The resurgence of EDF's Tempo tarif

Have just moved to Tempo and found this site quite useful

Tarif Tempo EDF : Grille tarifaire en 2022 et CGV (prix-elec.com)

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We received our invite to Tempo today! It doesn’t mention that red days only occur 1/11 to 31/3. Reading through this thread, does anyone know if one could be cunning and sign up in April to Tempo, cancelling it in November…

I guess you could try, but it’s not really playing the game is it?

The point of Tempo is that in exchange for having cheaper power for 8 408 hours of the year you “agree” to limit your consumption for the remaining 352, or to pay dearly for doing otherwise.

IMO protecting the grid is worth that small sacrifice.

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Playjng the game with EDF or any large organisation that we have to use is good sport. They are out to screw the consumer so why not try and beat them at their own game.

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Hi, too true but seems unfair they put many red days when it is VERY cold. We now live in the Alps, wouldn’t have been an issue when we were in Herault!

Hi, Thanks for the support, perhaps others will give it a go…? We only switched back to EDF in Oct so still getting used to their billing etc. Very nice lady (Yorkshire lass) in Toulouse sorted the switch painlessly for us.

That’s the point though. On very cold days, electricity consumption is at it’s highest and the grid is under most strain.

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No that’s the whole point of it, the price goes up when demand is highest.
Nobody forces anyone to sign up for tempo and once signed up, nobody forces you to switch things off on red days. If you want to use electricity à fond on red days you pay through the nose, that’s all there is to it, and you console yourself with the 300 days a year it is super cheap.

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My friend had Tempo for years as she was a single mum to four and had a typical local style house whereby you lived over the sous-sol so a lot of insulation was needed. It suited her as she worked full time and the kids were out of the house at school/work etc but after retiring and spending more time indoors, she stopped the system completely as getting wood indoors for the stove which only heated one room was too hard. I remember she had a gadget in the entrance with lights which came on for whatever Tempo day it was and they were nearly always red in the cold winter months. It wouldn’t suit many families these days with all their electronics that need to be charged up all the time nor elderly people who feel the cold more and cannot cope with lugging wood indoors or even having a stove.

There only 22 red days (of which only two thirds of that time is more expensive than other tarifs). That cannot be termed “nearly always”.

The electrical load (& therefore cost) of charging 'phones. tablets, etc. is pretty minimal compared to the use of heating, dryers, washing machines, dishwashers.

Fair comment, but red days don’t stop you using power, just make you more careful i.e. you might use heating as normal but avoid the white goods & maybe put off baking for a day or two.

P.S. People always seem to worry about using an electric kettle, but the extra cost of using a typical 2,3kW kettle on a red day is pretty insignificant as we’re talking minutes of load, not hours. It’s more important to only boil what you need i.e. don’t boil a full kettle if all you need is a mug of water.

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Completely agree about the kettle. Started off using kettle on gas, the bottle lasted two months. Changed to electric kettle, hardly any difference to electric bill but gas bottle lasts 9 or 10 months now.

I boil water on gas, boil lots of it in a big kettle and fill a bunch of 750ml thermos flasks with tea. Very convenient

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Bit Catch 22 though, isn’t it. You’re only allowed to use electricity when you don’t actually need it :face_with_hand_over_mouth: (just joking, I know it make sense to load balance).

Absolutely :+1:. And for me, I calculated that I would have spent less on a Tempo contract last year, even without thinking at all about saving power on the red days. It’s only 22 days out of 365/6 and that’s for only 16 hours out of 24. I’ll probably switch in the new year to Tempo.

With Tempo, in winter you just have to think a bit more about what appliances you are using and when. You do need an ancillary source of water, cooking and space heating such as wood or gas. You can cook a huge casserole and bake some apples when you see a red day coming, eat salad, go to a restaurant, use the microwave creatively… not something I usually do, except I’ve just discovered microwave cakes. Use delayed start on appliances like the washing machine and the dishwasher.

Not necessarily. If you have storage heaters or underfloor heating (like me) then these can be ‘charged’ from 10pm to 6am and can last the rest of the day. At worst, I have my underfloor heating on no more than 6 out of 24 hours. For cooking, slow cooker and microwave will be ok.

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You’re right hairbear. In fact we have a big ballon for heating and hot water which can be charged by any of : solar collectors, wood, elec and gas. We can also cook on the wood stove.

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Your hot water installation appears to be very interesting: gives impressive flexibility etc.
Would you care to share some details?

Inspired by the advice on this thread (including several helpful ‘Red Day’ cooking suggestions!) and following a weekend of online research, I called the EDF Tempo team on Monday am.The conversation lasted all of 3 minutes. By the following morning, very efficiently,Tempo was already operational. Two days later (ie today) my EDF & Moi app data was updated to reflect Tempo.

The one thing I can’t find though, is where to create/request email alerts for Red etc days. I’ve opened literally every single tab on the app and can’t locate this option at all. Several people on this site have mentioned they receive alerts. Obviously I appreciate the app aims to tell you from 11 am what the following days colour will be, but I won’t probably always remember to check! Any suggestions welcome for locating the email alert functionality…

I can’t see it in the app either, but it can be done via your espace client, as below.


Then click the box in this banner.

P.S. You only get notifications for white & red days.

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