I’d welcome some advice/info please about EDF’s tempo offer from those who have it. They are really pushing it at the moment - obviously trying to smooth out consumption.
We’re wondering whether it would be suitable for our gite? We don’t open our gite through winter. This coming season I’m opening our calendar from beginning April through to end of October.
Would going onto a tempo rate work for us? Obviously it depends on how many of the 22 red days will fall in the period when our gite is closed.
Historically the very expensive red days were only during the winter period.
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I hope this link works… you can find here the history of the colour of the tempo jours going back. That would give you an idea of whether it is likely to work for you. I would say yes unless you plan to open up for Christmas or new year. We have had 5 days red in succession a few times, mostly in January, but you never know. It’s not that difficult to manage in fact.
https://particulier.edf.fr/fr/accueil/gestion-contrat/options/tempo.html#/selection-bp
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Thanks Fleur, that’s really helpful. How much notice do you get for when the red days will happen?
I’m not sure I could cope with 4/5 days in a row if it were my house! And no, we don’t open for Christmas and the New Year.
We have tempo and gites. My wife has done the figures and is convinced it saves us a lot.
I can’t remember ever having any red days April-October.
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We have a little box that lights up with the colour. I think it still works now with the new links meter.
But the best way is this…
Besoin d’être informé des jours TEMPO ?
Gérez vos notifications depuis votre espace client ou sur l’appli EDF & MOI.
Vous recevrez une notification la veille pour le lendemain.
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The 22 red days are never April - October. I had tempo and switched from it to ‘normal’ because with a pompe à chaleur for heating and electric ovens I use more electricity during the day and it isn’t worth it. They tell you via SMS as well as the box which is handy for knowing at a glance if it is a red white or blue day.
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Yes I get email alerts in advance of red days, and we manage consumption (eg. not running the dishwasher etc until the next blue or white day).
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We hunker down, make a big casserole for a few days, burn wood for heating. We don’t use the oven or electric heating, apart from a boost if necessary from air con. Washing machine at night if vital. We do have alternatives, wood, gas, solar collectors especially since experiencing the awful tempète of new year 2000 when the power was off for days. Trees down all over the place and and the brico sliding doors stuck ! Nothing worked and we began to worry that the water supply might start to not work - pumping stations not working etc. We were here for a couple of weeks to celebrate new year. It was miserable! But we managed to listen to the Eiffel Tower fireworks on a small tranny !
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We have gas lamps for power cuts and open fires and extra layers but we don’t seem to get the very long power cuts which last several days any more since EDF buried the lines. The last one was a few years ago when a vendangeuse ripped a load down. I remember New Year 2000, but that was exceptional, driving down from the channel coast with devastation on either side, roofless buildings whose contents had been sucked out and were strewn all over and trees chopped halfway up as if by a giant strimmer, no electricity so no petrol pumps or cash machines etc.
Red days I could cater for but long power cuts were difficult especially with 5 small children and a job. I’m very lucky to live so close to the airport, under the old management it was a godsend, we used to go and have supper and my children did their prep there because they always had electricity.
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Is that “the next day” or “the day after” - just getting it the evening before for the next day seems a bit brutal. 
The White days can run into early April, but they’re only 120% of a Blue day, so not too ruinous if you have quests in.
Make sure any electric water heaters are set to heat up in the off peak hours as even on a Red Day, these hours cost very close to those of a Blue Day.
Départ différent is your friend on any laundry appliances.
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No you know the evening before, not 2 days ahead.
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I get my alert the evening before. You can choose just to get them for red days (I do) or for more days. We often run appliances at night anyway, so when we get an alert we just make sure to put the dishwasher etc on that night, not the the following night when it will be more expensive - or of course see if we can wait until the next blue or white day. It’s not a problem really.
One thing we benefit from is that (I believe) the decision on the colour of days is national, and seems to follow the weather in Paris for obvious reasons - so we get red days when the weather is really bad there, but may be nice and mild here in Brittany, and we’re outside all day.
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1999/2000 was before we had moved to France. We gave up being miserable in the darkness and drove up the autoroute to the tunnel. I remember we saw a huge convoy of german trucks and vans on the other carriageway going south, coming to help France restore some power and repair the damage done to the power grid. Very exceptional, as you say Vero.
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Same as rail strikes. They only commit to publishing at 5pm each day, which trains will run the following day.
Utterly useless, as here they don’t usually even have the information for us at 5pm.
That surprises me. In the past I’ve used a wonderful site that sets out what I thought were all the future strikes in France which I’ve found very helpful. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.
I think it’s this one Sue… I’ve used it before.
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If most of Tempo cuts are during winter when gite is empty… surely it won’t make any difference… ???
Tempo is perfect for somewhere that’s empty all winter.
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