We did a calculation of whether this would be cost effective for us. And it definitely wasn’t!! Perhaps if you have night storage heaters and spend the main holidays somewhere else it would work. Instead we worked out how we could reduce consumption as much as possible, and financially that will be better for us.
However I think the expensive days have been paused because of coronavirus…
I do, it is marvellous if you use a lot of electricity sporadically but don’t rely on it 100% for heating or cooking. I can easily run my washing machine 3 or 4 times a day and do 2 dishwasherloads as well as having the pool pump running and usual machines etc so it is excellent for me. I just don’t do those things on red days 
The expensive days are between the first of November and the 31st of March.
Dans la lutte contre la pandémie du nouveau Coronavirus, la Commission de Régulation de l’Énergie (CRE)a annoncé jeudi 19 mars 2020 via un communiqué officiel l’annulation des jours EJP et Tempo restants. Il n’y aura donc plus de jours rouges où les abonnés de ces options tarifaires paient plus chers leurs prix de l’électricité.
Hahaha so they cancelled at the very end! And there weren’t many left, actually I checked, there were 4!
We’re on the Tempo tariff. To be honest we’ve never attempted a proper comparison with other options - Tempo was highly recommended to us when we bought our gites business because we use most power when the whole place is occupied, pool working, etc, and this tends not to coincide with expensive ‘red’ days, which are in the depths of winter.
I would recommend you do do a comparison…yes we operate in winter and have a pompe a chaleur so a very different circumstance. But with the gite we can’t tell people to heat the water tank and put dishwasher/washing machine only on in heures creuse, etc etc so we found that it worked out cheaper just to stick to standard tariff.
We are now working out whether actually cheaper to swap to Mint rather than EDF.
We’ve stuck with the Tempo arrangement that the previous owner had despite keeping two of our three gites open over winter. Both gites have log burners and we factored the cost of running a couple of oil filled radiators into our prices. Guests are kindly asked not to run applicants during peak hours.
We did quick back of a fag packet calculation 2 years ago and the savings during the Blue days of summer did offset being hit by the odd Red day.
The choice of other tariffs was limited by our needing an 18KW 3 phase feed.
We moved to Total Direct and started saving around 60€ per month.
If you are interested use this code 108219146 when you sign up here
You get 20€ and so do I . Win win!
My guess is that the difference between blue or white and red days is so big that if you do have to use a lot of electricity on red days you will lose; in our case, however, we very rarely have guests on red days, and we heat both our own house and water entirely with wood (apart from the central heating pump) - and as Véronique has commented, in your own home you can avoid using most appliances during red days too.
For our wood framed house of 120m² this is how our electric pans out:
We had been recommended by a friend for Total as they were saving money, we hadn’t even realised you could go with anyone other than EDF, this is what prompted our search for an alternative. The were saving something like €150 / month (house plus 3 huge gites). DH wasnt’ happy going with a fossil fuel company so we started looking at some comparison sites and found out about Mint, they actually saved us more than Total, the energy is green, and they plant 2 trees for everyone that signs up! Well worth having a look at a few, it was quite a few €s / month saving even on our small saving so might be worth checking too, you may save even more @cat . There was another green company too but they were UK based and we definitely didn’t want to support that - and who knows what happens with the fluctuating pound! We also like Mint as they are based here in France (Montpellier) and they have been lovely when I’ve needed to contact them, very quick and friendly replies to my emails!
if you do decide to go with them you can get €10 off (and I get the same, as Cat’s with Total). Code parrainage Mint Energie: 7432368
We do too, we are in an old house, with lots of leaks and probably a similar size with 4 of us living at home (boys at school of course in the day!) and were 5 until earlier this year. We pay €95 / month.
This has made me feel so much better! I thought our electricity costs were horrific (when we lived in London we paid £12/month for 100m2) but in comparison they seem fine - and reducing year on year as we insulate more and more.
We’ve actually got a green tarif with total. 
What prompted my question about EDF’s Tempo was our horrendous energy costs.
Our monthly payments for gas and electricity are 357 euros which very roughly breaks down as 219 for electricity and 138 for gas. We have gas central heating, water is heated via electricity, and our house is an old stone maison d’maitre of 230 sq metres or so.
I know that the figures shown on my EDF dashboard are all estimates based upon 2019 usage as our meter was not read due to COVID-19.
Since Dec 2019 we’ve got rid of one 200 litre water heater, put timers on our towel rails, and only ever use the tumble drier after 10:30pm.
I’m now seriously considering Mint, buy will also look at Total.
Do a comparison using one of the energy comparison sites - a lot depends on where you are and what your consumption is.
Total may not be the best option for everyone but we have found it pretty good and it cane out top for us when I used the comparison site.
Ouch!! Do you have a roof? 
That’s more than we pay for oil, electricity and wood for 450-500m2 stone house + gite in a mountainous area!!
Yep absolutely agree with this! Well except for Mint coming out top for us, well 2nd after a UK company.
Eek that is quite a lot!
Wow that isn’t bad!
what an interesting thread
I think many of us might be rethinking our expenditure… I know I am…
But the huge amount we’ve spent on insulation and energy saving sort of makes up for it!
