price of a dinner, but you'll enjoy it all the more.....

Our gites, that are the same spec except for no elec. oven and 3.5 KW heating, never cut out on 6KW (Option Temp 18KWH three phase, have no problems either.

Our yearly Option Tempo bill for the three gites is normally about £600/900€ total.  (try Alt Gr +4 for €), but last year there was an extra £240 because we had winter guests using electricity on all the expensive days.

Miki, I think I read that you have a large B&B, but that's some bill for the summer months! Of course, north Brittany is notoriously cold Seriously, how do you use so much?

sc

[Mpprh]

Hi

I'm not quite sure how the cheap rate periods work. We've got approx 23.00 - 07.00. But in another property 3 km away it is 23.00 - 06.00 and 12.30 - 14.30.

The standing charges are based on the maximum supply. It also costs more if you have the 2 rates.

We inherited 12kw and when I did the calculations, it didn't make sense. I think you need to be a bit smart here : You will never have pool & central heating on at the same time? How often will you run the oven, dish washer, washing machine, cumulus and heating at the same time ? So do the calcs on a 'most likely' basis rather than 'worst scenario'.

Today, I was sorting out paperwork with a new tenant in a small 1 bed appt. His abonnement was Euro 7.50 every 2 months. He has washing m/c, cumulus, electric heating, electric oven, electric hob, etc. No problems so far.

And another who has 1 rate only pays abonnement of Euro 4.33 per 2 months.

And tempo seems good for holiday homes.

Quirky ?

Peter

[Miki]

Paul,

We had EJP for 7 years and boy was it a saver. All of us locals on it used to warn each other when a red day was coming (before a red light was put on the system)

The 22 days went past quite quickly and in fact in mild winters, we would sometimes be left with 10 days in March for the 9-10 times higher kw costs when the sun was blazing, so no worries.

Moving up here and no more EJP, we found costs rose. Tempo doesn't suit us at all, even though the EDF did an etude and found that it would be almost equal to take up Tempo, not much of a sell was it !

In reply to sc and our high bill this month, perhaps you and your knowledge of such things might just put my mind at rest (or not!)

We have 6 x 200 litre 2.4 kilowatt chauffeaus on from 00.30 until 08.00 (HC). We have one other 2.4 kw chauffeau's on permanent (programmed manually for our house) a large double electric oven, used for table d'hôte plus around 15 croissants a day plus bread made in the oven every morning and for use by us as well of course. 2 Coffee makers and electric kettles in use quite a lot.

The gite has an electric oven and lots of electrical appliances (D/W, W/M. M/W. well I guess you name it, type of thing).

The B&B rooms, do have heaters and yes, the weather has been pretty poor this year and there are heaters in the rooms and bathrooms. Whether they have been used more than last year we don't know.

The computer is on most of the day on ADSL and anyone passing (family) can use it. 2 TV's almost in constant use from around 7p.m and I guess plenty of lights from dusk or before in the salon and lounge areas.

Not sure what else but over 700€ for 2 months with an abonnement taking up over 100€, does that sound OK' ish !!

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]Try Ctlr + Alt + $ = €[/quote]

And just how am I supposed to do that with TWO fingers?

[Nick Trollope]

We have just upgraded from a 9Kw to a 12Kw supply. Bit of a tale of woe really, but I shan't bore you with the details (suffice to say that I was forced to break the seals on a newly installed meter to rewire it so that one of the phases & the neutral were not crossed over).

We had lots of tripping problems with 9Kw (we are electricity-greedy, though, with W/M, D/W, drier, 2 x C/E, spa etc etc) & these problems have now left us, all I need to do is rewire the rest of the house so that it is capable of taking the extra current.....

[LesLauriers]

[quote]Paul, We had EJP for 7 years and boy was it a saver. All of us locals on it used to warn each other when a red day was coming (before a red light was put on the system) The 22 days went past quite ...[/quote]

Miki, It has to be worth getting your calculator out! Without knowing your consumption hour by hour I calculate that with Tempo you could have knocked between 30 to 50% off of that bill. The standing charge alone is over 300€ a year less on Tempo and I believe you are closed for rest and recreation when the red days arrive!

Do the sums I'm sure it will pay for a number of those seafood lunches with wine that I have heard you say you are fond of.

[Miki]

Miki, It has to be worth getting your calculator out! Without knowing your consumption hour by hour I calculate that with Tempo you could have knocked between 30 to 50% off of that bill. The standing charge alone is over 300€ a year less on Tempo and I believe you are closed for rest and recreation when the red days arrive!

Do the sums I'm sure it will pay for a number of those seafood lunches with wine that I have heard you say you are fond of.

I still have all the leaflets etc that the man who came to do the study brought with him a few years ago, they are probably well out of date now, so maybe I shall have to telephone EDF again.

Last time, we went through it for a fair while with the EDF chap and no saving was really forthcoming, in fact the man asked me to write down all the times things were on and how many guests we had between certain dates and how many were in in "red" and the other colour days and I really didn't think we had the time to do all that, perhaps if I had then our bills might have reduced but as I say, the figures done by EDF did not show any significant savings could be made.

He told us that not all places like us would find a saving could be had, so that is probably why we have never taken another look at Tempo.

We opened nearly all year with just Dec and Jan actually finding us closed for the most part. We hope this year to close from mid Nov until March 1st but demand dictates in this business.

So as you can see, we are open on many of the extra cost days and that is what made us give Temp a miss last time. Still it can't hurt to give it another look and if it means more lunches down in Cancale, well Tempo it will be !!

Will report back once the boys from the EDF have done another etude on us.

[Dick Smith]

I'm pleased to know I've got a good deal. We did have a long conversation with the EDF man when he changed us over from 3 to 2 (?) phase, so I guess the tariff was based on that. In fact we tend not to use much juice after 22.30, just a couple of radiators.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]I'm pleased to know I've got a good deal. We did have a long conversation with the EDF man when he changed us over from 3 to 2 (?) phase, so I guess the tariff was based on that. In fact we tend not t...[/quote]

Although you seem to be giving your computer a bit of a hammering in the wee small hours ......