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Tempo electric - shock!


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Just got our Tempo electricity bill in from EDF.

340 euros for 2 months.  It's an estimate, but we've checked the meter, and the estimate is, unfortunately, low. 

It's a small house, log fire to heat the front room, the 2 small bedrooms only have their heaters on for a short while before bedtime.  Bottled-gas hob for cooking.  No tumble drier, no dishwasher.  I don't use the washing machine or the oven on red days.  I don't even use a hairdrier every time I wash my hair!!

Is this kind of price normal for Tempo?   Seems mighty excessive to me.

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You are using a lot of electricity at a very, very low price, as low as you would pay in the UK on the cheapest tariff, so pay up or switch off!

We pay 700€ a year for a 6 bedroom house ocupied 24/7 ! Our 85 year old resident has to be be warm at all times and has a convector on 24 hours a day as back up to the oil fired central heating, in addition we use a dishwasher, tumble dryer, electric hob and hairdryer, not to mention the PC's, TV's, DVD players etc etc

SB you either switch off or pay up, because Tempo is as cheap as it gets, probably cheaper than oil, gas or wood at the moment.

If you really want to reduce your bill you can start by taking daily meter readings and work out where the money is going.
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Les,

You are right about Tempo, remember how you kindly told me to try and sort it out ? Well it took me ages and lots of writing down of hours and numbers used, not my favourite pasttime but our EDF bill is HIGH, very but we try to console ourselves with the fact that the higher the EDF and Water bills are, the more we ought to be be earning !

That doesn't help though, when your electric bill is so terribly high, anyway the bottom line is, that we can still be very busy during the 43 and 22 days higher electricity cost periods and it really looks as though there would not be a saving for us, mainly as we cannot economise on lighting, heating or hot water during many of those days and we still have to cook (I say we, in the sense I am present !) using electric ovens (gas hobs though but even that fuel has more than doubled since our arrival)

I will take one more look at it all, with the help of an EDF chap, who says he will give me a sheet to write it all down and then diagnose it, well that's what they are best at, blinding me with science !!  When I asked for a  meter that took shiny shillings, he just gave me a blank stare

He did say though, that we may not be able to economise much, if anything, which rather surprised me but Tempo does rely on you not using much during the high price days doesn't it and that is not very practical for our business.

What sod gave the order to annul EJP !!!

 

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Ah well.  I've thought and thought and thought, and it's beaten me.  There's nothing left to bl**dy well switch off!!!     

Our previous house, with 5 bedrooms, permanent hot water, and electric radiators to keep the temp above freezing, wasn't even this dear.  I was only asking if Tempo can somehow not be the best bet for everyone.   Because if it was as cheap as you suggest, everyone would be on it, and they're not.

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The reason everyone doesn't have it is that you need an alternative sorce of heating for those expensive days.

I know I have ejp, little letters so miki doesn't notice. When it is expensive I don't use the washing machine, the electric rings on the cooker, the oven, the dishwasher, any electric radiator,the tumble dryer and when we had the electrical water heater that only came on between 1am and 7am. In fact lights get turned off when an area isn't in use. Simply when it is dear, I try and keep electricity usage to a minimum.

My bills are not cheap though. We do use a lot of electricity really in spite of having the cheapest contract going. And I have a bill due within the next few weeks for the year. I think that electrickery is expensive here.

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Zut.  It's because I had such a good week, isn't it always the way! 

I've read everyone's replies, thank you for them all, but it still just isn't making sense.  Our lives are ruled by the electricity tariffs - if there are 3 red days in a row, the washing just has to pile up, and all cooking is done on the gas hob.

We don't have a tumble drier or dishwasher, or any form of central heating, so no problem there.

Most days, all 3 of us are out most of the day.  Water is on part-time.

I don't leave anything on standby, and the only things running full-time are the fridge and freezer.

And yet we're paying 3 times as much as Leslauriers, and more than we were paying in the previous house where we didn't even think about it this much  ....... what am I missing?  The point, no doubt.   

 

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As a comparison,we have the standard 9kw supply. Our two-monthly bills average about 150€.This being for 4 adults with daily washing machine,tumble drier (sparingly once per week for bedding),all the usual electrical gadgets,minimum use of electric heating,two freezers,2 TV's & puters and the HC/HP chauffe-eau.We also burn the kitchen lights which are two lights of each 150w in bulbs and three halogen spots because we have no rear windows and electric ventilation in both bathroom and WC.
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SB. My last bill (400 odd Euros) was also a guesstimate and well under at that.

On your meter there is a little flashing light on the left of the digital display. This flashes depending on the amount of electricity drawn, the more it flashes the more you are using. You could try switching off breakers untill it slows right down then work out from there what is taking the juice. You call aslo try turning all your breakers of (except for the main one) and if you still get flashing lights then you must assume somebody has 'tapped in' to your supply. If this is the case get EDF in to have a look. Obviously if you turn of the main breaker and you get a flashing light then you really do have a problem.

The meter is programable, did you know that. When on red days our meter is set to turn of all the heating and the water heaters. There are two control terminals, one for heating and the other for hot water which are controlled this way and are completely programable via the meter for all tarifs (red, white and blue). We use this but if we get 3 days or more and run out of hot water we can switch the hot water breaker to manual and over-ride the meter. We were a bit sneeky and control our washing machines, electric oven and tumble drier this way just so we don't accidentally turn them on on red days.

Hope this helps

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You say that your water is on 'part- time'. I had exactly the same heating set up as my neighbour and her bills were always more, the sole difference was that I left my hot water and central heating on,(only went off midnight - 6am) while hers was programmed to come on and off twice a day.

This always causes debate but I was told that it takes more power to keep reheating than to leave something on a low constant.

Bon Chance
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OK, my question is, was the bill previous to this an estimate. If not, then contact the EDF and get them to come and do a bilan, it'll cost around 20 euros, a mere drop in the ocean as far as your bills are obviously concerned.

And re water heating, they are only on when the electricity is cheap here, the dearer rates are far too expensive to have them working at that tarrif.

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>>And re water heating, they are only on when the electricity is cheap here, the dearer rates are far too expensive to have them working at that tariff<<<

Don't forget I am sighting a UK system, but the water would only top up what is drawn and heat that to the preset temperature ? Could be rather a balancing act with this 'tempo' system though.

Perhaps its possible to program the system as Quillan suggests, but to keep heating a cold tank of any description from scratch can be an expensive exercise, surely?

I think you would have to do the maths, work out just what you draw hot water for, (we actually use suprisingly little because our appliances heat from cold, but only the amount they need) then see if its cheaper just to turn down the temperature on 'red days' or heat up from scratch when the tariff reverts........but on the other days I would leave it on.....just my opinion, and experience, I'm sure a heating engineer will know better than I.

( and I used to think being a housewife was easy )
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I am on Tempo & find it fine for our maison secondaire. I thought option heures creuses was the best option for full time residents in France. The advantage of Tempo is being away during the expensive period and taking advantage of the lower rates between April & October.

My main complaint is EDF still send me a bill based on full time use, so every two months we have to get them to adjust it to reflect the short times we are at the house.

Robin Wolf

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We too are on tempo for our maison secondaire and tried to get EDF to reflect our lack of use in their estimated bi-monthly bills but to no avail. We were told that everything would sort its self in in the second year as their estimates were based on historic data (last years actual useage). This did not happen and they still charge us 100 euros every two months then give most of it back once every six months when they read the meter.

regards colin
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We have a house in Sarthe and  are usually there on and off from April to mid November plus a week or two in Feb.  We  changed to heures creuses tariff  in October when we re-wired downstairs and a new meter box was installed. We only have a puissance of 6kW, which is sufficient for us at the moment.  Am I right in thinking 6kW is too low for the Tempo option? If not would we be better off changing? 

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[quote]We have a house in Sarthe and are usually there on and off from April to mid November plus a week or two in Feb. We changed to heures creuses tariff in October when we re-wired downstairs and a ...[/quote]

Yes,you are quite right, you need to have a minimum of 9 kVA :for Tempo.

Puissance souscrite
(kVA)
Abonnement annuel
TTC (Euros/an)
Prix de l'énergie TTC (Euro/kWh)
Jours Bleus
300 jours
Jours Blancs
43 jours
Jours Rouges
22 jours
Heures CreusesHeures PleinesHeures CreusesHeures PleinesHeures CreusesHeures Pleines
9 kVA162,420,04460,05530,09070,10750,16820,4702
12-15-18 kVA222,36
24-30 kVA409,06
36 kVA549,72

Les prix TTC sont calculés à partir :
des prix HT en vigueur au 01/01/2004,
des taxes municipales au taux de 8 %, et départementales au taux de 4 %, basées sur 80 % du montant HT des consommations et de l'abonnement (ces taxes sont fixées par les collectivités locales : reportez-vous à votre facture pour connaître les taux appliqués dans votre commune),
de la Contribution aux Charges de Service Public de l'Electricité (CCSPE) pour 0,0045 euro HT par kWh,
de la TVA au taux de 5,5 % pour l'abonnement et de 19,6 % pour les consommations, la CCSPE et les taxes locales.

  I copied this from the EDF website-it shows the price. We have just changed to Tempo from heures creuse but haven't seen a bill yet so don't know how effective it is.
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Yippeeeeee, tomorrow is a WHITE DAY!!!!!   I shall spend the day at home, putting on washing after washing after washing, try and get through the pile that has built up over the last few red and blue days!!!!!

Might cook something in the oven - a thrilling quiche, perhaps - just because I can!!

Might put a heater on to get the kitchen and bathroom above 12°    Oooooooohhhhhh the luxury!!!!!

IMHO, whoever said this was a tariff for maisons secondaires was spot on.  OTOH, we haven't been on Tempo very long, so maybe it balances itself out over the summer?   We shall see....

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Yippeeeeee, tomorrow is a WHITE DAY!!!!! I shall spend the day at home, putting on washing after washing after washing, try and get through the pile that has built up over the last few red and blue days!!!!!

Blue days are the cheap days for doing your washing !

And yes, the summer is all blue days!
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We don't have tempo as we haven't electric heating, hot water or oven so are on domestic rate of 6kw which is sufficient and never trips out (we , 2 adults, are here permanently and have all mod cons incl. oil central heating).

The standing charges seem very high for tempo - have just got out my bill and for 6kw we pay 4.33 per month (51.96 euros per annum) and our bi-monthly facture is 58.94 incl. This was reduced last year as the previous year had been based on consumption which included a small electric water heater. Price per kw consumed is .0765 euros.

I'd like to work out from my bill whether I make a saving or not but, unfortunately, the bill doesn't say how many units consumed would have been at the cheaper rate.

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