Resistance was, in the end, futile and I am being assimilated on the 4th of November.
I guess I’ll get to find out if they have a hair trigger after all.
Quite worried given how much the lights dip when the heat pump kicks in.
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Our board used to trip at the slightest passing disturbance, but it is now very rare post Linky. For us it has been just fine.
Make sure you have someone available to come in and press the button just in case.
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I’ve not found it to be any problem. Our Linky has never tripped out although I do have to admit that we pay for a 12 kVA supply, which I’m given to understand is roughly equivalent to 60amps in the UK.
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Should worry, you’ll also be able to watch comsumption much more carefully.
All large motors suffer the in rush start up unless they are soft start variable speed models which should be the preference.
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Our commune is supposed to be increasing the supply to one particular public building, since going to Linky… otherwise the system trips out when the electric heating goes on at full blast 
(not a problem at the moment 
)
Hoping it will be sorted before the snows…
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Its a silly French idea, pay more ablnment 10 months of the year for the 2 months where the heating goes on. Hopefully with a linky you could at no expense change that to down abonment for months you dont need the possibility of extra leccy
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that’s the idea… no need for heating in summer…
anyway,the whole leccy stuff is being overhauled and (I believe) something which will help regulate the usage of the heaters will be put in place. It’s not necessary to have them on fullpelt… but at the moment that is the only option.
Your Linky should be no more sensitive to loads than the disjoncteur de branchement (DdB).
Often Linkys get blamed for load or fault tripping when in fact the DdB has been faulty for years & should have been tripping all along, the problem only appearing when a Linky is
installed.
Which is due to either undersize supply wiring somewhere within your own installation or your are on an old supply that needs upgrading.
It’s still common to find 16mm² overhead supplies that date back to the original électricification rurale of many decades ago. Nowadays these are replaced with 35mm² aluminium.
Of course your local transformer may also be undersize… 
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Electricity finally came to our French village in 1970… 
and (so I’m told) everyone dashed off and bought a leccy washing machine, rather than take the laundry to the river (as had been their custom)
EDIT: leccy cables through the village went underground in 2012, along with phone and water… each in their own special conduit of course
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Are you the last house of a mains spur?
I have a friend on a 9KA single phase subscription whose lights dim because his supply voltage drops to 205 Volts when he switches on a 3KW kiln.
Agree with both points- which I think I’ve made myself in the past.
Some combination of everything I suspect but more on EDF’s side than mine, from memory (it’s nearly 10 years since I really looked at the wiring) it’s 16mm2 from the meter to the tableau - maybe 10m max so even at 60A that should only drop 10x60x0.0028 = 1.68V and replacing it with 25mm2 would reduce that by less than 1V.
The supply for the heating then runs from the main tableau to a secondary tableau in the cellar - but the fact that the lights dim means the voltage at the main tableau must be being pulled down.
In fact (IIRC) my installation tester gave about 0.45-0.5Ω from the prise closest to the tableau as the supply loop resistance, adding about 3m of 2.5mm2 to the 10m of 16mm2 would only account for about 82mΩ of that leaving ~0.42Ω for EDF’s cabling.
That is pretty marginal for the supply to remain in spec if it starts out at its nominal 230V (the tolerance being -6%/+10% or 216 to 253V).
60x0.42 = 25.2V and 230V-25.2 is 204.8
In fact I’m pretty certain this is consistent with voltage measurements that I’ve made but getting the clamp meter out and doing some simultaneous voltage and current measurements is still on the “to do” list, probably when I’m over there myself.
As for the overhead - there appear to be four conductors so maybe it was triphasé at some point. I would not be surprised if they are 10mm2 -they certainly don’t look heavier than 16mm2.
Equivalent to about 22mm2 copper, if my calculations are correct.
Is that even possible?
Dont know, its why I posed the question. Hopefully someone will know.
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Well, the (much trusted) electrical contractor advised the Mairie to contact Linky (whomever) and sort out a split tariff to meet with the seasonal requirements. ie higher supply in Winter and lower supply during the rest of the year.
there’s a lot of work to be done, as the wiring etc is a bit past-it…
Involved but necessary Devis has been received and accepted… thus modernising electrical works will be going on (when ??) and once that’s done and dusted, I should know all the bits and bobs and can report with confidence.
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Given your description that follows it’s almost certainly ENEDIS’s (not EDF’s) issue.
ENEDIS’s contracted tolerance is 230V +/- 10% i.e. 207-253V.
Therein lies your problem, probably. Most properties started out as triphasé & 4 x 16mm rigid was commonly used - it’s s bit like handling soft coat hanger wire. Even if that isn’t the problem the final run into your property (pre-DdB i.e. not on your side of things) could be via 4 core 6mm², which won’t be helping.
EDIT: When the Linky installers look at things they might flag up the possibly undersize cabling I just mentioned & refuse to do anything until ENEDIS sort it out, as all DdBs get set to their maximum value once a Linky is installed, even if your puissance souscrite is less than 12kVA per phase.
Badger, what is an allowable voltage drop at say 50m please?
ENEDIS’s contracted tolerance is 230V +/- 10% i.e. 207-253V. Your friend has a case for chasing ENEDIS to sort out things in their locality.
I once had half a village resupplied as a client’s all electric renovation was the final straw for the local network (there was never a whisper of a problem when I’d applied for a new 12kVA branchement…). They had long periods of 165V readings 
It ended up involving a completely new 10kV line & new low voltage poles & overheads galore.
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Between where & where?
House and eating area in the garden
Between your PdL (the connections on the DdB) & your main tableau there must be no more than 2% volt drop.
From the main tableau to the end of final circuits a further 1% (3% total) is allowed for lighting circuits, or a further 3% (so 5% total) for other uses.
You need to decide what amount of power you wish to deliver to your eating area & size the cable to keep within the limits.
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