EDF - low voltage in the sticks .........

[Mpprh]

Hi

 

just worth saying that we live on the edge of the village, and suffer from voltage drop during times of peak demand.

 

And Xmas (especially when cold) is one of the times when we notice it. Some of these symptoms last happened Xmas 2004 :

 

Electric kettle) Very slow

Microwave) Almost non operative, but all right now (are they very sensitive to voltage ?)

PC) Would not boot up – kept restarting the boot cycle

Washing m/c) kept stopping during the heating phase

Oven clock) becomes unreadably dim

Toaster) does not eject

 

And before I start WW3, the appliances were sourced from UK, Sweden, Belgium and France so this is nothing to do with UK voltages or cycles !

 

Peter

[Owens88]

Hi

I had a problem just before Christmas. My CH engineer (electric) noticed it. He told me to tell the EDF. Suspected the reseau was insufficient. Well it was all in French so I think that is what he said.

We were down to 205 volts. I rang the EDF they said 'write in' to an address in Perpignan. I did but as I was only out there for a few days I also popped in to the local office.

Initially I got a guy saying it could legally vary between 200-240 volts. I remembered advice from these forums (miki or quillan ?)  against accepting a 'no' from a jobsworth.  My French was possibly not up to the job of arguing that I thought he was wrong, and my Yorkshire possibly not diplomatic enough. I stared him out instead. He then relented and gave me another number for the 'depannage'. They came out immediately.

A guy tested my mains connection and that of a few neighbours. He confirmed the problem and said he would report it. He also came back next day but I missed him.

Desole I now don't know what happened. I am back in the UK and haven't had any communication from the edf or my tenants. Fingers crossed. I'll update here if I do hear anything.

(p.s. All my stuff bought in France, most locally)

 

 

[Iceni]

Peter

You have our sympathy. We live in a small hamlet with only a 6kw supply (which cannot be increased) so have the added problem of which appliances can be on at the same time.

Di's 2 PCs are plugged into a UPS each which evens out some of the voltage fluctuations with audible clicks so we know when they are doing their stuff. One of these would at least protect yr PC data by allowing a controlled shutdown - assuming of course it ever gets going in the first place.

We solved the electric kettle issue by not having one and using our camping type kettle on gas hob or log burner.

I suggest that you get a local electrician to measure yr supply and use his attestation to nag EDF. But you have probably tried all these things anyway.

John

not

 

[Miki]

Hi John,

Funnily enough, I have spoken with Chris (Quillan) on this a fair time

ago. Yes, I once said it to Chris on a matter about his early days

in France and that he was falling in to the trap (and here I

must add, one most of us would admit to have fallen in to at one time

or another) of taking something a fonctionnaire said as gospel and to

not query strongly their reply, when one's instincts simply knew that

they could not be correct.

You were absolutely right to question them on the matter and indeed we

too were fobbed off a while ago when we lived in a tiny comune and our

supply strength was going up and down like a yo-yo. We and outlying

neighbours, complained a few times over the years and were just fobbed off with the

same "no problem". In the end we asked M le Maire to intravene but he

too was worse than useless (and rightly got voted out the year we left

the area  !!) It finally came to light that plans were afoot to

take away old poles and line and go underground for some 25 km's and

for reasons best known to EDF, did not want it known for some years, in

the meantime we had to suffer the poor supply. When we got it, bosh,

all was just fine.

One other thing, we had a pylon high on our ground and well above the

camping/caravan area, whenever we had big thundery, electric storms,

every so often, it used to spit out huge sparks, making it a most

wondrous sight but it could frighten the life out of the campers ! EDF

would not believe us, until one day, an EDF man from Paris holidayed

with us for a week and by chance, we had one of the storms and his face

was a picture that night.

It didn't take long after that until it came down and we went

underground....... and the bizarre thing is, we were actually given

money from EDF for them being on our ground and taking away not only

the pylon and lines but taking away the old power sub station and  at the same time putting a road up to the pylon, so all was OK in the end.

[Jc]

Had this problem in the UK;during the evening,our TV picture would shrink and lights would dim.The reason,vast numbers of new houses being built in the area.After a lot of nagging a spur was intalled from the national grid and a new sub-station built.