I am sorry if this has been discussed before but I cannot find it anywhere. I have today received the letter from Enedis telling me that Oti France are coming to fit the Linky to my house next week so that the meter only has to be read once a year (physically) and that they will call me to arrange a time. Now I know that I can refuse this (even though it says it is obligatory on the reverse of their letter) and when you look on their website it says you should do so by telling them online. I believe that I should refuse by recorded and signed letter as well. As I have interior meters they actually have to enter my property to fit the Linky whereas if it was an external meter they would not.
My reasons for refusing are that there have been instances here in France where the Linky has been placed in by sub contractors who have not been efficient in their installation practice and subsequent electrical fires have occurred. When people have tried to apply for compensation/claimed against Enedis they have referred to the contractor and the contractor has bounced it back to Enedis, resulting in no monies being paid. I understand that a charge can be applied for a physical reading to take place but I would rather pay the charge.
Does anyone else have any knowledge on the matter please, thank you. Please understand I am not a Luddite nor deliberately difficult when it comes to advances but I used to work for major loss adjustors and know just how difficult it can be to prove fault when there is more than one party involved to be made claim against.
Thank you so much for the link and I have found many pages on this subject. I will send a letter of refusal by registered/signed for post as I am one month before possible installation. I have also discovered that there is a case coming to court in June with regard to the enforcement of these Linky installations it is a multiple case I believe. I would like to hold them off until after that case is heard if possible. Unfortunately the objection is based mostly on “health” and “information collected” whereas I would like it to include who pays when the house catches fire (hopefully it will not). Mind you if you leave the old meter, having refused the Linky and the house catches fire through electrical fault you probably would not have a leg to stand on - as they say “dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t”.
The process is that you have to write a letter to EDF tour Enedis and send it to the office in Paris by AR, with a copy to your Mayor, syndicate d’energie de Bretagne, Association Nationale Priartem, and Association Robin des toits - I will also send one to Enedis Bretagne.
I contacted a friend today who found some wonderful model letters one of which is 6 pages long and makes responses and reasons for refusal based on various EU laws, droits de l’Homme just to name 2. I have also inserted a clause with regard to insurance and will speak to my Insurance Agent tomorrow as he was out today.
When you write a plain refusal letter they send one back just reiterating that you have a contract with them and they will do as they please (well more or less) and if you do not let the sub contractor in they will send a Hussier - in other words rather bullying and incorrect. A friend of mine (who is French and understands such actions) has been told today that there will be a 60E charge for a copy of her dossier. The letter in response to your refusal also states that you will pay for your meter to be read.
We are apparently due one in the summer - I’m not so fussed to be honest above general concerns regarding the security of smart meters and if they do insist on tripping at agreement + 1 milliamp we might have problems when the heating kicks in as the lights visibly flicker (I don’t think there’s a fault, just that the pumps draw a lot of current as they start).
I wonder if there is any recourse to getting a standard meter put back in if this happens and can’t be fixed.
However I’m not making a special trip over just so they can install it.
If you find that you need more power after your Linky is fitted you have a period of time where you can upgrade your connection without paying the normal fee. Your standing charge will however be more expensive.
I have a 12kVA supply (60A), I believe from previous conversations that 15kVA is the most you can have generally on single phase and EDF have told me that for my particular installation to go above 12kVA would mean three phase**.
I estimate the surge current to be over 100A, though getting the clamp meter out and actually measuring it is on the TODO list rather than the DONE list - this (brief***) load will always be presented onto a single phase so going to three phase isn’t going to solve the problem and going to 15kVA, even if I can have that as a single phase supply, probably won’t solve the problem if I have issues at 12kVA as it’s only another 15A, that is if the Linky is as sensitive as people are claiming (personally I think that’s bad design but I’m not in a position to influence this).
** strictly they did not say this - they said to go above 12kVA would be very expensive, I’m reading between the lines that this would mean a re-wire their side and that, logically, they would push 3-phase on me rather than the very small upgrade to 15kVA on single phase.
***half a second, maybe less - something you’d use a breaker with a “C” curve for and, indeed, none of the existing breakers have issues.
It would have to be quite a pump. I don’t have central heating but a near neighbour bought a house with an efficient system working off a 3kW supply. He did upgrade it to 6kW after installing a new electric oven and hob. The c/h pump never caused any problems.
I don’t think it’s a case of it being a bad design, it’s allowing people to get what they pay for.
I’m one of those people looking forward to having a Linky installed.
For the OP, I can’t see that keeping the old system would work out expensive when it comes to being read. My meter only gets read once a year now, surely your old meter wouldn’t need to be read physically by the electricity company any more than it is now.
It’s almost certainly the heat pump compressor starting up. It doesn’t trip the existing breakers but the previous owner admitted that it tripped the supply fairly regularly when he was there - but at the time the supply agreement was only for 6kVA.
If the system doesn’t allow short term transient loads then it is badly designed - it’s been discussed on SF before and there are a few complaints around the web that the new meters are fond of tripping.
How much this is a case of people previously “getting away” with supply agreements which were marginal for their needs I don’t know.
As I said I’m neutral - it will save having to enter readings on the website but that’s not exactly onerous.
I spoke to my Assurance Agent this morning and he has informed me that technically Enedis do not have insurers as they are considered large/wealthy enough to pay any claim and that (contrary to what I have been told) they would be liable for the subcontractors work and that when you sign for the installation of the Linky that makes you covered. However I am going to leave the clause in my letter purely as a hope that they themselves will confirm this to me. As I say I am not opposed on other grounds, other than the fact that the tone of their letters are bullying and that I believe it is likely that many will object to the Linky installation.
So I will write the letter and send it after I have spoken to Energis, GRDF and Butagaz to see if they intend to use a Linky or similar meter and change suppliers.
We had our Linky installed in April , a couple of neighbours refused but have since had them installed.
We are not happy it has been foisted on us but as the existing meter was indeed very old and in poor state we went ahead . I do not understand though,why we are paying for the meter if we did not ask for it ? But I suppose if they are fitting millions then someone has to pay, so that would be the customer
We are dubious about the accuracy of the Linky and I note the KWh usage down every day, bit of a pain but following the problems a friend has had I will continue to do so. The friend has a property that is used very little (maison secondaire) but had monthly payments taken from his account amounting to nearly three thousand euros, over a short period of time. Despite repeated calls to EDF and visits by ourselves to check his meter readings he has still not been fully reimbursed and indeed had another large amount taken last month.
Obviously there are problems with these meters which need to be ironed out, I just wish they had been sorted before rolling out the istallations
Can anyone with a Linky answer a question re payment.? With a conventional meter there are a number of billing options, paying average monthly instalments based on the historical annual usage or paying every two months based on actual meter readings seem to be the most popular. Are these options still avaliable after the Linky meter has been fitted?
Hello Paul, Yes , our info says that a charge of a couple of euros will be added on to each monthly payment…
Regarding the payment options David, from what I have heard it seems that the monthly option is to be the norm, we would rather pay the actual reading amount bi-monthly and given the option would rather have a bill before payment is made so as to contest any incorrect charges . I need to contact EDF to clarify.
I don’t want a Linky (smart meter) either and am actively researching how to say no…My commune isn’t yet one of the 600 plus who have already said no… there seems to be quite a lot of bullying and harassment and illegal tactics being deployed against the consumer…
There are many model letters on the Internet and the one I have chosen to use is very good (in my opinion and that of a friend who reads French so much better than I). It is to be sent by Avis des Reception to the head office in Paris, your mayor, and I sent it AR to the Enerdis Linky, a copy to P.R.I.A.R.T.E.M and Robin des Toits.
my email address is fearpatsiefear@gmail.com send me an email and I will send you a copy. Obviously I cannot guarantee the validity of the statements made with regard to law etc., but if it is of any use to you I will send it.
Obviously I do not take this action with any great hope of success and I do find the bullying attitude to be equivalent to harassement but it is what I expect from such a large corporation but I do feel that something must be done to start an investigation to the quality of these meters and the attitude of large corporation against the consumer.
