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Another question regarding EDF


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After a whopping bill, we have switched tariffs to a blue tariff. Is any one else out there on a blue tariff I am wondering how it compares to the other tariffs

we are a big property with a high energy consumption unfortunately.

I apologise if this question has been asked before.
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We're on Blue but all I can vaguely remember is that the larger the supply the more you pay per unit, as you place is enormous it doesn't bode well :-)but not sure if they do some kind of commercial rates but as a larger domestic consumer you will pay the highest rate.
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Look on the EDF link I gave and it gives all the tarifs including the different annual standing charges for the Kwattage that you desire in your home and the price per unit.

You will, as we did, have to decide which one you want, we took too little initially, but it was ridiculous as we would have to watch what we were doing, the oven on and no lights, an exageration, but along those lines never the less.

Everything is on the EDF site, worth browsing and you can ask questions too.

NB depending on where you live, the EDF cannot always give as much Kwattage as requested, but worth asking.
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If it's EDF (some towns have their own supply) then the tariff does not change only the 'standing' charge, the bigger the kVA supply the more you pay for it.

I don't mean to be nasty but how can you buy something and not know what it is? You must of received some form of documentation, a contract, confirmation of order or something and that should tell you what you bought.

My guess, and its only a guess, based on the fact you mentioned your new boiler that you don't have an electric heating system so I don't think you will have Tempo so it's more likely that it's "Heures Pleines/Heures Creuses". If that is the case you will be paying more during the day than you did on the "Option Base" but you will get cheap electricity at night which is good if you have night storage heaters, electric water heaters and programmable washing and dish washing machines which you use after 22:00 (I think that's right) at night. If you don't do any of this then the "Option Base" is cheaper per unit. But then you have a problem because if you have changed your tariff after 12th August 2010 then 18 to 36 kVA (bigger supplies) is no longer available to you.

Electricity is quite expensive in France compared to the UK once you take in to account all the tax's and more important the standing cost of delivery plus in the UK we normally just have one level of supply. If you bill was indeed so high I would spend half a day switching breakers on and off to find out exactly what is burning so much and then think about how you can economise. The first think I would do is switch of everything to see if anyone is stealing my electricity. I do know of somebody who didn't know for nearly a year that they were actually powering their neighbours house. Also don't forget that there are a lot of (confusing) taxes on electricity in France and it's supply, one of the taxes is a local tax which is not set by EDF and can vary by quite a bit.

I was wondering if the prices quoted are just for single phase and if so where do you find the prices for three phase supplies?

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[quote user="Quillan"]

. But then you have a problem because if you have changed your tariff after 12th August 2010 then 18 to 36 kVA (bigger supplies) is no longer available to you.

That may well screw up my plans royally, can you expand on that or give a reference please?

I was wondering if the prices quoted are just for single phase and if so where do you find the prices for three phase supplies?

I recently spend loads of time looking all through the EDF site and downloading the PDF's etc which was why I was vexed by the above, its not very clear but the abonnement for 36kva and IIRC the 24kva are 3 phase supplies the key is in the setting they quote for the disjoncteur de branchement 60 amp IIRC which is the same as the highest single phase supply.

I also seem to remember that you mentioned that Tempo is no longer available, that is another option I have been looking at and may well suit Nubeginnings as I think they may close the place every December, the offer is still on the web site which has just been revamped, (it was closed for a while while they did it) not that accuracy seems to be an aim of French web site design!!

Anyway is Tempo still available?

 

[/quote]

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It's on the link that idun gave a few posts back and I quote (under 'Option Base')...

"Suite à une décision des pouvoirs publics (Arrêté du 12 août 2010 relatif aux tarifs réglementés de vente de l'électricité), les puissances de 18 à 36 kVA inclus de l'option Base du Tarif Bleu pour les clients résidentiels ont été mises en extinction et ne sont plus disponibles à la souscription."

Also if you look on her link you will see that TEMPO is very much alive and kicking.

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We are all-electric (hot water, underfloor heating, no supplementary fires or stoves), and manage happily on a 12KVA single-phase supply. Our standing charge for this is 188 euros per year, and we use 19,000 to 22,900 units per year for year round occupation in the Alps (1,100 metres altitude).

Reading the above comments, I'm thinking of changing to the TEMPO contract which would be 10% cheaper per unit for us (42%HC, 58%HP). Anyone else have recent experience of this change?

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We lived in the Alps for all our time in France.  I would say that unless you have alternative heating then Tempo is not for you at all. We had EJP, even better deal, but they stopped that and brought in Tempo.

As it says, between 1st Nov and the 31st of March the red days can be up to five per week, it happens and they try and have the red days when the forecast is for cold, very cold weather.  Even if you left your heating on it's hottest setting all night long and those nights are not that long, 1am to 7am on the cheaper tarifs, then even a very well insulated house, especially at 1100m would cool down and not be pleasant, IMO ofcourse.

We had a cassette wood burner and ran three radiators off it. We had to run our washing machine and dishwasher during the night, the water heater only ever worked at night. I could not use the oven during the day, which sometimes would make it very inconvenient when we had guests coming around. We later got  gas heating as the GDF put lines in our village.

Think carefully before you take such a contract, once the sun goes down in mid winter the exterior  temperature very drops quickly and it will be many hours before your heating would kick in again.

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Idun beat me to it and I agree with her comments. Before moving to TEMPO you really must think long and hard. Personally I suspect that where you are and the height you are at your up in the snow during the winter. If you live there permanently or use the house between 1st Nov and 31st March then it may not be the best for you.

First let me explain about TEMPO and the 'logic' behind it. Firstly I will quote the English translation of what it says.....

Tempo option is characterized by 3-color spread throughout the year:

  • 22 red days, 1st November to 31rd March, Monday to Friday (Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are not red and there can be more than five days consecutive red)
  • 43 white days allocated throughout the year but never on Sundays
  • 300 days blue for the rest of the year (Sundays are blue).

The idea is that the bigger the demand on electricity in France the more you pay so in the winter you will be paying, on a red day, 0.487 Euros per unit (that's 48.7 cents) as opposed to 0.1275 Euros (that's 12.75 cents) per unit and there are 22 such days. On a white day you will  be paying 0.1160 Euros per unit (that's 11.60 cents) per unit and there are 43 such days spread throughout the year (today for instance is a white day). The rest of the time you will be paying, on blue days, 0.087 Euros per unit (that's 8.7 cents) per unit. The white days normally fill in between the red days during the winter, like today is white and its the last one.

So the price of red days is around four times that which you currently pay on your existing system and as idun says you can't afford (unless your very rich) to heat the house, use the oven or anything that burns loads of electricity, even a kettle will cost you about a Euros to heat each time.

So how do you survive, well you do your laundry on either a Saturday or Sunday for a start and apart from Sundays we don't use the oven and we use a slow cooker on a timer to cook stews over night. The meter is intelligent and you can control the heating and the water heaters to come on at night and then further control what day colour they come on. We basically have our water heaters on at night except for a red night, if we get 5 red days we are basically b*ggered because we run out of hot water. We have a massive insert fire which we use in the winter so basically one half of the house is closed off and to heat areas where the insert does not reach we use paraffin heaters (the electronic ones). Without the ability to heat the rest of the house we close our B&B from the end of November till the 31st March because you normally only get about one red day in November.

There can be a plus to the red days in that the selection of red days covers the whole of France where the old EJP system I believe was regional. This means when the north is getting really bad weather and it's nice and sunny down here and we get a red day its not so difficult to keep the house warm.

For us the benefit is when we are open in that we burn a lot of electricity, we have two washing machine, two dryers and two dish washers plus four water heaters and two ovens (we do evening meals) and we have to offset this against the right pain in the bottom of the red days in the winter.

So as we (idun and me) have said you really need to think long and hard about changing as it may not be for you. Hope that helps.

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Thanks for the rapid feedback - and top quality advice!

You've certainly convinced me - I'll stay as I am and just grit my teeth!

The price rises seem to have been delayed (presumably by the government regulation) but now seem to be coming through steeply, judging by the unit prices quoted on the link previously shown.

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Ah no EJP was not the same days in the whole of France, we had it by regions.At first as we were on a border and classed in the next dept for electricity sometimes had a different days to friends in our dept who were not near the border. At first we all used to check up with one another to make sure it was always working properly. And there was a great exchange of counting the days.

Until we got proper gas central heating and instant wonderful all the time hot water, when we had friends staying to ski, I would actually fill the bath with pans of hot water if we ran out, those fait tout hold a lot of water.

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[quote user="Chezstevens"]We are still connected to EJP and we have the box that buzzes and displays a red light on the rouge days ... [/quote]

Just like our next-door neighbour's half-time home whiich was built about 18 years ago. When it is a red day the buzzer sounds and makes quite a racket; impossible to ignore. In addition they have a gadget which switches off all non-essentials for the day ie water heater, cooker, wall heaters etc. It leaves alone the fridge, freezer and the lights. We were asked - in advance - to go round for an apéro; turned out that that day was a red day so we were warned to wear our jackets. When we arrived the fire was burning warmly and the bacon-wrapped sausage pieces were cooking in the fireplace. We had a lovely time, inspite of the powerdown. Life goes on, just differently.

Sue

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We didn't have a buzzer, that I reckon is optional, or at least my husband made sure we didn't have one. Can't think of anything worse than a buzzer going off early morning.

We always had a warm house though, it was baths for extra folks that was always the problem for us. I could always cook on the hob, rather than in the oven.

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